Government/Politics - 319. page

Study Times, a newspaper by the CCP Central Party School, recently published an article on food safety. The article mentioned frequent food safety accidents that have occurred in recent years, which became a problem of wide concern for the entire society.

The article concluded that the government lost control of the issue and that the loss of control had three aspects: supervisory organizations were behind the offending technologies; the government’s control was not effective and credible due to limited resources; usually the local government gave some level of protection to offenders.

Source: Study Times, July 6, 2009.
http://www.studytimes.com.cn/WebPage/ny1.aspx?act=1&id=2766&nid=10036&bid=4&page=1

Xinhua carried a commentary by the International Herald which reaffirmed the policy to maintain overall control of the Internet. It referred to the recent “July 5 Riot” as an example and attributed the cause of the riot to overseas separatists who used the Internet to stir up and control activities inside of China. It also suggested a need for domestic developed online communities such as “Google,” “Facebook,” and “Twitter,” so that the government (the party) can systematically and actively manage the Internet’s contents.

Source: Xinhua, July 17, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/herald/2009-07/17/content_11723116.htm

Xinhua reported that, in order to create an absolutely secure environment during the 60th anniversary celebration of the Communist Regime, on June 30, Beijing Police initiated a 60-day Operation, “Frightening Thunder.” The operation employs a large number of police in plain clothes, to target gangsters in entertainment facilities (though normally the police protect gangsters, the police operation serves the higher political purpose of protecting the security of the 60th anniversary celebration – Ed). Xinhua reported that, in 10 days, the Beijing police solved 1519 criminal cases, arrested 1095 suspects and cracked down on 51 gangster groups.

Source:
[1] Xinhua, July 1, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/local/2009-07/01/content_11630725.htm
[2] Xinhua, July 15, 2009
http://bj.xinhuanet.com/bjpd_bjzq/2009-07/15/content_17102396.htm

According to Xinhua, as the media increases its coverage of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of Communist China, “some politically sensitive issues are surfacing.” It is a convention to separate the 60 years of the  communist regime into the first 30 years (Mao Zedong’s era, with strong ideological control and poor economic development, but little corruption and social problems) versus the second 30 years (the Revolution and Opening up era, with strong economic growth but uncontrollable corruption and social problems). Xinhua stated that the authorities have informed the media that they should not use the first 30 years to belittle the second 30 years, and vice versa. Reports should use each period to justify the other one.

Also, each of the 30 years has its own theoretical basis. The Mao Zedong Thought vs. the Chinese Characteristic of Socialism (and they are in nature different from each other). According to the Party’s Central Committee’s request, reports should handle well the relationship between the two theories. The top leader has instructed that in-depth research should be done to find the connection between the two.

Source: Xinhua, July 13, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-07/13/content_11700924.htm

Xinhua recently published a report quoting experts’ opinions, suggesting that it’s time for Chinese leaders to establish a global vision of overall strategy covering both domestic and international aspects. The recent global financial crisis offered a major opportunity in the reshuffling process of the international financial order.

When the Reform started 30 years ago, China could only join the “games” and obey the established rules. Now China is the third largest economy and feels more and more about the restrictions set by those existing rules. Facing today’s international rule-changing opportunity, China should stand up for Chinese interests and build a strong base for the decades to come.

Source: Xinhua, July 1, 2009.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-07/01/content_11633180_1.htm

On May 18, Zhou Yongkang, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, Party Secretary of the Political and Legal Committee of the Central Committee and Director of the Central Committee for Comprehensive Management of Public Security, spoke at the National Commending Conference on Comprehensive Management Achievements from 2005 to 2008. Zhou stated that the comprehensive management work [Editor’s Note: meaning preventing any public event or social turmoil] should be strengthened at the grass-roots level.

The comprehensive management of public security should be implemented at all work units. Each organization and work unit must “manage their own area” and “whoever is in charge is responsible (for social stability).” Each work unit must “watch its own gates, manage its own people, and take care of its own things.” The grass-root level implementation of the comprehensive management work includes enforcing the construction of the party organizations, comprehensive management offices and people self-management organizations.

Source: Qiushi Magazine, June 16, 2009 issue
http://www.qsjournal.com.cn/qs/20090616/GB/qs%5E505%5E0%5E1.htm

When the Soviet Union was at its peak in the mid 70’s there were five ‘hidden dangers’, according to an analysis by Outlook Magazine, which had the stated goal of studying the collapse of the Soviet Union to avoid the same fate for the Communist Party in China. Interestingly enough, some of these dangers are already severe in China. The five hidden dangers were as follows:

1. Brezhnev was primarily focusing on an arm race with the U.S.
2. Under the claim of "stability,” Brezhnev refused revolution and suppressed innovation.
3. The lifelong terms of officials under the ruling system and subsequent governance by aging people formed a stable interest group and a bureaucratic privileged class.
4. Corruption and privileges for special groups reached an unbearable level.
5. The Soviet Union had a wrong positioning with the rest of the world.

Source: Outlook Magazine, 26th issue, 2009
http://www.outlookweekly.cn/htm/content_4847.htm

On May 26, Wang Zhaoguo, the President of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, gave a speech at the “Conference on the Theory and Practice of Firmly Staying on the Chinese Characteristic Socialism Union Development Path.” Some excerpts from Wang’s speech are as follows:

“(Unions) must persist in consciously following the Communist Party’s leadership.”
“(Unions) must persist in serving the big picture of the Party and the nation’s work.” [i.e., the laborers in the unions should sacrifice for the Party and the “nation,” —Ed.]
“In the new era, (unions) must absorb employees, including peasant workers into their organization, expand the union’s coverage, … provide important support to strengthen the Party’s class base, expand the Party’s public bases, and fortify the Party’s control of the offices.”
“Actively include the union’s international work in the nation’s overall foreign relationship arrangement.”
“Unions should follow the principles of ‘promoting enterprise development and protecting employees’ rights’ and seek a balance between the two.” [i.e., in the Union’s view, the employees’ interest should yield to the enterprise’s interest —Ed.]

Source: Qiushi Magazine, June 16 2009 issue
http://www.qsjournal.com.cn/qs/20090616/GB/qs%5E505%5E0%5E2.htm