Government/Politics - 321. page

Global Times, under the Chinese state daily news publication Renmin, recently republished a report by the World Journal, a U.S. based Chinese language newspaper partially funded by the Chinese government. The report mentioned a manual that has been widely spread online, “western spies around Chinese people everyday,” 

The manual ranks the U.S. “anti-China” spies at the top level and Western European spies as second. Taiwanese spies under cover as “students” need attention too. It also classifies the spies into government funded and non-government funded.

Due to the fact that the West has recently increased the number of Chinese spies, the article reported that Global Times called for striking back with more exposure of foreign spies.

Source: Global Times, June 12, 2009.
http://china.huanqiu.com/eyes_on_china/military/2009-06/487124.html

Following the training session held for the chiefs of local public security bureaus, Beijing recently called for a similar training session for the wardens of prisons and labor camps as well as the party chiefs of the selected law firms.

The training session will be held at the Central Institute of Correctional Police in Baoding, Hebei Province. It will be divided into 8 sessions and will last for 65 days. According to Wu Aiying, Minister of Justice, the training will “target how to improve prison management skills as well as prevent corruption and increase the effectiveness of investigations of illegal cases.”

Source: Xinhua, June 4, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-06/04/content_11484457.htm

Deutsche Welle recently published a digest article based on a report by Friday Weekly – a Hong Kong based magazine. The report focused on female college graduates who are applying for Communist Party membership. The students believed that the structure of the Party is changing due to the fact that 30% – 50% of students apply for Party membership. Although the students generally find the Party’s theories very boring, they are interested in better job opportunities. The Party welcomes young idealists with outstanding academic records and leadership capabilities – though the students are often just acting to demonstrate these qualities.

Source: Deutsche Welle
http://www.deutsche-welle.de/dw/article/0,4307287,00.html

Qiushi Journal, the publication of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee organs, published an article titled “Stick Firmly to the Socialist Core Value System.” The article stated that constructing the Socialist Core Value System is a major strategic mission for the CPC. The Socialist Core Value System consists of four areas: 1. Marxism as the leading theory; 2. Socialism with Chinese characteristics as the common goal; 3. A patriotism-based nationalist spirit and a spirit based on the times of revolution and opening; and 4. A socialist viewpoint of honor or disgrace.

The article argued that the Socialist Core Value System is the core of China’s cultural soft power and is a powerful ideological weapon to lead society. It’s the CPC’s ideological counter to the “universal value” promotion of Western-style freedom, democracy, and human rights and the attempt to replace the CPC’s leadership and socialism in China with the Western political system.

Source: Qiushi Journal, 11th Issue of 2009
http://www.qsjournal.com.cn/qs/20090601/GB/qs%5E504%5E0%5E1.htm

Young party leaders under the age of 45 make up a larger portion of those accused of corruption charges. According to Guangzhou Discipline Inspection Committee, among 227 government employees who were charged with corruption from 2007 and 2008, 127 of those were between 31 and 45, accounting for 55.95 percent of the total.

Source: China News, May 18, 2009
http://www.chinanews.com.cn/gn/news/2009/05-18/1695619.shtml

The Ministry of Justice has established Party organizations in over 90% of the 14,222 law firms in China, says Legal Daily of the Ministry of Justice with the heading “Where there is a law firm, you’ll find the Communist Party.” From April 2008 to April 2009, Party organizations doubled their presence in law firms. “With red flags flying over law firms and lawyers who are Party members shining at their posts, our Party construction has moved on to a new stage in the legal community,” said a Ministry of Justice official.

Source: Legal Daily, May 22, 2009
http://www.legaldaily.com.cn/bm/2009-05/22/content_1094411.htm

On May 25, Xinhua Net republished an article on fair education by Outlook Weekly. Many education specialists suggested in a review of the education reform that the reform (since the 90s) focused more on “development” than “reform,” and more on the “financial angle” than on fairness. The schools came up with a large number of ways to make a profit, and the government’s investment in education itself was at a very low level. The currently proposed new education reform plan does not demonstrate the courage to face the long standing issues. In a survey conducted in 2007 (sample size 5000), “education fairness” scored the lowest among all categories.

Source: Xinhua Net, May 25, 2009.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-05/25/content_11430971.htm

Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) published an article titled “China’s ‘Modernization’ Should Surpass the Western Model.” The article said China is facing three major problems: the gap between rich and poor, great deterioration of the environment, and people becoming consumption machines and pursuing materialism.

The article argued that neither giving up modernization nor simply following the Western model will resolve these problems. Instead, it argued the Sinicization of Marxism is the “third option” and pointed out that the research of Sinicization of Marxism is aimed at finding a way out for China. The author reminded people about two trends in China: one is the Sinicization of Marxism and the other one is to rethink and go back to the traditional Chinese culture. The concepts of “scientific outlook on development,” “people foremost,” and “harmonious society” contain a new development model and cultural form.

Source: Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, May 12 2009
http://www.cass.net.cn/file/20090512233283.html