Government/Politics - 348. page

China’s foreign ministry issued a statement on February 18 that expressed "deep concern" over Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia. "The unilateral approach by Kosovo may cause a series of consequences and lead to severe negative influences on the peace and stability of the Balkan region," and “China always believes that reaching an agreement acceptable to both sides through negotiation is the best avenue to solve the problem,” said the statement.

Source: Xinhuanet, February 18, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-02/18/content_7621802.htm

According to people close to the source, Li Peng, the 80-year-old former Prime Minister, suffered a stroke on February 3 and was sent to the 301 PLA hospital for emergency treatment. Li regained conscious after 48 hours of urgent rescue but is still listed in critical condition. He is reportedly to appear facial paralyzed.

Li’s name is closely linked to the Tiananmen Square Movement in 1989, when Li backed the use of force to suppress the student protest.  His last public appearance was at the opening ceremony of 17th National Congress in October 2007.

Source: New Century Net
http://2newcenturynet.blogspot.com/2008/02/blog-post_2004.html

As rare as the heavy snow through mid- and south-China, all of the nine politburo standing committee members stepped out of their Beijing office and went to different regions deemed most hit by the snow, which was worst in 50 years and also coincides with the busiest travel time in the year. Back in 1989, only the then-president Jiang Zemin and then-premier Zhu Rongji came to the worst flooding area along Yangtze River; back in 2003, when SARS broke out, only two highest officials – Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao went outside Beijing to visit the disaster-ridden region. This time all nine standing politburo members all went out was taken as a sign that this snow disaster might be much worse than what the state media was reporting.

Source: Asia Times, February 5, 2008
http://www.atchinese.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=45911&Itemid=110

On February 5, 2008, the Intermediate People’s Court of Xiamen City, Fujian Province sentenced Du Shecheng, former Deputy Secretary of Shandong Province’s CCP (Chinese Communist Party) Committee and Secretary of Qingdao City’s CCP Committee, was sentenced to life sentence with the charge of bribery, deprived of lifetime political rights, and confiscated personal assets. The courts found that while in the office of Vice Governor of Shandong Province, Mayor and CCP Secretary of Qingdao City, Du accepted briberies as high as 6.26 million RMB (0.88 million USD) from individuals and organizations.

Source: Procuratorial Daily, February 5, 2008
http://www.jcrb.com/200802/ca677369.htm

In today’s world news section, Xinhua runs a headline of "Will ‘American Democracy’ Be Able to Spread to the Whole World?" followed by a group of articles. The articles emphasize that the world is against hegemony, China has its own version of democracy, and that developing countries cannot simply import democracy.

Source: Xinhua, February 5, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2008-02/05/content_7570006.htm

Fiscal revenue of the government and per capita net income of farmers are part of criteria in the performance appraisal of officials, according to Xinhua’s publication, Banyuetan.

The publication continues that some local officials are eager to launch projects that tend to generate high fiscal income at the cost of high pollution, low employment rate and low-income growth of local residents.

Banyuetan (Bi-Weekly Discussion) is a magazine published by Xinhua on behalf of the Publicity Department, Central Committee of The Communist Party of China.

Source: Xinhua, February 3, 2008.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2008-02/03/content_7559847.htm

On October 22, 2007, Wang Zhaojun, a delegate member of the Political-Consultative Committee of Anhui Province wrote an open letter and published it on overseas Chinese websites. In it he asked China’s top leaders, Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, to stop the political persecution of the Chinese people and start political reform. Today, he wrote a second open letter to Hu-Wen calling again for political reform after his press conference about opening an environment protection website was blocked.

Source: Boxun, January 31, 2008
http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/pubvp/2008/01/200801310202.shtml

For the first time, a communist party youth league member from mainland China will run for office in an election for board members for the Hong Kong University students association. It was reported that this student candidate refused to disclose his position about June 4, 1989, Tiananmen student movement even though the campaign policy of the association specifically calls for correcting the mistakes made during June 4th . Some student members are concerned that the political position of the Hong Kong University student association might be affected because of it.

Source: The Apple Daily, January 26, 2008, reprinted by Boxun
http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/china/2008/01/200801262036.shtml