Grapevine - 2. page

The South Korean daily newspaper JoongAng Ilbo was among the first to report the cancellation of well publicized North Korean performances scheduled for the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing from Dec. 12 to 14. Two North Korean troupes, the Moranbong Band and the State Merited Chorus, were scheduled to perform. However, on December 12 they suddenly cancelled.

On June 18, 2015, DWNEWS published an article titled, “Talent Loss Is Good for China.” According to the article, the total number of Chinese students who studied abroad from 1978 to 2010 reached 1.9 million. Of that number, only 0.63 million students returned to China. Some people think that China’s emigration phenomenon (including rich people’s investment emigration) reflects Chinese elites’ lack of confidence in China’s existing system. They vote with their feet. However, the writer of the article believes that this interpretation is an exaggeration. He listed three benefits resulting from the loss of talent. 

From December 1 to December 6 or 7, 2014, Chinese Communist Party hackers attacked the Epoch Times website. On December 6, 2014, the CCP announced that it would expel the former domestic security chief Zhou Yongkang from the Party and arrest him on criminal charges. At critical times in the past, the CCP hackers have launched similar attacks. An Epoch Times article on December 10, 2014, made a list recording these past attacks. The list started in March of 2012, after the Epoch Times reported on the Wang Lijun incident. 

After Wang Lijun sought refuge in the US Consulate in Chengdu on February 6, 2012, the Epoch Times accurately predicted the fall of Bo Xilai and Zhou Yongkang.

Source: Epoch Times, December 10, 2014
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/14/12/10/n4314994.htm

On November 14, 2014, Liaoning Daily, a provincial Chinese Communist Party-run newspaper, published an article (reprinted in Sohu) titled, “Teacher, Please Don’t Talk about China Like That: An Open Letter to Teachers of Philosophy and Social Science.” Liaoning Daily’s reporters sat through about 100 classes in 20 universities in big cities in China and concluded that university teachers in China 1) disagree with the Chinese Communist Party’s innovative theories and expose the dark sides of Marx, Engels, and Mao Zedong in class; 2) disagree with China’s political system and praise the “separation of powers” in the West; 3) do not love the Chinese Communist Party and do not encourage students to join the Party using themselves as role models.

On November 17, 2014, the Chinese Communist Party News website under People’s Daily published a commentary article titled “University Teachers Should Not Be ‘Announcers’ Who Defame China.” The article criticized university teachers for spreading Western views and disparaging China’s political system in class. The article said, “University teachers must correct their world views, conscientiously implement the Party’s education policy, and inject positive energy into the development and dissemination of (China’s) socialist core value system.”

On November 19, 2014, Huanqiu published a commentary on the debate that the Liaoning Daily’s article initiated (“If Any Country Is Criticized, the Target Must Be China”). According to Huanqiu, university instructors’ speeches in class must be restricted by a higher political and moral bottom line. “If instructors in European and American universities promote values that are highly contradictory to those of mainstream society, they will get into big trouble.”

Finally, the Xinhua blog published an article (not necessarily representing Xinhua’s views) saying, “First of all, do not underestimate the intelligence and judgment of college students." "Second, do not overestimate the teachers’ influence in the university classroom." "Third, the openness and freedom of the university classes have a self-purification function." "Fourth, we should believe in the capable outcome resulting from university autonomy.”

Source: Sohu, People’s Daily, Huanqiu, Xinhua Blog, November 14 – 19, 2015
http://news.sohu.com/20141114/n406046000.shtml
http://cpc.people.com.cn/pinglun/n/2014/1117/c241220-26037053.html
http://opinion.huanqiu.com/editorial/2014-11/5207179.html
http://sike.news.cn/article.do?action=articleDetail&id=218598439

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has targeted the five largest Chinese enterprises in Hong Kong for corruption. The five enterprise groups are: China Resources (华润集团), the Bank of China (中银集团), China International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC, 中信集团), the China Everbright Group (光大集团), and the China Merchants Group (招商局集团). At a CCDI meeting, Wang Qishan, the Commission’s Secretary, stated that their problems have long existed and are very severe. They have created independent kingdoms and their own cliques.

According to the May Edition (439th Edition) of Cheng Ming Monthly, a Hong Kong-based Magazine, of the top executives of these five largest Chinese enterprises and 35 enterprises owned by Provinces or Ministries in China, 75 to 80 percent are the children, grandchildren, or relatives, of government officials. 63 to 75 percent hold a foreign passport or residence card.

On April 11, 2014, the CCDI held a meeting of the “Anti-Corruption and Rectification Campaign” to target those five largest Chinese enterprises in Hong Kong. Wang Qishan stated at the meeting, “The combined work of auditing, checking, rectifying, and anti-corruption for the five enterprise groups have a clear, well-defined, and firm purpose. This work is to maintain responsibility to our people, our country, and our undertaking. For this work, we should never stop in the middle, retreat, or leave something unresolved for the future.”

Wang further listed the major problems that these enterprise groups face:
1. They have been establishing independent kingdoms and cliques in the areas of appointing executives, operations, and auditing.
2. There are powers at certain Central CCP department and local governments protecting these groups, which means that the central government’s over-twenty attempts to rectify and investigate these companies was done in vain.
3. They have changed or abandoned the CCP Central Committee’s regulations on institutions stationed outside China.
4. They have ignored the central government’s fiscal system, financial system, and accounting system, and created multiple versions of accounting books to cheat the government.
5. Top executives of these enterprises, along with their relatives, have conducted individual illegal economic and financial activities in the name of the enterprise.
6. They spend lavishly on salaries, benefits, and bonuses.

[Editor’s Note: Zeng Qinghong (曾庆红), the number two person in Jiang Zemin’s clique, has a strong influence over Hong Kong and Macao affairs. From 2003 to 2007, he was the Chair of the Central Hong Kong and Macao Work Coordination Committee and has continued to maintain a powerful influence. China Resources Chairman Song Lin, who was recently taken down on corruption charges, is considered Zeng’s man. Some media have mentioned that Wang’s targeting of these enterprises is a step aimed at Zeng.

Source: Wenxuncity.com, May 3, 2014
http://www.wenxuecity.com/news/2014/05/03/3236647.html

On February 8, 2014, Deutsche Welle Chinese published an article titled, “Fleeing China – Chinese Millionaires’ Shared Dream.” According to the article, no country in the world is like China. Individuals can quickly and suspiciously accumulate large sums of wealth in its socialist market economy. Rupert Hoogewerf [the publisher of the Hurun Report, a monthly magazine best known for its "China’s Rich List," a ranking of the wealthiest individuals in China] has found a close relationship between political power and wealth in China. Of the 1,000 richest people in China, 84 are members of the National People’s Congress and 69 are members of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. About a quarter of the wealthiest Chinese are registered Chinese Communist Party members, though the Chinese Communist Party claims that it is the vanguard of the proletariat class. Hoogewerf reported last year that 315 of the richest Chinese have personal wealth of over 1 billion U.S. dollars; 64,500 Chinese people have wealth that exceeds U.S. $10 million; more than 1.05 million Chinese people have over $1.2 million in assets.

The Center for China and Globalization (CCG) in Beijing reported in 2013 that 60 percent of Chinese millionaires have applied for or have considered applying for EB-5 immigration visas which the United States provides to wealthy investors. From 2009 to 2011, the Canadian Consulate General in Hong Kong received more than 60,000 applications for immigration to Canada, in the name of foreign investors, from the super-rich Chinese in Mainland China. These applications accounted for 86 percent of the total applications worldwide during that period. Recently, the Canadian government had to freeze the immigration project that meant to attract global investment since the number of applications was too large to handle. Now China’s super-rich are waiting for investment immigration visas to United States, New Zealand, or Australia. In 2011, the United States issued 3,340 permanent residence permits to the Chinese investment immigrants. Each applicant must spend at least $500,000 on creating a company or creating jobs. The article concluded that it is the difficulties China faces that are causing China’s wealthy to emigrate. 

Source: Deutsche Welle Chinese, February 8, 2014
http://www.dw.de/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E5%AF%8C%E8%B1%AA%E5%90%91%E5%A4%96%E9%80%83/a-17419066

On November 25, 2013, China Gate published an article which stated that, according to a report from Pan Chinese, Wendi Deng, who News Corporation CEO Rupert Murdoch recently divorced, is a top female spy working for the General Political Department of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), in the Peoples Republic of China. Based on multiple Western media reports, the article also claims that Deng may have had an affair with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who "is the dupe in a Chinese spy plot." Tony Blair delivered a keynote speech at the "First China Philanthropy Forum" in Beijing on November 30th, 2012. "Now research by The Sunday Times has established that Blair’s keynote speech was hosted by a front organisation for the department of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) that runs psychological warfare and covert influence operations against foreign political and military leaders." 

Sources: China Gate and Pan Chinese, November 15, 2013
http://www.wenxuecity.com/news/2013/11/25/2814632.html
http://panchinese.blogspot.com/2013/06/blog-post_7265.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2412479/Clive-Palmer-claims-Murdoch-divorcing-Wendi-Deng-Chinese-spy.html
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/People/article1268065.ece
http://www.caifc.org.cn/en/content.aspx?id=2980
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/05/australian-billionaire-rupert-murdoch-discovered-wife-wendi-deng-was-a-chinese-spy-so-he-got-rid-of-her/
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/confidential/murdoch-wendi-deng-cheated-tony-blair-report-article-1.1527169
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tony-blair-wendi-deng-affair-2848426

Recently, a post originally on Sina Weibo, a Chinese microblogging website, has been circulating online in China. The post, the original of which cannot be found, summarized five major Chinese-style methods to solve problems in China.

1) Take a judicial route if you have connections with the authorities and also have a lot of money;
2) Take a media route if you have connections with the authorities but do not have much money;
3) Take a bribery route if you do not have any connections with authorities but do have a lot of money;
4) Take a violence route if you have neither connections nor money;
5) Take a self-destruction route if you have no connections, no money, and do not want to take violent action.
    
Source: Boxun, October 29, 2013
http://www.boxun.com/news/gb/pubvp/2013/10/201310290746.shtml#.Um7-ml7D_DU