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Study Times: Hide Our Capabilities and Bide Our Time. No Need to Challenge U.S. Leadership.

On June 9, 2014, Study Times, a journal of the Party School of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, published an article commenting on President Barack Obama’s recent speech at the U.S. West Point Military Academy in which he discussed the U.S. global leadership role. The article proposed some “soft” strategies in dealing with the U.S. as the world’s leader. Though “China’s national power is increasing rapidly,” “China must remain clear-headed” when facing “flattery.” In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Deng Xiaoping, the former top head of the Chinese Communist Party, said that China should “hide its capabilities and bide its time” and “never take the lead” because it would be too expensive to take the responsibility for the whole world. Today, it is still unnecessary for China to challenge the U.S.’s global leadership position. The United States already has difficulties paying for the huge cost of its international moral responsibilities.

“In this new period of time, China must keep ‘hiding its capabilities and biding its time.’” “When dealing with the United States, China may step back on issues not dealing with principle and use gentleness (or softness) to overcome its power while resolutely defending China’s core interests.”  “For China’s fundamental national interests, China must oppose America’s containment, democratic evolution, and the isolation of China.” China and the U.S. can gain “mutual benefits” economically. In terms of security issues, China can fight against the U.S. without breaking the Sino-US relationship.

Source: Study Times, June 9, 2014

http://www.studytimes.cn/shtml/xxsb/20140609/5194.shtml


 

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Use of Chinese Currency in the U.S. Significantly Increased

The well-known Chinese news site Sina recently reported that the number of financial settlement activities using the Chinese currency RMB has tripled in the United States. This was based on official numbers released by SWIFT (the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) for the first four months of this year. The total number of RMB transactions in the U.S. is now the third largest outside China – after Singapore and Great Britain. Starting in 2009, China lifted the restrictions on using the RMB overseas. The Chinese government has been encouraging the import/export companies to settle in RMB instead of the US dollar. According to SWIFT, between January and April, 2.6 percent of global RMB transactions were settled in the United States, making the U.S. a bigger RMB settlement center than Taiwan. SWIFT also reported that the Chinese RMB ranks seventh among all currencies in the world. 
Source: Sina Finance, June 3, 2014
http://finance.sina.com.cn/stock/usstock/c/20140603/153919300724.shtml
Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

China Military Experts Rebut U.S. Annual Report on China’s defense

On June 5, the U.S. Department of Defense issued its 2014 annual report on China’s Defense. On June 8, Xinhua published an article titled, “Clichés That Are Full of Anxiety and Have Ulterior Motives – China’s Military Experts’ Analysis of the U.S. Report on China’s Defense.” The following is a summary of several military experts’ reactions to the annual report.

One expert said that the annual report followed the usual “China Threat” theory and “cold war” mentality. It showed that the U.S. is using the strategy of connecting with China while being precautionary at the same time. The U.S. anxiety about the growth of China’s national defense does not contribute anything good to mutual trust between the two countries and should stop. Another expert’s reaction was that the U.S. tries to create trouble for China in the South and East China Sea and intends to use this report to “damage China’s international image or even demonize China.” Another one said that the U.S. demonstrates its “psychological weakness and mental illness” in reacting to China’s effort to build its national defense.

Source: Xinhua, June 8, 2014
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2014-06/08/c_1111033758.htm

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

China Military Online: Whichever Country Provokes China Will Pay a Heavy Price

People’s Daily republished a commentary from China Military Online (http://www.81.cn/), stating that the U.S. will live in a nightmare for the next 100 years for being hostile to china. 

The commentary stated, “In a speech before the closing session of the 13th Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on June 1, PLA Deputy Chief of General Staff Wang Guanzhong refuted the malicious accusations against [China] that some individual countries uttered. This stems from the U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel who, at the dialogue meeting, publicly accused China of ‘destabilizing the South China Sea.’ It is worth noting that U.S. President Obama, in a May 28 speech at West Point, said the United States has the ability to maintain global leadership for a hundred years. At the same time, he also accused China several times in his speech, stating that [the U.S.] should be ready to respond to China’s ‘aggression’ toward neighboring countries in the South China Sea.” 
The commentary threatened, “While the U.S. foreign policy has not accomplished anything and has been in a mess, such moves will make people feel that America’s global leadership is establishing the basis for suppressing China. If it makes China its enemy, the United States will be destined to live in a nightmare for the next hundred years.” 

“After 30 years of reform and opening up, China has become the world’s second largest economy. [China’s] military strength has steadily increased. For the country’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and core interests, China will make thorough preparations. No matter which country, big or small, whoever insists on provoking China is bound to pay a heavy price.” 

Source: People’s Daily, June 5, 2014 
http://military.people.com.cn/n/2014/0605/c1011-25109016.html 
http://www.81.cn/sydbt/2014-06/04/content_5938754.htm

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Tsinghua Professor: Maximally Increase Nuclear Deterrence to Deal with the Threat of U.S. and Japan

Chu Shulong, director of the International Strategy and Development Institute at Tsinghua University, wrote an article for Global Times, a division of People’s Daily, calling for China to maximally increase its nuclear deterrence against the U.S. and Japan. 

The article said, “Recently, leaders and senior officials from Japan and the U.S. have continued to distort the facts, stir up trouble, brazenly criticize, accuse, attack, and abusively smear China. The manner and rhetoric lack the very basic politeness. They look like they are a bit hysterical and have the ultimate madness.” 
“Since they have common interests in restraining, balancing, and containing China, Japan and the U.S. mutually cooperate and echo each other [in attacking China]. China has no choice but to resolutely fight back.” 
“Now that Japan and the U.S. choose provocation and confrontation, China can only undo them as they did unto us. The whole country should act like our military, strongly fighting back against the Japan-U.S.’s attacks, slander, confrontation and provocation; we should stop using those channels that have no real contents and results, such as visits, dialogues, ‘consultation,’ and ‘mechanisms.’ On issues such as North Korea, Iran, Syria, climate change, UN affairs, and other regional and international issues, we must make our decisions based on the merits, instead of the wishes and ‘requirements’ of the U.S. In the shortest possible time, we must make up for the insufficiency in our sea and air forces and enhance our readiness to respond to Japan and the U.S., who may provoke a conflict in the western Pacific sea and air. At the same time, [we] should also maximally increase the strategic deterrent capability of our missiles and nuclear weapons, in order to defend against the U.S.’ threats and blackmail on a larger scale.” 

Source: People’s Daily, June 4, 2014 
http://military.people.com.cn/n/2014/0604/c1011-25100384.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Xinhua: Uncovering the Painted Skin of the American Surveillance Empire

Xinhua published a commentary calling America the “surveillance empire” and asked the world to unite against the United States. Below are excerpts from the article: 

“On the surface, Americans are singing about how the major powers are establishing new relations with China. Privately, the United States regards China as a rival, leaving no stone unturned in delaying the pace of China’s rise, even though the "most dirty tricks" of surveillance mean having to deal with China.” 
“The U.S. abuses its technological advantages to monitor [China], ignoring basic international morals. It goes far beyond the needs of "anti-terrorism" and exhibits an ugly face that is selfish and completely without justice. Its actions have lost the support of the world’s people. This behavior is a flagrant violation of international law, is a serious violation of human rights, and threatens global network security.” 
“The United States has the world’s leading information technology, but that does not mean that America can do whatever it wants. America’s unbridled surveillance exposed everywhere its hegemonic mentality and its acts in cyber space, ultimately hurting the entire world.” 
“From the public point of view, all the inhabitants of the global village, as long as they can make a call, can get onto the Internet, or can play games, fall within the monitoring of American intelligence agencies. Obviously, this is not the world that the villagers in the global village want in the era of globalization. It goes against the mainstream values of human civilization.” 
“From the perspective of international relations, the democratization of international relations is the trend of the times. The American ‘surveillance empire,’ however, goes against the tide. It is increasingly becoming a ‘gigantic monster’ threatening human development and the global order. It has sounded a warning alarm to the world.” 
“Therefore, the world should unite and not let the Americans act recklessly; do not be the Americans’ accomplice; do not let them play the gangster at will. How to put the American ‘surveillance empire’ into a cage is currently an urgent issue that the international community needs to consider and solve.” 
Source: Xinhua, May 26, 2014 
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2014-05/26/c_1110866573.htm http://world.people.com.cn/n/2014/0526/c1002-25067466.html
Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Military Expert: U.S. Military Takes China As Its Combat Opponent in the Asia-Pacific Region

While China and Russia were having the "joint maritime – 2014" military exercise in the East China Sea, the U.S. deployed the RC-135 strategic reconnaissance aircraft to monitor the exercise closely. In an interview with a People’s Daily reporter, military expert Yin Zhuo, Rear Admiral in the PRC Navy, and a committee member of the eleventh Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, said that the U.S. military reconnaissance of China is directly related to preparations for a military fight in the Asia-Pacific rebalancing. 

Yin Zhuo observed that the United States is currently implementing the Asia-Pacific rebalancing strategy. Therefore, the U.S. military is tracking many of China’s main battle weapons and battle platforms closely, from the initial development to the final design. The U.S. is also tracking China’s major military test site and test base, placing them under 24-hour surveillance. The purpose is to obtain relevant data as an element of future combat preparations. 

He also said that the United States is conducting close surveillance while applying military pressure on China. This clearly shows that, in the Asia-Pacific region, the United States is taking China as its combat opponent. 
Yin said that the U.S. reconnaissance of the military exercise is both a challenge and also an important training element for China and Russia. 

Yin pointed out that U.S. electronic surveillance of the Sino-Russian military exercise "presents a good opportunity for us to have a complex electronic environment. We will consider it in the electronic warfare exercise, so that the training environment will be more real and closer to actual combat." 

Source: People’s Daily, May 22, 2014 
http://military.people.com.cn/n/2014/0522/c1011-25051226.html http://military.people.com.cn/n/2014/0522/c1011-25050574.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

DWNews: Xi Jinping Uses the CICA to Counter the U.S.

DWNews.com, an New York based Chinese news portal, published an article on the recent Summit of the  Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) which was held in Shanghai on May 20 to 21. The article stated that Xi Jinping took the CICA as a platform to implement his strategy to reduce the U.S.’ influence in Asia. Xi stated at the summit that Asia’s affairs need to be taken care of by Asians; Asia’s problems need to be taken care of by Asians; and Asia’s security needs to be taken care of by Asians.

The article further explained that the reason Xi picked the CICA instead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to send this message is because the SCO, which is led by China and Russia, already has a strong anti-U.S. flavor. It would be too sensitive to use the SCO as the platform to send such a message. CICA, which Kazakhstan initiated, has a much wider participation (26 countries, including all six of the SCO member countries).

Source: Dwnews.com, May 24, 2014
http://china.dwnews.com/news/2014-05-24/59473636.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations