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Xinhua: Chinese State Council Released 2015 U.S. Human Rights Records

Xinhua reported that the Chinese State Council Information Office recently released the report called, "The 2015 U.S. Human Rights Records" and another report titled, "The 2015 U.S. Human Rights Violations." These reports are in response to the U.S. State Department’s 2015 World Human Rights Report released one day earlier. The Chinese reports accused the U.S. report of distorting the reality about human rights in other countries. The Chinese reports also suggested that the U.S. government has lost control of gun regulation, which significantly threatens the lives of U.S. citizens. The U.S. police system widely abuses its power and causes loss of innocent lives. The reports also claim that the U.S. prisons suffer from widespread corruption that severely violates the human rights of the prisoners. Also in the reports, the U.S. citizens’ political rights have not been protected effectively due to the popularity of “money-driven politics and family-driven politics.” The reports listed a great deal of evidence that the U.S. government violates the basic rights of women and children. At the same time, the U.S. continues to violate the sovereignty of many other countries and the human rights of the people in those countries. 
Source: Xinhua, April 14, 2016
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2016-04/14/c_1118622687.htm
Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

BBC Chinese: USTR Identified the Great Firewall as a Trade Barrier

BBC Chinese recently reported on the annual report that the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) just released. The report identified China’s policy of using the so-called Great Firewall to block international websites as a trade barrier. This is first time the USTR annual report included mention of the Great Firewall. The USTR official pointed out that blocking hundreds of millions of Internet users from the daily tools that are used globally, such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter disrupts international corporations from being able to conduct business in China. At the same time, China also blocks the majority of the large-scale international news sites. The USTR report mentioned a normal U.S. furniture company that China has blocked as an example of censorship against sites unrelated to politics. That clearly proves the Internet blocking mechanism is being used as a trade barrier. China responded to the USTR report by asking the United States to respect the rights every country has to regulate the use of their own Internet. 
Source: BBC Chinese, April 8, 2016
http://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/business/2016/04/160408_us_china_internet_censor_trade
Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Expert: China Needs to Prepare for Military Struggle in the South China Sea

From April 4 to 15, the United States and the Philippines will be holding "shoulder to shoulder" joint military exercises in Philippine territory. Australian troops are also participating in the exercises. Japan is participating as an observer. Military expert Yin Zhuo, in an interview with People’s Daily, thought that the United States is attempting to transform the mechanism of joint exercises into a "quasi-military alliance" to contain China. 

Yin Zhuo said the "shoulder to shoulder" military exercise is a stepping stone for U.S. intervention in the South China Sea issue. The U.S. is attempting to hype up the South China Sea issue, thereby curbing the rise of China and undermining the economic ties between China and ASEAN countries. In recent years, America’s economic strength has declined. It hopes that its allies in the Asia-Pacific region will shoulder part of the responsibility to contain China. It also hopes to form a multilateral military alliance against China through the use of the South China Sea issue. 

Yin Zhuo said that the United States’ strategic intentions to contain China’s through the South China Sea issue will not change because this is an important component of its "Asia-Pacific rebalancing" strategy. Therefore, China should stick to the principle of being prepared for the unexpected. That is, we will never give in on the issue of sovereignty where the South China Sea islands and reefs are concerned. We should let the United States know this bottom line. This does not mean we have to use military means to solve the problem. China will not strike the first shot, but we must be prepared for a military struggle. 

Source: People’s Daily, April 5, 2016 
http://military.people.com.cn/n1/2016/0405/c1011-28251022.html

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Global Times: Should We Thank Bin Su?

According to a March 23 press release that the U.S. Department of Justice issued, Bin Su, a Chinese citizen, "admitted to conspiring with two persons in China from October 2008 until March 2014 to gain unauthorized access to protected computer networks in the United States, including computers belonging to the Boeing Company in Orange County, California. The purpose was to obtain sensitive military information and to export that information illegally from the United States to China." Bin’s cyber thefts of U.S. military secrets included the C-17 Globemaster, and the Lockheed F-35 and F-22 stealth fighters. He was arrested in Canada in July 2014.

Global Times published an article that praised Bin Su.

"As a media in China, we can’t tell if Bin Su really stole data on three major U.S. planes and handed the data over to the Chinese authorities. If that is true, we are willing to express our gratitude to him and even salute him. As a real security fight is going on between China and the U.S., China obviously needs those intelligence experts who can deliver the key information from the U.S. Whether China sent him or it was someone who did it for commercial gain, we think they are great.

"If he was wronged and forced to admit guilt under pressure from the U.S. Justice Department, we express our deep sorrow for him. We believe that, as the ‘intelligence war’ between China and the U.S. continues, more people will be wronged, called ‘Chinese spy,’ and put into prison. We hope all Chinese who work in the sensitive fields in the U.S. are careful, so they avoid having the U.S. intelligence agencies target them."

Source: Global Times, March 24, 2016
http://opinion.huanqiu.com/editorial/2016-03/8766854.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

BBC Chinese: The U.S. Will Not Recognize the South China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone

BBC Chinese recently reported that U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work announced that the United States informed China of its decision not to recognize a South China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone. Some U.S. officials thought earlier that the international court might rule in the next few weeks based on the filings that the Philippines submitted in its South China Sea sovereignty dispute. China may establish a South China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone just like it did in the East China Sea. Mr. Work commented, in an event that the Washington Post organized, that the United States won’t recognize the South China Sea Zone the same way that it did not recognize the one in the East China Sea. He said the move could be baseless according to the international laws and could intensify the tension in the region. China declared earlier that China’s activities in the South China Sea, in essence, are the same as what the U.S. does in Hawaii.
Source: BBC Chinese, March 30, 2016
http://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/china/2016/03/160330_south_sea_china_us
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Global Times: Nuclear Arms û the Ultimate Card If U.S. Provocation in the South China Sea Escalates

Global Times (Huanqiu), a major CCP mouthpiece under People’s Daily, published an article proposing that China accelerate its nuclear weapons development to ensure China’s deterrence power in countering U.S. involvement in the South China Sea. The article stated that the U.S. instigates neighboring countries in the South China Sea to make trouble for China in order to suppress China’s rise. It is not difficult for the U.S. to succeed to some degree due to its mighty power. All this has made China very uncomfortable. The article suggested that if it were merely a diplomatic fight, it would be manageable. However, China has to prepare for the worst case in a military fight. The article claimed that China will not just retreat in the face of U.S. aggression. China cannot beg the U.S. for mutual respect. It can only be achieved by increasing China’s strength, particularly its military strength. 

“To let the U.S. have some deep concern so it does not act in the South China Sea at will, the U.S. has to worry as much as China does about the consequences of a possible Sino-U.S. fight. [To have such an effect,] China’s strength must reach the following level: American vessels and planes can only come to the South China Sea as a tool of a show of diplomacy. When they really threaten the security of Chinese locations, the U.S.’s risk of being attacked will become a reality and urgent. So will the U.S. military bases in the Asia Pacific. Wherever China is being threatened, the U.S. should fall into its own deep fears of insecurity.” 
 The article advised, “China’s capabilities are clearly in continuous development. This process needs to be further accelerated. It should be noted that, if the United States and China’s relations come to the worst case, nuclear power is the ultimate card to play. Therefore, China must unswervingly grow its nuclear forces to ensure that it has a strong and reliable second nuclear strike capability."

Source: Huanqiu, March 18, 2016 
http://mil.huanqiu.com/observation/2016-03/8728661.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Xinhua: U.S. Political Spectrum is Quietly Moving to the Right

Xinhua recently published a commentary suggesting U.S. society is developing an anti-establishment trend. The article emphasized that the “big mouth” Trump caught everyone by surprise when he swept the Republican political landscape, and that Hillary Clinton’s “sure thing” no longer seems so sure any more. The “Trump Phenomenon” is effectively turning extreme right-wing opinions in important areas such as gun control, immigration, healthcare, and the economy into the symbol of the “American Spirit.” The article points out that the anti-establishment “movement” started when the TEA Party gained its popularity in 2002. The “mainstream” Republicans lost ground to the TEA Party and that had a significant impact on the Republican’s loss of the 2012 presidential election. In the meantime, the Democratic “establishment” is also facing unexpected challenges, though not as dramatic as the Republicans. The author concluded that the cause of this new political trend is largely rooted in President Obama’s inability to deliver on his campaign promise of “change.” As a result, the American people are quietly turning to the right, which is highlighted by support for someone whose funds are not derived from “Washington.”
Source: Xinhua, March 19, 2016
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2016-03/19/c_128813476.htm
Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

CCTV Rebuts U.S. Criticism with Documentary, The Human Rights Record of ‘Defender of Human Rights'”

China Central Television (CCTV) broadcasted a documentary film on the evening March 13 on its Channel 1 (CCTV-1) program. The title was, “The Human Rights Records of the ‘Defender of Human Rights.’" It claimed that the film presented the real human rights situation in the United States with informative interviews, authoritative data, and interpretations from experts. 

By collecting reports from the mainstream media in the United States and rest of the world, the film enumerated how the U.S. disregards the human rights of its people in all areas of life. For example, in 2015, the United States had more than 56 million homeless people, including 25 percent of the minors in the country. Among the deaths because of injury, of the deaths among adolescents over the age of 15, 1/4 died in shootings. From justice, political rights, labor rights, and basic living guarantees, to the rights of women and children, the so-called "melting pot" of the United States applies a double standard to almost all human rights issues.
The program claimed that the 45-minute-long television documentary used interviews of human rights experts from China, the United States, France, Canada, Russia, Switzerland, and other countries and that it also used an analyses from a plurality of sides and angles of U.S. human rights issues. It evaluated U.S. human rights standards and provided a vivid and close-up window for the public to understand the human rights situation in the United States. 

Source: People’s Daily, March 14, 2016 
http://world.people.com.cn/n1/2016/0314/c1002-28195502.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations