Chinascope – Page 1001

Xinhua News Agency Delivers the Chinese Communist Party’s Messages

On November 7, 2011, Xinhua News Agency’s Outlook Weekly published an article titled “The 80th Anniversary of Xinhua News Agency’s Founding: a Media with a National Mission.” Recalling Xinhua‘s 80-year history, the article proudly proclaimed that “no other media in the world has even been so closely linked to the rise and fall of a country, a nationality, and a ruling party.” Under the leadership of the CCP, Xinhua News Agency delivers the Chinese Communist Party’s messages.

The article especially mentioned the Xinhua billboard which has been in New York City’s Times Square since August 1 of this year, saying it “represents the beginning of a new era.” It concluded that “a culturally powerful country must have a powerful media force to influence world public opinion.”

Source: Xinhua News Agency Outlook Weekly, November 7, 2011
http://lwgcw.net/NewsShow.aspx?newsId=24278

Briefings | | November 9, 2011 | Government/Politics

Study Times: Let’s Continue to Hide Our Capabilities and Bide Our Time

On November 7, 2011, Study Times, a journal of the Party School of the Central Committee of the CCP, published an article discussing the benefits of China’s foreign policy that Deng Xiaoping, the former head of the Chinese Communist Party from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, had proposed: to “hide our capabilities and bide our time.” The article pointed out, “After China started its economic reforms and opened to the world, China stopped using its (Communist) ideological standards to deal with other countries. This has successfully reversed the diplomatic situation, which has been unfavorable to China.” It continued that China’s foreign policy is to “hide the (Communist) ideology and modernize China according to its plans while other countries are in chaos.”

“Sino-US relations can usually move forward when a ‘third party trouble maker’ appears. Once the ‘third party’ (Ed: such as bin Laden) disappears, the Sino-US relationship becomes problematic.” The article concludesd that the foreign policy “hide our capabilities and bide our time” is very important and necessary when China is in the process of integrating into the international system, since the U.S. foreign policy is more ideologically based when no third party trouble makers are around. “To create a favorable international environment to develop our domestic economy, we should continue to hide our (Communist) ideology so as to minimize the differences (between the U.S. and China).”

[Editor: “Hide one’s capabilities and bide one’s time” (or “hide one’s ambitions and disguise one’s claws”) comes from a well-known Chinese historical novel, "The Three Kingdoms" based on real stories from the end of the Han Dynasty (25 AD-220 AD) to the Three Kingdoms era (220 AD- 280 AD) of Chinese history. The kings of the Three Kingdoms were Cao Cao, Liu Bei and Sun Quan. When Liu Bei was seeking refuge in Cao Cao’s territory, he was afraid that Cao Cao would kill him if he did not hide his ambition to unite the whole nation and become king. By working hard in his backyard vegetable garden every day and pretending to be cowardly, he successfully misled Cao Cao, who no long viewed Liu as a competitor. Liu Bei’s strategy was called “hide one’s ambitions and disguise one’s claws” (or “hide one’s capabilities and bide one’s time”).

Source: Study Times, November 7, 2011
http://www.studytimes.com.cn:9999/epaper/xxsb/html/2011/11/07/02/02_34.htm

Briefings | | November 9, 2011 | Government/Politics

Ministry of Railways Requests RMB 800 Billion in Government Rescue Funds

People’s Daily recently republished an article on the latest development in the collapse of the Ministry of Railway’s problematic construction plans. The report stated that over 10,000 kilometers of construction work had to be suspended nationwide. Together with the 13,000 kilometers currently under construction, the gap in funding is around RMB 1 trillion. For the time being the Ministry of Railways has collected RMB 200 billion to fill the gap. The State Council is coordinating a “blood transfusion” campaign to save the troubled Ministry of Railways. Tax adjustments and government bonds are also being considered.

Source: People’s Daily, November 6, 2011
http://auto.people.com.cn/GB/16147703.html

Briefings | | November 8, 2011 | Economy/Resources

VOA: China Uses Confucius Institute to Exercise “Soft” Power

Voice of America (VOA) recently reported that China is using funding for the Confucius Institutes to exert pressure on western universities. Since 2004, China has established around 350 Confucius Institutes around the globe. These Institutes are generally viewed as a channel for China to exercise its “soft power.” However, when China offered to spend US$3 million to create a Confucius Institute at Stanford University in 2009, a condition was that “sensitive topics” such as the Tibet issue would have to be blocked. Stanford refused the condition. The University of North Carolina had a similar experience when the Dalai Lama was invited to the university to give a speech. In the end the university gave in.

The report pointed out that the function of the Confucius Institute is supposed to be to teach the Chinese language and Chinese culture, but some Chinese government officials have suggested that the Confucius Institute is an important channel to make use of China’s "soft" power.

Source: Voice of America, November 13, 2011
http://www.voanews.com/chinese/news/20111103-China-Says-No-Talking-Tibet-in-Confucius-Institutes-133188683.html

Briefings | | November 8, 2011 | US-China Relations

Study Times: What is a Culture Superpower?

Study Times, a magazine of the Chinese Communist Party Central Party School, recently published an article on how to define “Culture Superpower.” The article described three aspects of a culture superpower: (1) the nation must have relatively strong cultural charm, which is demonstrated by its self-confidence and attractiveness; (2) a culture superpower must be able to create, produce and distribute cultural elements, which include cultural innovation, an advanced culture industry and modern media; (3) a culture superpower must have a baseline indicator that is reflected by the quality of its people – their quality includes moral standards as well as scientific and artistic standards. All these aspects should have deep roots in the political, economic, and social lives of the people.

Source: Study Times, October 31, 2011
http://www.studytimes.com.cn:9999/epaper/xxsb/html/2011/10/31/03/03_46.htm

Briefings | | November 8, 2011 | Government/Politics

International Herald Leader: To Begin Intervening in Western Interventionism

[Editor’s Note: An article published on Xinhua’s International Herald Leader explains China’s recent veto of the draft of the United Nations Security Council resolution on Syria. “The direct goals that China wanted to achieve, specifically, were to prevent the West from imposing possible military sanctions on Syria, to obstruct the legalization of the West’s deployment and implementation of military operations in the Middle East, and to contain the West’s barbaric practice of using military means to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs.” “China’s veto is a counter-attack against American unilateralism; it is a beautiful debut for China’s pursuit of a new international order.”] [1]

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Reports | | November 7, 2011 | Report

RFA: Tibetan Nun Died in 11th Self-Immolation

On November 3, 211, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported that a Tibetan nun died after setting herself on fire in GanZi, Sichuan Province. It was the 11th Tibetan self-immolation this year. According to Voice of Tibet, which is based in Norway, the victim was Palden Choetso, 35 years old. She died on a road in Dawu County of Sichuan Province, the same location as a monk who recently self-immolated. Before setting herself on fire, she yelled out “Free Tibet” and “Allow the Dalai Lama to return to Tibet.”

Kunga Tashi, the spokesperson for the Office of Tibet in New York told RFA that the policy of extreme pressure that China has imposed on Tibet is the direct cause of the recent tragedy. “This is an indication that China’s Tibetan policy is a failure. These young monks have tried appeals, rallies, and parades but none of those have worked. They have no other ways to express themselves and try to be heard than to sacrifice their lives to let international society know of the dark side that is casting its shadow over Tibet.” Kunga believes that international attention may help improve the existing human rights condition in Tibet.

Yang Jianli, a China scholar from Harvard, who has been monitoring the ethnic issues in China said, “The Tibetan policy that the Chinese authorities have used in the past has become an issue of national oppression. … No religions would force people to commit suicide on such a large scale. … Take the Kirti Gompa monastery as an example. Two thousand monks live inside, but 30,000 armed forces and police are outside the temple. There are brainwashing sessions held every day to condemn the Dalai Lama. Chinese authorities do not care about international pressure and continue the control Tibetans’ voices and destroy their religious culture.” Yang believes that the issue of Tibet is not an isolated one; it is representative of the human rights violations that are going on in China. “If China’s overall human rights situation does not improve, (it shows) that we can’t rely on the Chinese government to give up its long term totalitarian control.”

Lobsang Sangay, the prime minister of the Tibetan government in exile is discouraging Tibetans from self-immolating, fearing that retaliation and more arrests of Tibetans will follow the incident. He is calling on the Chinese government to allow the international media to conduct an investigation of the self-immolation case and is encouraging international society to apply more pressure on the Chinese government.

Source: Radio Free Asia, November, 3, 2011
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/zang-11032011155246.html

Briefings | | November 7, 2011 | Social Stability

Forum on Strengthening the Development of Internet Ideology and Culture Held In Beijing

On November 5, 2011, over 50 scholars attended a forum in Beijing and had an in-depth discussion on how the Internet can assist China in its development of culture, how to meet Internet users’ growing demands, as well how to handle the ever increasing challenge of dealing with the new ideology and trends.

During the forum, an opening ceremony was held for the new office complex for “www.cntheory.com,” the website for the Chinese Communist Party school. The school officials hoped that the website would "further improve its contents, be persistent in giving accurate guidance on ideology and cultural trends, serve the study and research needs of various levels of party leaders and researchers, and serve the role of fostering the development of advanced socialist culture."

An analysis suggests that, by the end of first half of this year, the number of China’s Internet users reached 485 million.

Source: Xinhua, November 5, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2011-11/05/c_111147817.htm

Briefings | | November 7, 2011 | Government/Politics

Wu Guoguang: Xi Jinping’s Reversal of the Course, Will China’s Transition be Peaceful or Marked with Bloodshed?

Cheng Xiaonong: U.S.-China Strategic Relations Have Crystallized

Xinhua Commentaries: “Exposing the Three Major Political Deficits of the U.S.”

The CCP’s Performing Arts Troupes in the U.S.