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Zhou Yongkang: Adhering to the Party’s Leadership over Prosecution Work

In a recent meeting, Zhou Yongkang, a Politburo Standing Committee member and secretary of the Chinese Communist Party’s Committee on Political and Legislative Affairs, stressed the importance of adhering to the Party’s leadership over the work of prosecution and investigation. 

Zhou said, “The most fundamental thing is to unswervingly adhere to and develop the socialist prosecution system with Chinese characteristics. First, we must always adhere to a correct political direction. … (We should) adhere to the Party’s leadership over the work of prosecution and investigation, unswervingly taking the path of political development and rule of law development in socialism with Chinese characteristics. Second, we must always adhere to law enforcement for the people. Third, we must always adhere to the prosecution’s constitutional position.” 
He stressed that the prosecutory organs must continue to study and implement Secretary Hu Jintao’s "7.1" speech as their current and future primary political task in order to ensure that all prosecutory personnel maintain a high degree of unity in thought and action with Comrade Hu Jintao as the general secretary of the Party Central Committee.
Source: Xinhua, September 23, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2011-09/23/c_122080637.htm

Qiushi: China’s Political System is Superior to Capitalist Democracy

Qiushi published an article that compared China’s political system with the capitalist system and proclaimed that China’s political system is far superior to capitalist democracy. According to the article, the capitalist democratic system has three major defects: money is in charge, as it is the capitalists who control the power; politics is driven by vested interest groups because the checks and balances system creates multi-centered and multi-layered decision mechanisms leading to short-term policies and conflicts between vested interest groups and the national interest; and the enormous amount of money that must be raised in connection with elections leads to political corruption. On the other hand, China’s socialist democracy is superior as it is conducive to 1) policies that benefit the entire nation because the Communist Party is the political representative of all the people; 2) a balance between the interests of various social groups through the use of the law and policies; and 3) political and social stability.

Source: Qiushi, September 27, 2011
http://www.qstheory.cn/zz/shzyzzzd/201109/t20110927_113096.htm

China Faces Integrity and Ethics Crisis

On September 26, 2011, the Sohu website reprinted an article from Xinhua News Agency‘s Outlook Weekly regarding the integrity and ethics crisis in China. The original article from Outlook Weekly is no longer available online.

In discussing the recent news reports about recycled waste oil being taken from the sewers and widely used in China’s restaurants, the article’s author suggested two ways to deal with the integrity crisis: 1) establishing cultural values and cultivating cultural awareness; 2) strengthening the public and media’s watch capability, giving ordinary people more rights to know, to participate, and to speak out.

Source: Xinhua News Agency’s Outlook Weekly, September 26, 2011
http://news.sohu.com/20110926/n320531380.shtml

CCP Alarmed: Postings Showing Government Distrust Disseminated on Microblogs

An internal source who wished to remain nameless for security reasons has revealed information about the content of a conference the Chinese Communist Party Committee Propaganda Department of Hubei Province held on September 18, 2011, at the East Lake Hotel in Wuhan City. At the conference, the head of the Hubei Province Propaganda Department expressed his serious concern about some content on the mass media. Postings on Internet websites and blogs showed people’s distrust of Chinese authorities. “Recently, there has been an ideological shift in Internet information, which has started to shake our Party’s ruling status. The Propaganda Department head stated that, especially with the dissemination of the anti-censorship software that was developed in the U.S., a trend of disbelief  (in the CCP among the Chinese people) has developed.”

Therefore, the Propaganda Department directed every town, township, and district to take action and pay great attention to the Internet information dissemination problem. Nearly 100 representatives across Hubei Province attended the conference.

Source: Internal Source, September 24, 2011
China Scope

Huanqiu: Should China Increase Its Arms Sales to the Countries Hostile to the U.S.?

On September 23, 2011, Huanqiu (the Chinese edition of Global Times), a state media under Xinhua, published an editorial titled “(China’s) Protest against the U.S. Arms Sale to Taiwan Should Not Be Limited to Words.” The article stated, “Our protest should be real, coupled with strong retaliatory measures.”

The article admitted that the U.S. arms sale to Taiwan is a problem that traces back to past years and cannot be stopped completely. “Let us fearlessly ‘tolerate’ the U.S. (arms sales to Taiwan) and also courageously retaliate against the United States. No matter what we do, nothing worse will happen. Several billion dollars worth of arms will not change the Taiwan Strait. If China kicks back at the United States for the Taiwan Strait, the Sino-U.S. relationship will not change either.”

The article contained a survey asking, “Should China increase its arms sales to the countries hostile to the U.S.?” It attracted thousands of responses. 37,026 participants (95.9%) agreed to increased arms sales to the enemies of the U.S., while 1,588 participants (4.1%) disagreed.

Source: Huanqiu, September 23, 2011
http://opinion.huanqiu.com/roll/2011-09/2028712.html

People’s Daily Reported Traffic Accident Possibly Involving Mayor’s Son

On September 19, 2011, Global Times, a daily tabloid under the auspices of the Chinese Communist Party’s newspaper, People’s Daily, reported that Ma Wencong, a high school student, knocked down a victim with his luxury car, a Mercedes Benz, in the City of Wenzhou. According to the report, Ma was driving his girlfriend to a spa and intentionally violated traffic rules. He claimed to be the Mayor’s son. Thousands of city residents surrounded the site and prevented a police car from leaving, insisting that the police complete the paperwork on site. The crowd would not disperse for more than 5 hours. In the past couple of years, many similar accidents have occurred across China, all involving luxury cars and relatives of government officials.

Source: Global Times, September 19, 2011
http://china.huanqiu.com/roll/2011-09/2017098.html

CRN: US-China Strategic Co-operation Faces a Tough Road Ahead

China Review News (CRN) recently published an article predicting that the United States and China will have more conflicts in the future. With the U.S. global policy arrangements on “the war against terror” and its “unilateralism” (a term often used in China referring to the U.S. acting without the support of other countries), the geo-strategic areas surrounding China are getting into more and more trouble. The article suggested that the the U.S. suffered a large loss of wealth as a result of the wars in which it was involved. While that involvement gave China a good opportunity to develop into the second largest economy in the world, the Obama Administration is now transferring more military attention to the Asia Pacific region. The downturn of both the U.S. and the EU economies is placing a large amount of pressure on China’s economic growth. The author believes that China cannot reach a strategic common understanding with the U.S. The fact that the U.S. is withdrawing from Afghanistan and Iraq and shifting its focus to China will establish the trend for the near future. There will be a tough road ahead, especially when the U.S. is entering a presidential election year.

Source: China Review News, September 19, 2011
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1018/3/6/1/101836139.html?coluid=148&kindid=0&docid=101836139&mdate=0919001955

Outlook Weekly: China Lacks Awareness of Ocean Development

Outlook Weekly, a magazine under Xinhua News Agency, recently published a commentary calling for “ocean development.” The commentary suggested that the oceans will provide China’s future “living space.” To develop awareness and to improve the sustainability of the Chinese civilization, China must change its old fashioned “land centric” mentality. The author suggested that the oceans connect all continents and are the cheapest “highway” that needs no construction. If China uses the potential of the oceans, it immediately brings vast economic benefits. The commentary drew on Japan as an example to increase awareness of how it used the oceans to protect Japanese interests. It expressed the belief that China should have a strategic view of the oceans and should take full advantage of ocean development for solving the problems of growth, unemployment and lack of resources.

Source: Outlook Weekly, September 17, 2011
http://news.sohu.com/20110917/n319690526.shtml