Skip to content

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

Read More ...

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

Read More ...

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

Read More ...

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

Read More ...

Chinese Scholar: 9/11 Gave China the Opportunity for Rapid Development

On September 11, 2011, China Review News (CRN) published an article titled “After 10 Years of Struggle, the United States Has Lost the Anti-Terrorist War.” Shao Yuqun, an Afghanistan expert and deputy director of the South Asia Research Center, Shanghai Institute of International Studies, told CRN that the United States rushed into the wrong war, misjudged the nature of the enemy, ruined its international image, consumed enormous human and material resources, and still has not curbed the terrorists. To the contrary, the United States has gotten itself into “an endless war with no resolution in sight.”

According to Shao Yuqun, when President Bush took office, he viewed China as a strategic competitor and was preparing to focus fully on dealing with China. However, 9/11 diverted the United States’ attention away from China. Over the past 10 years, while the United States was busy dealing with the terrorists, China developed rapidly, increasing its power in diplomatic discourse.

Source: China Review News, September 11, 2011
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1018/3/0/8/101830808.html?coluid=148&kindid=0&docid=101830808&mdate=0911002539

Briefings | | |   Grapevine

The Loss of Media Control in the Soviet Union Accelerated the Death of the Soviet Communist Party

On September 9, 2011, Huanqiu, the Chinese edition of Global Times, published an article titled “The Loss of Media Control in the Soviet Union Accelerated the Death of the Soviet Communist Party.” The author, Zhu Jidong, is executive director of the World Socialism Research Center, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Zhu blamed Mikhail Gorbachev for abolishing media censorship and inviting Western media into the Soviet Union.

“As the Soviet Union’s media surrendered themselves to the West, the people (of the Soviet Union) gradually lost both their trust in the Party and the country and their faith in socialism. In just two years, from January 1989 to January 1991, over 2.9 million Soviet Communist Party members denounced the Party. Relinquishing leadership over the media resulted in the loss of control that destroyed the foundation of Soviet ideology, did away with the Soviet Union’s core value system and idealistic beliefs, and accelerated the death of the Soviet Communist Party.”

Source: Huanqiu, September 9, 2011
http://opinion.huanqiu.com/roll/2011-09/1990652.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Global Times: HK Media Speculates on the Chinese Navy’s Fourth Fleet

Global Times, which is under the state’s People’s Daily, recently published an article which referred to a report from the HK newspaper Ming Pao. The report included information that the Chinese Navy is planning to establish the Fourth Fleet, which will be headquartered in Sanya, Hainan Province. It also said that the Fourth Fleet will include at least two aircraft carrier combat groups, that the future aircraft carriers will be placed directly under the Central Military Committee, and that the carriers will have their own independent Command Headquarters. The Chinese Naval fleets’ command structure is similar to Russia’s. The extent to which this information may change in the future remains unclear.

Source: Global Times, September 10, 2011
http://mil.huanqiu.com/Exclusive/2011-09/1993689.html

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

Xinhua: India Asked China to Stop Construction Work in Kashmir

Xinhua recently published an article that quoted a Times of India report that India has asked China to stop construction activities in Kashmir. Meanwhile India is also keeping a close eye on the fact that China is rapidly building “strategic roads, railways and airports” in Tibet and along the actual India-China border. The Indian Defense Minister wrote a letter to 19 congressmen suggesting that the Indian government is aware of the Chinese construction work on the Pakistani side of Kashmir and that the government has already expressed its concern to China. India is speeding up the process of increasing its military deployment along the India-China border. However the Indian Military has been complaining about a lack of funding. India’s annual military budget is US$32 billion while the disclosed amount that China has budgeted is US$91.5 billion.

Source: Xinhua, September 7, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2011-09/07/c_121989814.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

CRN: Central Bank Governor Denied Free Exchange of the RMB Has a Time Table

China Review News (CRN) recently published a report referring to a Bloomberg article that quoted Davide Cucino, Chairman of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China, as saying China plans to realize the free exchange of the RMB by the year 2015. Cucino suggested that he heard the news at a summit with Chinese officials. Reuters commented that, if the report reflected the truth, this was the first time China set an official date for the matter. Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan commented on the news when he was attending the Fourth China-U.K. Economic and Financial Dialogue. He said that China does not have such a timetable and that a long and orderly process is involved. He also suggested that China is not eager to include the RMB in the basket of currencies that make up the IMF SDR (Special Drawing Rights) exchange rate. However, there are signs that the Chinese government is placing the RMB free exchange issue on the agenda.

Source: China Review News, September 9, 2011
http://www.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1018/3/0/1/101830181.html?coluid=0&kindid=0&docid=101830181&mdate=0909185345

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Reflections on 9.11: Was 9.11 a Conspiracy or Reality?

On the 10th anniversary of 9.11, Xinhua published a series of articles reflecting on the impact of 9.11 on the United States and on the world. One of the articles was titled “9.11, Was It a Conspiracy or Reality?” According to the article, over the past 10 years, the conspiracy theory of 9.11 has never been laid to rest. Who was behind the hijacking of the airplanes? Was it 19 Arabs or the U.S. Government? The article said there was a group of 75 senior scientists and famous professors who came together to try to expose the truth of 9.11. Their theory was that 9.11 was an inside operation organized by a group of conservatives in order to come up with an excuse to attack Iraq and Afghanistan. The ultimate goal was for the U.S. to increase its world power.

The article disclosed additional sources supporting the conspiracy theory, including the results a Scripps Howard poll in 2006 which showed that 36 percent of Americans believe that the U.S. government participated in the 9.11 conspiracy. It also quoted a book titled 9/11: the Big Lie which sold over 200,000 copies in France. The book claimed that various 9.11 conspiracy theories are still surfacing in the U.S. They sew distrust between the people and the government and have caused a distraction in people’s lives.

Source: Xinhua, September 11, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2011-09/11/c_122017112_4.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Xinhua: The Sadness of Washington Politics

Xinhua published an article strongly objecting to the Obama Administration’s decision to sell weapons to Taiwan. It delivered an even harsher criticism of the U.S. Congressional attempt to pass the “Taiwan Policy Act of 2011,” initiated by Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. The article calls the “Taiwan Policy Act of 2011” a "tumor" which will bring serious damage to US-China relations, but says that Washington does not have the courage to stop it. It warns “those hot headed Congressional representatives not to go too far.”

Source: Xinhua, September 9, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/comments/2011-09/09/c_122007693.htm

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Xinhua: By Using Counter-Terrorism to Attack China, the U.S. Exposes Its Sham Side

Xinhua published a commentary claiming that the U.S. uses counter-terrorism as an excuse to attack China and has adopted a double standard in its actions.

The commentary stated that China has been responsible in cooperating with the U.S. in its counter-terrorism effort, but the U.S. does not treat China the same way. It brought up the recently published 2010 National Counter-terrorism Center (NCTC) Report on Terrorism and said that Washington misinterpreted China’s efforts against the East Turkestan Organizations’ combat effort.

According to the commentary, when the U.S. looks at the “violent” incidents in Xinjiang, it sees the Uyghur’s human rights movement and “discredits” China for using “excessive military force” to suppress it. The article also objects to the U.S. sending the East Turkestan terrorists who are jailed at Guantanamo Bay to Albania rather than to China, out of fear for their safety. It claims that “the U.S. has adopted a double standard in its counter-terrorism effort, which exposes its sham side.”

Source: Xinhua, September 8, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2011-09/08/c_122006117.htm

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations