Chinascope – Page 1023

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 | | September 13, 2011 | 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 | | September 13, 2011 | 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 | | September 12, 2011 | 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 | | September 12, 2011 | 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 | | September 12, 2011 | US-China Relations

Government Scholars Interpret Hu Jintao’s July 1st Speech

[Editor’s Note: Hu Jintao gave a speech on July 1, 2011, at the Conference to Celebrate the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) 90th Anniversary. Outlook Weekly, a publication under Xinhua, published a collection of articles in which government think tankers explained their interpretation of important quotes from Hu’s speech. [1] Their views cover using economic expansion (instead of adjusting income distribution) to solve the income disparity in China, maintaining social stability, and strengthening the party’s leadership. The following are translations of select summaries from these articles.]

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Reports | | September 11, 2011 | Report

Cai Wu: Vehemently Promote China’s Great Cultural Development and Prosperity

Cai Wu, the head of China’s Ministry of Culture, wrote an article discussing the direction of China’s cultural development in the 12th five-year-plan, following Hu Jintao’s comments on cultural development from his speech at the CCP’s 90th anniversary. Hu said that “[China must] continue to vehemently promote great cultural development and prosperity, and unshakably develop advanced Socialist culture.” Cai said, “To promote China’s culture to ‘go out [overseas]’ [so as to] elevate China’s soft power, is an important strategic task related to the overall national plan. … During the 12th five-year-plan, (China) must emphatically enhance the unique role of culture in the national strategy of foreign work; improve cultural relations with other countries and important international organizations; enhance cultural exchanges and cooperation with neighboring countries and local organizations; increase cultural aid to foreign countries; actively participate in international cultural affairs; increase the speeches and discourse.”

“(Specifically), using China’s overseas culture as the starting point, (China should) expand globally, increase the scale, establish a comprehensive platform, and espouse the overall development of overseas cultural facilities. (China should also) diligently develop cultural exchange projects, meticulously organize a national cultural year, Chinese culture festivals, a culture week, a ‘Happy Spring Festival,’ and other big brand name activities; enhance international dialogue in the areas of culture and ideology; … increase China’s voice in the international academic world; use great effort to increase foreign cultural trade; promote more culture products and services; promote ‘going out’ at a faster pace; speed up the creation of competitive cultural brand names with our own intellectual properties; release more iconic culture products with Chinese features; and increase China’s competitiveness in the world culture market.”

Source: Qiushi, September 1, 2011
http://www.qstheory.cn/zxdk/2011/201117/201108/t20110830_106476.htm

Briefings | | September 9, 2011 | Government/Politics

Beijing’s Golf Courses’ Enormous Consumption of Resources

China Youth Daily published a report about the enourmous land and water resources that Beijing’s 75 golf courses use. In terms of land, they use 132, 257.75 mu (about 881,713 acres), which is 0.5% of the total area under the Beijing administrative jurisdiction. The daily consumption of water is at least 168,700 cubic feet, amounting to 60 million cubic feet of water resources every year. Due to Beijing’s shortage of water, twice in 2010 Beijing diverted water from other provinces. In October 2010 alone, about 40 million cubic feet was diverted to Beijing.

Source: China Youth Daily, September 7, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2011-09/07/c_121990086.htm

Briefings | | September 9, 2011 | Economy/Resources

Xinhua Commentary Series: Spotlight on the U.S. Presidential Election

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.”