Chinascope – Page 1034

People’s Daily: Social Media Present a Challenge to State Security

According to a report released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), the users of Chinese social media continue to increase, while the number of social media is going through adjustment. “In 2010, the number of users of Chinese social media websites reached 235 million, an increase of 60 million over 2009. Current usage exceeds 50%; half of Chinese Internet users use social media. The U.S. Facebook has become the No. 1 global social media. While there are advantages for news reporting and social mobilization on social media websites, social media presents serious challenges to national security and citizen’s privacy.”

Source: People’s Daily, July 12, 2011
http://politics.people.com.cn/GB/1026/15135876.html

Briefings | | July 14, 2011 | Information/Technology

Party Buildup in A Publicly Traded Company

Study Times published an article about a success story – the expansion of the Chinese Communist Party in Foton, a publicly traded company listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange with the majority of stock owned by the State. Of close to 40,000 employees, 5,125 are registered Communist Party members with 155 Party branches. Foton has institutionalized the Party’s participation in corporate management through internal regulations which set forth the procedures for the Party’s participation in decision making. The Party is in charge of 4 critical areas: business, strategy, managers, and personnel.

Source: Study Times, July 11, 2011
http://www.studytimes.com.cn:9999/epaper/xxsb/html/2011/07/11/08/08_35.htm

Briefings | | July 14, 2011 | Government/Politics

Huanqiu: China Aviation Company Becomes U.S. Defense Contractor

An article from Huanqiu repeated a report from a French newspaper on the U.S. Air Force purchasing 25 SR20 aircraft from Cirrus Aircraft. Through a merger agreement back in March 2011, Cirrus Aircraft, a U.S. company, is now wholly owned by China Aviation Industry General Aircraft Company under the China Aviation Industry Corporation. The Huanqiu article titled “China Aviation Industry Becomes US Defense Contractor for the First Time” reported that the value of the purchase is over $6 million and the SR20 aircraft will be used for training at the Academy Airfield (AFF) in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Source: Huanqiu, July 11, 2011
http://mil.huanqiu.com/Exclusive/2011-07/1810429.html

Briefings | | July 14, 2011 | US-China Relations

Schools Use Students for Profit-making

On July 5, 2011, a Shenzhen local newspaper published a report calling public attention to the fact that some college and graduate students have become tools for making a profit. The article gives a few examples: graduate students call their advisor “boss” and spend a lot of time as cheap labor working on their advisor’s research and projects; in Xi’an, a music college forces poor female students to dance with bankers; the Nanjing Normal University forces female students to dance with government officials. Quite often, the college and university’s administrators use not issuing a diploma to force students into submission.

A Shenzhen Security Services Company pays a monthly stipend of 1,600 yuan to each student intern, who in the end only receives 600 yuan; the Guangxi Institute of Technology, where the students are from, takes the rest. By listing these non-isolated cases, the article concludes that the relationship between the school and student has degenerated into a commercial relationship.

Source: Jing Bao, July 5, 2011
http://jb.sznews.com/html/2011-07/05/content_1645975.htm

Briefings | | July 13, 2011 | Grapevine

Natural Disasters in China in the First Half of 2011

In the first half of 2011, natural disasters in mainland China, such as drought, flooding, snow, earthquakes, and tropical storms, left 449 people dead and 100 missing and caused the evacuation of 2.964 million people from their homes, damage to 1.15 million houses, and the collapse of 274,000 buildings. The disasters affected a total of 25.52 million hectares of crops, among which 1.93 million hectares of crops were completely ruined. The direct economic loss is estimated to be 142 billion yuan ($US21.8 billion). The disasters included frequent earthquakes, multiple disasters in the same region, and recurrent adverse weather conditions.

Source: China News Service, July 9, 2011
http://www.chinanews.com/gn/2011/07-09/3169744.shtml

Briefings | | July 13, 2011 | Economy/Resources

Swedish Student Expelled for Attempting to Organize a Public Rally

On July 9, Chinese authorities deported a Swedish student Sven Englund, who was studying at Fudan University in Shanghai, for attempting to organize a public rally on July 1, 2011, the 90th birthday of the Chinese Communist Party. On his microblogging page, Englund invited Chinese president Hu Jintao to come to the Bund to attend a really that called for freedom. Before the deportation, Fudan University had invited him for a “coffee talk.” Shanghai’s police also followed, monitored, and interrogated him. The authorities charged him with “involvement in jeopardizing social management." The 24-year-old student is now back in Sweden.

Source: Voice of America, July 10, 2011
http://www.voanews.com/chinese/news/20110710-SWEDISH-STUDENT-125286958.html

Briefings | | July 13, 2011 | Government/Politics

Zhou Yongkang Reemphasizes the Party’s Control over Judicial System

In a speech recently delivered by Zhou Yongkang, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee and head of the CCP’s Committee of Political And Legislative Affairs, Zhou repeated the importance of Hu Jintao’s speech given at the 90th anniversary of the Communist Party and emphasized that the Party must maintain “absolute control” over the judicial systems, which includes the police, the armed police, the procurator system, and the court system. Zhou called for “political firmness, purity and strong fighting strength.”

Source: Xinhua, July 2, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2011-07/02/c_121614063.htm

Briefings | | July 12, 2011 | Government/Politics

Guangming: Japan’s Cost for Supporting U.S. Bases Higher Than Its Military Budget

On July 3, 2011, Guangming Daily published an article on what it costs Japan to support U.S. military bases in Japan. The article reported that the United States has had military bases in Japan since the end of World War II. Currently there are 41,000 American troops stationed there. According to the treaties Japan has with the U.S., the U.S. is responsible for defending Japan and Japan is responsible for providing land and facilities at no charge. The article further described the items that Japan pays for: (1) handling the issues in areas surrounding the U.S. bases; (2) the rental cost of public and private land; (3) the cost of moving facilities and equipment; and (4) other costs such as compensating fishermen for the inconvenience caused by the military exercises. After 1978, Japan started paying the Japanese citizens who worked on the bases, as well as some repair and maintenance costs. The article calculated the total amount the Japanese government spent on the U.S. bases in 2009 and concluded that it was higher than the U.S. share and higher than Japan’s own military budget.

Source: Guangming Daily, July 3, 2011
http://mil.gmw.cn/2011-07/03/content_2169921.htm

Briefings | | July 12, 2011 | Geo-Strategic Trend

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.