Chinascope – Page 1035

New Characteristics of Sino-U.S. Security Relations

A scholar from the Research Center of World Affairs under Xinhua News Agency, published an article discussing the new characteristics of Sino-U.S. security relations. As China’s comprehensive power increases, China’s national interests are surpassing its national boundaries, its international influence is expanding, and the conflicts with the U.S. in its strategic goal and its interest in dominating the globe are increasing. Due to their increasing inter-dependence, however, the content and scope of co-operation in their common security interests, particularly in dealing with the challenges of global issues, are also broadening.

The article believes that Sino-U.S. security relations are becoming more and more complicated. In geographic security, they have surpassed the area of East Asia; in space, they have expanded into air space; in security, they have surpassed military areas and broadened to the economy, energy, resources, and the Internet.

It concluded: 1) Complications come from two factors. First, as China’s power increases, the U.S. is getting more wary and suspicious of China and structural conflicts are becoming more prominent. Second, the contradictions due to their different strategic goals (affect relations). 2) Due to the rapid development of economic globalization, both countries are not only economically inter-dependent; in security relations, the area that requires cooperation is also increasing.

Source: Xinhua, July 7, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2011-07/07/c_121635114.htm

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

Xinhua: Watch Out as the U.S. May Repudiate Its Debts.

A Xinhua commentary cautioned about the possibility that the U.S. may default on its debt. The article said, “No one wants to see the U.S. breach its debt obligations, but (everyone) has to be prepared (in case it happens). As long as no one can shake the U.S.’s (global) hegemony in military, currency, and media, any U.S. ‘action to repudiate its debts’ will benefit itself at a cost to others.” “In the current situation, only by ‘repudiating its debts’ can the U.S. rapidly decrease its debt ratio and reduce its heavy debt burden, so as to have ‘consumption recover.’”

The article argued that, in the short term, the U.S. cannot expand its economy through investments or exports. “In the short run, the U.S. must continue to walk the path of ‘relying on consumption’ to improve its economy. In fact, the Republicans, the voice for the oil and financial conglomerates on the East Coast, are very aware of the reality. Therefore, they are not afraid of the U.S. defaulting on its debt, and have even proposed a ‘technical default.’”

“The world’s countries will have nothing to say but acknowledge their bad luck if the U.S. ‘defaults on its debt’ or ‘engages in disguised debt default’ in order to reduce its fiscal deficit. If the default causes the collapse of bond prices and the skyrocketing of commodity prices, those who suffer will be countries with foreign exchange reserves and industrial manufacturing countries. To avoid their capital loss and remedy their economies, these countries will have to unconditionally agree to the U.S debt restructuring. Historically, the collapse of the Bretton Woods system was a typical case of the U.S. ‘repudiating its debt.’ This is also why the author worries about the ‘U.S. repudiating its debt.’”

Source: Xinhua, July 7, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2011-07/07/c_121635675.htm

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

Ex-Party Chief Rumored Dead, Web Search Censored

On July 6, 2011, rumors about the death of Jiang Zemin, the ex chief of the Chinese Communist Party, became popular in China’s local searches, but within half an hour, the country stretched out the heavy hand of China’s censors to block Chinese language searches about Jiang’s death. If people search for words related to Jiang’s death, the search pages return a message saying: "According to relevant policies and laws, the search results are not shown below." A posting on Weibo stated, "About the news that Jiang Zemin has passed away, news organizations can’t do reports on their own, all news reports should be in accordance with news releases from Xinhua [the official state news agency]."

On July 7, the official Xinhua quoted "authoritative sources" in its report denying the rumor.

Source: AFP, July 8, 2011
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iIlw8Muhmt8qfu3Znm9HQQxV0HBg?docId=CNG.9df3894d3c61df966b0d7c129418e270.5a1

Briefings | | July 7, 2011 | Government/Politics

Study Times: Universities Should Give a High Priority to Party Build-up

Liu Xiping, Director and Party Chief of the Education Department of Zhejiang Province, wrote on Study Times, the official publication of the Central Party School, about the need to beef up the Party organizations at the grass roots level in universities.

“In China, the Chinese Communist Party is the ruling Party. As an integral part of the ruling Party, Party Committees at universities should use the ruling power well and play a core role in leadership so as to fully implement the Party’s education policies. There is no doubt about it. We must unswervingly adhere to it. At the same time, we should also strengthen the Party’s grassroots organizations. By playing the role of the Party’s grass-roots organizations, we should consolidate and strengthen the Party’s leadership in colleges and universities to promote the implementation of the Party’s principles and policies in colleges and universities. There is also no doubt about this. We must unswervingly adhere to this.”

Liu believes that the fall of the former Soviet Union was due, in part, to the fact that the Communist Party of Soviet Union (CPSU)’s grassroots organizations existed in name only and had no cohesion to attract new members. “A large amount of data indicates that most CPSU members calmly identified themselves with the disintegration of the CPSU.”

Source: Study Times, July 4, 2011
http://www.studytimes.com.cn:9999/epaper/xxsb/html/2011/07/04/10/10_26.htm

Briefings | | July 7, 2011 | Government/Politics

Outlook Weekly: Peaceful Development Needs Military Support

An Outlook Weekly article states that China should leverage its military forces. “Peaceful development means that growth is not accomplished through war. However, peace does not necessarily exclude the use of military means. If in the course of peaceful development there were no military means to support it, there would be no peaceful development to speak of. Development will not take place in peace.” The author favors China’s recent practice of using military force, citing the ‘Peace Ark’ hospital ship, part of the East China Sea Fleet of the PLA, which left China on August 31, 2010, and visited five Asian and African countries. Author Han Xudong is a professor at China’s National Defense University.

Source: Outlook Weekly, July 4, 2011
http://big5.chinanews.com:89/gn/2011/07-04/3155353.shtml

Briefings | | July 7, 2011 | Defense/Military

Government Scholar: Deal with U.S. Global Hegemony Strategy Using both Hard and Soft Approaches

Global Times published an opinion article based on a book by Yang Bin titled, “The Hidden Economic and Financial War of the United States.” Yang is a research fellow at the Institute of Marxism, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

“The study indicated that the U.S. government’s China policy often fluctuates between softness and toughness. Behind the apparent erratic changes lies the ‘carrot and stick’ psychological warfare strategy. The strategy can produce a strong psychological shock in opponents and cause internal disagreement and conflict within international opponents. It is just like iron and steel which are, hard as they are, not afraid of direct impact, but cannot withstand repeated bending and will break due to a lack of flexibility. The study argues that China should alternate between ‘toughness and softness’ to respond to the U.S. "carrot and stick" two-pronged strategy. Regardless of whether the U.S. takes a soft approach to lure China or a hard approach to intimidate China, China should not panic, but remain clear-headed, and deal with it calmly. According to a 2010 U.S. public opinion poll, most Americans do not support Obama for re-election. The next president is likely to take a tough foreign policy, or even intentionally perform ‘irrational madness’ to promote U.S. interests. China should be fully prepared for U.S. foreign policy to change from a soft to a hard approach."

Source: Huanqiu, June 2011
http://opinion.huanqiu.com/dialogue/2011-06/1743429.html

Briefings | | July 7, 2011 | US-China Relations

The Chaos of College Recruitment in China

On July 4, 2011, China Review News published the first in a series of articles exposing the intense fighting among China’s well-known universities for students who had the top scores on the national college entrance exams. For fame and self interest, they used many underhanded means, such as deliberately belittling their competitors, sending false messages in the name of competitors (such as admission cancellation letters) to high-scoring college candidates, and openly applying constant one on one persuasion. Some high schools and local authorities pressured high-scoring college candidates to apply to Beijing University or Tsinghua University, the top universities in China, to improve the local government’s achievement record, even though the students wanted to apply to another university.

“On the surface, each school tries hard to recruit talented students. Actually, they are fighting for fame and self interest. … It reflects the universities’ utilitarian spirit.”

Source: China Review News, July 4, 2011
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/crn-webapp/spec/ylck/index.jsp?docid=101755337

Briefings | | July 6, 2011 | Grapevine

“The U.S Purpose in Returning to Southeast Asia is to Impede China’s Freedom of Navigation”

On July 1, 2011, Xinhua published an article titled “What is the Real Intention of the United States’ Show of Concern about ‘Freedom of Navigation’ in the South China Sea?” The writer of the article argues that “freedom of navigation” in the South China Sea has never been a problem for the United States. The real purpose for the United States to come back to the area is to obstruct China’s freedom of navigation in the East China Sea. “The old Western sea control theory is to ensure their own freedom to use the waters, and obstruct others’ freedom of use. … The ‘freedom of navigation’ proposed by the United States is in fact the substitution of a concept (for the real one), which does not reflect ‘freedom of navigation’ in international law. Instead, it reflects the old Western sea control theory of ‘Control Power’ over the sea.”

“After the Vietnam War, the United States was forced to withdraw from Southeast Asia. The U.S. lost two military bases in the Philippines, the Clark and Subic bases. Now the United States has re-proposed the ‘Philippine-US Joint Defense Treaty’ in the name of protecting its allies and is discussing a return to Clark and Subic. … This military deployment will affect China’s national interests such as freedom of navigation.”　

Source: Xinhua, July 1, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2011-07/01/c_121606697.htm

Briefings | | July 6, 2011 | US-China Relations

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.