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

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

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

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

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There is No Need to Establish New Political Parties in China

Zhang Xiansheng, spokesperson for the United Front Work Department of the Chinese Communist Party, stated on June 29, 2011, “The Communist Party and the other eight democratic parties have basically covered all of the social strata and groups in China and China’s multi-party cooperation system has a broad social base.”

According to Zhang, “Of the nine parties in China, the Communist Party primarily recruits from workers, farmers, solders, intellectuals and advanced elements of other social classes. The other eight parties have their respective focuses, attracting middle to upper classes [with backgrounds in] science and technology, education, culture, health, sports, and a portion of the new social strata.”
 
“He expressed that political parties must have a fixed range of organizational development, have a certain social basis, and must abide by the Constitution and relevant laws and regulations. The existing nine political parties in China have a relatively fixed range of organizations and development, basically covering all of China’s current social strata and groups, so there is no need to establish a new political party beyond the existing political parties.”

Source: Xinhua, June 29, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2011-06/29/c_121602398.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Chinese Media Asked to Write for the Party and People

Liu Binjie, Director of the General Administration of Press and Publications, the government body that oversees the media in China, said that reporters should follow the tradition of red journalists of older generations and write to record history for the Party and for the people. Liu complimented the current generation of reporters, saying they “have played an important role in guiding and building the core socialist value system, and greatly expanded the international influence of Chinese culture.” Liu emphasized that reporters should “be steadfast in ideals and faith, and be loyal to the Party’s course of journalism.” At the same time, Liu added, “Although the Party and the State protect all interview activities of news reporters, and have stressed that no organization or individual shall interfere with or obstruct the right of news agencies and reporters to interview, there are always some people and organizations who, under various pretexts, meddle with the normal activities of news organizations, and even collude with evil forces.” Liu made the remarks at the release of a book titled “China’s Red Reporters.”

Source: China News Service, June 27, 2011
http://www.chinanews.com/cul/2011/06-27/3140304.shtml

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

People’s Daily: What is Behind the Freedom of Navigation

People’s Daily published an article by special commentator Chen Hu, Chief Editor of World Military, a bi-weekly journal of the People’s Liberation Army Branch of Xinhua. Chen commented on U.S. Secretary of State Clinton’s concern that the recent happenings in the South China Sea may unbalance the peace and stability in the region and threaten the U.S. national interest in freedom of navigation. "Although the South China Sea issue has been there for a long time, it remains the most active area for the world’s international shipping and maritime activities, and the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea has not been under threat. Be it most of the neighboring countries around the South China Sea or most developed countries, none have issued a similar warning about a crisis. Almost all of the rhetoric about the so-called "freedom of navigation under threat" came from the United States, which is thousands of miles away.”

“People often see someone use all sorts of excuses, such as ‘humanitarian crisis,’ ‘terrorist threat,’ support of the ‘democracy movement,’ etc., to intervene in the affairs of other countries. The end result is nothing but the intervener benefiting [from the situation] and the country involved and the surrounding area being plunged into war and turmoil.”

Source: People’s Daily, June 29, 2011
http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrbhwb/html/2011-06/29/content_857465.htm

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

How to Cut the Cake: Wealthy Government and Poor People

A University of Science and Technology Beijing professor and a financial analyst jointly wrote a recent article, which was reprinted in the CCP Central Committee’s Qiushi Journal. The article looked into how the fiscal relationship between the central and local governments contributes to the “wealthy government and poor people” phenomenon. “In the past 20 years, China’s per capita GDP grew 15.71 times from 1,892.8 yuan in 1991 to 29,762 yuan in 2010, while the central government’s fiscal revenue grew 45.27 times in the same period.” 

The 1994 reform of revenue-sharing between the central and local governments shifted the resources toward the former. “The proportion of the central government’s fiscal revenue to total fiscal revenue in each of the three years immediately before the reform, 29.8%, 28.1%, and 22%, grew to 55.7%, 52.2%, and 49.4%, in each of the subsequent three years.” 
“For a long period, a large portion of fiscal expenditure was used in infrastructure and economic development. … Low government expenditures on education, health, and social security exposed people to high tuition and expensive medical care. Residents with low incomes have had to pay for items that should have been covered by fiscal expenditures, leading to high precautionary savings and lowering current and anticipated consumption. This is the basic reason for the difficulties in the growth of domestic consumption and the serious imbalance between investment and consumption!” 
“Most critically, the criterion for the performance evaluation of local officials is GDP. Local officials do not make any effort to improve people’s livelihood, but squander limited fiscal resources on projects that help their performance evaluation! ‘Money’ and ‘performance pressure’ drive local officials to do off-budget land sales! Local governments push up land prices; high land prices push up housing prices, high housing prices empty people’s wallets. Meanwhile, the real estate boom pushes up the GDP, but makes the common people suffer!”

Source: Qiushi Journal, June 22, 2011
http://www.qstheory.cn/jj/jjggyfz/201106/t20110622_88711.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

The Fall of the Soviet Union Due to the Loss of the Party’s Soul

An article published on Xinhua’s Outlook Weekly magazine analyzed the collapse of the former Soviet Union 20 years ago. “The fall of the Soviet Union was due to the loss of the Party’s soul and the degeneration of the Party’s nature. Gorbachev’s blind political restructuring and hasty democratization were the accelerator and the fuse of the whole process.” 

Having reviewed the “failure” of the Soviet Union’s political reform, the author, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, concluded, “Political reform is the self-improvement of the socialist system. Thus we must uphold the right direction. Political reform must be conducive to the country’s stability and national unity; it must be conducive to enhancing political democracy, political stability and political effectiveness; it must be under the strong leadership of the Party on a comprehensive, scientific and political development road.”

Source: Outlook Weekly, June 27, 2011
http://www.lwgcw.com/NewsShow.aspx?newsId=21621

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Three Unsustainables in China’s Land Use

On June 24, 2011, Xu Shaoshi, the Minister of Land and Resources, told Xinhua that “land use and management profoundly matters as never before for the lifeblood of the country and livelihood of the people; it profoundly influences socioeconomic development as never before.” Xu referred to three “unsustainable” issues: over-consumption and inefficient use of land is unsustainable; large-scale development of reserved land resources is unsustainable; ignoring the equal rights of urban and rural land users is unsustainable. 

With arable land per capita being 40% of the world average, China is facing a grave challenge safeguarding the “red line” of 1.8 billion mu (ed. note: 1 mu equals 666.6666666666666 square meters. One acre comprises about 4,050 square metres) of arable land to achieve a grain self-sufficiency ratio of 95%. Meanwhile, urbanization and land grabs have become a major source of widespread social conflict and unrest.

Source: Xinhua, June 24, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2011-06/24/c_121581858.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

China’s High-Speed Rail Suffers from Low Attendance

Although the railway authorities have not released the operation statistics, it is not a secret that China’s high-speed rail loses money and has a low load factor, a measure of the percentage of seats that are filled. China now operates five high-speed routs: Beijing-Tianjin, Wuhan-Guangzhou, Zhengzhou-Xi’an, Shanghai-Nanjing, and Shanghai-Hangzhou. 

Getting people to ride the rail is the problem. Although China is the most populated country, not many people ride the high-speed rail. Sun Zhang, a professor at Tongji University, pointed out, “Although the speed of China’s high-speed rail is already number one in the world, our per capita GDP ranks below 100 in the world.” Many people still feel it is expensive. In 2009, the nation’s railway system transported 1.525 billion passengers. On average, every Chinese rides the train a little over once a year. This is a low number compared to 80 rides for the average Japanese in one year. 
Source: Xinmin Evening News, June 25, 2011. 
http://xmwb.xinmin.cn/xmwb/html/2011-06/25/content_721911.htm
Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Human Factor Is the Top Killer in Coal Mine Accidents

China Economic Weekly, a magazine under People’s Daily interviewed Chen Hong, a professor at China’s University of Mining and Technology. In the interview, Chen said, "In fact, of all the direct causes of coal mine accidents, human factors account for up to 97.67%. That figure is from an analysis of 1,203 accidents between 1980 and 2000 that involved human death." Chen added, “A study of a large number of coal mine accidents that took place between 2001 and 2010 confirmed the above conclusion. The workers’ illegal operations, management giving directions against regulations, and other unsafe behavior in the coal mines are still the main causes for China’s coal mine accidents." 

Chen also stated, “Despite the declining trend of China’s annual death rate from coal mine accidents, the latest statistics show that the number accounts for 70% of the world’s coal mine death toll." Chen added that in 2010, 79,552 people died in various work related accidents, at a rate 218 every day. 
Source: China Economic Weekly, June 27.
2011.http://www.ceweekly.cn/html/Article/20110627672147140970.html
Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources