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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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China’s Skyscraper Syndrome

By U.S. standards, skyscrapers are buildings taller than 152 meters. According to a Xinhua article, China now has over 200 skyscrapers under construction, a number comparable to existing U.S. skyscrapers. China already has five out of 10 of the world’s tallest buildings. In the coming three years, China will see one skyscraper finished every five days. Five years from now, the number will be quadruple that of the U.S. 

The concern is overinvestment, as half of the top 50 of China’s skyscrapers are in the real estate business. Skyrocketing housing prices result in pressure to sell or rent the units. Meanwhile, small-to-middle sized cities are leaping forward. The southwest city of Guiyang is planning 17 skyscrapers, and Guangxi Province’s Fangchenggang, with a population of one million, will build a 528-meter-high financial center. 

The article mentioned Andrew Lawrence, a former Deutsche Bank economist, who invented the “skyscraper index.” In his research, Lawrence observed that major downturns in the economy occurred shortly after skyscrapers were completed.

Source: Xinhua, June 9, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/photo/2011-06/09/c_121510519.htm

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

New Regulations on Foreigners Mapping in China

China’s Ministry of Land and Resources released new regulations applying to foreigners who conduct cartographic activities in the country. Foreign cartographic work can only take two forms: a joint venture with a domestic company or a one-time job such as cartography preparing for state-approved events. Foreigners are forbidden from performing activities such as geodetic surveys, aerophotographical surveys, administrative district boundary surveys, hydrographic surveys, topographic mapping, world and national administrative mapping, provincial-and-below level administrative mapping, national school mapping, 3-D mapping, and electronic navigational maps. 

For Internet mapping activities, the regulation has even stricter requirements. A joint venture is a must and the foreign share must be less than half. The report mentioned that, in recent years, a great deal of national security related information has been leaked via Internet mapping.

Source: People’s Daily, June 10, 2011
http://politics.people.com.cn/GB/1026/14863757.html

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

China’s Short-Lived Buildings

[Editor’s Note: According to Mr. Qiu Baoxing, vice minister of China’s Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the average lifespan of a building in China is 25 to 30 years. A survey by China Youth Daily shows 83.5% of the interviewees believe the primary reason for premature building demolition is “local government leaders want to build their image and embellish their job performance.” The following abridged translation is from an article appearing on www.163.com, one of China’s largest news portals, titled “Why are China’s Buildings Short-Lived?”] [1]

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Reports | | |   Report

Global Fund Freezes Health Fund Payment to China

China’s Ministry of Health (MOH), the Geneva based Global Fund’s freeze on funds will significantly impact disease prevention against Malaria, Tuberculosis, and AIDS in China. MOH hopes “the Global Fund Secretariat solves the problem and restores the funding as soon as possible in a transparent, fair, positive, and cooperative manner.” 

According to the Associated Press, the funding that was frozen is worth hundreds of millions of dollars to China; it was “over concerns about misuse of the money and the government’s reluctance to involve community groups.” The fund spokesperson said that China “breached an agreement that a third of all grant money go to grass-roots groups and that local governments were not providing a full accounting of the spending.”

Sources:
China National Radio, June 10, 2011
http://www.cnr.cn/china/gdgg/201106/t20110610_508085015.html

AP, June 10, 2011
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5glHW1yRKDB85XyXM0t03gP-6gC4A?docId=475409ba0fb8442c926a2b134f76fa25

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Xinhua: The Party’s Loyalty Education Needs to be Institutionalized

Xu Xuejiang, the deputy chief editor of Xinhua News Agency, wrote a commentary calling for beefing up the Chinese Communist Party’s loyalty education, in the run up to its 90th anniversary. 

According to the article, betraying the Party lands on those members who have lost faith in the Party and are against the Party’s policies. It says “A small number of Party members, full of complaints, are dissatisfied with the Party and the government. They are always bad-mouthing the country and socialism. They always feel that China is neither free nor democratic, making a mockery of the People’s Congress system and the CCP-led democratic consultative system with multi-party cooperation. They nakedly advocate the implementation of the Western multiparty system. A few sneakily hope that the Eastern Europe’s ‘color revolution’ and Middle East and North Africa ‘Arab Spring’ are staged in China.” 
Xu suggested five measures to institutionalize loyalty education: 1) Upon joining the Party, new members should sign a written guarantee not to go against the Party’s initiatives or to be corrupt. 2) The Party’s routine activities are to include annual loyalty education. 3) Loyalty education shall also occur on the anniversaries of the Party’s significant dates. 4) The Party School shall include loyalty education as a required course. During each session, students should receive no less than one week of loyalty education and must write an experience sharing paper afterwards. 5) Qualified members should be actively recruited and Party membership should be firmly discontinued for those who are against the Party’s initiatives, constantly spread messages of distrust among the masses, and are unwilling to alter their opinions.

Source: Xinhua, June 10, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/comments/2011-06/10/c_121514513.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Grassroots Communist Party Organizations Cover the Tibet

On June 10, 2011, the Chinese Communist Party’s Organization Department of the Tibet Autonomous Region announced that CCP organizations have been established in each of the 5,200 administrative villages, a complete coverage of the region’s countryside. 

According to the Organization Department, they have actively developed a cadre team and by the end of 2010, the team had 109,000 members, of which 77,000 or 70.03 percent were Tibetan ethnic minorities. The region now has a total of 208,000 Party members, which accounts for 7.2 percent of the population. Since the region was established, Party membership has grown 14 times in total; the number among farmers and herdsmen has grown 22.86 times, reaching 97,700 members.

Source: China News Service, June 10, 2011
http://www.chinanews.com/gn/2011/06-10/3103640.shtml

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Why Is China’s Organ Donation Rate So Low?

Vice-Minister of Health Huang Jiefu recently said in an interview that China can expect to achieve voluntary organ donation registration through driver license applications. Although it is only in the discussion stage, the issue has stirred up a hot debate. Every year about 1.5 million people are on the waiting list for organ transplants, but in 2010, there were less than 100 organ donations. A survey revealed that the organ donation rate in China is only 0.03:1,000,000, compared to the 34:1,000,000 in Spain. 

According to a recent survey, 78.9 percent of those interviewed would not agree to donate their organs while filling out the drivers license application; 14.1 percent said yes as it would remind them to drive more carefully. Some people worried that their organs might not be used fairly and reasonably due to the absence of transparency in the organ donation and transplant process. An interviewee even worried that in case of an accident, the doctor might not try his best to save him because he is willing to donate organs.

Source: Jiefang Daily, May 20, 2011
http://newspaper.jfdaily.com/jfrb/html/2011-05/20/content_574231.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Online Media Executives Organized to Visit Red Homeland

On June 8, 2011, more than 40 Chinese online media’s senior executives participated in a “Beijing Online Media Tour of the Red Homeland.” They visited the historic places where the Chinese Communist Party grew and where it rioted against the ruling Kuomintang government in the 1920’s. One stop was the conference site of the CCP’s first National Congress in 1921 in Shanghai; another stop was the South Lake in Jiaxing City of Zhejiang Province, where the conference transferred into a boat to avoid arrests. The tour was organized by the Beijing city government’s Internet Propaganda Management Office (BIPMO) and the Beijing Association of Online Media, a self-claimed nonprofit organization headed by BIPMO’s deputy chief. 

Li Yanhong, CEO of China’s No. 1 search engine, Baidu, said during the tour, “At the red starting point, we welcome the CCP’s 90 year anniversary. We have a great responsibility and a long way to go.” Cao Guowei, CEO of Sina.com, the largest Chinese infotainment web portal, said, “(The 90 years of revolutionary history) is the driving force for the development of online media. From the conference site we see the historic choice of the revolutionists; today’s Internet entrepreneurs should also think about their historic choice.” 
A “Red Boat Statement” marked the conclusion of the tour: “We should cherish the red culture created by the CCP during its history … and use it as the foundation for the development of the industry, to shoulder social responsibility, and be conscious of the culture.”

Source: Xinhua, June 8, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2011-06/08/c_121509846.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics