Chinascope – Page 1044

Overseas Chinese to Visit “Sacred Places of Revolution”

For the whole month of June, over 500 overseas Chinese from 50 countries and regions are to visit the “Sacred Places of Revolution” in southern Jiangxi Province, including Nanchang, the Jinggangshan Mountains, and Ganzhou, where, in the 1920s, the Chinese Communists rioted against the then ruling Kuomintang (KMT) government and built its Red Army. According to the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, a Communist led organization for overseas Chinese and the organizer of the tour, the mission is to “help the overseas Chinese, especially the young generation, understand and subscribe to Chinese revolutionary history.” The first group of visitors is mainly young entrepreneurs from Hong Kong and Macao.

Source: The United Front Work Department of the Communist Party Central Committee, June 3, 2011
http://www.zytzb.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/tzb2010/S2012/201106/706525.html

Briefings | | June 6, 2011 | Geo-Strategic Trend

Red Flag Manuscript: The Media Factor in the Dissolution of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

[Editor’s Note: An article appeared in Red Flag Manuscript’s eighth issue of 2011, revisiting the history of the disintegration of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. It emphasized the role of the media in the events that took place. “Among many factors contributing to its fall, the failure of the leadership over media was an important one.” The author is a scholar at the School of Politics and Law at the Communication University of China. Excerpts from the article are translated below.] [1]

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Reports | | June 4, 2011 | Report

Cultural Exportation” as a Means to Ensure Cultural Security

In an article originally appearing in Chinese Social Science Today, a publication of the state think tank, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the author, a former National People’s Congress standing committee member, proposed “cultural exportation" as a means to ensure cultural security. “In the past, people often paid attention to the influence that foreign cultures had on our cultural security in the process of ‘cultural importation,’ while overlooking the effect of ‘cultural exportation.’ Actually, the strategy of international promotion of our culture is not only a cultural strategy, but also a political strategy and an important initiative for China to vie for its voice in an era of globalization.” “It … also includes intangible culture values. The latter is … how to spread and unfold the mainstream culture values of today’s China, namely our socialist core value system and corresponding cultural, artistic, and social science products.”

Reprinted on the Chinese Communist Party’s central committee’s Qiushi journal, the article adds, “To increase cultural soft power, … (we must) fully utilize the roles of civil and social organizations, and fully utilize the Internet, TV, and other new venues to spread our culture and values, as part of national strategic planning.”

Source, Qiushi, May, 2011
http://www.qstheory.cn/wh/201105/t20110526_82550.htm

Briefings | | June 3, 2011 | Government/Politics

PLA Daily: Simulation Training Should Be Standardized

A recent PLA Daily called for standardization in the Chinese army’s simulation training. The article said, “At present, … simulation training is widely used. However, the traditional simulation training system was ‘separated apart,’ and lacked inter-system coordination. While ‘stand-alone training’ is manageable, a joint and integrated exercise is an ‘impossible task.’ Without a unified standard, communications and responsive operations cannot happen at the inter-human, inter-weapon, and inter-system level. The army’s simulation trainings can be performed only by using a single machine, or by organizing a joint simulation training in a very limited scope. It is very difficult to move to higher levels. To break this bottleneck, the best way is to standardize the system.” The standardization refers to a definition of unified standards, whereby personnel, weaponry, and training units are modularized and able be connect, communicate, and react to each other. The article also mentions the historic development of U.S. military simulation trainings.

Source: PLA Daily, June 2, 2011
http://www.chinamil.com.cn/jfjbmap/content/2011-06/02/content_59026.htm

Briefings | | June 3, 2011 | Defense/Military

China’s Red Idol Dramas Target Young Audiences

In the coming three months, the State Administration of Radio Film and Television will release 90 “red” movies and TV dramas to celebrate the Chinese Communist Party’s 90th anniversary. Unlike the old revolutionary dramas usually performed by middle-and-old-aged actors, the new shows feature young performers, born in the 1980s and 1990s. The plots, with the unchanging theme of glorifying the Party, are tailored to the taste of the younger generation. These new “innovative” products have been given a new name – “Red Idol Dramas.”

Source: Xinhua, June 1, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2011-06/01/c_121482881.htm

Briefings | | June 3, 2011 | Grapevine

Chinese Lenovo Will Acquire Germany’s Medion

On June 1, 2011, Lenovo Group Limited announced its plan to acquire the German consumer-electronics group Medion AG, a well-known electronics manufacturer and supplier. The report indicated that the acquisition will be completed in the third quarter with a cash payment. The move is viewed as a major step for the Chinese Lenovo to penetrate the European market, particularly the German PC market, which will also promote Lenovo’s mobile Internet business. After the acquisition, Lenovo will become the third largest PC manufacturer in Germany.

[Editor: According to Deutsch Welle, "Under the deal, Lenovo plans to buy a 36.6 percent stake from Medion founder and chief executive Gerd Brachmann, who currently owns more than 55 percent of the company. It then wants to extend the 13-euro-a-share offer to other shareholders to build a controlling stake for a total price of 466 million euros."]

Sources: Xinhua, June 1, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2011-06/01/c_121484398.htm
Deutsch Welle, June 2, 2011
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15124805,00.html

Briefings | | June 2, 2011 | Economy/Resources

Lawyers Organized to Effectuate the Party’s Rule of Law

A government sponsored lawyer’s group has been established to “assist” lawyers without licenses in counties and cities. The Party’s United Front Work Department and the Ministry of Justice are sponsoring the "One Heart Legal Services Group,” which consists of 48 lawyers who are not Party members. According to Chen Xiqing, Deputy Chief of the United Front Work Department, establishing of the group is “an important measure to effectuate the rule of law, protect the less developed regions, and share the results of civilized society under the rule of law; to better "work the masses" under the new situation and maintain social harmony and stability; to build up the brand name of ‘one heart’ for the Party’s United Front Work Department and strengthen its political foundation; and to deepen the United Front Work on persons who have newly joined China’s social elite, and strengthen the importance of training and educating non-Party representatives.”

[Editor: The Party’s United Front Work Department is a CCP agency to “unite” nongovernment groups and individuals so that they will carry out the Party’s agenda.]

Source: Xinhua, May 30, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2011-05/30/c_121475229.htm

Briefings | | June 2, 2011 | Government/Politics

PLA Daily: The U.S. Will Never Give Up the Use of Hard Power

The people’s Liberation Army Daily published an article that comments on U.S. Defense Secretary Gates’ recent speech. The article states that during the speech, Secretary Gates held that dealing with a complex and unpredictable international security environment needs size, steel, and strength. It marks a change from President Obama and Secretary Clinton’s earlier remarks that the new administration would adopt “smart power” diplomacy. “In short, to maintain its world hegemony, the normal practice of the U.S. is to use both hard and soft power; put figuratively, it is the ‘carrot and stick’ approach. In the future, the U.S. may still insist on building its soft power, but when it comes to maintaining its global hegemony, it will never give up or relax the use of hard power. In this regard, one should not have any wishful thinking or unrealistic expectations.”

Source: Ministry of National Defense of the People’s Republic of China, reprinted from People’s Liberation Army Daily, May 29, 2011
http://www.mod.gov.cn/gflt/2011-05/29/content_4244191.htm

Briefings | | June 2, 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.