Chinascope – Page 1045

Officials Investigated Due to Economic Data Leaks

Radio France International (RFI) reported that multiple Chinese officials have recently been asked to leave their posts in the National Bureau of Statistics and the central bank. The rankings of those sacked are mostly at the bureau-level, but the nature of their work allows access to sensitive economic data. The central government recently noticed frequent leaks of macroeconomic data just before its public announcement.

As China is the world’s second largest economy, publicly released economic data has an enormous influence on the global financial market. It thus becomes the pursuit of the media and financial agencies. In recent years, the mainland’s macroeconomic data, such as the consumer price index published by the National Bureau of Statistics, is often accurately “predicted” and foreign media and security brokerage firms release it in advance. The domestic stock markets have also reacted before the official releases.

The responsibilities of involved stock brokerage firms are still being determined. Criminal investigations are under way.

Source: Radio France International, June 4, 2011
http://tinyurl.com/4xnxxzy

Briefings | | June 7, 2011 | Economy/Resources

Online Dating Ban for Chinese Military

To guard against divulging military secrets, the PLA’s General Staff Department and the General Political Department recently issued a joint notice strictly prohibiting military personnel from online dating. The notice also delineates the guidelines for soldiers’ using the Internet to search for marriage prospects or new jobs, as well as using personal blogs or websites. The PLA’s "Domestic Affairs" and "Regulations on the Prevention of Crime" also have strict regulations on military personnel’s participating in various online activities such as reunions with friends from their hometowns, or meetings with alumni or comrades-in-arms. The notice said, “All units must have a thorough understanding of the hidden dangers and threats from online dating and take it as a task to ensure military security and execute (such tasks) with a sense of political responsibility.”

Source: china.com.cn, May 31, 2011
http://www.china.com.cn/policy/txt/2011-05/31/content_22675745.htm

Briefings | | June 6, 2011 | Defense/Military

Central Military Mission Regulation for Code of Ethics among CCP Cadres

The Central Military Commission (CMC), headed by the chief of the Chinese Communist Party, Hu Jintao, recently issued “Several Provisions of the Code of Ethics for Military CCP Members and Leading Cadres,” demanding conscientious implementation across the People’s Liberation Army and the People’s Armed Police. “Several Provisions,” which is a follow-up regulation for the “Several Principles of the Code of Ethics for Military CCP Members and Leading Cadres” circulated in January 2010. It lists 70 "unacceptable practices" in 11 different categories, stipulating specific responsibilities for various CCP positions in the military. The CMC asks all levels of military CCP committees to regard the fight against corruption an “urgent and realistic task and long-term strategic goal.”

Source: Xinhua, May 31, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2011-05/31/c_121479904.htm

Briefings | | June 6, 2011 | Defense/Military

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

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.