Chinascope – Page 1051

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 | | June 10, 2011 | 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 | | June 10, 2011 | Government/Politics

NPC: No Legal Grounds for Independent Candidates

According to the official China Central Television, by the end of 2012, 2 millions seats in the grassroots versions of the National People’s Congress, China’s rubber stamp legislature, will be chosen by 900 million voters in more than 2,000 counties and over 30,000 villages.

Recently a handful of citizens decided to run in local elections as self-proclaimed independent candidates. However an official at the Legislative Committee of the NPC asserted that the so-called “independent candidates” have no legal grounds. “Candidates at counties and villages can only be nominated by various political parties, people’s groups, and voters via legal procedures, and then determined as ‘official deputy candidates’ after discussions, negotiations, or pre-elections. There are no so-called ‘independent candidates,’ and there are no legal grounds for ‘independent candidates.’"

Source: CNTV, June 8, 2011
http://news.cntv.cn/program/xwlb/20110608/112225.shtml

Briefings | | June 10, 2011 | Government/Politics

Guangming Daily: Challenges for the Ideological Work

[Editor’s Note: Guangming Daily published an article about the challenges that China’s mainstream socialist ideology is facing: “cultural infiltration from the Western hostile forces,” “the new technological revolution,” “the pluralistic value system in the market economy,” “the tortuous development of the international socialist movement,” and “the mode of communication in the Internet age.” The entire article is translated below. ] [1]

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Reports | | June 9, 2011 | Report

China’s Oil Drilling in Cuba

On June 6, 2011, during his visit to Cuba, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping visited an oil drilling field where Great Wall Drilling Co. (GWDC), a subsidiary of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), is arranging to provide drilling services to Cuba. Upon completion, the oil well will be the largest land drilling well in South America with a depth of 7,000 meters, and 6,200 meters of horizontal displacement. Since August 2005, GWDC has drilled 63 wells along the coast from Havana to Varadero, Cuba. The total output of petroleum and natural gas from these wells has reached 13 million barrels.

Source: Xinhua, June 9, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2011-06/09/c_121509938.htm

Briefings | | June 9, 2011 | Geo-Strategic Trend

People’s Daily Warns Google over Its Gmail Hacking Statement

On June 6, 2011, a tough warning appeared in the overseas edition of People’s Daily, rebutting Google’s statement that Chinese hackers may have organized attacks on U.S. and Asian government officials using the company’s Gmail service. “In fact, it is not the first time that Google has defamed China,” the official newspaper said. Such a statement by Google “strongly insinuates [without evidence] that the Chinese government directed the alleged cyber attacks. As such, for Google to point to China is baseless, with ulterior motives and sinister intent.” People’s Daily further states that Google has fallen into the role of a political tool to vilify others, and warns, “The market may abandon Google and it may become a political victim once the political climate changes.”

Source: People’s Daily, June 6, 2011
http://world.people.com.cn/GB/14837225.html

Briefings | | June 9, 2011 | US-China Relations

Red Flag Manuscript: The U.S. Exports Inflation and Political Instability

A researcher on Marxism from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences wrote an article for Red Flag Manuscript that was the reprinted in Qiushi (both are leading Communist Party publications). The researcher asserted that United States monetary policy “is causing global inflation and leading to political instability” to its own advantage. “In the past two years, food and fuel prices in many countries rose enormously. As the expenditures for the consumption of food and fuel account for a greater share in developing countries, the Federal Reserve’s expansionist monetary policy inevitably has a great impact on developing countries. Volatile international situations stimulate risk aversion and are conducive to maintaining the U.S. dollar’s hegemony.” According to the Red Flag article, that is the reason that, on the one hand, the U.S. is actively exporting its expansionist monetary policy and inflation, and, on the other, is trying to shift off its losses in the financial crisis by promoting "universal values” and exporting color revolutions and political turmoil.

Source: Red Flag Manuscript, reprinted by Qiushi, June 7, 2011
http://www.qstheory.cn/hqwg/2011/201111/201106/t20110607_85300.htm

Briefings | | June 9, 2011 | US-China Relations

China Shuts Down 55 Websites

China Internet Network Information Center (CINIC) recently shut down 55 websites that “engage in illegal online promotions.” The operation was based on public tip-offs sent to the China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Centre (CIIRC), a self-claimed non-governmental organization that lists “receiving public reports and complaints about illegal and harmful information on the Internet within the border of China” as one of its key functions.

The is part of a two-month campaign that the State Internet Information Office, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce launched jointly in mid April. The CINIC spokesperson describes “illegal online promotion” as “using improper means against competitors, distorting or fabricating facts for extortion, sensationalizing hot topics to hype up online public opinion, engaging in private transactions to seek illegal profit, causing serious damage to the online environment and the market economy, harming the public interest, and receiving strong dissatisfaction from the people.”

The Xinhua report lists the names of the websites; some carry the word Weiquan, or civil rights.

Source: Xinhua, June 7, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2011-06/07/c_121504947.htm

Briefings | | June 8, 2011 | Information/Technology

China’s Reaction to Trump’s Election Win

Xinhua Commentary Series: Spotlight on the U.S. Presidential Election

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