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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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Global Times: China-U.S. Human Rights Dialogue Should Not Be Like a Negotiation

The website Global Times, published an opinion article commenting on the ongoing human rights dialogue between China and the U.S. The article says that it has been 21 years since the dialogue started in 1990, but the two sides have never found it to be a truly satisfactory conversation. On the contrary, it is a testing exercise to confirm the two countries’ differing values and political disagreements. The article says, “The U.S. is always very imposing. This time it gave us a long list of prisoners and demanded that China release them ahead of the dialogue. The U.S has made similar requests before and has criticized China for not complying with the requests.” The article comments, “China hopes it’s a real ‘dialogue,’ and understands the other side’s meaning of human rights through communication. … China and the U.S. human rights dialogue should not become a negotiation. It is a prerequisite that no one has the right to lecture the opposite side. … The U.S. government often pressures China using human rights as a diplomatic tool or an answer to the domestic media’s radical voice, and hopes to get China’s ‘cooperation.’ China has no obligation to perform in accordance with Washington’s expectations.”

Source: Global Times, April 28, 2011
http://world.huanqiu.com/roll/2011-04/1659020.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Why Wealthy Chinese Citizens Emigrate

According to an Economic Observer article, there are two reasons why wealthy Chinese people choose to move to countries such as the United States and Canada: One, living standards, including education, welfare benefits, lower taxes, clean air, a stable investment environment, and healthy food. Two, a knot in their hearts related to concerns for personal safety, wealth security, and a lack of confidence in the future. “Many rich people are in a vile environment, where if they do not do evil, they cannot survive, so they have to do evil. As they continue to do evil, they fear that one day they will be caught and lose everything. Hence they choose to leave home and start over again in a different country. However, their departure has left the society with an empty hole: they left because of dissatisfaction with society and yet their departure has generated a lot of resentment toward them.”

Source: Economic Observer, April 22, 2011
http://www.eeo.com.cn/observer/shelun/2011/04/22/199565.shtml

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Media Campaign Initiated to Glorify Chinese Communist Party on Its 90th Anniversary

Liu Yunshan, a Politburo member and head of the Party’s Propaganda Department, spoke at a working conference in connection with the 90th anniversary of the Communist Party, “[We] should vigorously sing the  praises of the Communist Party, socialism, open reform, the great motherland, and all nationalities. … [We] should interface with international communities and widely introduce them to the extraordinary history of how our Party has led the people through the revolution, development, and reform, and explain to them the core values of our Party as the ruling party to serve the public and the people so that the world better understands China and the Chinese Communist Party.” 

At the conference, Liu also gave instructions on the roles and tasks of the central and local Party newspapers, radio, TV stations, metropolitan newspapers, and online media.

Source: People’s Daily, April 23, 2011
http://cpc.people.com.cn/GB/64093/64094/14463702.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

China’s Diplomatic Predicament in Middle East

Xinhua’s International Herald Leader published an article titled “How Can China Get Out of Its Diplomatic Predicament in the Middle East?” The article quotes from an Arab source that China’s Middle East policy is widely viewed by many Arab countries as “sitting on the fence.” It wants to have access to the oil but does not want to give up cooperating on technology with Israel, let alone offending the United States. The article predicts that, as China expands in the Middle East, sending Chinese troops to the Middle East to protect its workers may become inevitable, given times of chaos and the economic loss in the Libya crisis. 

“This is exactly what makes it difficult for China to play an independent role in the Middle East. The West calls China’s economic expansion without security protection ‘putting all of its eggs in the basket of the United States,’ meaning China has put its interest in the Middle East in the hands of the United States.” The article noted that China presently has warships in the Gulf of Aden all year round to ensure its oil supplies. The "Xuzhou" Destroyer entered the Mediterranean during the chaos in Libya, and its air force cargo planes fly over the Middle East. The article concluded that China should establish a long-term strategic vision for the Middle East.

Source: International Herald Leader, April 26, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/herald/2011-04/26/c_13846289.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Understanding China’s Economic Reform

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In the late 1970s China embarked on economic reform, gradually transforming what was originally a centrally planned system into a more liberal one. As a result, in 2010 China stood as the second-largest economy in the world. Many aspects of a market-oriented system are now in place: competitive commodity and labor markets, the development of stock exchanges, a rapid growth of the private sector, and opening up to foreign trade and investment. Some observers believe that China is on the right track toward a market economy. They also believe that economic reform will finally bring about political reform – that a Taiwan style democratic China will emerge in the mainland. However, this is not what the initiator of reform – the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) – wants.

This article shows that the Communist Party initiated economic reform for its own survival and the continuation of its one-party governance. The Party used private ownership, foreign capital, and a competitive market to strengthen the socialist system instead of deviating from the socialist path, and it is now using its economic success to justify the one-party political system.

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Analyses | | |   Opinion

VOA: Nearly Half of Australians View China as a Military Threat

While Australian Prime Minister Gillard is on an official visit to China for four days, from April 25 to 28, on April 25, the Lowy Institute, a leading international think tank, released a new poll. According to the poll, 44% of the respondents believed that China may become a military threat to Australia within the next 20 years; 87% of the respondents believed that, if China were to start a fight with the U.S., Australia might get involved because it is a close ally of the U.S.; 52% of the respondents said that they would support Australia to fight alongside the U.S. if a conflict explodes between North Korea and South Korea due to a North Korean provocation. 

Although Gillard recently criticized China’s human right record when Jia Qinglin, a Politburo standing committee member and Chair of The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference visited Australia, 58% of the respondents think Australia has not done enough to pressure Beijing on human rights.

Source: Voice of America, April 25, 2011
http://www.voanews.com/chinese/news/20110425-poll-shows-Australian-see-China-as-Military-Threat-120611044.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

China Review News: A Prolonged Struggle for Oil between China and the U.S.

A recent China Review News article predicts a “prolonged struggle for oil between China and the U.S.” It quotes Craig Roberts, a former senior U.S. Treasury official, in an interview with Middle Eastern media, “Libyan ruler Muammar Qaddafi has made two mistakes: He blocked the US Africa Command by not joining it and he let China make major energy investments in Libya instead.” The author thus concludes that the motive for the U.S. to support the rebels in overthrowing the Qaddafi regime is to remove Chinese companies from Libya. 

The article points to the global competition for oil between China and the U.S. “In the eyes of the U.S., China is vying for oil interests in the territory of U.S.” “On the surface, there is no conflict between China and the U.S. on the Libya issue, but one may overlook the point that the current war in Libya is comparable to what the U.S. and U.K. did to Japan in the 1940’s. At that time, the U.S. and U.K. cut off Japan’s oil, rubber, and minerals, which caused the Pacific War in World War II. Now, the U.S., U.K., and France are doing the same to China.” “In the future, China will inevitably compete with the U.S. for oil around the world. It is difficult to predict whether armed conflicts will occur.”

Source: China Review News, April 24, 2011
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1016/7/0/0/101670071.html?coluid=148&kindid=0&docid=101670071&mdate=0424002415

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Scholar Warns of Risks to Chinese Assets from Downgrade of U.S. Credit Outlook

In a recent interview regarding the downgrade of the U.S. credit outlook, Renmin University Professor Zhao Xijun warns that the book value of Chinese investments (in U.S. government debt) may incur a loss. “Although the U.S. government is not facing default on its debt, we should be on the alert, continue to diversify our investments, and take risk control measures as well.”

Source: China Review News, April 21, 2011
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1016/6/6/4/101666490.html?coluid=148&kindid=0&docid=101666490&mdate=0421003909

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations