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

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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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440,000 Chinese Students Studying Abroad

According to a UNESCO report, since 2000, the population of students studying abroad has grown by 75%; the number increased from 2.96 million in 2008 to 3.43 million in 2009. Chinese students studying abroad, as many as 440,000, are important players in the global higher education market. The U.S. is the destination for the largest number of students from around the world, hosting around 700,000. Their annual contribution to the U.S. economy amounts to US$20 billion. Chinese students, overtaking Indians and South Koreans, have now become the largest group of foreign students in the U.S. Meanwhile, in the coming years, China is planning to attract 500,000 foreign students to study in its country.


Source: China News Service, March 12, 2011
http://www.chinanews.com/lxsh/2011/03-12/2901354.shtml
Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Using the New Media to Enhance China’s Soft Power

The recently published “Blue Book: The 2010 Research Report on Chinese Culture’s Soft Power” focuses on the point that China’s “new media” are becoming new distribution channels for the nation’s soft power. The Blue Book suggests that the distribution environment and methods for promoting the national image and China’s core values have changed in the 21st century. Compared to the traditional one-way media such as TV, the radio, and newspapers, the new media promote two-way communication. It is considered a new development in the field of public diplomacy. The report calls for advancing a Chinese new media platform in order to export Chinese values and political views and to improve China’s international status.

Source: Xinhua, February 18, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2011-02/18/c_121098302.htm

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

Six Agencies Jointly Require Nationwide Education in the Communist Party’s History

China News Net recently reported from Beijing that the CCP Central Organization Department, the CCP Central Propaganda Department, the Central Party Literature Research Center, the Central Party History Research Center, the Ministry of Education, and the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League jointly issued a notice requiring a nationwide educational movement to study the history of the Chinese Communist Party. The notice suggested various channels to push the movement. The movement is considered an “important task in developing the socialist core value system.” It is also considered a method to “unify the nation’s mentality.” Year 2011 is the 90th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party.

Source: China News Net, February 20, 2011
http://www.chinanews.com/gn/2011/02-20/2855217.shtml

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Global Times: The Chinese and U.S. Internets May Break Away from Each Other

Global Times, a branch of the Chinese state news, People’s Daily, recently published an editorial in response to U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s speech on Internet freedom. The editorial blamed the U.S. for using the Internet to push a Cold War mentality, calling it a U.S. “strategy of twenty-year-old selfishness.” The author expressed the belief that China cannot remove the “Great Firewall” and that the Chinese government has to respond to national security threats from the U.S. by breaking away from the U.S. dominated Internet. For example, in China, Baidu is used instead of Google. The editorial warned that the Chinese Internet population exceeds the total U.S. population. Thus the U.S. dominance of the Internet may one day change. The author ended the article by saying, “The U.S. cannot use the Internet to turn China into the Middle East.”

Source: Global Times, February 17, 2011
http://opinion.huanqiu.com/roll/2011-02/1503066.html

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

Ministry of Culture Plans for Large Scale Training in the Culture Industry

The Minister of Culture Cai Wu, disclosed during the current “Two Sessions” (the National People’s Congress and People’s Political Consultative Conference, China’s rubber stamp political advisory body) that, over the next five years, training sessions have been planned for 240,000 full time and 300,000 part time employees in the culture industry so they can become “the leaders in developing the public cultural service system.” “We need to put effort into developing a cultural team at the grassroots level. A cultural public service system … needs to be effective, controllable, and have high-tech equipment in order to meet the public’s demands.” Cai added that it is a most important task during the era of “developing socialist culture with Chinese characteristics.” 

Source: People’s Daily, March 10, 2011
http://2011lianghui.people.com.cn/GB/215096/14112018.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Chinese Communist Party’s Buildup in a Private Manufacturing Company

Baocheng Machinery Group, China’s leading industrial boiler manufacturer, is based in the northern city of Tianjin, with 2,200 employees and capital of 2.1 billion yuan (US$0.32 billion).  
Xinhua recently did a special article on the growth of the Chinese Communist Party organization in this private company as part of the CCP’s ongoing nationwide campaign to promulgate the Party and expand Party organs across the country. As early as 1993, Baocheng established a joint CCP branch within some local branches; 1997 saw the launch of its independent Party branch; in 2000, Baocheng became Tianjin’s first private company to host a Party committee, a higher level organ, as the membership had grown. With 103 CCP members and seven branches, the Party committee, together with the Board of Directors and the management team, is now one of the three pillars of the corporation’s governance. As 90% of the corporate leadership positions and most mid to upper management are CCP members, the Party has been directly involved in major corporate decisions such as strategic planning and important appointments.
Source: Xinhua, January 26, 2011 
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2011-01/26/c_121026022.htm
Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Chinese Navy Participated in Multi-Nation Anti-Terrorist Exercises

On the morning of March 9, 2011, the Chinese Navy joined multi-nation anti-terrorist exercises along with Pakistan, Italy, and France in Karachi, Pakistan. The exercises tried to simulate how the Navy anti-terrorist team would respond to the task of rescuing “an abducted commercial ship” and identifying the suspects, while protecting the hostages.

Source: Xinhua, March 10, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2011-03/10/c_13771140.htm

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

Xinhua: Using Grid Management to Improve the Quality of Social Administration and Social Services

[Editor’s Note: A recent Xinhua article revealed a practice of social control that local authorities across the country have adopted. By dividing residential neighborhoods and commercial districts into smaller “grids,” and sending in informants and agents who are tasked with surveillance and reporting, and who have the equipment of modern information technologies, China is exerting a tighter grip over its citizens. Excerpts from the article are translated below.][1]

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Reports | | |   Report