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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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People’s Daily: Using Culture to Increase China’s Soft Power

People’s Daily recently published an article by Jiang Jianguo, Deputy Director of the General Administration of Press and Publications (GAPP). The article called for culture system reform in order to increase the nation’s soft power, which should match China’s current economic and international status. The author pointed out that the U.S. commands 43% of the world’s “culture market.” The E.U. holds 34%. The Asia-Pacific region only holds 19% (Japan 10%, Korea 5%, China and the other nations 4%). It is believed that China’s international influence is very weak. The article suggests establishing a strategy to use culture to improve China’s “cultural soft power.” The article identified the key principle as “ensuring the Party tightly maintains control over the culture industry.”

Source: People’s Daily Online, November 22, 2010
http://politics.people.com.cn/GB/30178/13279140.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

CRN: Two Deeper Reasons for the U.S. to Attack the RMB Exchange Rate

China Review News (CRN) recently republished an article from Shanghai based Wen Hui Daily on the U.S. “currency war” against China. The article indicated that there are two “deeper” reasons behind the U.S. strategy: (1) pushing the RMB exchange rate higher will serve to suppress China’s rise as a world power; (2) Obama is using China as a scapegoat for his losses in the recent mid-term elections. The article suggested that the U.S. strategy is to remain the sole leader of the world, and China is now seen as a “serious challenge” to the status quo. The article’s author believes that, as the biggest currency manipulator in the world market, the United States’ attitude towards China is “the devil calling sin bad.”

Source: China Review News, November 25, 2010
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1015/1/6/1/101516177.html?coluid=148&kindid=0&docid=101516177&mdate=1125004421

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Xinhua Explains the Reasons for Sharp Price Increases in China

On November 22, 2010, Xinhua published an analytical article explaining why prices, especially food prices, have been increasing sharply in China. Below are the key points:

China has excess currency. China’s banking system has made 17 trillion yuan in RMB loans since 2008. The broad money supply is approaching 70 trillion yuan. The excess currency in the market leads to excess purchasing power that needs to find investment opportunities. However, the real estate market is now regulated; the stock market is in the recovery stage; and the RMB’s appreciation limits capital outflow.

In addition, the prices of agricultural products have increased in the international market. The prices of bulk raw materials have also increased. This is the result of the United States’ monetary policy and in particular, the second round of quantitative easing, and also from other countries’ loose monetary policies.

Source: Xinhua, November 22, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/herald/2010-11/22/c_13616725.htm

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

The CCP Achieves 100% Coverage of Law Firms in China

People’s Daily Online published an article on November 26, 2010, reporting that, on November 25, 2010, the Organization Department of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee and Ministry of Justice announced that the Chinese Communist Party had achieved 100% coverage of all of the law firms in China. 

By June 2009, 3,895 of the 14,741 law firms in China had their own Party branches (26%) and 8105 law firms had joint Party branches (55%). Regarding the law firms without any Party members (19%), political instructors and coordinators had been assigned to build up the Party’s presence in each of them.

Source: People’s Daily Online, November 22, 2010
http://qh.people.com.cn/GB/182778/13326203.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

China and Russia Challenge the U.S. Dollar’s Leading Position in International Trade

Chinese and Russian leaders announced on November 23, 2010,  that both China and Russia will use their national currencies to settle bilateral trade.

On November 27, 2010, China Review News predicted that "the U.S. dollar’s hegemony will collapse” when the U.S. fails to find a new “myth” to maintain its economic model that profits from increasing debts. “It is the U.S. dollar’s hegemony that has forced China and Russian to use their national currencies to settle their bilateral trade. Of course, the move that China and Russia took is a challenge to the U.S. dollar’s hegemony, though it cannot immediately end the U.S. dollar’s hegemony.”

On November 23, 2010, China Daily, on the other hand, said that the move did not directly challenge the U.S. dollar.

Sources:
China Review News, November 27, 2010
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1015/1/9/1/101519126.html?coluid=148&kindid=0&docid=101519126&mdate=1127000659
China Daily, November 23, 2010
http://www.china-daily.org/China-News/Bilateral-trade-between-China-and-Russia-will-be-settled-in-national-currency/

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Expanding the Chinese Communist Party within Foreign-Owned Enterprises in Beijing

[Editor’s Note: The following is an article from Qianxian magazine, an official publication of Beijing’s CCP Committee. The article explores the mechanisms used to set up a CCP organization inside a foreign-owned enterprise (FOE) in Beijing and shows some figures. For example, “The general Party branch in Siemens, China, which initially had one Party branch with 50 Party members, has developed into nine branches with nearly 300 members.” The author is the Party Secretary of the CCP Committee of the Beijing Investment Promotion Bureau.] [1]

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Reports | | |   Report

The Chinese People Cannot Be Fooled

[Editor’s note: After the 5th Plenum of the 17th Communist Party of China Central Committee in mid October 2010, the Chinese official media intensified its criticism of Western democracy. The following abridged article explicitly criticized America’s multiparty politics, human rights and the separation of powers as being “fictitious” and “not achievable.” The author wrote, “When (China) develops its own democratic politics, it must not follow the Western path.” “If China adopts multiparty politics or federalism, China will fall into chaos and be ruined.” [1] The identity of the author, Wang Xuefei, is not known. Some bloggers think it may be a pen name. The article generated strong reactions in China; online polls allowed readers to cast “support” or “opposition” to the article. According to one source, an online poll conducted by sina.com registered 2,000 negative votes and 350 favorable votes. In another poll on ifeng.com, more than 10,000 people voiced their disapproval, and no one supported it. The poll results from both sina and ifeng were erased the next day along with readers’ comments. [2] The article’s strong rhetoric and the people’s reaction underscored the Communist Party’s diminishing ability to influence and guide public opinion.]

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Reports | | |   Report

Party Official Urges Lawyers to Support the Party

Politburo Standing Member Zhou Yongkang urged lawyers to follow the Party line. He made a speech at a national conference of lawyers in Beijing on November 22, 2010, emphasizing that [lawyers] should diligently study recent Party directives for lawyers. "[Lawyers] must uphold the legal system of Chinese style socialism, … uphold the Party’s leadership over lawyers actions, deepen education in the socialist rule by law, and ensure that lawyers follow the socialist direction."

Source: Xinhua, November 22, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2010-11/22/c_13617186.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics