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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

Study Times: Lessons for State Owned Companies to Learn from the Financial Crisis

A recent Study Times article summarizes lessons that state-owned companies should learn from the financial crisis, highlighting the role of state control:
 
1. The State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC) must fulfill its obligations as regulator.
2. SASAC must lead and dominate during the election of the board of directors.
3. SASAC must further research and improve board governance and the evaluation of board members.
4. SASAC should further clarify the criteria used in appointing board members.
5. SASAC should balance between the political core role of the Party and modern corporate governance.
6. SASAC should strengthen the training and quality of board members.

Source: Study Times, November 15, 2020
http://www.studytimes.com.cn:9999/epaper/xxsb/html/2010/11/15/08/08_62.htm

The State Is Getting Richer While the Poor Get Poorer

Study Times published a article on the topic of Chinese citizen’s tax burden: "During recent years, tax revenues have drastically increased, growing faster than the GDP. Further, the GDP has grown faster than residents’ income from wages and salaries. This shows that, by distributing the nation’s wealth, the state’s share of that wealth has been increasing through its leveraging of the taxing mechanism."

Source: Study Times, November 22, 2010
http://www.studytimes.com.cn:9999/epaper/xxsb/html/2010/11/22/12/12_40.htm

Xinhua: Chinese Satellite Navigation System will have Global Coverage

Liu Lihua, Member of the Party Leadership Group in the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, revealed on November 15 that the second generation of the Bei Dou Satellite Navigation system is under construction. Six satellites have been sent into orbit and the Asia-Pacific region will be covered by the year 2012. The system is expected to have global coverage by 2020. The goal of the system is to provide continuous and reliable navigation and short text services. The final system will have more than 30 satellites.

Source: Xinhua, November 15, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2010-11/15/c_12777521.htm

CRN: Bank Deposit-Reserve Ratio Increased Again

China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China, announced that, starting November 16, 2010, the RMB Deposit-Reserve Ratio increased by 0.5% to 17.5%. This is the fourth time this ratio was adjusted this year. Analysts believe it is very likely the central bank will raise interest rates in a few months. Based on some estimates, every 0.5% increase freezes RMB 350 billion. Since the ratio adjustment does not ease the high inflation situation, this move is recognized as a sign of a new round of interest rate increases. China’s central bank blames the recent issuance of U.S. Dollars for China’s inflation, calling it “imported inflation.” It was also promised that “hot money” would be strictly controlled.

Source: China Review News, November 11, 2010
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1015/0/0/7/101500716.html?coluid=45&kindid=0&docid=101500716&mdate=1111080113

CBN: East Asian Foreign Exchange Reserve Will Begin Operations

China Business Network (CBN) recently reported that the East Asia 10+3 Group (the Association of South East Asian Nations plus China, Japan, and Korea) will establish an organization to run the East Asian Foreign Exchange Reserve. The 10+3 Leaders Conference, held at the end of October, made it clear that this process needs to speed up. The new organization will be called the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO). The primary mission of AMRO includes: (1) studying regional economics, and (2) clarifying the mechanism behind the usage of the Foreign Exchange Reserve.

It has not yet been decided who will lead this new organization. There have been several rounds of negotiations on the ratio of shares that each of the parties should hold. The primary competition is between China and Japan. Singapore was selected to be site of AMRO’s physical location.

Source: China Business Network, November 17, 2010
http://www.yicai.com/news/2010/11/602258.html

China Will Further Control the Dissemination of Information on the Internet

Xinhua reported that, on November 11, 2010, China’s Internet Security Protection Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security and the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau held a joint meeting on Strike Hard actions on Internet control.

An official from the Internet Security Protection Bureau said that the momentum of large-scale dissemination of harmful information has been effectively curbed because of the ongoing Strike Hard actions that the public security departments conducted. However, some sites, especially the medium and small websites in the IDC (Internet Data Center), still have illegal and harmful information on them.

The Public Security Departments will further increase the strength of the Strike Hard actions and establish a harmonious Internet environment.

Source: Xinhua, November 11, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2010-11/11/c_12764689.htm

China’s Tianhe-1A, the World’s Fastest Supercomputer, Uses a U.S. Company’s Processors

On November 15, 2010, Xinhua reported that, on November 14, www.top500.org ranked China’s supercomputer Tianhe-1A (Milky Way – 1A) as the world’s fastest supercomputer. Tianhe-1A set a new performance record of 2.57 petaflops, having surpassed the former number one supercomputer, the U.S. ‘Jaguar,’ which has a performance record of 1.75 petaflops.

“Tianhe-1A” mainly uses processors that a U.S. company produced.

Source: Xinhua, November 15, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2010-11/15/c_12773791.htm