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China Setting New Strategy for Xinjiang

All nine politburo members attended the Central Work Conference for Xinjiang, which was held in Beijing from May 17 to 19. Hu Jintao stressed the importance of economic development and stability maintenance in Xinjiang. Wen Jiabao talked about the economic development plan.

On the afternoon of May 19, Politburo member and Party Secretary of the Political and Legal Committee Zhou Yongkang hosted a conference on implementing the Central Work Conference policies. The CCP Organization Department, the Propaganda Department, the United Front Work Department, the Political and Legal Committee, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Public Security, and the heads of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps attended the meeting. Zhou stressed the implementation of stability controls.

Sources:
1. China Review, May 20, 2010
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1013/2/8/9/101328927.html?coluid=151&kindid=0&docid=101328927&mdate=0520223200
2. China Review, May 22, 2010
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1013/3/0/4/101330453.html?coluid=151&kindid=0&docid=101330453&mdate=0522084843

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Globe Magazine: Residents of Seven Cities Unsatisfied with Quality of Life

Globe Magazine, a branch of Xinhua News, published a recent poll of seven cities on the quality of life. The results show that 70% of the people are unsatisfied and only 10% are satisfied. The number one cause of the problem is high consumer prices, especially housing prices. Other reasons include: the growing wealth gap, the worsening environment, poor social security, disorderly city planning, low transportation efficiency, high unemployment pressure, a low safety index, and overly rapid urbanization. Among the top expectations are “more time to enjoy life” and a “harmonious society.” According to the poll, only 10% voted for Beijing and Shanghai as having a high quality of life. Principles of the New Jersey State Planning are widely acknowledged as a positive model.

Source: Xinhua, May 12, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/globe/2010-05/12/content_13478247.htm

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

CRN: Increasing Wage Rate is Now a Must

China Review News reported that the official National Labor Union, led by the Communist Party, recently called for an immediate wage increase and described it as a must-do. The ratio of wages to GDP declined from 56.5% in 1983 to 36.7% in 2005. Meanwhile, the rate of return on capital rose by 20% in GDP. Typical working class citizens suffer a lower rate of wage increase. They are not only behind the rate of economic development, but they are behind the consumer price increase and the increase the rate of taxes as well. The report quoted Henry Ford’s 100-year-old comment on wages: “There is nothing more important than the labor wage, because most people rely on it for a living. Increasing people’s quality of life determines the prosperity of our nation.” The report called for sharing the fruit of The Reform with the people.

Source: China Review News, May 15, 2010
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1013/2/3/0/101323092.html?coluid=53&kindid=0&docid=101323092&mdate=0515083737

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Tough for Private Capital to Enter the Energy Industry

Shanghai Securities News recently reported on the guidelines by the State Council on private investments in the petro energy field. The report focused on three primary obstacles: (1) Zones and blocks available for prospecting have all been registered, leaving nothing for private investment; (2) state-owned companies have little interest in cooperation with private partners because they do not lack either technology or funds; (3) Even in the business of oil storage and transportation, private companies do not have any pricing power. They have no control over the products that they have to purchase from the state-owned monopolies, while the governement determines the end consumer price.

Source: Shanghai Securities News, May 14, 2010
http://www.cnstock.com/paper_new/html/2010-05/14/content_20726.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

China Review News: China must expand the development of energy resources in foreign countries

On May 22, 2010, China Review News published a commentary giving ideas on how China can overcome its shortage of energy resources. It suggests China spend part of its huge foreign exchange reserves on investing in energy resources in foreign countries.   

“China must expand the development and reserves of energy resources in foreign countries. It must be involved in the production chains of the international energy resources from beginning to the end through shares, investment, acquisition, M & A and other methods so as to integrate one with the other and so they cannot survive without one another.”  

Source: China Review News, May 22, 2010
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1013/1/0/8/101310849.html?coluid=1&kindid=0&docid=101310849&mdate=0522002541

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Institute of Marxism: International Socialism in the World Financial Crisis

On May 21, 2010, www.QStheory.cn published an article titled, “International Socialism in the World Financial Crisis,” by the Institute of Marxism, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The following are some points from the article:

The financial crisis has caused “a revival of Marxism” and made the world realize that the “China model will change the world.” We should take advantage of the financial crisis to:
1) Fully expose the facts that the Western development model is unsustainable and that the revival of Marxism in the West again highlights the immeasurable superiority of the socialist development path with Chinese characteristics;
2) Strengthen the education and propaganda of Marxist theory, and the basic experience and theory of socialism with Chinese characteristics so as to further firm up everyone’s confidence in the bright future of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Source: www.QStheory.cn, May 21, 2010
http://www.qstheory.cn/hqwg/2010/201010/201005/t20100521_30687.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

PLA Major General: We must request that the United States increase its transparency

On May 21, 2010, Xinhua reprinted an article from Global Times by a PLA Major General, who said, “Sino-US security relations and positive interaction cannot depend on China unilaterally displaying ‘transparency’ to the United States.”

“We must give tit for tat by requesting that the United States increase the transparency of its strategic positioning of China’s security as the whole, and its overall safety policy direction, as well as the deployment of its military forces around China. This should be done so as not to let the United States lay a strategic military siege against our country in the name of guarding against the DPRK, or strengthen its military pressure on China through bilateral and multilateral military alliances and joint exercises. We must request that the U.S. reduce the "close-up surveillance" of our territorial waters and airspace through its warships and planes.”

Source: Global Times, May 21, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2010-05/21/content_13534659.htm

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Loving One’s Country Does Not Mean the Same as Loving the Imperial Court

[Editor’s Note: On April 11, 2010, Nanfang Metropolitan, published an article by History Scholar Hong Zhenquai, “Loving One’s Country Does Not Mean the Same as Loving the Imperial Court.” The article suggested that nowadays many people misunderstand the relationship between the people, the country, and the imperial court (in the setting of current China, the imperial court can be understood as a metaphor for the Communist regime). A major reason was that the sitting government misleads people into believing that “loving the court represents loving the country.” Mencius, a philosopher from the fourth century B.C., who defended the teachings of Confucius against other philosophies, publicly discussed the correct relationship: “People are the most important, followed by the country, with the emperor coming last.” The article makes a case for people having oversight and control over the government. [1]

The article received a lot of compliments for its boldness, given the CCP’s media control. An unconfirmed blog message on Aiyuan said that Nanfang Metropolitan Editor Zhu Di was chastised (and lost her job) for publishing the article. The article is no longer available on the website of Nanfang Daily (Nanfang Metropolitan’s parent company), but can be found on many overseas Chinese sites. [2]

Nanfang Metropolitan is a newspaper under the Nanfang Newspaper Media Group, one of the most liberal state-owned newspapers, headquartered in Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province. When President Obama visited China in 2009, he gave an exclusive interview to Nanfang Metropolitan’s sister company Nanfang Weekend.

The article follows.]

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Reports | | |   Report