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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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Low Altitude Interception Systems Passed Inspection

China Review News (CRN) reported that the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) recently completed a test of the Slow Low-Altitude Small Target Detection and Interception System. The system is urgently needed in the domestic security market, which requires round-the-clock detection and high precision features.

The system is expected to be used at important conference sites, large gatherings and sensitive locations. According to the test results, the system is ready for real-world deployment.

Source: China Review News, August 23, 2010
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1014/2/2/9/101422909.html?coluid=45&kindid=0&docid=101422909&mdate=0823090642

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

Xinhua: Weaknesses of Chinese Social Security System

In a recent forum, Yin Weimin, Minister of Human Resources and Social Security, discussed four main weaknesses of China’s current Social Security System: (1) elderly unemployed city residents don’t enjoy any pension or monetary protection; (2) the aging traditional pension system still covers the government system and public institutions; (3) there is a lack of smooth connections between various social security related systems; (4) supplementary social protection systems are under very slow development and do not satisfy diverse market needs.

Yin suggested that a sound social security system is urgently needed for sustainable social development. The biggest unfairness is the fact that a large chunk of the population lacks basic social protection arrangements.

Source: Xinhua, August 23, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2010-08/23/c_12474383.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Wen Jiabao: The Biggest Danger for the Ruling Party is Corruption

In a recent State Council working conference, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao required officials at all government levels to establish the concept of the rule of law and to strictly follow the Constitution and other laws. He emphasized that the biggest danger the current government now faces is corruption, and concluded that the result of it is ineffectiveness in the execution of laws and regulations.

Wen listed four points in his speech at the conference, mainly talking about openness and the democratic processes. The conference included officials in charge of the central government all the way down to the county level. Lawmakers and the court system also sent representatives to the conference.

Source: China Review News, August 27, 2010
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1014/2/8/6/101428676.html?coluid=151&kindid=0&docid=101428676&mdate=0827203114

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

China is the Largest Doctoral Degree Manufacturing Country without Quality Assurance

China Gate (http://www.wenxuecity.com/) republished an article from Changjiang Daily on August 24, 2010, claiming that China is the world’s largest doctorate manufacturing country.

China awarded more doctoral degrees than the U.S. in 2008. In the ten years from 1999 to 2009, the number of doctoral students increased from 54,000 to 246,300, a total of 4.56 times more. Statistics show that 46% of doctorate advisors guide more than 7 Ph.D. students and even as many as 47 Ph.D. students (not including master’s program students). Nearly 13% of doctoral students communicate with their advisors less than one time per month. Three percent of doctoral students said that they had never communicated with their advisors.

Source: Changjiang Daily, August 24, 2010
http://news.wenxuecity.com/messages/201008/news-gb2312-1150578.html

Briefings | | |   Grapevine

China Is Diversifying the Allocation of Its Foreign Exchange Reserves

At the end of June, 2010, China had $2.4543 trillion in foreign exchange reserves. On August 24, 2010, China Review News reported that China has been implementing a strategy to diversify the allocation of its foreign exchange reserves.　　

According to the U.S. Treasury Department on August 16, China had reduced its holdings of U.S. Treasury bonds by $96.2 billion since July 2009.

Japan’s Finance Ministry announced on Aug. 9 that China had purchased 456.4 billion yen (about 5.3 billion U.S. dollars) in Japanese government bonds in June, which means that China has purchased Japanese government bonds for 6 consecutive months. For the first half year of 2010, China purchased a total 1.73 trillion yen in holdings of Japanese government bonds (about 20.2 billion U.S. dollars). Meanwhile, China has increased its holding of South Korea government bonds by 111%, up to 3.99 trillion won (about 3.4 billion U.S. dollars). In mid-July of 2010, the Chinese Administration of Foreign Exchange bought about 400 million euros in Spain’s 10-year bonds.

Source: China Review News, August 24, 2010
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1014/2/4/1/101424122.html?coluid=53&kindid=0&docid=101424122&mdate=0824080231

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Huanqiu: China Won’t Be Trapped in an Arms Race with the U.S.

According to an article published on August 20, 2010, on Huanqiu, the Chinese edition of Global Times, the purpose of the U.S. decision to send an aircraft carrier to the Yellow Sea for military drills was to lure China into an arms race with the United States so as to weaken China’s economic strength and induce China’s neighboring countries to contain China together with the U.S. 

“With rich experience in the international struggle, especially with a deep understanding of the former Soviet Union’s lessons, China will never be lured into an arms race with the United States.”

Source: Huanqiu, August 20, 2010
http://mil.huanqiu.com/Exclusive/2010-08/1032701.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Tactics to Negate Western Media’s Negative Coverage of China’s Military

[Editor’s Note: Professor Chen Anran of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Nanjing Politics College analyzed the Western media’s negative coverage of the PLA. He believes that the Western media and their governments have rallied behind the U.S. to demonize China, “The U.S. dreamed of unifying the world with capitalism so it could dominate the world. The U.S. will never allow a strong, unified ‘Red’ China to appear in the East.”

The author offered counter measures to refute criticism of the Chinese military, including greater effort, increased spending, clever strategy and broader military exchanges.

The following is a translation of excerpts from the original article] [1]

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Reports | | |   Report

Scholar Calculates ‘Hidden Income,’ Challenged by Statistics Bureau

Wang Xiaolu, a scholar at the National Economic Research Institute under the China Reform Foundation, recently published an article that calculates the 2008 urban residents’ “hidden income” to be as high as 9.26 trillion yuan, about 30% of the year’s gross domestic product (GDP). Wang believes that the existence of gigantic amount of “hidden income” or “grey income” shows the severe distortion of the distribution of national income. The sources of the “hidden income” include corruption, and other means of misappropriation of public funds and private wealth.

On August 24 and 25, the National Bureau of Statistics published two articles on its website, confronting Wang’s study by questioning its methodology.

Source: Jinghua Daily, August 26.
http://epaper.jinghua.cn/html/2010-08/26/content_580292.htm
[Editor’s Note: Jinghua Daily is a Beijing local newspaper]

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources