More Than 45 Million Overseas Chinese, Official Said
Judges Under Attack
Judgeships are becoming a high-risk profession due to the increase in social conflicts and the judicial abuse of power for personal gain. Lately there have been reports of incidents in the lower courts where the parties to lawsuits physically assaulted judges. “A large number of disputes flood the courts without filtering. The courts can hardly handle all the cases and it is very difficult to improve the quality. Errors are inevitable. The public has a high expectation of the courts. So it is so easy for conflicts to get out of hand.” Cases of abuse of power and of lack of impartiality in adjudication also contribute to increased risk for judges becoming the targets of social discontent.
Source: Chongqing Evening News, June 16, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2010-06/16/c_12225019.htm
Internet: Freedom Chinese Style
The Information Office of the State Council of China issued a white paper on June 8, stating that Chinese citizens, in accordance with law, enjoy full freedom of expression on the Internet.
Gao Hongming, a rights activist, sought to define that freedom and the lack of it.
According to Gao, Chinese netizens may praise the Party, Chinese style socialism, and totalitarianism, critique artists, scientists, doctors, academia and athletes, and criticize general civil servants’ misconduct on corruption and the abuse of power. They may comment on major domestic and international events that the Party doesn’t care about and speak out about food, lodging, sickness, hatch/match/dispatch, and local community gossip, among other things.
Gao found that Chinese netizens don’t have the freedom to speak against the Party, Chinese style socialism, and totalitarianism, or comment negatively on Party leaders, or artists, writers and celebrities that support the Party. They can’t criticize institutional corruption and deficiencies or disagree when the media follows the Party line and government policies. Assembly and associating as well as demonstrating or protesting on the Internet are forbidden. These are just a few of the forbidden topics and situations.
Source: Boxun, June 16, 2010
http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/china/2010/06/201006110719.shtml
Law and Regulations Expected to Further Control Media
China’s State Administration of Radio, Film And Television published an article in the Party’s journal Qiushi to underscore the significance of the Party’s control of media. The article states that reining in the media is a major issue that warrants urgent attention. “First, we should control the media according to the law, and (we should) further standardize and institutionalize the mechanism of control.” The Party’s Charter should guide control of the media, and govern the relationship between the Party and media. The article also urged that a law be passed to “regulate the conduct of the media,” so that the Party organizations at all level can follow and implement it.
Source: Qiushi, June 11, 2010
http://www.qstheory.cn/hqwg/2010/201011/201006/t20100611_32983.htm
Characteristics of New US Strategy
China Review News (CRN) recently republished an article from Outlook News Weekly discussing the newly published U.S. National Security Strategy. The article compared the new strategy with the Bush version published four years ago and summarized four new adjustments: (1) Anti-terrorism strategy has been significantly adjusted and the phrase “War against Terror” has been dropped; (2) The new strategy has a strong taste of multilateralism instead of the “cowboy foreign relations;” (3) The new strategy focuses on the domestic economy; (4) There are higher expectations on China to play a “responsible leadership role.”
The author senses strong worry by the Obama Administration about the decline of U.S. power. However, the article stated that the ultimate goal of the U.S. to dominatie the world remains unchanged.
Source: China Review News, June 8, 2010
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1013/4/6/4/101346460.html?coluid=148&kindid=0&docid=101346460&mdate=0608091347
Global Times: The Nonalignment Concept has Past
Global Times, under Chinese state daily news Renmin, published an article calling for the establishment of a Security Alliance with surrounding countries. The author is a Japanese who is currently the deputy director of JCC New Japan Research Institute. The article claimed that the Nonalignment Movement was the result of the Cold War era, when smaller countries did not want to align with either the Soviet Union or the United States. Today, the author believes, the situation has changed significantly and the concept should change too. It was suggested in the article that China should introduce various types of “alignments” depending on the degree China wants to cooperate with different countries. It should be considered as an innovation in foreign policy.
Source: Global Times, June 8, 2010
http://mil.huanqiu.com/Exclusive/2010-06/850508.html
Global Times: Chinese Netizens Launched 6-9 Jihad against South Korea
Global Times reported that, by June 10, more than 100,000 Chinese netizens had jointly attacked South Korean web sites and dozens of them were hacked. Meanwhile many QQ (China’s most popular instant messaging platform) groups and Baidu forums about South Korean pop stars were overloaded. The movement is called the “6-9 Jihad,” which was caused by the recent chaos that happened in Shanghai regarding a show by South Korean pop star group named Super Junior. Chinese hackers demonstrated their capabilities in this event. However, many netizens remained neutral and called for a rational attitude towards social events.
Source: Global Times, June 10, 2010
http://world.huanqiu.com/roll/2010-06/850947.html