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Xinhua Commentary Series: Spotlight on the U.S. Presidential Election

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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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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

China’s Luxury Consumption to Top the World in 5 Years

According to the Business Blue Book issued by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on May 19, China has a luxury consumption of US$ 9.4 billion. With 27.5% of the world’s total in this market, China has surpassed the U.S. to become the largest luxury goods consumer second to Japan. Within five years, it will top the world luxury goods market with US$ 14.6 billion spent on luxury goods. 

The Business Blue Book noted that China’s affluent consumers are generally younger than in other countries. A 2008 report from McKinsey, a managment consulting firm, said that 80% of China’s wealthy people are below 45 years old, while the ratio is only 30% and 19% in the U.S. and Japan. 
Source: People’s Daily, May 19, 2010
http://politics.people.com.cn/GB/1026/11641831.html
Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

11 Provinces Plagued by Flooding

Since late April, repeated heavy rainfall has caused flooding in southern provinces including Guangdong, Fujian, Guangxi, Hunan, Jiangxi, Hubei, Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou, Anhui, and Yunnan. So far 15.179 million people have been affected and 101 have died, with direct economic losses of over 8 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion). 

Source: China News Service, May 17, 2010 
http://www.chinanews.com.cn/gn/news/2010/05-17/2287438.shtml
Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Wenzhou City Openly Hires Party Secretaries

Wenzhou, a coastal city in Southeast China, is to openly hire 25 Party secretaries to be posted in local private companies, according to the city’s Party organization department. The secretaries, paid by the private businesses, will organize and expand the Party branches inside the companies. Ever since the fourth session of the 17th Congress of the CCP in 2009, nationwide private enterprises have been required to set up local Party organizations as part of the regime’s efforts to build up the Party. Usually the secretaries are appointed by superior Party cadres; Wenzhou’s move is an innovation because it is integrating the political process with the market mechanism. 

Source: Zhejiang Online (flagship website of Zhejiang Province), May 19, 2010http://zjnews.zjol.com.cn/05zjnews/system/2010/05/19/016618714.shtml
Briefings | | |   Government/Politics