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H1N1 Influenza Outbreaks in People’s Liberation Army

China News Net reported that the outbreaks of H1N1 influenza have significantly increased since the autumn season started, according to the Department of Defense web site. Zhang Yan-ling, the Health Minister of the PLA General Logistics Department reported that up to now, 51 outbreaks have occurred in the PLA. Recently, some army divisions have had at least one hundred or even hundreds of individuals simultaneously sick with H1N1 influenza. The prevention and control of the disease is very difficult.

Source: China News Service, December 4, 2009
http://www.chinanews.com.cn/gn/news/2009/12-04/1999546.shtml

International Herald Leader: Western Countries Lecturing China on Democracy Should Stop

Westerner’s "Democracy Lectures" to China Should Stop
Zhu Xiangchun, the Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs

(International Herald Leader, September 12) During the seminar entitled “China and the World – Perception and Truth,” the German organizers, disregarding China’s resolute opposition, insisted on welcoming “dissidents” to join, although the Chinese participants did not welcome them. The Chinese representatives angrily withdrew in protest. Once the organizers apologized on the spot, they came back. However, a number of German parliamentarians and the German media made a big deal about this and even slandered (the Chinese representatives) as “dictator’s representatives.” These actions from the German side not only cast a shadow on the Frankfurt Book Fair, where China would be the country that was guest of honor in the coming October, but also once again exposed the Westerner’s old-fashioned thinking and psychology of condescension toward China and lecturing China on “democracy.” 

Although the cold war ended many years ago, the Western’s perception of China is still full of ambivalence. Even for an ordinary thing involving China, Western society’s imagination can run wild, and even distort the facts and spread rumors. This seminar was originally for creating a good atmosphere for the Frankfurt Book Fair, but Western society obstinately linked it with China’s “democracy” and “human rights” and eventually formed a wave of criticizing and slandering China. This move implied that they had deeply-rooted misconceptions and prejudice toward China. It showed that the Western countries advertised themselves as “listening to different voices,” objective, and democratic, but they secretly looked at us through a pair of “colored glasses.”

Since the industrial revolution, Western society has always possessed a sense of superiority – they are the best among various cultures and system arrangements in human society. That should be a universal truth. The Soviet Union’s collapse marked the so-called “end of history” for a number of Westerners and the Western democratic system would be the “final form” of human society’s evolution. This has been the most arrogant voice from the Western communities about its democratic system. Even today, they have not completely changed that mentality and psychology. With three decades of reform and opening, China’s rapid development has caught the world’s attention, and its economic scale has leapt to third in the world. This makes many Western countries feel uncomfortable, if not fearful.

Western society is used to making trouble in the name of “democracy,” but it is not really a simple matter of being considerate of others. They call themselves “moral guardians” in the international community and dominate the international voices to serve their economic interests and political plots. Because of the long-term negative propaganda in Western society during the Cold War, the Western public not only has limited understanding of China but their minds are full of prejudice. Digging out China’s “dark side” has also become a way for some Western media and politicians to seize political capital and constantly please the public. This has even gone to the level of, “Whoever hates China the most ruthlessly is the most likable.”

The Western’s democratic system slogan seems very appealing, but history has relentlessly proven that the results of imposing Western democracy are often frustrating, and even catastrophic. Until now, none of the developing countries have realized their modernization through “grafting” on Western democracy.

Today, not only is China’s development visible, but also it bears the international responsibility as a super power. If the Western communities turn a blind eye [to China] and keep making trouble, they will eventually lose their credibility with the Chinese public.

We advise those so-called “democracy fighters” that the “democracy lectures” to China must stop! This is just like what Mei Zhaorong, the former president of the Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs and the former Chinese Ambassador, who attended the seminar, said, “We are here for exchanging views, not for democracy classes, which are already outdated."

Endnotes:
[1] International Herald Leader, Sept 21, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/herald/2009-09/21/content_12087947.htm
[2] For a description of the Book Fair event, see also:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009111story_1-11-2009_pg3_4
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/KJ27Ad02.html
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/16672
[3] The Frankfurt Book Fair, which featured China as “guest of honor,” began on October 14. In September, two Chinese writers, journalist Dai Qing and poet Bei Ling, had their invitations revoked after China complained. Their books about the Tiananmen pro-democracy movement and the Three Gorges Dam are banned in China. The German PEN club of independent writers, however, invited them anyway. Envoys of the Dalai Lama and Uyghur pro-independence advocate Rebiya Kadeer, were also present. Fair organizers had invited Liao Yiwu, who wrote a book on China’s underprivileged, The Corpse Walker, as well as essays about the survivors and victims of last year’s earthquake in Sichuan, but Beijing refused to lift his travel ban.
.
This article is in response to media outside of China. The above Canada Free Press article stated, for example, “The Chinese government’s effort to prevent dissident authors from taking part in the prestigious Frankfurt Book Fair, an international showcase for freedom of expression, has offered Germany a close-up view of China’s intolerance of dissent.”

Eight-Episode TV Documentary Series: Preparing for Danger in Times of Safety, Episode Seven

{Editor’s Note: In June 2006, Beijing released an eight-episode TV documentary series: Preparing For Danger In Times Of Safety – Historic Lessons Learned from the Demise of Soviet Communism. It was a research project conducted by the government think tank, the Chinese Academy of Social Science. Afterwards, the Chinese Communist Party instructed party members across the nation to watch the series and launch serious discussions. The script of the prelude of the documentary quotes Hu Jintao’s words, “There are multiple factors contributing to the disintegration of the Soviet Union, a very important one being Khrushchev throwing away Stalin’s knife and Gorbachev’s open betrayal of Marxism-Leninism.” The full text of the narratives has been translated. What follows is the seventh episode.}

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China’s National Defense to Protect its Intellectual Property

China will implement an intellectual property strategy in national defense, stated a Chinese military official at a military IP strategy meeting. “A Defense Intellectual Property Strategy Implementation Plan will be carried out across the board in the areas of national defense, IT, and munitions building. The plan has set clear short-term goals for 2015 and long-term goals for 2020, with 19 specific tasks.” The short-term goal is that more than 10,000 patent applications will be filed by 2015. By 2020 China will own a group of independent intellectual property rights in the key technical fields of weapons and equipment and in the field of integration of military and civilian high-tech.

Source: Xinhua, December 2, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-12/02/content_12575240.htm

State Media: Western Assessment of China’s Air Force Is Distorted

State media, Globe Magazine, recently commented that the West has distorted assessments of China’s Air Force. While mainstream media tend to be the reviewers in the West, “the true assessment comes primarily from governments, military, and think tanks in the West.” Such an assessment is affected by various factors, mostly politics. “More often than not, the interpretation or assessment of China’s Air Force by Western countries is not based on an objective position, but rather serves their own political or strategic objectives.” The "China’s Air Force threat theory” is driven by economic interests as well as attempts to cause a deterioration of relations between China and neighboring countries and damage China’s image. [1]

The article also tried to ease concern in the West over Air Force commander Xu Qiliang’s claim that China should develop space weapons [2]. It said Xu’s statement was misinterpreted.

Source:
[1] Xinhua, December 1, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/globe/2009-12/01/content_12569894.htm
[2] Chinascope, November 5, 009
http://chinascope.org/main/content/view/2059/105/

Outlook Magazine: China’s Role in the U.S-India Relationship

According to Outlook Magazine, among China, the U.S. and India’s relationship, the U.S. has the largest advantage, while China must nurture its relationship with India, “India believes that the U.S. apathy toward India is largely because the United States pays more attention to China. If the U.S. and China get closer, it will undermine India’s interests.” “In the trilateral relationships among China, the U.S. and India, the U. S. is the most powerful with the greatest initiative, while the relationship between China and India is marginalized and needs careful nurturing.”

The article holds that the U.S. fosters tension in the Sino-Indian relationship in order to lure India into the U.S encirclement to contain China. The article warns that if the Indian government chooses to blindly follow the U.S., acting as its pawn to contain China, then it will have a negative impact on Sino-Indian relations.

Source: Legal Daily, December 1, 2009
http://www.legaldaily.com.cn/2007jdwt/2009-12/01/content_1189703.htm

Spanish Court Indicted Jiang Zemin and His Close Associates

On November 13, Spain’s court indicted five high-ranking CCP officials for crimes of torture and genocide against Falun Gong practitioners. According to AOL UK, the five officials are Jiang Zemin, former head of the Communist Party, who ordered the campaign to “eradicate” the Falun Gong meditation practice in 1999; Luo Gan, head of the notorious “610 Office,” a nationwide secret police task force; Bo Xilai, current Chongqing party secretary; Jia Qinglin and Wu Guanzheng, both members of the Politburo Standing Committee.

The defendants have 4 to 6 weeks to reply and could face extradition if traveling to a country that has extradition treaties with Spain, including China and the US. If convicted, each could face up to a 20-year prison term.

Source: AOL UK,
http://video.aol.co.uk/video-detail/jiang-zemin-indicted-in-spain-for-genocide-and-torture-of-falun-gong-practitioners/2110796267

Additional Source: The Epoch Times, November 19, 2009
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/9/11/19/n2727513.htm