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Wang Zhaoguo: The Labor Union’s Primary Mission Is to Serve the Party

On May 26, Wang Zhaoguo, the President of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, gave a speech at the “Conference on the Theory and Practice of Firmly Staying on the Chinese Characteristic Socialism Union Development Path.” Some excerpts from Wang’s speech are as follows:

“(Unions) must persist in consciously following the Communist Party’s leadership.”
“(Unions) must persist in serving the big picture of the Party and the nation’s work.” [i.e., the laborers in the unions should sacrifice for the Party and the “nation,” —Ed.]
“In the new era, (unions) must absorb employees, including peasant workers into their organization, expand the union’s coverage, … provide important support to strengthen the Party’s class base, expand the Party’s public bases, and fortify the Party’s control of the offices.”
“Actively include the union’s international work in the nation’s overall foreign relationship arrangement.”
“Unions should follow the principles of ‘promoting enterprise development and protecting employees’ rights’ and seek a balance between the two.” [i.e., in the Union’s view, the employees’ interest should yield to the enterprise’s interest —Ed.]

Source: Qiushi Magazine, June 16 2009 issue
http://www.qsjournal.com.cn/qs/20090616/GB/qs%5E505%5E0%5E2.htm

Outlook: Lessons to Learn from the Soviet Union’s Collapse

When the Soviet Union was at its peak in the mid 70’s there were five ‘hidden dangers’, according to an analysis by Outlook Magazine, which had the stated goal of studying the collapse of the Soviet Union to avoid the same fate for the Communist Party in China. Interestingly enough, some of these dangers are already severe in China. The five hidden dangers were as follows:

1. Brezhnev was primarily focusing on an arm race with the U.S.
2. Under the claim of "stability,” Brezhnev refused revolution and suppressed innovation.
3. The lifelong terms of officials under the ruling system and subsequent governance by aging people formed a stable interest group and a bureaucratic privileged class.
4. Corruption and privileges for special groups reached an unbearable level.
5. The Soviet Union had a wrong positioning with the rest of the world.

Source: Outlook Magazine, 26th issue, 2009
http://www.outlookweekly.cn/htm/content_4847.htm

Zhou Yongkang: Enforcing Comprehensive Management at the Grass-Roots Level

On May 18, Zhou Yongkang, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, Party Secretary of the Political and Legal Committee of the Central Committee and Director of the Central Committee for Comprehensive Management of Public Security, spoke at the National Commending Conference on Comprehensive Management Achievements from 2005 to 2008. Zhou stated that the comprehensive management work [Editor’s Note: meaning preventing any public event or social turmoil] should be strengthened at the grass-roots level.

The comprehensive management of public security should be implemented at all work units. Each organization and work unit must “manage their own area” and “whoever is in charge is responsible (for social stability).” Each work unit must “watch its own gates, manage its own people, and take care of its own things.” The grass-root level implementation of the comprehensive management work includes enforcing the construction of the party organizations, comprehensive management offices and people self-management organizations.

Source: Qiushi Magazine, June 16, 2009 issue
http://www.qsjournal.com.cn/qs/20090616/GB/qs%5E505%5E0%5E1.htm

China Petroleum Makes a Foothold in Iraq

Global Times reported that China National Petroleum Corp and BP jointly won the bidding for the al-Rumeila oil field contract in Iraq. “Despite earning only two U.S. dollars a barrel and facing various risks, China’s oil companies need to get a firm foothold in Iraq as soon as possible and increase their market share of oil and gas exploitation. Income and profit margin are secondary factors.”

Source: Global Times, July 2, 2009
http://finance.huanqiu.com/roll/2009-07/503661.html

Outlook: China to Go to the North Pole

China has major strategic interests in the Arctic region and should secure the Arctic’s resources, said Outlook Weekly. “The Arctic has an important impact on temperature and precipitation in China.” “Use of the Arctic waterways for Chinese fleets would shorten the voyage by 40% compared to the current routes through the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal that are plagued with security risks, high cost and schedule delays.” “China should invest in the development of or otherwise secure the Arctic’s resources.”

Source: Outlook Weekly, Issue 27, 2009
http://lw.xinhuanet.com/htm/content_4882.htm

Xinhua: US Stepping Forward from “Behind the Scene” in South China Sea

2009 sees a bigger role for the United States in the South China Sea, said Xinhua. “Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and other countries now view foreign military procurement as a shortcut to quickly upgrading their sea and air combat capability. In 2009 the neighboring countries in the South China Sea have changed their strategy to procure high-performance conventional submarines, long-range fighters, advanced surface ships and other heavy equipment.” As Southeast Asian countries have spoken about opposing China with the help of the United States, "the United States is stepping from ‘behind the scene’ to the ‘front stage’ in the South China Sea."

Source: Xinhua, July 3, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/herald/2009-07/03/content_11644872.htm

CCP Expands Party Membership to Private Businesses

Zhong Pingyao, Deputy Director of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce issued requirements to the CCP party organizations at various levels of commercial businesses administration and private businesses association that they need to promote the CCP party work and expand party membership to private companies. The Party organization should be established in large private enterprises. For small companies, they should be pooled and served by the party organization established at the business owner’s association level or village/town level.

The statistics from the China Individual Laborers’ Association suggested that by the end of last year, there were 92,308 party branches established among private business owners’ associations, a 10.56 percent increase from the year before. Total party members at these party branches reached 1.96 million, out of which 329,500 are enterprise owners, 542,200 are small business owners and 1.088 millions are workers.

Source: Xinhua, July 2, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-07/02/content_11640304.htm

China Battles Extreme Weather Conditions

Xinhua published a series of front page articles calling on all levels of regions and government bodies to be on guard against the extreme weather condition. In recent months, China has been hit by stormy and rainy weather in the south and extreme heat in the north. China Daily reported that as of July 5, 75 people had died, 13 were missing, and 39 million people were affected by the flooding in the south.

On Monday July 6, the China Ministry of Finance announced a 170 million yuan emergency fund for the southern regions, including 13 provinces that had suffered from the flood. The article calls on the regions to take the responsibility and cooperate with each other to ensure “winning the battle against the flood.”

Source:
[1] China Daily, July 6, 2009
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/zgzx/2009-07/06/content_8380361.htm
[2] Xinhua, July 8, 2009
http://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/szch/20090708/