Chinascope – Page 1218

Hunan Province Advances a New Internet Control Platform

Red Net, the Website for the Communist Party’s Hunan Province Committee and Hunan Provincial government, disclosed that Hunan will advance an Internet monitoring platform soon, as directed by the Ministry of Culture. The platform contains the traditional Internet Café monitoring software and a Hunan Culture Website, providing monitoring and servicing capabilities. This platform prevents users from accessing “harmful” information.

The provincial Cultural Inspection Team and municipal and county-level cultural inspection team will inspect Internet Cafés randomly and penalize businesses that haven’t installed, have stopped using or have removed the platform.

Source: Red Net, October 17, 2009
http://hn.rednet.cn/c/2009/10/17/1840624.htm

Briefings | | October 22, 2009 | Information/Technology

Xinhua: Obama Changed His Position on RMB

Xinhua reported that the US Treasury Department published a report acknowledging that China did not manipulate its RMB currency. Obama took a strong position at the beginning of his presidency, claiming China did manipulate the RMB. The new report indicated that his administration is loosening its position. However, the United States is still maintaining a double-standard on currency policy. Compared to the RMB’s over 21% appreciation over the US Dollar in the past several years, the US Dollar’s rapid devaluation is more alarming, but the US government is keeping quiet about it. The newly published report still believes the RMB is undervalued, an indication that the United States is still playing the currency card to apply pressure on China.

Source: Xinhua, October 16, 2009.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2009-10/16/content_12246002.htm

Briefings | | October 21, 2009 | Economy/Resources

CIC $300 Million Russian Oil Investment

By the end of September, China Investment Corporation (CIC) completed phase one of its acquisition of a 45% share of Nobel Holdings Investments Ltd., a Russian oil and gas company. The second phase will include investment in assets around the oil field. The entire deal amounts to $300 million. This move is only one month after CIC spent $939 million to purchase 11% of Global Depositary Receipts (GDR) of a Kazakhstan oil company. Experts suggested that this current series of Chinese acquisitions is the result of the devaluation of US Dollar. CIC’s investing into natural resources is a new trend in its investment strategy.

Source: China Economy Net, October 16, 2009.
http://www.ce.cn/xwzx/gnsz/gdxw/200910/16/t20091016_20214735.shtml

Briefings | | October 21, 2009 | Economy/Resources

Elaine Chao Became International Consultant of Wuhan Government

On October 16, former US Labor Secretary Elaine Chao accepted an invitation from the Wuhan government to be its International Consultant. Wuhan, Hubei is the largest city in central China. Elaine Chao became US Labor Secretary during the Bush Administration in 2001. She suggested in an interview that human talent is the most important element in a city’s scientific development, and employment is one of the most important issues in society. She attended the Ninth Conference of Overseas Chinese Development jointly hosted by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council, the government of Hubei Province and the government of Wuhan City.

Source: China Economy Net, October 16, 2009.
http://www.ce.cn/xwzx/gnsz/gdxw/200910/16/t20091016_20215202.shtml

Briefings | | October 21, 2009 | Government/Politics

China’s Anti-Corruption Scholars: One Party Rule Will not Necessarily Lead to Corruption

On October 13, Li Chenyan, Director of the Governance Research Center of Beijing University and Ren Jianming, Director of the Anti-Corruption and Governance Research Center of Tsinghua University hosted an online forum session on the topic of the party’s anti-corruption measures.

Both of them disagree with the opinions held by western scholars that one party rule is the cause of corruption in China. They referenced a number of countries in Asia which have serious corruption issues despite the democratic system and concluded that one party rule does not necessarily lead to corruption. Both of them, however, agree that the supervision and balancing of those in power is the key to controlling corruption. They think that as long as there is system for supervision and the development of democracy within the ruling party, the corruption issues can be solved.

Source: Huanqiu, October 13, 2009
http://china.huanqiu.com/roll/2009-10/601923.html

Briefings | | October 20, 2009 | Government/Politics

China’s Rebuttal on 2009 Annual Report on Human Rights and Rule of Law in China

Ma Chaoxue, the spokesperson from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reminded the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) to stop interfering with China’s internal affairs and cease engaging in actions that will damage US-China relations.

Ma’s remark was made on the CECC’s release of its "2009 Annual Report on Human Rights and Rule of Law in China." “The CECC repeatedly releases its annual report with distorted facts which interfere with China’s internal affairs. The annual report was full of ignorance and one-sided opinions.” Ma claimed.

Source: Xinhua, October 16, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2009-10/16/content_12247243.htm

Briefings | | October 20, 2009 | US-China Relations

Former Deputy Editor of Party Paper: Top Leaders Must Cut Ties with Special Interest Groups

Though the communist party has strong control over the ideology ground and media, occasionally there are still voices from the mid- or lower-level party officials against the party’s corruption and authoritarianism. Zhou Jinrui, former deputy editor of People’s Daily recently published an article on China Elections and Governance titled “Be Courageous in Solving the Issues Resulting from Growth – on the 60th National Day Celebration.” The article summarized the lessons learned from China’s Reform and Opening up policy. It alerts that the top level party leaders must cut their close ties with those “special interest groups” in order to promote democracy, prevent power loss at the local levels, and maintain long term stability.

Source:
China Elections and Governance, October 12, 2009
http://www.chinaelections.org/newsinfo.asp?Newsid=158450
Zaobao, October 15, 2009
http://www.zaobao.com/special/china/cnpol/pages2/cnpol091015.shtml

Briefings | | October 20, 2009 | Government/Politics

Eight-Episode TV Documentary Series: Preparing For Danger In Times of Safety, Introduction

{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 that contributed 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 introduction.}

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Reports | | October 19, 2009 | Report

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

Wu Guoguang: Xi Jinping’s Reversal of the Course, Will China’s Transition be Peaceful or Marked with Bloodshed?

Cheng Xiaonong: U.S.-China Strategic Relations Have Crystallized

Xinhua Commentaries: “Exposing the Three Major Political Deficits of the U.S.”