Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met on October 28 in Moscow, Russia, for the thirteenth annual meeting between the premiers of the two countries. During the meeting, Wen and Putin exchanged their views on major issues regarding the pragmatic cooperation between the two countries. On the same day, the Xinhua News Agency published the background material on its website (Xinhuanet) about the system of the two premiers having regular meetings annually. Below is a translation to the background material. [1]

In April of 1996, Yeltsin, the Russian president at the time, visited China. He and Jiang Zemin, who was then the chairman of China, came to an agreement that there should be periodic meetings between China and Russia. They both agreed that it was very important that different branches of the two countries could communicate frequently in various ways and it was especially important for the leaders of the two countries to get in touch regularly. From December 26 to 28 of the same year, Li Peng, the premier of China at the time, went to Russia for a working visit. During the visit, the two sides agreed to a new system of having annual meetings between the two Premiers. Since the establishment of this system, the premiers from the two countries have met once every year.

There are three major regular meeting branches under this system: the meeting between premiers, the meeting for humanitarian affairs cooperation, and the meeting for energy negotiation among representatives. In all the foreign cooperation systems, this one [the meeting between the premiers] has the highest level, the most complete framework, and the widest area of discussion. The establishment of this system has pushed forward the good neighborliness and mutual beneficial cooperation, and has driven a healthy development of the strategic partnership of Russia and China. The major successes resulting from these meetings in recent years are as follows:

9/8/2001: Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji and Russian Premier Kasiyanov met in St. Petersburg for the Sixth Regular Meeting and signed a joint communiqué.

8/22/2002: Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji and Russian Premier Kasiyanov met in Shanghai for the Seventh Regular Meeting. The two parties thoroughly exchanged opinions on issues such as enhancing cooperation between the two nations, anti-terrorism, and easing tensions in hot spot regions.

9/24/2003: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Russian Premier Kasiyanov met in Beijing for the Eighth Regular Meeting. The two parties both agreed that at the same time of making breakthroughs in the development of bilateral economic and trade relations, the two countries should extend humanitarian cooperation.

9/24/2004: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Russian Premier Fradkov met in Moscow for the Ninth Regular Meeting. In a friendly and collaborative atmosphere, the two parties summarized the cooperative achievements between the two countries, worked over ways for solving existing problems, and determined the priorities of future works.

11/3/2005: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Russian Premier Fradkov met in Beijing for the Tenth Regular Meeting. The two sides signed eight agreements in the fields of economics, education, health, banking, etc., and issued the “Joint Communiqué of the Tenth Regular Meeting Between Chinese and Russian Premiers.”

11/9/2006: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Russian Premier Fradkov met in Beijing for the Eleventh Regular Meeting and both attended the closing ceremony of China’s “Year of Russia.” The two sides signed 17 agreements in the fields of energy cooperation, financial insurance cooperation, news exchange, etc.

11/6/2007: Premier Wen Jiabao and Russian Premier Zubkov met in Moscow for the Twelfth Regular Meeting. They signed a joint communiqué, and together attended the signing ceremony for signing the agreements on the cooperation between the two countries in the fields of trade, energy, technology, banking, border trade, etc.

Endnotes:
[1] Xinhuanet, October 28th, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2008-10/28/content_10267944.htm

The following is the translation of a series of interviews Radio Free Asia (RFA) conducted on the general election of village heads in China. [1]
BEIJING — On November 4, 2008, the U. S. elected an African-American, Barack Obama, as the next President of the United State of America. Yet, in China, some of the websites were still discussing the issues related to the election of village heads, and the people sighed over the struggling village elections in China.

Guang Ming Daily, an official Chinese News website published an article Xu Xun-Lei titled, "The U.S. Presidential Election Versus the Election of Village heads in China." The author disclosed that in recent years, there have been a lot of issues with the election of village heads in China, including bribery, the Village Committee and the Village Party Branch of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) fighting for interests and power, and the lack of the judiciary playing its role that has caused corruption among village officials. The author quoted some of well-known experts within the Party, "Despite of existing issues, the direct election of the villages needs to be extended to the township level. In recent years, there are many people requesting that the general election of officials [be expanded] from the village to the township level, but the Central Government and many local government officials have opposed such requests." The author believes that this has been an obvious obstacle for moving one-step, or even half-a-step towards democracy. The general election of village heads in China was piloted in the mid-1990s [but] until now, it is still very hard to move forward. Cheng Xiao-Nong, the Editor-in-Chief of "Contemporary China Studies," a magazine in the U.S., has been working for the Chinese Reformation Committee. He is very familiar with the problems of Chinese farmers. He expressed that, in fact, the general election of village heads in China is deviated; it cannot be regarded, in a sense, as a genuine form of democratic election.

The CCP has used some clever ways to maintain its power; as a result, the Village Committee Organization Laws have been short-changed. In the end, they have gradually become the CCP’s former local appointed organizations who appoint officials for the villages; then, a fake voting system is used to pass the nomination. First, competition is not allowed; second, all candidates must be approved by the CCP beforehand. Therefore, the general election of village heads is much less meaningful; it has returned into the CCP’s local organization for appointing the village officials.

Mr. Cheng believes that the reason for the general elections of village officials running into difficulties is that the CCP does not want to give up its power in a "One-Party-Totalitarian System."

"The earlier elections of the villagers, generally, were relatively clean and normal. To the CCP, on the one hand, it was desirable to have the villagers’ general election form; however, it cannot allow the officials who are elected to be out of the control of the CCP. Therefore, along the way, the basic direction of the local governments has been to reinforce the leadership of the CCP, and there has been a gradual manipulation of the elections mainly through intervention from local CCP organizations.

Li Hong Kuan, the past Editor-in-Chief of a U.S.-based online magazine, "Big Reference," regards the general elections in Chinese villages as not comparable to general elections in democratic countries.

"They are incomparable because they are from systems of a different nature. In the United State, at the general elections, the Executive Head of a government is elected, but not the village heads. Frankly, in a village, the Village Secretary of the CCP, picks a running dog, or a gopher as the Village Head to carry out the CCP’s Central Birth Policy. It was like in World War II, the Japanese selecting a Committee Head to govern the villages by the same token. The Head of the Committee had no authority; the main power was in the hands of the Japanese. The real power over the land and the allocation of benefits belongs to the Village Branch Secretary of the CCP."

According to "the Village Committee Organization Law," the Village Heads are directly elected by the villagers expressed Cheng Xiao-Nong. Any organizations or individuals cannot appoint or replace [the village head]; however, local organizations of the CCP often intervene in the elections in the villages. In some areas, it happens all the time that the local governments appoint or replace the village heads. Cheng believes that the root of the culprit is "the One-Party-Totalitarian System," of the CCP that has caused difficulties for the general elections in the villages.

Endnote:
[1] Radio Free Asia, November 6, 2008,
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/xuanju-11062008110216.html