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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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Details of the “Cross-2009” Military Exercise

Xinhua reported on May 5 that the military will perform the “Cross-2009” Military Exercise, which will involve  four military area commands. [1] Global Times, a newspaper under Chinese state-owned People’s Daily, published an article to further elaborate on the significance of this exercise: One, it is a joint tactical training practice with participation of four complete army divisions from four military commands, with near fifty thousand soldiers, sixty thousand vehicles and large equipment. Two, the exercise will take place at several training bases at the participating military commands. Recently, each command has established its own regional training base, but a single base is unlikely to accommodate four divisions, so the exercise is likely to be spread among several bases. Three, the announcement mentioned a “large scale of mobility,” implying that the division from each command may travel to another command’s base. Four, it is a study and application of the new military training manual that was adopted last year. Five, the air force and the army’s airmen will also participate in the practice. [2]

People’s Daily also reported that excluding the Nanjing military area command (responsible for military actions against Taiwan) is a goodwill signal sent to Taiwan. [3]

Source:
[1] Xinhua, May 5, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2009-05/05/content_11318736.htm
[2] Global Times, May 8, 2009
http://mil.huanqiu.com/china/2009-05/455556.html
[3] People’s Daily, May 13, 2009
http://military.people.com.cn/GB/1076/52982/9288626.html

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

Chinese Exporting Companies Facing a Wave of Refused Shipments

The International Herald Leader, under Xinhua News, reported that a large number of Chinese exporting companies are dealing with more and more refused shipments. With the international financial crisis, various excuses are being used by foreign importers to reject shipped goods. Credit risks are significantly increasing. For example, in the first 2 months of 2009, Chinese private exporters alone lost $100 million due to refused shipments – an increase of 87.5% compared to last year.

 Source: International Herald Leader, May 8, 2009.
 http://news.xinhuanet.com/herald/2009-05/08/content_11334225.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Global Times: Get Out of “US Dollar Trap”

The Global Times, under Chinese state-owned People’s Daily, published a report on various views about the strategy to get out of the “US Dollar trap”. All the scholars quoted in the report agreed that in the long run, China should reduce the amount of its assets valued in US Dollars. However, most of them agreed that it’s not wise to do so in the short term. Exit strategies discussed in the report included: increasing the use of RMB as a settlement currency, increasing stockpiling physical strategic resources and taking advantage of existing large US Dollar assets to gain more share in the current world financial system.

Source: Global Times, May 8, 2009.
http://finance.huanqiu.com/roll/2009-05/455186.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Hubei Province’s Large Investment in A Tomb of Lian Zhan’s Ancestor

Based on Chinese media sources, BBC Chinese reported on May 6, that the government of Hubei Province is investing 13 million RMB to rebuild the tomb of a famous person named Lian Shunbin. It is believed that Lian Shunbin is the ancestor of Lian Zhan, who is the former Chairman of the Taiwan Nationalist Party (Kuomintang, KMT) and former Vice President of the Republic of China.

Source: BBC Chinese, May 6, 2009.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/chinese/simp/hi/newsid_8030000/newsid_8035100/8035143.stm Last Update (Monday, 11 May 2009 )

 

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

City of Beijing Raise Water Prices

Beijing plans to raise water prices to resolve the water shortage crisis due to the six year delay of “South-North Water Diversion” project. Water prices increased four times since 2001, from 3.01 to 5.04. The city is also considering monetary award to encourage reduced water consumption.

Source: Xinhua, May 11, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-05/11/content_11348945.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

On the One Year Anniversary of Wenchuan Earthquake

On the one year anniversary of Sichuan Wenchuan Earthquake, Xinhua’s front page carried a number of articles praising the Party’s earthquake recovery effort. While the state media continues to attribute the earthquake to natural disaster, building structure defects have remained a major outcry among the grieving parents, whose voices were completely suppressed by state media. According to VOA, of those who tried to conduct independent investigations of the earthquake, 80 percent have been summoned by the police. Some had their photos erased while in police custody.

Source:
Voice of America, May 9, 2009
http://www.voanews.com/chinese/w2009-05-09-voa31.cfm
Xinhua, May 10, 2009
http://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/xw.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Xinhua’s Blog on Bombing of Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia: We Can Not Forget their Blood

On the tenth anniversary of the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia, Xinhua started a blog in memory of the incident and to ask the Chinese people not to forget about the past.

The blog had the following in the introduction: “Today is the ten year anniversary of the attack on our embassy in Yugoslavia. Ten years ago on May 8, US air force dropped 5 bombs to attack China’s embassy in Yugoslavia resulting in the death of three Chinese reporters… (The attack) enraged of tens and millions of Chinese college students and patriotic civilians. Looking back on the attack and how the US government handled themselves, it is not inappropriate at all to describe them as ‘arrogant’ and ‘barbarian.’ The attack was arrogant and the after attack was even worse. It was the tremendous amount of sincere effort from the Chinese people that has reconciled the cooperation between the two countries. But the US is still on guard against us and the underlying hostility still remains… We shall not forget the past as many incidents are worth remembering…”

Source: Xinhua, May 8, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-05/08/content_11334962.htm

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

New Law Further Hinders Freedom of Expression

The recent implementation of an Internet regulation in Hangzhou city Zhejiang province raised some serious concerns over the ordinance itself being too fuzzy and with much gray area.

There are specific technical problems in identifying and determining vaguely defined unlawful conducts. At the same time, the deficiencies in protection of civil rights will result in rights abuses and will inevitably lead to distortion in the implementation of the new regulation. In addition, since the existing legal system in general is inadequate in providing enough open channels of public expression; lawful citizens have been repeatedly reported and retaliated as consequences of legitimate expression, introducing such a specific legislation will inevitable harm freedom of speech, suppress the already restricted cyber space that many rely on for anonymous public expression of opinions.

Source: Nanfang News, May 4, 2009
http://big5.southcn.com/gate/big5/opinion.southcn.com/soc/content/2009-05/04/content_5119294.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics