In gearing up for the 60 year anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party’s rule in China, the General Office of the Party issued guidelines for patriotic education. The guidelines consist of six parts with detailed requirements for all levels of government bodies to follow.
Source: Xinhua, April 26, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2009-04/26/content_11262168.htm
In order to enhance its global influence and carry out the directive from the central administration to focus on propaganda work overseas, China has laid out a media strategy to build up its overseas media power. It will "follow the rules of the games (with the Western media) but is also capable of expressing a completely different position and perspective."
Xinhua and CCTV are actively recruiting resources worldwide so they can "bring China’s voice overseas." With projected financial loss of 20 million yuan in the first year, Global Times launched its English edition on April 20, making it China’s second English language news media published outside of China (the other is the People’s Daily). Xinhua said it will add more languages to its online news and invest in mobile news services. CCTV will add Russian and Arabic to its foreign language channels and hopes to have 11 new channels in 7 languages within the next three years.
Source: Sing Tao News Network, April 27, 2009
http://www.stnn.cc/china/200904/t20090427_1018499.html
The State Council met on April 22, 2009 to discuss stimulus measures to stabilize the Chinese agricultural sector amid the international financial crisis, reported Xinhua. Premier Wen Jiabao presided over the Council’s executive meeting. The meeting reached a consensus that the international financial crisis is deepening and its negative impact on the Chinese agricultural sector is emerging. With global commodity demand shrinking and prices falling, the downturn of agricultural exports coupled with slack domestic growth has pushed down agricultural prices and production efficiency in China, making it increasingly difficult to maintain a stable agriculture sector and to increase farmers’ income.
Source: Ministry of Agriculture, April 23, 2009
http://agri.gov.cn/jjps/t20090423_1260834.htm
Economists are concerned that the growth may not be sustainable, according to a panel discussion during a State TV program. Large State-owned enterprises saw a sharp increase in profits, according to Li Rongrong, Director of State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State council on April 19, 2009. In response, economists at the panel indicated that such growth was primarily fueled by preferential treatment and State monoply, thus its sustainability questionable. Others found it worrisome that 4,200 small to mid companies have been declining in contrast to the thriving large State-owned enterprises.
Source: China Central TV, April 24, 2009
http://news.cctv.com/china/20090424/101947.shtml
Mr. Xi Xiaoming, a senior official of the Chinese Supreme Court, recently said there has been a steady increase in withdrawal of foreign investments. Domestic private enterprises also face challenges due to the global financial crisis.
A statement by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce indicates that the total foreign investment in January was $7.5 billion, a decrease of 32.6% compared to the same period last year.
Source: EpochTimes, April 18, 2009
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/9/4/18/n2499031.htm
For the first time, 49 high-ranking officials in Guangdong province were sent to an emergency management training class for a period of 5 days. The training covered contingency plans for overseas incidents as well as information and press control in emergencies.
Source: Secret China, April 21, 2009
http://www.secretchina.com/news/289248.html
During an interview, the author of the book "Losing the New China," Ethan Gutmann, shared his view on Falun Gong’s "protest" outside of the Chinese central government compound, Zhongnanhai, 10 years ago. Gutmann said that after an in-depth investigation and many personal interviews, he had concluded that the "4/25 incident" was a setup by the Communist Chinese leader at the time, involving the intentional misrepresentation of Falun Gong practitioners’ actions to present grievances legally and openly at the Court of Appeals (near Zhongnanhai). He affirmed that the 4/25 incident was "just an excuse" on the part of the Chinese Communist Party leader at the time, and that the Falun Gong practitioners had fallen into a trap orchestrated by the Party used to justify a persecution that was already in the making. Subsequent investigation by Gutmann revealed that over the years, many Falun Gong practitioners have been killed as a result of the persecution as well as killed for their organs. He believes that the death toll has very possibly reached beyond 100,000, of which about 10,000 have been used for organ transplants.
Gutmann has been recently denied a visa into China.
Source: Epoch Times, April 17, 2009
http://epochtimes.com/gb/9/4/17/n2497771.htm
China National Radio reported that China and Russia signed an intergovernmental agreement on oil cooperation in Beijing on Tuesday. Under the intergovernmental agreement, China will provide a $25 billion loan to Russia, Russia will use oil as collateral. Russia will sell China 15 million metric tons of oil from 2011 to 2030, using the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline.
Energy Resources are currently the number one target of China’s overseas investment. Since the beginning of 2009 China has signed several "loan for oil" cooperation agreements with other countries, including a $10 billion loan to Brazil on February 18, a $4 billion loan with Venezuela on February 21, and a $1 billion loan with Angola on March 13. On April 5, President Correa of Ecuador announced a possible deal of exchanging crude oil for a $1 billion loan from China.
On April 16, China National Petroleum Corporation signed a contract to provide a $5 billion loan to Kazakhstan’s KazMunaiGaz National Co. to jointly buy AO Mangistaumunaigas, an oil and gas company in Kazakhstan.
Source: China National Radio, April 21, 2009
http://www.cnr.cn/gundong/200904/t20090421_505310249.html