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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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More Chinese Made Melamine Contaminated Food Found in Japan

Japan reported two more types of China made food products containing Melamine.  It reported on October 8 that they have found Melamine in the frozen Takoyaki or Frozen Poulp Squid imported from Long Wei Seafood Company in Fuqing of Fujian Province. Skim milk power was used as the raw material which contained up to 1.1 ppm of Melamine.

In addition to tainted Takoyaki and tainted dumplings which caused over 170 people ill in February of this year in Japan, on October 2, Japan also reported Melamine found in Egg Custard Tart imported from China which contains 1.4 ppm of Melamine.

Source:
The Epoch Times, October 8, 2008
http://epochtimes.com/gb/8/10/8/n2289592.htm
Now News, October 2, 2008
http://www.nownews.com/2008/10/02/334-2344183.htm

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

Home Electric Appliances Industry Facing Critical Challenges

China’s home electric appliances industry is facing critical challenges as it sees large drop in production, sales, and export volume, Xinhua quoted Huo Dufang, President of China Household Electrical Appliances Association. “Some electric appliances such as Refrigerator, Air Conditioning, and Microwave had negative growth in the last two to three months” Huo said.

Due to the negative impact by world’s economy and currency factor, for the month of July, refrigerator production was 4.36 million units, down 14.3 percent from prior year; Freezer was 880,000 units and down 12.8 percent; Microwave down 6.55 percent. Total industry output was 408.3 billion yuan in the first seven months, down 10 points in growth rate compared with last year. Industry’s export volume was also hit hard by appreciation in yuan and weakened US dollars. A number of products including electric fan, electric heater, and microwave had negative growth of 21 percent, 11.9 percent, 2.1 percent in export volume respectively.

Source: Xinhua, October 7, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-10/07/content_10159790.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

China’s Ambitious Supercomputer Plan in 2010

On September 16, China’s first high performance supercomputer Shuguang 5000A came off the assembly line in Tianjin. Shuguang 5000A made China the world’s No. 2 country after U.S. to have independently designed and produced supercomputer with computing speed over 100 trillion times per second.

Tianjin based Dawning Information Industry Co., Ltd, Shuguang 5000A’s manufacturer is planning to develop supercomputer with computing speed over 1000 trillion times per second by 2010, according to Xinhua. The company was set up in 1995, with the R&D supports from Chinese Academy of Science and National Research Center for Intelligence Computing System (国家智能计算机研究开发中心).

Source: Xinhua, October 7, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-10/07/content_10159871.htm

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

Africans in Beijing for Developing Confucius Institutes

On Tuesday October 7, a group of officials and educators from China and African countries were in Beijing to attend the Conference on African Confucius Institutes Development. Zhou Ji, the Education Minister, told the conference that, "We have given full support to the African side in establishing the institutes and improving teaching."

The Chinese government had allocated more than 3 million U.S. dollars to help establish institutes in Africa. They employed more than 20 language teachers and had about 30,000 textbooks, publications, audio and video programs. Ten of the 21 planned Confucius Institutes in 13 African countries have already opened. They are jointly run by African and Chinese colleges with support from the Chinese government.

China began to set up Confucius Institutes abroad in 2004. To date, 271 Confucius Institutes have been founded in 77 countries and regions.

Source: Xinhua, October 7, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-10/07/content_10159634.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Milk Scandal: Beijing’s Olympic Food Supplier on List

Beijing Sanyuan Foods Company, Ltd. (北京三元食品股份有限公司), a listed dairy producer in China, was chosen by Beijing Olympic Committee as the sole supplier of food and beverage for both the Summer Olympic and the Paralympic. For weeks, Sanyuan was the only listed diary producer that has avoided being associated with China’s milk contamination scandal.

On October 7, melamine was reportedly found in Sanyuan’s product by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, said the Guangdong based newspaper Yangcheng Evening News. The content of the toxic chemical was found to be as high as 10.58 mg/kg in the milk powders manufactured on August 7 by Sanyuan’s subsidiary in Qianan, Hebei Province.

Source: Yangcheng Evening News, October 7, 2008
http://www.ycwb.com/misc/2008-10/07/content_1985419.htm

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Xinhua Accuses U.S. to Infiltrate Other Countries under the Cover of Non-Government Organizations

Xinhua published a long article accusing U.S. government to conduct subversive activities in other countries under the cover of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The article specifically named U.S. National Endowment for Democracy (NED) as a U.S. political role player funded by the U.S. government. The article listed Venezuela, Ukraine, Iran, and Burma as examples in the respective areas that was influenced by its subversive activities or promoted “color revolutions.” It also accuses NED to directly interfere with China’s internal affairs by frequently funding “anti-China force” groups such as “Democracy Movement,” “Tibetan Independence,” and “Eastern Turkistan.”

Source: Xinhua, October 6, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2008-10/06/content_10156377.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

China’s Investment Created over 10,000 Job Opportunities for Zambia

Xinhua quoted a report by Zambia Time on October 6 claiming that Chinese companies has invested in more than 140 programs in Zambia and created 11,000 jobs for the local residents. China has become the biggest source of foreign investment for the country. China’s investment in Zambia covers a broad area, mostly on agriculture, machinery, mining, and tourism.

Source: Xinhua, October 6, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2008-10/06/content_10156158.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

The Beijing Olympics: Control News Sources, Step up Positive Reports and Eliminate Negative Reports

The following is a translation of widely spread article on Chinese language websites in August. Although the postings on China-based websites have now disappeared, uncensored overseas websites have preserved the posting. [1]
Beijing, China – Today (August 8, 2008) the Beijing Olympics opened. A few days ago, the authorities in charge of news media in China issued several notices to media on propaganda of the opening ceremony, and on rules and regulations pertaining to news reports of the Olympics. The notices emphasized positive reporting and reducing negative reporting such as the protest zone, the Kashgar incident [2], and misappropriation of the Sichuan disaster relief funds and other negative news.

On reporting the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, media is required to:

1. Report effectively on leaders of other countries present at the Opening Ceremony who are gathering in Beijing;

2. Report effectively on congratulations and wishes from the athletes from other countries, and guests from all walks of life;

3. Report effectively on the opening ceremony, the torch lighting, and athletes entering the stadium;

4. Report effectively on positive remarks and comments on the opening ceremony both from home and abroad;

5. Report effectively on services provided on the opening day including transportation and security checks, etc;

6. Report effectively on the August 7 press conference (including announcements about the Opening Ceremony, news releases, and feature articles, etc);

7. Report effectively on the August 8 Rogge Press Conference and the Head of State Reception in the morning and the Opening Ceremony in the evening;

8. Report effectively on the press conference of the design and production of the Opening Ceremony;

9. Report effectively on cultural activities related to the Olympics;

10. On each day before 5:00 p.m., file internal briefings on reports from the Internet, including photos and reports, video, interactive discussions from all channels, and new reporting styles and highlights;

11. Establish a designated topic consisting of highlights of comments on the Opening Ceremony. (Positive Comments Only)

12. Provide good propaganda of the two songs on the Opening Ceremony day. Use Chinese red (regular red), make good use of the whole screen and apply other special effects.

When reporting on the Olympic Grams, pay attention to the following items:
 
1. Report the good news only when covering the Opening Ceremony; make full use of the news sources from the News Agency and; cannot use other sources but Xinhua and the People’s Daily for viewing ratings and the commentaries;

2. Do not report the Olympics as an entertainment;

3. Do not report any news on the protest zone;

4. Make effort to ensure the success of every detail, and pay close attention to the poem with hidden message and old photos;

5. Report the cost of the Olympics accurately;

6. Do not hype the selections of athletes;

7. Do not hype and predict our country’s goal for gold medals;

8. Do not hype the issues of the reward, retirement, placement and security of the athletes;

9. Positively report our country’s anti-stimulant effectiveness, standpoints, achievements, and attitudes;

10. Downplay the disrespectful behavior of any individual athlete;
 
11. The news reports on Kashgar Incident must fully comply with propaganda guidelines and must be from “conformed” sources;

12. When reporting the lifting of Internet ban, make best efforts to closely monitor and control live chat sessions;

13. When browsing on the Internet, do not deliberately search overseas websites;

14. The pictures of the Olympics cannot be vulgar or risqué;
 
15. Nie Weiping criticized Lang Ping vehemently. He needs to cool off and be careful in his choice of words when commenting;
 
16. On reporting the economy, the party line is that it is “good and fast,” includes the real estate and stock markets;

17. As regards the interactive aspect of the green channel, comments must be pasted to all without any problem;

18. For example, for emergency reports like in “The Four Men Climbed the Pole,” reporting must be in line with the “instructions.” This applies to blogs and videos;

19. Serious incidents like the two songs should not occurred again;

20. Pay attention to the selection of media reports: There’s a difference between the domestic and the international reporting. “China News Agency” and “The Global Times” are media reports geared to overseas;

21. The National Office of Audit has pointed out that one cannot report on misappropriation of the Sichuan disaster relief funds;

22. Do not over-report Alexander Solzhenitsyn

23. Do not report the attacks made by Western media linking the earthquake to the Olympics.

Endnotes:
[1] Source: http://www.aboluowang.com/comment/data/2008/0808/article_10089.html
[2] Sixteen Chinese policemen were killed on Monday August 4 in Kashgar city, of the western province of Xinjiang in an assault using explosives and knives that the state news agency described as a “suspected terrorist attack”. The attack, which also injured sixteen other policemen, came just four days before the opening of the Beijing Olympics, an event which had already put China’s security forces on high alert including the mobilization of 100,000 soldiers and police.

Reports | | |   Report