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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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The CCP’s Performing Arts Troupes in the U.S.

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Young Migrant Workers Need More Education

Members of the Shanghai municipal committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference urged the government to provide more education to respond to an escalating crime rate involving laborers born since 1980. They account for 60% of the total migrant population and have become the main labor force in urban areas.

In Shanghai, 1.8 million out of 3 million migrant workers are under 28 years of age. The rate of crime involving young workers is steadily rising. They also called on the authorities to address the problem of defaulted salary payments, a longtime headache for migrant workers and the authorities.

Source: People’s Daily, January 24, 2008-01-24
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/language_tips/cdaudio/2008-01/24/content_6418492.htm

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Dealing with Widespread Illegal Land-Use

The Minister of Land and Resources, Xu Shaoshi, reported that more than 2,700 government officials face prosecution in 31,000 land-use violation cases.

Xu reported that 1.3 million hectares were used without authorization, about 20,000 hectares of land were taken over in the name of leases and 66,666 hectares were involved in the expansion of development zones. The courts have convicted more than 300 officials with fines and confiscating property worth 2 billion yuan ($276 million).

Land remains a steady source of fiscal revenue for local governments. To attract foreign investment, they offering investors cheap land. This practice has triggered outrage from the farmers, who are not properly compensated for the appropriated land.

Source: Website of The Ministry of Land and Resources, January 22, 2008
http://www.mlr.gov.cn/xwdt/jrxw/200801/t20080122_98401.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

210 million Internet Users – a Tremendous Force that Can Guide China

According to China Internet Network Information Center, as of December 31, 2007, the number of Internet users in China had reached 210 million. According to The Beijing News, "This is a tremendous force that can guide and push China towards democracy and freedom." The most challenging task is not the Internet, but the authorities’ attempt to control it. The article is critical of the practice of putting someone in jail because of what that person writes. It suggests that the authorities should be open and treat Internet users with kindness – one should go along with “the grand trend of human civilization” instead of bucking it.

Source: The Beijing News, January 19, 2008
http://www.thebeijingnews.com/comment/shelun/2008/01-19/014@014708.htm

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

Remaking Defense Industry within Next Five Years

In 2008, China will accelerate the privatization reform of state-owned Chinese defense industrial enterprises and plans to complete the reform within the next five years. According to  officials from the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense of China (COSTIND), the anticipated capitalization will amount to close to 100 billion RMB.

In 2007, 18 public companies (formerly state-owned defense enterprises) requested to increase market capitalization and 10 of them applied for an Initial Public Offering. COSTIND officials encourage both domestic and foreign participation in the privatization reform.

Source: Xinhua, January 20, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2008-01/20/content_7454122.htm

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

Thousand Workers Strike in Dongguan, Guangdong

Ever since the new Labor Contract Law went into effect on January 1, 2008, there have been continuous conflicts between workers and owners of private companies in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan, and other cities in Guangdong Province. On January 20, two large-scale strikes took place simultaneously in foreign owned enterprises in Tangxia Town of Dongguan City, involving more than 1000 workers. The strikers accused the employers of cutting their pay by adopting new ways of calculation. The furious workers blocked the road, confronting hundreds of police. Dozens of people were injured.

Source: Radio Free Asia, January 22, 2008
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/shenrubaodao/2008/01/22/bagong/

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Record High Investment in Beijing Olympics

According to Hong Kong based Ming Pao News, the current amount of money invested in the 2008 Summer Olympic Games has reached a record high of 28 billion RMB or $3.8 billion. The number is 2.2 times the figure estimated in 2001 when Beijing was bidding to host the event, compared to $1.5 billion for the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and $2.4 billion for the Athens Olympics in 2004. As the construction of some stadiums and other facilities are not finally completed, the total amount invested is expected to be even higher than the current level.

Source: Asia Times, January 22, 2008
http://www.atchinese.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=45188&Itemid=110

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

The History and Developing Trend on China’s Air Defense Missile System

The growth of China’s aerospace military in 2007 was astonishing, and at the same time, worrisome to some countries. Last year, Beijing sent ballistic missiles to destroy an aged meteorological satellite and launched their first lunar probe, the Chang’e 1. At the same time, China was planning to link up with Russia to explore Mars. Recently the Commission of Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defense (COSTIND) has released news that China plans to launch 15 rockets, 17 satellites, and one manned spaceflight in 2008.

On December 12, 2007, Outlook Weekly, an economic and political weekly magazine run by the Xinhua News Agency, published an article titled “The Developing Trend of China’s Air Defense Missile System.” The author, Liu Erqi, is the chief of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) committee from the Second Research Institute of China Aerospace Science & Industry Corp. The following are translated excerpts of his article. [1]
“Under strict attention from the Party and national leaders, China’s air defense missile system has gone through 50 years of difficult struggle. The Second Research Institute has grown out of the Fifth Research Institute under the Ministry of Defense, with additional experts from other civil and military agencies. The institute is primarily responsible for developing the air defense missile systems. The early technologies were introduced and replicated from the former Soviet Union. Since then, the institute has developed a missile defense system based on its own design, along with learning from other countries’ research results. … Up to the 1990s, the system had developed into a multiple air defense missile weapon system, including three altitudes (high, medium, and low altitude) and four series (medium-to-high altitude, low-to-medium altitude, ultra low-to-low altitude, and portable) of air defense missile weapon systems.

“Currently, the R&D department of the institute is actively upgrading the missile weapons, as well as perfecting the weapon system in long, intermediate, and short ranges. Long range refers to 250 km and above; intermediate range refers to 50 km to 200 km; short range refers to 30 km and below. They are paving the road for developing a digital air defense network.”

“The fist generation air defense missiles, Hongqi No. 1 and No. 2, had the capability of medium-to-high altitude targets. We also developed Hongqi No. 61 that targets low-to-medium objects and Hongying No. 5 portable missiles.”

“In the 1970s, China started to develop its second-generation air defense missile system, while other countries already started R&D for third-generation air defense missile systems. Therefore, our product was a combination of the second- and third-generation from the technological point of view. It is more appropriate to call it a post-second-generation air defense missile system.

“The main characteristics of the second-generation technology include low-altitude capability, small-sized missiles and systems, solidified missile propulsion system, mini-sized electronic devices, and decreased vehicular needs for carrying the weapons.
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“The main characteristics of the third-generation technology include anti-guidance air defense systems, improved anti-interference capability, further smaller-sized missiles, multi-target capability, and a multi-weapon coordination system.

“Upon borrowing the technologies used for the Patriot-1, SA-10, Javelin, and Crotale missiles from the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, and France, China developed Qianwei portable missiles, and FM-80 and FM-90 low-altitude short-range missiles. After that, we developed the third-generation medium-to-high altitude, intermediate-and-long-range air defense missile FD-2000.

“It was worthwhile to mention that in the 1980s, the Taiwan area of China, under the help of the United States, developed the Tiangong No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 air defense missiles modeled from the Patriot missiles of the United States.”

“The air defense missile system was only one type of weapon to protect the China’s air space. Other important directions for developing air defense weapons include guided air-defense artillery shells and laser weapons.”

Endnote:
[1] Outlook Weekly Article: The Developing Trend of China’s Air Defense Missile System, December, 12, 2007
http://news.sohu.com/20071212/n254000272.shtml

Reports | | |   Report