Just before the “Two Conferences” (the Chinese National People’s Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference), Xinhua News Agency and Economic Information Daily conducted a joint survey on the most concerned issues among Chinese people. The poll started on February 7, 2005; and ended on March 5, 2005. 218,754 people cast their votes. Each participant could select 8 to 10 items from the questions listed below. The vast majority of people (75%) would like the government to save the stock market, as China has had a prolonged bear market since 2001.
On the Iraq Election
[Editor’s Note: On January 30, the curtain of “the first free election in last 50 years” in Iraq fell. Four hours after the polls closed, the U.S. President Bush said excitedly that the election was a success. The following are two commentaries by Xinhua, China state news agency on the election.]
On North Korea’s Nuclear Program
[Editor’s Note: The following are two reports from Xinhua, China’s state news agency, commenting on U.S. and Japan on dealing with North Korea’s nuclear program.]
Practicing Law in China: Chinese Lawyer Punished for Defending Human Rights
Practicing law, a profession that was eliminated after the Communists took power, was reinstated in the 1980s and has now become a hot career in China. According to the All China Lawyers Association, which was founded in 1986, there are 110,000 lawyers practicing in China today. However, when Chinese lawyers defend their clients’ human rights in accordance with Chinese law, they often find themselves at odds with the communist government.
Hong Kong Democrat’s Trip to the Mainland Ends in Detention
When Alex Ho made a business trip to Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, China last August, he did not expect to stay in Dongguan for 168 days. Ranked number three as the Democratic Party candidate running for the Hong Kong Legislative Council (LegCo) election, Mr. Ho was considered to be a key force in his party’s victory in the upcoming election less than one month away. However, in China, Mr. Ho was charged with soliciting a prostitute and was sentenced, without trial, to six months in detention.
Secret Document (distribution within Changchun Municipality): Work Plan to Ensure Security on Appeal
[Editor’s note: The annual “Two Conferences” (the National People’ s Congress and People’s Political Consultative Conference) were held in March in Beijing for the representatives to report their local residents’ concerns to the central government and to discuss national policies. The “Two Conferences” provide an opportunity for those with issues unresolved at local government levels to voice out to the higher authorities. In recent years, conflicts between people and local governments have been on the rise and so are the numbers of people who go to Beijing to appeal. In order to ensure a “peaceful environment” and a good international image, government at each level tries to minimize the appeals during this sensitive period of time. Below is a secret document from the Changchun municipal government detailing the strategies on how to prevent local petitioners from going to the Appeal Reception Offices in Beijing during the “Two Conferences.”]
The Fourth Force: Change in China Has a New Face
With the passage on March 14 of a new “Anti-Secession” law by its rubber-stamp National People’s Congress, China moved one step further in its designs to attack Taiwan. The legislation vows to use “non-peaceful means” to prevent independence by Taiwan. China’s State Council and Central Military Commission now may declare war on Taiwan, the first democratic Chinese state.
The maneuver should confirm doubts in the free world as to communist China’s self-professed “non-threatening rise.” As the Taiwanese and others around the world angrily protest the new law, we do well to remember that the problem is not so much one of China or its people per se. Rather, the problem lies in Beijing’s communist dictatorship itself. The lasting peace and stability we so earnestly wish to see in East Asia is only possible when this, the deeper problem of the CCP, is uprooted.
Renowned Economist Yang Xiaokai On China’s Economy: An Interview By NTDTV
[Editor’s Note: Nobel Laureate of Economic Science James Buchanan stated about Yang Xiaokai that his analysis of specialization was perhaps the most important economic research in the world. Yang was deemed the most promising Chinese candidate for the Nobel Prize in Economic Science.
Yang Xiaokai died last year, but not before granting an interview to New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV).
Yang Xiaokai was born in China in 1948 to high-ranking officials of the Communist Party. His father, Yang Dipu, was at one time Secretary-General of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee and his mother, Chen Su, served as deputy head of the provincial trade union organization. At the age of just 19, he wrote a political tract entitled, “Whither China?” which, as well as advocating radical change in economic policy, openly denounced the powerful Communist Party elite. His book became famous but it landed him in prison for the next ten years of his life.
Once free, Yang studied at Hunan University and accepted a position at Wuhan University. He was awarded a Ford Foundation Fellowship and obtained his PhD in economics from Princeton University. He then took a postdoctoral position at Yale University before accepting the first of his appointments as a lecturer in economics at Monash University in Australia. He was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences of Australia in 1993. He was a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University (1998-1999), Yale University (1987-1988), and at many other universities. His research papers appeared in American Economic Review, the Journal of Political Economy, the Journal of Development Economics, the Journal of Organization and Economic Behavior, the Journal of Urban Economics, the Journal of Economics and in countless other publications. His own publications include Specialization and Economic Organization: A New Classical Microeconomic Framework, and Economics: New Classical Versus Neoclassical Frameworks.
The following interview with Yang Xiaokai took place shortly before his death in 2004.]