According to an article Radio Free Asia published, people are concerned that a new regulation that the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) announced on March 22 will limit derivative work and suppress freedom of creativity. SARFT announced that it will prevent any online program from producing or publishing programs that distort, spoof, or demonize classic works of literature. It also forbids editing, dubbing, or adding subtitles to any classic works of literature, radio, or television programs, and any original Internet programs. The announcement claimed that since the end of January this year, the Ministry of Culture has cleaned up 3,898 movies that contain spoofs of contents of classic revolutionary songs and 165 of those that contain spoofs of music. An artist from Beijing was quoted as saying that the authorities have issued a number regulations that appear to stabilize the social order, but the real intent is to eliminate any voice of opposition from the public. Another Taiwan movie director was quoted in the article as saying that he supports freedom of creativity, but he agrees that the derivative works violate the copyright issue. RFA reached out to SARFT for further clarification, but the person who answered the phone said he was not responsible for giving an explanation.

Source: Radio Free Asia, March 23, 2018
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/creation-03232018083138.html

Duowei News published an article on March 20 stating that Xi has changed his focus on China’s foreign affairs effort, thereby elevating it to an important position and that there will be a major reshaping of China’s foreign affairs work to enable it to play a more important role in the party’s governing body. The change includes an increase in the budget, a change in personnel, the reform of the foreign affairs agency and the setting up of a state-level International Development Cooperation Agency. The article reported that in 2018, the budget for Foreign Affairs was 60 billion yuan or US$9.5 billion, an increase of 15.6 percent from 2017 and 40 percent from 2013 when Xi first took power. The personnel change includes the appointment of Wang Yi to state councilor to handle pressing foreign affairs issues including the US – China relationship, North Korea, Taiwan and the South China Sea. Wang Qishan was appointed to be the Vice President with his main focus being on foreign affairs; Xi’s economic adviser Liu He was appointed to be the Vice premier. He is expected to handle the trade imbalance between the U.S. and China. The newly established state-level International Development Cooperation Agency is expected to manage the ever increasing foreign aid budget.

Source: Duowei, March 20, 2018
http://news.dwnews.com/china/news/2018-03-20/60047051.html

Xinhua published a summary of the “Report on the work of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress” that Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) delivered on March 8, during the third plenary meeting of the first session of the 13th NPC. It contained a summary of the “Five Musts” that delegates of the National People’s Congress must observe when they conduct their work. They are:
1) Must uphold the leadership of the central administration in accordance with Comrade Xi Jinping’s authority
2) Must execute Xi’s socialist thought with Chinese Characteristics in the new era
3) Must demonstrate that the people are the masters of the country in their political and social lives
4) Must play an important role in promoting the rule by law
5) Must maintain an unshakeable determination to make timely improvements in the system of the National People’s Congress

Source: Xinhua: March 11, 2018
http://www.xinhuanet.com/video/sjxw/2018-03/11/c_129827424.htm

Radio France Internationale (RFI) recently reported that anonymous sources disclosed that the Chinese Communist Party has started an internal investigation of the Xinhua News Agency, which is the official communications authority for the Chinese government and the Party. The incident that triggered the investigation was that the Xinhua English News Bulletin recently published the constitutional amendment changing the status of the term limits for the President ahead of schedule. The Chinese leadership may have found this leak to be suspicious. The investigation team was composed of members from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Central Propaganda Department of the Communist Party. Sources also indicated that all bureau director levels of Xinhua personnel have been banned from international travel. A few other unexpected incidents of a similar kind occurred last year as well.

Source: RFI Chinese, March 17, 2018
http://bit.ly/2FIjrLx