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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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Xinhua: What Is the Mystery behind the U.S.’s Revision of Its Nuclear Strategy?

Xinhua published an article in its military section, “analyzing” the United States’ new strategic plan for its nuclear technology. The article stated, “The United States has recently hinted that it will revise its nuclear strategy. Specifically, it is developing tactical nuclear weapons while loosening up the conditions for the use of tactical nuclear weapons and even issuing threats about using tactical nuclear weapons. Why is the U.S. revising its nuclear strategy?” “To sum it up, the United States’ revision of its nuclear strategy is to make full use of existing technological advantages to improve its strategic position (in the world). This is the same means that the United States has always used.”

The article continued, “At present, the United States has turned its attention to the field of nuclear technology. Nuclear technology is a double-edged sword. Using this advantage will have benefits and it will have a significant impact on the U.S. and even on the world. Although the United States has only talked about its nuclear plan, it has a long way to go to implement it in a concrete way. It already has this intention, which indicates that the United States has already had to use its technological advantage with a double-edged sword to create its own strategic status. This also shows that, in recent years, the United States has been in a state of distress in the fields of technology, capital, and comprehensive national power. At the same time, it also shows that the United States is currently dissatisfied with its strategic position in the world and hopes to use a field with technological advantages to improve its strategic situation in a more powerful way. The state of Russia in previous years is similar to the current state of the United States. In those years, Russia was once in rapid decline in its national strength. The core element to maintain its status as a major power is nuclear power. The United States has also fallen into the use of nuclear advantages to maintain its strategic advantage. This is the mystery behind the United States’ nuclear strategy.”

Source: Xinhua, February, 9, 2018
http://www.xinhuanet.com/mil/2018-02/09/c_129809577.htm

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

LTN: China’s One Belt One Road Plan Brought Economic Trouble to Eight Countries

Major Taiwanese news network Liberty Times Network (LTN) recently reported on China’s grand One Belt One Road plan, which involves a potential investment total of US$8 trillion and involves 68 countries in Asia, Africa, and Europe. The report showed however, that it actually has brought an economic crisis to eight countries: Djibouti, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Maldives, Mongolia, Montenegro, Pakistan and Tajikistan. Not long ago, the Center for Global Development (CGD) published its analysis on the impact of One Belt One Road. The analysis indicated that many countries developed significant dependency on China and their debt level increased significantly. For example, the African country Djibouti’s Chinese debts are now as large as 91 percent of its GDP. Another example is Pakistan’s development plan of its Port of Gwadar. Now China has pocketed around 91 percent of the Port’s income with only 9 percent left for Pakistan. The income was obtained significantly based on the deep tax cut that Pakistan offered. Sri Lanka had to rent its port city Hambantota to China for nearly one century due to the fact that the government could not pay back its debt (US$1 billion) to China.

Source: Liberty Times Network, March 6, 2018
http://news.ltn.com.tw/news/world/breakingnews/2356725

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Geo-Strategic Trend

VOA Chinese: In 2017, Mainland China Supplied the Most Counterfeit Goods to the U.S.

Voice of America (VOA) Chinese recently reported that, according to the U.S. Customs and the U.S. Border Protection Agency (BPA), the number of import seizures increased from 31,560 in 2016 to 34,134 in 2017. Most of the counterfeits were jewelry; the second largest number consisted of bags and wallets, followed by consumer electronics. Including all imported counterfeit items, the Chinese Mainland had a share of 46 percent, followed by Hong Kong’s 32 percent. Of all those supplying counterfeit goods to the United States, Mainland China remains the largest. In 2017, the U.S. imported goods that violated intellectual property rights increased by eight percent overall. The U.S. authorities arrested 475 people last year and filed 288 legal cases.

Source: VOA Chinese, March 9, 2018
https://www.voachinese.com/a/voanews-20180309-intellectual-property-rights-seizure-stats/4287708.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Xinhua: Trade War Casts Shadow over EU-US Relationship

Xinhua recently published an analysis article discussing the intensified tough relationship between the European Union and the United States. As soon as U.S. President Trump announced the U.S. hike in the tariffs on steel and aluminum, the EU immediately described its counter measure to increase its tariffs on U.S. products such as Jeans and Harley-Davidson Motorcycles. However, Trump responded with threats against EU automobiles. The EU then promised to hold a “firm position” on defending EU interests. The French President even confirmed the position to take the fight to the WTO. Germany, the nation having the largest surplus with the U.S. in the EU, stated that “protectionism is the wrong path.” However, the U.S. is the EU’s largest trade partner. Just for the automobile and parts industry, the EU has a near US$40 billion trade surplus. The EU may not want to engage in an actual trade war against the U.S. or at least hopes to contain the conflict to a manageable level. Chinese analysts expressed their belief that Germany may not agree with the EU Council on increasing tariffs. The EU should also worry that its counter measures may end up pushing the U.S. to leave the WTO – if Trump actually delivers on his campaign promises. This may cause a global chain reaction leading to greater chaos. At the moment, with the EU-US strategic alliance relationship still in place, trade conflicts could be the new norm between the two in the years to come.

Source: Xinhua, March 8, 2018
http://www.xinhuanet.com/world/2018-03/08/c_1122507087.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

RFA: Wechat Restrictions Launched against Users in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region

Radio Free Asia reported that the Internet police in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region launched an “Internet cleanup” campaign which requires that, if any Wechat account has over ten members, they must make themselves available for the Internet police to inspect. The campaign also warned that no politically sensitive topics, internal notices, news from Hong Kong, Taiwan or Macau, from the Military, or from religions are allowed to circulate and the violators could be subject to a 1 to 8 year jail sentence. The Wechat account owner must also take full responsibility as well.

Source: Radio Free Asia, March 7, 2018
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/zhengzhi/ql3-03072018105849.html

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Duowei: Hong Kong Media Exposed the Secrets behind the Presidium Name List

Duowei News published an article reporting that the 190 member Presidium of the 13th National People’s Congress held its first meeting on March 4. The host was Li Zhanshu. Duowei quoted an analytical article from Hong Kong’s Ming Pao, which stated that the sequence on the presidium members list usually carries a certain meaning. For example, the first name on the list is usually the future Chairman of the National People’s Congress. Therefore it predicted that Li Zhanshu would be the chairman of the upcoming National People’s Congress. The second person on the list usually manages the personnel. Xi Jinping had that role ten years ago while Liu Yunshan held the position five years ago. For the upcoming term, it is Chen Xi, who currently heads the Organization Department. The third person on the list is usually the secretary of the presidium, who will be the future first vice chairman of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee. According to an article from Epoch Tomes, Li Zhanshu is considered Xi’s right-hand man. He helped Xi to clean out the residual forces that Ling Jihua left at the General Office. Chen Xi was Xi’s classmate from the Chemical Engineering department of Tsinghua University. Wang Huning, the current member of the party’s Politburo Standing Committee will mainly be responsible for party affairs and ideological work.

Source: Duowei, March 8, 2018
http://www.dwnews.com…1520811016781

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Epoch Times: Behind the Box Office Revenues of the Patriotic Movie, “Amazing China”

Epoch Times reported that a patriotic movie “Amazing China” was recently released in China. Xinhua claimed that the opening day revenue broke 40 million yuan (US$6.32 million). The article displayed copies of two official notices. One notice, from China Unicom (a state-owned telecommunications operator in China), stated that, from March 2 to 4, the company must organize at least one-third of its party members to watch the movie and the rest of the party members must watch it within the month. The second notice was from the Beijing office of China Radio International Digital Cinema Line (a state-owned international radio broadcaster in China). It contained the guideline for the SOE corporate group rate. The article stated that most of the movie tickets were sold as group tickets and the movie’s current rating on IMDB was 1.0.

Source: Epoch Times, March 11, 2018
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/18/3/11/n10207717.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics