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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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LTN: Putin Ordered a Ban on Importing Chinese Train Cabins

Major Taiwanese news network Liberty Times Network (LTN) recently reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin visited a train cabin manufacturer on January 10. Putin revealed during the visit that he had ordered the Russian Ministry of Transportation to ban the import of China-made train cabins. He also asked the Russian government to budget for purchasing Russian made cabins in order to protect domestic manufacturing and to facilitate the process of exporting Russian train cabins. The Russian federal authorities sponsored a study on train accidents that occurred in the past several years and found a critical part made in China caused most of the accidents. Since last May, the federal government banned the import of some Chinese parts that easily broke due to violation of required manufacturing procedures. In the latest move, Russia has banned the import of all train cabins made in China.

Source: LTN, January 11, 2018
http://news.ltn.com.tw/news/world/breakingnews/2309558

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Xinhua: How North Korean Media Reported the Recent Inter-Korean Talks

Xinhua recently published a report focusing on China’s observation of how the North Korean media reported the globally watched Inter-Korean Talks on the Winter Olympics. Starting January 3, almost the entire world media, especially in South Korea, began covering the Inter-Korean Talks. Although the talks started on January 9, there was no mention of the event across the North Korean media, even after hours into the talks. Typically, major North Korean media such as the central television has 5:00 p.m., 8:00 p.m., and 10:00 p.m. time slots for critical news. For major events such as nuclear tests, there would be a 3:00 p.m. breaking news report. However, there was no report or any direct mention of the talks. Instead, since the beginning of the new year, the North Korean media circulated blanket-coverage of Kim Jong-un’s New Year’s Greetings Speech. Xinhua published the photos of the January 9 front pages of all major North Korean newspapers and none showed any report of the Inter-Korean Talks.

Source: Xinhua, January 9, 2018
http://news.sina.com.cn/w/zx/2018-01-09/doc-ifyqkarr8123361.shtml

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Xinhua: Chinese SOEs Are “Big but Not Strong”

According to an article that Xinhua published, in 2002, only 11 Chinese companies made the Fortune Global 500 list, but, in 2017, 115 Chinese companies made the list compared to 132 U.S. companies. Most of the Chinese companies are from the bank, insurance, telecommunication, and electric grid industries while 60 percent of the companies were SOEs (state owned enterprises) and accounted for over 80 percent of the net capital and total income. However the article called these SOEs “big but not strong.” They lacked the ability to be competitive, especially in value creation ability. The article stated that the Chinese companies lagged behind in Internet, information technology, pharmaceutical, automotive, military, semiconductor, and chip industries when compared to the Western companies. Among those 109 Chinese companies on the Global Fortune 500 list, the Return of Asset rate was only 1.65 percent compared to 4.79 percent for the U.S. companies. Chinese SOEs are behind in the high end core technology and the spare parts industry and there are no companies that are even comparable with the Western companies in the pharmaceutical and semi-conductor industries. The article reported that the Chinese SOEs need to make breakthroughs in renovation and resource dependency and to rely less on core product imports while improving on brand position and quality.

Source: Xinhua, January 15, 2018
http://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2018-01/15/c_1122258015.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Aboluowang Commentary: Xi Jinping Is Unlikely to Make a Term Change during the Upcoming Central Committee Plenary Session

Aboluowang published a commentary article in which it reported that any speculation that Xi Jinping might push for a term change during the upcoming central committee plenary session might have come from Jiang’s faction for the purpose of creating negative media trouble for Xi.

According to the article, the second plenary session of the 19th Party Central Committee will be held from Jan. 18 to 19 in Beijing. The major agenda of the meeting will be to make small changes in the constitution. A number of different media outlets, including Deutsche Welle, Bloomberg News, and Mingbao speculated that Xi Jinping might want to incorporate a change in the term limit for the Presidency into the constitution because he has apprehended large number of corrupt officials and, during his term, has touched the core interest of Jiang’s faction. Once his term ends, he and his family could face danger. However, based on Xinhua’s report that there will be a small change made to the constitution during the plenary session, it is unlikely that a change in the term limit will be made this time. It is likely that some additional “Xi Jinping Thought,” which was added into party constitution last year, could be included in the constitution this time. The Aboluowang commentary suggested that the Chinese Communist Party always plays black box politics and there has been no defined rule regarding its succession plan. There can be many different forms if one wishes to stay in power, just as how Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin continued to exercise their influence after they stepped down from their post. Currently Xi’s control over power is not yet complete. It is unlikely for him to push for a term change and invite more trouble for himself. Therefore the faction that Jiang leads could have made up much of the speculation out there in order to create negative media trouble for Xi.

Source: Aboluowang, January 14, 2018
http://www.aboluowang.com/2018/0114/1054494.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Shanghai Marriott under Investigation for Listing Taiwan, Macau, Taiwan, and Tibet as Countries on its Website

In a recent news report, Duowei stated that the Marriott Hotel chain violated the Internet security and advertising law in China when it listed Taiwan, Macau, Taiwan, and Tibet as countries. The Shanghai Huangpu District Internet Information Office has, currently, placed the Marriott under investigation. According to the report, on January 9, the Marriott issued an apology on its official Weibo account saying it was a system error. On January 10, the Shanghai Huangpu District Internet Information Office issued a notice stating that they have met with the representatives of the Shanghai Marriott twice and requested it to take down the incorrect information from its website and cell phone apps immediately to “eliminate the negative influence.” According to Duowei news, in addition to the Marriott, the official websites of other luxury brands, including Audi, Cartier, Hermes, Burberry, and Armani also listed Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan as countries.

Source: Duowei News, January 10, 2018
http://news.dwnews.com/china/news/2018-01-10/60034755.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Global Times: To Rise, China Needs to Fight another 30 Years of “Protracted Battle”

Wang Wen, Executive Dean of the Chongyang Finance Institute at Renmin University of China, published an article evaluating China’s rise relative to the current world powers. The article said, “Over the past decade, the most popular academic view of the world’s changing situation is the rise of emerging countries and the decline of established developed countries. However, judging from the share of the total national economy in the global total, the actual situation is more complicated and subtle.”

“The so-called ‘readjustment of the global economic and financial structure’ in the past decade is actually a structural adjustment between China and the established powers of Western Europe and Japan. It has not shaken the status of the United States.”

“Although there is no real shake-up of the U.S. economic status, it is undeniable that the global financial crisis has hit the soft power of the United States. Over the past decade, the world has constantly criticized the loopholes in the U.S. financial regulatory system and reflected on the shortcomings of the democratic and liberal system in the United States. In the course of criticism and reflection, the self-confidence of the Chinese society has gradually recovered. Especially in recent years, China has hosted the G20 Summit, the Summit on the International Cooperation of the Belt and Road Initiative, the BRIC Leaders’ Summit, and the Summit of the Chinese Communist Party and the World Political Parties, prompting more and more countries to recognize and adopt the ‘China proposal.’ There are even many countries that try to follow China’s example.”

“However, the Chinese people must be soberly aware that the gradual recognition of the ‘China proposal’ is only the first step toward the ‘great march of longevity’ for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and does not mean that the road to rejuvenation has come to an end. China’s overall strength is still far behind the United States, the only superpower in the world. It will still take a long time to catch up and surpass it. It will take time for China’s rise to be convincing to the world.”

“The real remodeling of the international system is subtle and difficult and is entering a long ‘protracted battle,’ meaning that the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation has also entered into a ‘protracted battle’ that will go on for about 30 more years.”

Source: Global Times, January 9, 2018
http://opinion.huanqiu.com/hqpl/2018-01/11506801.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Duowei: Another Case of a Local Chinese Government’s GDP Data Fraud

Duowei news reported that, following the three northeastern provinces, another act of “cheating the Party Central Committee” had occurred. In recent days, one of China’s local governments was exposed for committing GDP data fraud. Officials from Inner Mongolia admitted that they had committed massive falsification of financial and economic data. Those responsible had artificially increased the industrial added value in 2016 by 40 percent. The falsified accounts amounted to an addition of 290 billion yuan (US$44.69 billion), which was the equivalent of the total GDP of Inner Mongolia’s capital city Hohhot. On January 7, Chinese media reported that Inner Mongolia, after the financial department’s repeated auditing corrections, had to reduce its income from its public budget in 2016 by 53.0 billion yuan (US$8.16 billion), accounting for 26.3 percent of the total. The industrial added value in 2016 should be reduced by 290 billion yuan, accounting for 40 percent of the industrial added value for the entire region.

Source: Duowei, January 8, 2018
http://news.dwnews.com/china/news/2018-01-08/60034109.html

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military Economy/Resources

British Research Showed a Large Number of ISIS Weapons Originated in China

Duowei, a Beijing controlled Chinese media based overseas, recently reported on three years of British research into the sources of ISIS weapons. The research found that around 90 percent of ISIS weapons came from either China or other former communist countries (including Russia). Among all of the weapons that ISIS has, 43.5 percent were made in China. Romania made around 12.1 percent, Russia made 9.6 percent and Hungary made 7.2 percent. ISIS used to claim their weapons were mostly looted goods originally made in the United States. Now it appears that was a lie and only less than two percent were U.S.-made weapons. The British research was based on over 40,000 pieces of weaponry collected from ISIS over the past four years. Its report concluded that China has played a dominant role among the sources where ISIS weapons were made.

Source: Duowei, January 3, 2018
http://news.dwnews.com/global/news/2018-01-03/60033306.html

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military Geo-Strategic Trend