Chinascope – Page 515

Deutsche Welle: Do not Force German Companies to Form a Communist Party Branch Office within the Company

Deutsche Welle recently published an article reporting that Delegations of the German Industry and Commerce {which represents the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce in China} is increasingly concerned that German companies in China are facing increased pressure from the communist party to form a party branch office within the company. The party branch office in the company is also expected to expand its influence in the company’s decision making process. The German Commerce also stated that it can’t rule out the possibility that German companies may consider leaving China or seek other investment options as a result of (the pressure).

On November 24, Delegations of German Industry and Commerce published an official statement on its website which stated that the Commerce Delegation has learned of an increasing number of cases in which the Chinese Communist Party intends to expand its rights in foreign investment companies in China. The Commerce believes that the foreign companies are not obligated and there are no legal grounds to form a party branch office and that whether to form a party branch office should be decided by the company. The company should not be required or actively promote the establishment of a party branch office. However according to article 19 within the “Company Law” in China, as long as there are over three party members in a company, a party branch office can be formed. The Company Law applies to State Owned Enterprises, Foreign Investment Companies, and joint venture companies operated in China. A Huanqiu article on November 30 reported about the topic and stated that, “If China continues to force a party branch to be within German companies, to infiltrate upper management, and to interfere with the company’s decision-making policy, German companies will Leave China.”

According to the statistics that the Ministry of Organization Department published, by the end of 2016, there were communist party branch offices set up in 70 percent of the foreign companies in China. The party claims that a party branch office can “assist the company to understand the Chinese government, resolve labor disputes, and provide positive energy for the company’s growth.” A Huanqiu commentary from October also denied that there have been reported incidents of conflict between the party branch and the company’s management.

Source: Deutsche Welle, December 1, 2017
http://www.dw.com/zh/ahk别逼德国在华企业成立党支部/a-41616925?&zhongwen=simp

Briefings | | December 4, 2017 | Government/Politics

Huanqiu Opinion: China has Fulfilled Its Responsibilities. It Is time for the U.S. and South Korea to Pay for Their Trouble

On December 2, Huanqiu published an opinion article about China’s role in dealing with North Korea. Below are some of the key points from the article.

China is still one of the few countries that, to date, has insisted on maintaining a friendly policy toward North Korea. Even though China has participated in the sanctions that the United Nations has imposed against North Korea, China remains as North Korea’s largest trade partner. During a number of UN Security Council debates, China has strongly opposed total economic sanctions against North Korea. China has stressed that the sanctions should only target the department or areas that are related to its nuclear projects and shouldn’t impact the livelihood of the North Korean people. In order not to make the North Korean people suffer from the sanctions, China has endured tremendous pressure from the U.S. and the western media.

China has done all it can for the U.S. The root cause of the North Korean nuclear crisis is the worsened hostile relationship between the U.S., South Korea, and North Korea. The mentality that (the remedy) is “China’s responsibility” is wrong. China has fulfilled its responsibility to impose sanctions against North Korea as defined in the UN Security Council resolution. As a result, we have sacrificed the relationship between China and North Korea. The U.S. and South Korea have not fulfilled their responsibility to ease the tension and promote a dialogue with North Korea. They put most of their hope on China to force North Korea to change its position.

For a period of time, the U.S. has somewhat threatened China to get China to increase sanctions against North Korea. China has done its best to excise patience in negotiating with the U.S. on our position. In the fierce conflicts between the U.S. and North Korea, China has played a key role which has prevented the situation from breaking down. As the U.S. is increasing its pressure on North Korea, it is unquestionable to believe that the loss that China will suffer will be tremendous.

As the Korean Peninsula conflict escalates to another level, most of the pressure will continue to shift to China. However, to the U.S. and South Korea: please be clear. You created this trouble so you must take the responsibility. China can’t bear that for you.

North Korea continues to violate the UN Security Council Resolution and launched a ballistic missile. It should be prepared for more sanctions. China has no reason to pay for their mistake and bear the responsibility for them. Regardless of what mistakes North Korea has made, it is wrong to impose complete economic sanctions or discontinue the diplomatic relationship and isolate North Korea. China has no responsibility to cooperate with the U.S. to fulfill this unrealistic plan. The U.S. has no command power over China and the UN Security Council.

Pyongyang should be more and more clear that, as long as it continues to conduct nuclear tests, China will not help it to be spared from future punishment. The chances that a war might break out in the Korean Peninsula are growing, but whether a war will start or not is not dependent on what China will do. The big policy for China is to maintain its independence, encourage the Security Council to come up with a reasonable policy and not give in to the excessive requests from the U.S. and South Korea.

If the situation suddenly gets even worse, China would have to deal with it.

Source: Huanqiu, December 2, 2017
http://opinion.huanqiu.com/editorial/2017-12/11417389.html

Briefings | | December 3, 2017 | Geo-Strategic Trend

VOA: Low-end Population – the Most Variable Factor in China’s Politics?

VOA published an interview with some guest speakers, who discussed Beijing’s sudden eviction of tens of thousands of its “low-end population” when the weather was very cold. The “Low-end population” refers to people who do work that requires low skills and who do not hold residence status in Beijing. Below is a selection from the guest speaker’s comments.

1) It is hard to accept the term “low-end population” because it grades people into different categories. Of course, in sociology, people are divided into different social classes: the bottom, middle, and upper classes. The Chinese Communist Party claims that the proletariat is the master of China but in reality the five percent who are the elite class in China are the real master. The party follows Social Darwinism, which seeks the end result but not the means. The elite can hurt others for their gain. As a matter of fact, their authority has completely deviated from the rule by law they have been promoting. The Party Secretary of Beijing knows how propaganda works and understands the impact the media has. Therefore it is not that he chose to issue the eviction order but he had no other option. He had to force the action and couldn’t wait. It could be that the party thinks that China’s economy will collapse in the next six to 12 months. If large numbers of people are unemployed and unable to survive, it is obvious that these people could pose a huge threat to their authority. These (low-end) people still have work right now. Even though they were evicted they wouldn’t rebel. If they were unemployed, however, it is very unlikely that they wouldn’t leave even if the authorities used guns to chase them out. This is the reason that the authorities do not want to disclose right now.

2) The real reason is that the highest leader became so powerful that he has lost his judgment. He has been successfully suppressing different voices in the past few years, including social group, rights lawyers or rights activists. He feels that he has invincible power now and that he can do anything. Therefore he used a radical approach in urban management and didn’t realize that he is facing fierce resistance from the international society and his own citizens.

Source: VOA Chinese, December 1, 2017
https://www.voachinese.com/a/voaweishi-20171201-pc-china-migrant-worker/4145303.html

Briefings | | December 3, 2017 | Social Stability

Duowei: The CCP Intends to Export China Model to the World

On November 24, the second volume publication symposium on “Xi Jinping Talks about State Administration” was held in Beijing. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) new chief of propaganda and ideology, Wang Huning, and the Minister of the Central Propaganda Department, Huang Kunming, attended the meeting. Wang Huning defined Xi Jinping Thought as “original and contemporary Chinese Marxism in the 21st century.” Wang also gave Xi Jinping Thought a certain kind of universalist aura except for stressing that it should be used to arm the CCP.

Wang praised the essay book of Xi Jinping Thought, saying it, “fully embodies China’s wisdom and China’s plan to promote the cause of building a community of shared human destiny while contributing to the cause of mankind’s peace and development and … guiding the forward direction of advancing a better future for mankind.” Wang also demanded that the “(CCP) deepen the spread of propaganda to the world and enhance the international community’s understanding of Xi Jinping’s socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.”

Source: Duowei, November 25, 2017
http://news.dwnews.com/china/news/2017-11-25/60025793.html

Briefings | | November 30, 2017 | Government/Politics

Qiushi: China Is the Largest Democracy in the World Today

Qiushi {Seeking Truth}, the Chinese Communist Party’s theoretical periodical, published an article claiming China is the largest democratic country in the world. Below are some key points from the article:

• The West uses a “non-democratic” mark to label China’s socialist system, devaluing or even demonizing China’s political and economic system and its development achievements. As the most populous country in the world, China is the largest democracy in the world today.

• The West has no right to monopolize the standard for the “democratic state.” The essence of contemporary Western political discourse is that it is trying to establish Western democracy as the only “legitimate” form of democracy. Westerners deliberately refuse to apply the democratic form to contemporary {communist} China despite its own democratic pluralism.

• Western democracy is not as radiant as Westerners portray.

• China is steadily moving toward a new realm of people’s democracy. Socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics is the broadest, most authentic, and most effective democracy that upholds people’s fundamental interests and constantly shows its authenticity, effectiveness, and superiority.

Source: Sina, November 11, 2017
http://news.sina.com.cn/c/nd/2017-11-18/doc-ifynwnty4741795.shtml

Briefings | | November 30, 2017 | Government/Politics

China Conducted the First Head Transplant on Dead Bodies

Italian Neurosurgery specialist Sergio Canavero said that his team has performed the first head transplant in China by taking off the head from a dead body and connecting it to another dead body. The surgery took 18 hours and was successful.

Ren Xiaoping, a Chinese Professor at the Harbin Medical University, performed the surgery.

Canavero said earlier this year that he plans to conduct a head transplant in two years. He said this will lead to “living forever,” where people transplant their heads to younger bodies which were cloned from their original bodies.

Arthur Kaplan, a professor at New York University, who is strongly against organ harvesting, vehemently opposes this transplant practice. “The head transplant talk is like (the talks) from Mengele.” “It will be very brutal and definitely will bring disaster.”

Josef Mengele was a German Schutzstaffel officer and physician at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp during World War II. He used live humans to perform experiments to “improve the human race.”

“Canavero’s team said that the first transplant might be done using the body of a Chinese organ donor, because there is a higher chance of getting a Chinese organ donor.”

However, there have been accusations that the Chinese government conducts live organ harvesting using Falun Gong practitioners and political dissidents.

Ethan Gutmann, a human rights defender and former adjunct fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, believes that there are 500,000 to 1 million Falun Gong practitioners imprisoned in China and from 2000 to 2008, about 65,000 of them were already killed when the Chinese regime harvested their organs.

Source: BBC, November 23, 2017
http://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-42100245

Briefings | | November 29, 2017 | Government/Politics Information/Technology

China Will Host a Summit between the CCP and the World’s Political Parties

Xinhua announced that, from November 30 to December 3, China will host a Summit in Beijing that will include the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and a large number of political parties from around the world. Xi Jinping will attend and give the keynote address at the opening ceremony.

Over 200 parties and political organizations from more than 120 countries have registered for the conference.

“This summit is the first China-hosted multi-country diplomacy event since the 19th Communist Party National Conference. It is the first time for the CCP to hold a summit which includes many different types of political parties from around the world; it is expected to be the most-attended summit of political party conferences. It has groundbreaking significance in the CCP’s history and also groundbreaking significance in the history of the world’s political parties.”

The summit has a symposium on the Spirit of the 19th CCP National Congress with the title, “The CCP and the World in the New Era.” It also has four parallel sub-forums on “Strengthening the Party’s Development: Political Party’s Challenge and Future,” “Build a Beautiful Country: Political Party’s Practice and Experiences,” “Construct the ‘One Belt, One Road’: Political Party’s Participation and Contributions,” and “Lead the Development of the Common Community of Human Destiny: Political Party’s Roles and Responsibilities.”

“Some foreign political party leaders will visit the CCP’s Party Central School. Before or after the summit, China will also hold the 3rd China-Africa Political Parties Symposium on Theory, the 2nd China-Central Asia Political Parties Forum, and the Tenth China-U.S. High-Level Political Party Leaders Dialogue.”

Source: Xinhua, November 24, 2017
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2017-11/24/c_1122006619.htm

Briefings | | November 29, 2017 | Government/Politics

Wu Guoguang: Xi Jinping’s Reversal of the Course, Will China’s Transition be Peaceful or Marked with Bloodshed?

Cheng Xiaonong: U.S.-China Strategic Relations Have Crystallized

Xinhua Commentaries: “Exposing the Three Major Political Deficits of the U.S.”

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