When a YouTube video was shown in a classroom, a Chinese student stood up to criticize Marxism as not being from China’s traditional culture.
The student said, “With a consciousness that a scholar must have, I want to tell the truth: We are not Chinese! Why? Because what is filled in our brains is the Soviet Union’s version of Marxism, but not the true traditional Chinese culture that talks about the unity of Heaven and man.”
Source: YouTube
Beijing Daily published an article suggesting that an article published in 2015 on the website of the Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) used a historical figure to refer to someone who is a corrupt high-ranking official today.
The two-year old article was “Problems with the Lifestyle of the Qing Dynasty’s ‘Naked Official’ Prince Qing.” It was published on the CCDI website on February 25, 2015. While the article criticized a corrupt official from the Qing Dynasty, it created a lot of discussion and many people surmised that it referred to some current or retired official in the present day. Caixin even mentioned the name of Zeng Qinghong, a former high-rank official and the right man of ex-Communist Party chief Jiang Zemin.
The newer article that Beijing Daily published discussed the 2015 article’s author Xi Hua (习骅). Xi is a high-ranking CCDI official, serving as the Deputy Chief of the Discipline Inspection Team at the State Auditing Administration. Xi is a famous writer at the CCDI and has published over 30 anti-corruption related articles on the CCDI website.
“Among those articles, the one that other media republished the most was, ‘Problems with the Lifestyle of the Qing Dynasty’s “Naked Official” Prince Qing.’”
“This is how Xi Hua sees his writing, ’On the surface I was telling a story, but actually I was commenting on current affairs.’ As more and more people read Xi’s articles, they are continually trying to find out which official (in today’s world) Xi was referring to in his writing. Regarding this situation, Xi said, ‘It shows that people are thinking. This was my original goal when I wrote (those stories).”
Beijing Daily’s article was published under its WeChat account Changan Street Zhishi (长安街知事). Changan Street Zhishi has focused on reporting current political affairs and has written many political observation articles.
Sources
1. Sina, July 22, 2017
http://news.sina.com.cn/c/nd/2017-07-22/doc-ifyihmmm8070290.shtml
2. Chinascope
http://chinascope.org/archives/3475
3. CCDI Website, February 25, 2015
http://www.ccdi.gov.cn/yw/201502/t20150215_51495.html
Well-known Chinese news site Sina recently reported that China’s largest smart phone manufacturer, Huawei, planned to sell more smart phones than both Apple and Samsung by targeting the markets of advanced countries, including the U.S. Huawei’s consumer product CEO Yu Chengdong suggested in a press interview that Huawei will shift its focus to advanced countries from developing countries to take advantage of better consumer purchasing power and better profit margins. He further commented that Huawei is very good at innovation, based on which Huawei can expand its market share to be a global winner. Research showed that Huawei is currently the world’s third largest smart phone vendor, holding 10 percent of the global market. Samsung has 22 percent and Apple has 15 percent of the global smart phone market share. In recent years, Huawei performed poorly in critical markets like India and Indonesia. It is currently focusing on the Japanese and European markets.
Source: Sina, July 28, 2017
http://finance.sina.com/gb/usstock/sinacn/20170728/01431631094.html
Xinhua recently reported that Iran just launched a satellite rocket from its national space center. Reports indicated that the rocket could be used as a means to send a satellite around 250 kilograms into its orbit. The Iranian government explained that Iran itself had fully developed this rocket. The United States, along with other Western countries, has long suspected that Iran was developing missile technologies that can carry nuclear warheads – under the name of making peaceful satellite rockets. The United Nations banned Iran from building such ballistic missiles. On the same day, the U.S. Senate passed a House bill which accused Iran and North Korea of developing ballistic missiles and asked the U.S. government to impose additional sanctions on these two countries. Iran responded by saying it will take whatever steps necessary to deal with this pressure from the U.S. Ever since U.S. President Trump came into power, the U.S. has been pressing Iran using ballistic missiles as the excuse. Iran has been defending its right to develop rocket technology.
Source: Xinhua, July 29, 2017
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2017-07/29/c_129666596.htm
Global Times recently reported that, in 2017, as part of the Chinese Defense Technology Innovation Reform, China established a new top-level organization to oversee advanced military technology developments. Modeled after the U.S. DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), the new organization, with the name Military Science Research Committee of the Central Military Commission, was tasked with participating in the programs that develop stealth aircraft and electromagnetic cannons. Along with another organization established earlier, called the Military Technology Committee of the Central Military Commission, the new organization operates at the “top tier” of the military technology and innovation domain. The new committee consists of a wide range of scientists and engineering experts. Many observers expressed the belief that the goal of the new structure is to mimic the U.S. DARPA, with the hope of delivering the same level of fruitful outcome of cutting edge technologies.
Source: Global Times, July 27, 2017
http://mil.huanqiu.com/observation/2017-07/11040385.html
According to a blog published on the People’s Daily website, on July 26 and 27, Xi Jinping held a seminar in Beijing. The purpose was understood to be to “unify the understanding among party members” and could be the most important meeting prior to the 19th National Congress. The article listed several differences between this seminar and the ones held in previous years. First, the seminar location was changed from the Party School to the Jing Xi Hotel {Editor’s note: the Jing Xi Hotel is located near the Military Museum and Defense Ministry and run by the General Staff Department of the People’s Liberation Army. The hotel is heavily guarded and closed to foreigners}. Second, the participant’s ranks were unprecedented. The participants included seven members of the Political Standing Committee, including Xi Jinping, key members from the provincial levels of government, top leaders from central and government agencies, the military, the People’s Congress, and the judiciary system. Third, there was no paper and there were no pens on the table. The blog also brought up a commentary article that Xinhua published on July 29, titled “Gain Confidence in the Historical Moment – Study and Carry out Key Points from Xi’s Speech Given at a Provincial Level Seminar. Part II.” The blog noted that “being aware of the challenges” and “establishing confidence in the party’s success in this historic moment” were the highlights of Xi’s speech. It quoted from the commentary which stated that “the world is undergoing a dramatic change while China is facing serious challenges. … How do we deal with the complexity of the world and gain control on the international stage? How can we seize the opportunity and break through the conflicts and risks as China is entering a critical development stage? How can the party overcome the tests and risks and continue to be the leading party of the country? … These are the important questions that the party members are responsible for answering.”
Source: People’s Daily, July 29, 2017
http://blog.people.com.cn/article/1501295471040.html
According to an article that Duowei published on July 16, Wang Zuoan, the Director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs, published an article on Qiushi which stated that a religious belief is an “untouchable red line” for party members. In the article, Wang requested that party members must be atheists, believe in Marxism, and are not allowed to believe in a religion. Wang stated that, if anyone has embraced a religion, he must give it up or he will face consequences. The Duowei article stated that this topic has been mentioned on a number of occasions in past years, but during the “Two Sessions or Lianghui” held in March of 2017, religion was discovered to have ranked among the most discussed online topics in 2016 and a media focal point in 2017. The topic of “religion” was ranked 5th following education, children, real estate, and health.
Source: Duowei News, July 19, 2017
http://china.dwnews.com/news/2017-07-19/59826152.html
On July 28, VOA published an article in which it stated that there are indications that China is softening its position against India over the recent stand-off at the China India border. On July 28, Xi Jinping met with representatives from BRICS (an association of five major emerging national economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). Ajit Doval, India’s security advisor was among those representatives. According to China’s official media, Ajit Doval was said to be the person that ordered the Indian troops to the border. Per the media from the West, he is considered to be the most influential political figure next to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In the official press statement following the meeting, there was no mention of the military stand-off in the Doklam region. On July 25, Xinhua published an analytical article on its English website which praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his active promotion of India’s foreign policy reform and stressed that, “China-India cooperation helps promote open global trade and counter protectionism.” The Times of India said on July 27 that the Chinese government obviously thinks that India is an important market for China and that military conflicts between the two should be avoided. The article also mentioned that, at the press conference, the spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs appeared to avoid harsh words towards India except that China still insists that India must withdraw its troops from the border. The VOA article went on to quote an interview with Jeff Smith, a scholar at the American Foreign Policy Council, who told VOA that China has used so many aggressive words on the issue that it has pushed itself into a dead-end. He said it will be very difficult for China to back down from its position gracefully. “China is unlikely to gain from the border standoff with India as the road it was building in the Sikkim sector’s Doklam area leads to nowhere and the move would push India closer to the U.S. and Japan.” The article further quoted the speech that Jeff Smith gave during a forum held in Washington D.C. on July 27.
Source: Voice of America, July 28, 2017
https://www.voachinese.com/a/xi-jingping-meets-india-nsa-advisor-20170728/content/article/3963602.html