Skip to content

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

Read More ...

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

Read More ...

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

Read More ...

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

Read More ...

RFA: China Tightens Rules for Municipal Employees Traveling Overseas

On June 17, Radio Free Asia published an article reporting that Beijing has tightened its control over municipal employees traveling overseas. The rule no longer applies only to Party officials and military personnel but has also been expanded to include public servants as well as all management levels in State Owned Enterprises, especially in the banking industry. The purpose of the new rule is to prevent officials from taking their money overseas and fleeing China. The article quoted a comment from a businessman who stated that all of his friends had to turn in their passports. The regulation will not work on certain members of the elite class because they can use their connections to obtain fake IDs. The article stated that the restrictions on Party officials traveling overseas started over 10 years ago. Based on the evidence from criminal cases, it is quite common for the Party officials to own multiple Chinese passports or even foreign passports.

Source: Radio Free Asia, June 17, 2017
http://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/officer-06172017105356.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Radio France Internationale: Tightened Security and News Coverage after Explosion outside Kindergarten in Xu Zhou City

Radio France Internationale published an article explaining that, following the recent explosion outside a kindergarten in a suburb of Xu Zhou City in Jiangsu Province which killed 8 people and injured 65 people, the General Office and the Publicity Office issued an urgent notice to news media outlets. The notice requested that the media outlets must use only three official media as their news sources when reporting on the explosion. They must exercise strict efforts to monitor online and social media in order to stop and prevent potential “rumors” or negative comments. The article also stated that the seriousness of the explosion caught the attention of the leadership in Beijing. The Ministry of Education has ordered tightened security around school buildings. Some Kindergartens have even hired security guards who are armed with guns or preventive equipment such as batons, long forks, or spears. In addition, the article also quoted Bowen Press, which wrote that, “While China is facing a number of different hidden crises, its official news media will report extensively on incidents such as gun violence in the U.S. and the deadly London fire in the U.K. However, when it comes to kindergarten explosions or other domestic accidents, little news coverage can be found. That is incredible.”

The explosion took place at 4:50 pm on Thursday June 15. According to CCTV, the police have identified the suspect as a 22 year old male who made the explosive device at home and was killed at the scene. The suspect was reported to have dropped out of school due to psychological problems and then found a job close to the kindergarten. The police found the explosive material at the suspect’s residence and found the words “death,” “kill,” and “eliminate” written on his walls.

Sources:
1. Radio France Internationale, June 16, 2017
http://cn.rfi.fr/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD/20170616-徐州幼儿园爆炸惊动中南海-全国学校或紧急配枪棍长叉
2. Voice of America, June 16, 2017
https://www.voachinese.com/a/explosion-at-a-kindergarten-in-jiangsu-province-china/3901488.html

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Xinhua: Central Inspection Work Found Local Governments Faked Economic Data

Xinhua recently reported that the Communist Party Central Commission for Discipline Inspection recently released a report that showed “issues” it had found in the provinces of Inner Mongolia, Jilin, Yunnan and Shanxi. The Twelfth Inspection Round was a “random patrol” on provinces and central-government-owned companies that had been inspected before. There have been “random patrols” done in 12 provinces already, as part of the “look-back” initiative. The new round discovered that a wide range of issues that were discovered in the previous round had not been properly remedied. Most importantly, some local governments in Inner Mongolia and Jilin were found to be faking official economic data. This new round of inspection resulted in some additional government officials being put under further investigation.

Source: Xinhua, June 12, 2017
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2017-06/12/c_1121124767.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Government/Politics

China Published 2017 Blue Book Report on College Graduates Employment

Web news media Zhejiang Province Online recently reported, based on information aggregated from various popular Chinese sources, on the newly published Blue Book Report on Chinese College Graduates Employment. An independent third-party publisher instead of the Chinese government compiled the Blue Book. The survey was based on a sample of 289,000 2016 college graduates. According to the Blue Book, 91.6 percent of the students were employed within six months of graduation. However, only 65 percent of them were satisfied with the work they found. The highest job satisfactory lies in the top-five categories: software development companies, colleges, the Communist Party or government branches, Airlines, and some other Communist Party or government related organizations. The average new college-graduate worker’s monthly salary was RMB 3,988 (around US$586). The Blue Book also shows that the most popular college majors welcomed by the employers were Software Engineering, Network Engineering, Communications Engineering, and Information Security. The least popular majors were Music Performance, Fine Arts, and Law School. The Blue Book also found that the attractiveness of the “First Tier” cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen) had declined.

Source: Zhejiang Province Online, June 14, 2017
http://china.zjol.com.cn/ktx/201706/t20170614_4221755.shtml

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Social Stability

Chinese Students in the U.S. Have the Highest Overstay Rate

Well-known Chinese news site Sina recently reported that, based on a recent study, in 2016 there were 25,486 Chinese visitors in the United States who overstayed without proper permission. Among these people, 7,545 were Chinese students on expired visas. Among students from all foreign countries, this number is the highest. The country that ranked number two is India (3,014); South Korea is number three (2,068). The statistics were based on an analysis of overstay visa data that the Department of Homeland Security released. The same study also showed that the type of visa that suffered the largest share of the overstaying population was the student visa, reaching 42,493 in 2016. That’s 2.74 percent of all student visa holders. The consequences of overstaying without proper permission can be quite severe. It may lead to a minimum three-year ban (typically it is a 10-year ban) from entering the U.S. One could also be banned from the right to status adjustments or to obtaining a different type of U.S. visa anywhere else except in the country of origin.

Source: Sina, Jun 17, 2017
http://dailynews.sina.com/bg/news/usa/usnews/chinesedaily/20170617/07277913562.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Chinese Helicopter Crossed Sino-Indian Border before Xi’s Meeting with Modi

On June 4, a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) helicopter flew inside India’s Arunachal Pradesh and made a landing. It then returned five minutes later. Both China and India claim this region, but it is currently under India’s control.

The Indian government strongly protested the border crossing and stated that, in the upcoming meeting with Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi would demand an explanation from China’s President Xi.

Xi and Modi then met at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization on June 9. It is not clear whether Modi requested an explanation.

An earlier incident occurred in 2014. While Xi was visiting India and was about to meet Modi to negotiate an investment of $20 billion, the PLA army crossed the China-Indian border and camped on the Indian side. Many people think that Xi’s political opponents in China set up the incident.

Source: DW News, June 5, 2017
http://global.dwnews.com/news/2017-06-05/59818526.html

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military Geo-Strategic Trend

Wu Chi-wai: China Is Changing the “One Country, Two Systems” in Hong Kong

July 1 will be the twentieth anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to China. The Democratic Party in Hong Kong held a forum on June 11 to discuss the “One Country, Two Systems” situation in Hong Kong.

Wu Chi-wai, the Chairman of the Democratic Party said, “From the 2014 (Beijing’s) People’s Congress’ whitepaper on implementing the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ in Hong Kong to the speech that Zhang Dejiang (Chairman of the People’s Congress) gave recently, you can see that the central government has a general goal: to use a series of approaches to effect the gradual conversion of the hidden powers (of the central government), as defined in the Basic Law, into truly effective, clear, standardized, and enforceable powers (for the central government). This is having a big impact on (the principles of) ‘One Country, Two Systems’ that ‘Hongkongese rely on to manage Hong Kong’ and its ‘High-degree of self-determination.’”

Wu expressed that C.Y. Leung has long been claiming a severe “Hong Kong Independence” issue. This has given the Communist Regime in China an excuse to interfere in Hong Kong’s internal affairs.

Sources:

1. YouTube, June 11, 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-Ng-QQXCdg, June 11, 2017
2. New Tang Dynasty TV, June 14, 2017
http://www.ntdtv.com/xtr/gb/2017/06/14/a1329003_p.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics