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China Will Implement a New Military Ranking System in 2017

According to Bowen Press, the Chinese military will implement a new ranking system on August 1, 2017. The main changes include the abolition of senior colonel, grading the Generals, and the addition of the level of Brigadier General. In the reform of the military structure, the division and the regiment will be abolished. The division will be replaced by the brigade; under brigade will be the battalion. The ranking reform is to be in line with international standards and to broaden the avenue for the promotion of military officers.

After the reform, the new military ranking system will include three ranks and 12 levels, i.e., Lieutenants (Second Lieutenant, First Lieutenant, Captain); Colonel Officers (Major, Lieutenant Colonel, Colonel); Generals (Brigadier General, Major General, Lieutenant General, General. General is also divided into General, General tier II and General tier I).

Source: Bowen Press, November 23, 2016
http:// bowenpress.com/news/bowen_147908.html

Chinese Army Ground Forces to Be Cut Further, Reducing One Army Group in Each of the Five Combat Regions

The Chinese media Bowen Press reported that, in addition to its disarmament reform program of 300,000 layoffs, the Chinese army will further reduce the scale of its ground forces, substantially cutting one army group in each of the five combat regions. The current 300,000 army layoffs mainly involve non-combat troops, including administrative organs, logistics, schools, hospitals and other functions. However, structurally, the ground forces among the five military entities are still too large as there are 18 army groups of 800,000 members, which accounts for one third of the total of all PLA troops.

Source: Bowen Press, November 24, 2016
http:// bowenpress.com/news/bowen_148168.html

Singapore Media Unhappy about the New Port Construction Deal between China and Malaysia

Well-known Chinese news site Sina recently reported that, last month, the China Electric Power Construction Group and the Malaysian government jointly held a groundbreaking ceremony to kick off the Melaka Gateway construction project. Melaka Gateway is expected to be a deep water port located on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula south of Kuala Lumpur. The plan is to make this new port city, composed of three islands, the “Number One Port at the Strait of Malacca.” The Strait is one of the most critical military and commercial pathways in the world. However, Singapore media have been criticizing the new port plan ever since the idea was announced. As the key holder of the Strait of Malacca, Singapore questioned the usefulness of having another nearby port city. Given the increasingly more military activities China held jointly with Malaysia, as well as China’s 99-year operational lease of the new port Melaka Gateway, Singapore expressed its doubts about China’s real purpose in helping to build the port. Recently, Singapore has been siding with the United States on containing China’s expansion in the region.

Source: Sina, November 21, 2016
http://finance.sina.com/bg/economy/sinacn/20161121/00191524973.html

Xinhua: Why Is Trump So Determined to Cancel TPP and What Is the Alternative?

Xinhua recently published a commentary analyzing the drivers behind the U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s decisive cancellation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, which excludes China and was a major agenda item for President Obama. The commentator expressed the belief that, overall, Trump is not a big fan of free trade, especially for “unfair” trade deals that will cost American jobs. He has called TPP a “potential disaster.” Another reason identified in the commentary was Trump’s campaign promises, since he would like to appear to keep the promises made to his voters in the “Rust Belt” states, who were the forces that defined this past election. However, the whole world is now taking a wait-and-see attitude on Trump’s proposed alternative – bilateral trade agreements. Many analysts have expressed a concern over the potential loss of U.S. leadership in the Pacific region as an outcome of the new policy, which brings a lot of uncertainty.

Source: Xinhua, November 22, 2016
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2016-11/22/c_129374046.htm

IT Home: Facebook Secretly Developing Filtering Technology for Censorship

Well-known Taiwanese technology news site IT Home recently reported that Facebook is quietly developing content filtering technology to comply with China’s censorship requirements. According to anonymous sources inside Facebook, this initiative has strong support and supervision from CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The new technology was constructed in exchange for being given permission to enter the Chinese market. However early signs show that the mechanism was designed in such a way that it will be operated by a third-party partner rather than by Facebook itself. China’s Facebook is currently blocked by China’s “Great Firewall.” The spokesperson for the company commented that Facebook has always been interested in the Chinese market, which has a population of 1.4 billion. Many observers in the industry expressed their concern over how many of its principles Facebook is willing to give up.

Source: IT Home, November 23, 2016
http://www.ithome.com.tw/news/109764

People’s Daily: Why Does the U.S. Face So Much Trouble?

On November 27, People’s Daily devoted an entire page to the publication of a series of articles on the overall issue of the fundamental problems the Unites States currently faces. Given the shocking outcome of the recent U.S. presidential election, Chinese political analysts identified some “in-depth” causes of today’s social problems in the United States. The top observation was the split in U.S. mainstream values. The so-called “founding values” such as democracy, freedom, and human rights were all challenged and were all questioned in the past election. The “game of the elite class” ignored the American people and even freedom of the press turned pale. Chinese analysts also found a significant lack of quality talent that could run the country efficiently. The government leadership as well as the mid-level teams can be described as “mediocre” at best. The analysts expressed their belief that the U.S. government demonstrated poor capabilities of execution, which included decision making, managing the economy, and even waging war. Most of Obama’s policies, both domestic and international, failed after spending trillions. One article in the series suggested that today’s U.S. is actually a combination of “two Americas,” which referred to one America which had realized the “American Dream”  and another America composed of people still struggling for life. Another author concluded that the entire Western social structure, which includes a democratic government, a free market, the rule of law, and civilized social relations, is falling apart.

Source: People’s Daily, November 27, 2016
http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2016-11/27/nw.D110000renmrb_20161127_1-05.htm

Cai Fang: China’s Reasonable Economic Growth Rate Should Be between 6.2 and 6.7 Percent

On November 22, 2016, Cai Fang, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, spoke at a forum on “The Ever-evolving Global Political and Economic Pattern: Integration or Fragmentation?” Cai informed those in attendance that China’s reasonable growth rate is in the range 6.2 to 6.7 percent. He postulated that, if the growth rate is above this range, it is coming from stimulus and not just from the potential growth rate and the effect of reform.

At the forum, Cai Fang stated that, according to his calculations, China’s potential growth will only be 6.2 percent during the “Thirteenth Five-Year-Plan” period [2016-2020], assuming there are no new reforms. This can be regarded as the lower limit of China’s economic growth.

If the possible effect of reform is modeled on this calculation, the growth rate may reach 6.7 percent, which should be an upper limit. In other words, China’s economic growth has a reasonable range of 6.2 to 6.7 percent.

Source: Caixin, November 23, 2016
http://finance.caixin.com/2016-11-23/101013062.html

Director of Beijing Municipal Bureau of Justice Replaced

On November 25, Beijing held the 31st meeting the 14th Municipal People’s Congress Standing Committee in order to decide on the appointment or removal of key personnel.

The former Secretary of the Beijing Municipal Law Society (at the bureau level) Miao Lin was appointed as the Director of the Beijing Municipal Judicial Bureau. Yu Hongyuan no longer serves in the position of Director of the Municipal Justice Bureau as he has reached the age of 60-years-old.

[Editor’s note: In 2010, Yu was appointed as Party Secretary and Director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Justice, the First Political Commissar of the Beijing Prison Administration, and member of Beijing Municipal Committee of the Political and Legal Committee. Yu was the main figure in carrying out former Head of the Central Political and Legal Committee Zhou Yongkang’s persecution of human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng.]

Source: New Beijing, November 25, 2016
http://www.bjnews.com.cn/news/2016/11/25/424913.html