“To help officers and soldiers study and implement the important remarks that President Xi made about deepening defense and military reform,” the CMC published a compilation of selected remarks of Xi Jinping made between November 2012 and November 2015, and distributed it to military personnel. 

The CMC directive stated that the compilation “epitomizes President Xi’s important strategic thoughts on military reform,” ”further brings together the strengths of will that support the reform, and provides a strong ideological guarantee and strong spiritual motivation for the reform and military build-up.” 

The directive requires military personnel to take the study of the compilation as an important political task, “and to be truly firm and confident, form a collective will, think and act in unison, and proactively embrace, support and join the reform.” 

Source: Xinhua, May 29, 3016 

http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2016-05/29/c_1118950856.htm

Xinhua recently published a commentary criticizing the G7 Summit for not achieving anything. The commentary suggested that the G7 only offered a forum for the seven member-country leaders to be able to talk shop; however, there has typically been no agreement and no swift action. The author questioned the need for such a multimillion dollar show. The G7 Summit is currently being held in Japan, and the Japanese will no-doubt seize the opportunity to smuggle some of their selfish interests into the outcome, such as the “freedom of navigation” in the East China Sea, which has nothing to do with five of the seven G7 members. It is also expected that the G7 will announce something related to sustainable world economic growth, counter-terrorism and the EU refugee issue. However, given the G7’s previous record, no one expected any concrete resolutions. It is reasonable not to hope for a solution to the world’s most serious challenges in two days, but many have been calling for the end of such a summit, after which these challenges will continue to worsen. [Editor’s note: the G7 Summit is a forum for leaders from Japan, the United States, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Canada. The European Union is also represented.]

Source: Xinhua, May 26, 2016

http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2016-05/26/c_129018614.htm

It said, “Facing the new situation and tasks, we need, more firmly and consciously, to implement the requirements of developing the army politically and ensuring a firm and correct political direction for the army’s development.” 

The article explained that, as Former Vice Chairmen of the Military Commission, Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou’s fundamental problem was that they violated political principles. The article said, “[Because] cadres [government officials] are high up in position and heavy in power, any mistake, however small, won’t be small and will be costly. A political mistake will be even more damaging. Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou’s corruption problems were appalling, but this was not the crux of their problems. The key issue was that they violated the political bottom line.” 

The article was also republished in other major Chinese state media such as People’s Daily. The key message of the article was widely circulated on the Internet.