Chinascope – Page 606

People’s Daily: The Cultural Revolution Was Completely Wrong in Theory and in Practice

On May 17, 2016, the People’s Daily published a commentary stating that the "Cultural Revolution" was a mistake that should not be repeated.

The commentary stated that the 1981 Party document, which was titled, “The Resolution on a Number of Historical Issues Since the Founding of the Party” conclusively determined that both the “Cultureal Revolution” and the “theory of continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat” were totally wrong. “The political determination that the Resolution made about the ‘Cultural Revolution’ is unshakably authoritative.”

“It was a mistake for the leader to launch the ‘Cultural Revolution,’ which was used by counter-revolutionary groups. It brought a severe disaster of domestic strife to the Party, the State, and the people of all nationalities. The harm it caused was comprehensive and grave. History has fully proved that the ‘Cultural Revolution’ was completely wrong in theory and in practice. It was not and could never be a revolution or social progress in any sense.”

The article emphasized that mistakes like the "Cultural Revolution" will not and cannot be allowed to be repeated. It urged that [the people] must learn the lesson by heart and must resolutely prevent and resist interference from both the "left" and the "right" on the issue of the "Cultural Revolution".

Source: People’s Daily, May 17, 2016

http://opinion.people.com.cn/n1/2016/0517/c1003-28355143.html

Briefings | | May 17, 2016 | Government/Politics

Guangming Daily: China’s Cultural Products Lack Brand Awareness and Are Weak in Content

Guangming Daily carried an article stating that China’s cultural products in the international market lack brand awareness, are weak in content, and, in the long run, will not benefit the spread of Chinese culture in the international market. The article said that China ranked number one in the export of cultural products in the world for the past four consecutive years. Even though it has benefited from a high volume and low cost, the products lack original creativity and maturity, and are unable to spread Chinese culture in the international market. The article used video games and soap operas as an example. It indicated that the video games that China exports are mainly hardware parts because China does not own the contents and intellectual property. The prices of the soap operas produced in China are so low in the international market that they cannot be compared to the soap operas produced in Korea. The article suggested that an opportunity for improvement could be found in utilizing the growth of the Internet, improving creativity, and building a solid foundation in the domestic market while expanding in Asia and African countries before tapping into the European and U.S. markets.

Source: Guangming Daily, May 16, 2016
http://culture.gmw.cn/2016-05/16/content_20117394.htm

Briefings | | May 17, 2016 | Government/Politics

China Protested U.S. Naval Warship Entering Areas Close to Spratly Islands

Xinhua recently reported that Yang Yujun, the spokesperson for the Chinese Defense Ministry, held a press conference in which he stated that the USS William P. Lawrence guided missile destroyer entered an area near the Spratly Islands in South China Sea. This once again became proof of the necessity for China to continue its defensive construction on the islands. China considered the USS Lawrence’s entry without permission a serious provocation. The Chinese Navy responded by sending two J-11 fighter jets, one Y-8 patrolling aircraft, the Guangzhou missile destroyer, the Mianyang missile frigate, and the Linfen frigate to identify, warn, and expel the U.S. warship. Yang confirmed that China will strengthen its military presence in the region to defend China’s sovereignty.

Source: Xinhua, May 10, 2016

http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2016-05/10/c_1118841916.htm

Briefings | | May 17, 2016 | US-China Relations

Xinhua: The European Parliament Voted against China’s Market Economy Status

Xinhua recently reported that the European Parliament passed a non-binding resolution rejecting China’s bid for market economy status. The resolution mentioned that some EU companies and labor unions expressed deep concern about the threat of potential unemployment and even some EU companies’ survival after granting China such status. The resolution emphasized that China has to first meet the five major EU standards for a market economy before this status can be granted. Current rules for anti-dumping and countervailing investigation procedures remain. However, China is now the second largest trade partner of the European Union. The Parliament said it cannot violate the WTO (World Trade Organization) regulations and that the European Commission should work with other trade partners to come up with a unified interpretation of the term “Market Economy.” The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded by insisting that its accession agreement to the WTO provides for automatic Market Economy Status after 15 years and that the EU should not continue treating China unfairly.

Source: Xinhua, May 13, 2016

http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2016-05/13/c_128979160.htm

Briefings | | May 17, 2016 | Geo-Strategic Trend

After Alibaba Joined the IACC, Tiffany Quit

Well-known Chinese news site Sina recently reported that U.S. luxury brand Tiffany announced its withdrawal from the International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition (IACC), which is the top international organization leading the fight against counterfeiting. The IACC is currently headquartered in Washington DC with over 250 well-known brands as members. Tiffany quitting the IACC Board and dropping its membership. The IACC accepted China’s largest online shopping host Alibaba as a member in April. That Alibaba got on-board caused a lot of dissatisfaction among IACC members. Before Tiffany, Michael Kors and Gucci had already withdrawn from the IACC. According to a report that China’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce released, only one third of the products sold on China’s largest online shopping site Taobao, which Alibaba owns, were not counterfeits. In previous years, well-known brands such as Gucci, Saint Laurent, and Puma took Alibaba to a New York court. Alibaba refused to accept the accusations but agreed to "try its best" to ban counterfeits on its platform. This promise did not gain trust from any of the victims.

Source: Sina, May 12, 2016

http://tinyurl.com/gtxyjjf

http://www.cankaoxiaoxi.com/finance/20160511/1155021.shtml

Briefings | | May 17, 2016 | Economy/Resources

China’s Consensus Blog Website: Death of a Young Man

Chinascope recently reported on the death of Wei Zexi, the 21-year-old college student who died from a rare form of cancer after receiving allegedly effective treatment that he found on a Baidu website. Before his death on April 12, Wei wrote a lengthy post on a Chinese website detailing his plight.

Shortly after the news of his death, the Consensus Website, affiliated with a media company based in Beijing, published a blog article about his death. The author raised several sensitive points in the blog, examining the roles played by the parties involved, including Baidu, China’s leading search engine company; the Second Hospital of the Beijing Armed Police Corps; the privately-owned Putian hospital system; and Chen Zhili, a former vice-chairperson of China’s top legislature. According to another blog, which has since been taken down at China’s leading portal Sina.com, Chen owed her career to Jiang Zemin, former secretary-general of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). She was responsible for China’s highly controversial drive to commercialize education and its public health systems.

The Consensus Website blog author raised the question of how Baidu got to dominate China’s search engine market. Not only was Google’s China presence short-lived, but even a competing search product backed by the CCP’s leading newspaper, People’s Daily, did not have a chance when challenging Baidu.

The author then pointed out that the Second Hospital of the Beijing Armed Police Corps, where Wei sought treatment, was not content with funding from the government. It resorted to increasing its revenue by partnering with Putian hospitals.

The author gave the reasons behind the rapid expansion of Putian, a privately operated chain of hospitals. The chain invited Chen to serve as its top advisor; it relied on paid promotions on Baidu; it opened and operated clinics in brand name public hospitals; and it sought support from top officials.

One thing that these players have in common, observed the blog author, is that they are all good at packaging their true [profit-seeking] motives. In hospitals, and in the rhetoric of "connecting people with services" in Baidu, they used high-sounding slogans, such as "saving people’s lives" and "the world’s leading technology and medicine."

The author is optimistic that, with the advent of social media, such outright dishonesty in misleading the public can hardly be sustained. In Wei’s case, two female journalists were able to raise awareness of Wei’s misguided treatment through Weibo (i.e. mini-blog) and WeChat (a popular mobile messaging service), completely bypassing traditional media.

Sources: The Concensus Website
http://www.21ccom.net/html/2016/zhoushuo_0504/3868.html
Blogs at Sina.com
http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_70282b520102wbr2.html

Briefings | | May 16, 2016 | Social Stability

Xi Jinping’s Talks about Officials’ Taking Care of Their Families

On May 8, 2016, China.com, the website of the State Council Information Office, published a collection of Xi Jinping’s speeches in which he gave advice to officials on taking care of their family members. Some quotes from his speeches follow:

From the speech given at the Meeting of the Sixth Plenary Session of the 18th CCDI, on January 12, 2016:

"Looking at the recent corruption cases, family member’s corruption is a key reason that has led officials to violate the law and discipline. Many officials not only trade power for money themselves, but they also encourage their family members to collect money covertly. Their children leverage their parent’s name to run a business to make money [using unfair competition]. Some officials use their ‘connections’ and ‘favors’ that they have accumulated throughout their government service to let their children make money."

"I am here, with a kind intention, to tell you all: You need to pay attention to this. Things might have happened at your home while you were not paying attention. You should prevent these wrong things from happening at a low level. Don’t protect your children [if they are doing something wrong]."

"The children of officials need to guide their own behavior by following the law and discipline. They should not think that because they are the children of officials that no one will bother them. If they have violated the Party’s regulations or the state law, they will be punished, and they must be severely punished, to show it to the public."

From the speech given at the 10th Meeting of the Deepening Reform Leading Group, on February 27, 2015:

"As far as officials’ spouses, children, or their children’s spouses running companies, there are clear regulations from the state law and the Party regulations. The important thing is to implement them so that they will really be effective."

Source: China.com, May 8, 2016
http://news.china.com.cn/2016-05/08/content_38405673.htm

Briefings | | May 12, 2016 | Government/Politics

Offshore Companies and Hong Kong Residence Status Scandals Involving Top Level Officials

The Panama Files have revealed that several top level Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials, including retired officials, have had their family members set up offshore companies.

Recently, four Hong Kong media, after receiving documents from ICIJ (the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists) regarding the related Panama Files, conducted investigations of those relatives of top officials and found several of them had Hong Kong residence status. These four media are Mingpao, South China Morning Post, Next Magazine, and Hong Kong 01.

The related officials are:

Liu Yunshan (刘云山), current Politburo Standing Committee member: Liu’s daughter-in-law Jia Liqing (贾立青) is the shareholder and board member of an offshore company. She obtained her Hong Kong residence card in 2001.

Zhang Gaoli (张高丽), current Politburo Standing Committee member: Zhang’s son-in-law Li Shenpo (李圣泼) is a shareholder in three offshore companies. Li and her wife Zhang Xiaoyan (张晓燕) have Hong Kong residence status.

Li Peng (李鹏), former Premier and former Politburo Standing Committee member: Li’s daughter Li Xiaolin (李小琳) is a shareholder and board member of an offshore company. She has Hong Kong residence status.

Jia Qinglin (贾庆林), former Politburo Standing Committee member: Jia’s granddaughter Li Zidan (李紫丹) owns an offshore company. Both Li Zidan and her father Li Botan (李伯潭) (Jia’s son-in-law) have Hong Kong residence status.

Zeng Qinghong (曾庆红), former Politburo Standing Committee member: Zeng’s brother Zeng Qinghuai (曾庆淮) is the shareholder of an offshore company.

Deng Xiaoping (邓小平), former paramount leader: Deng’s niece Li Xiaobing (栗小兵) and her husband Yu Yiping (俞一平) became Hongkongese in 1994.

Two other officials are related but their relative’s companies were either closed or are not active:

Xi Jinping (习近平), current top leader: Xi’s brother-in-law Deng Jiagui (邓家贵) was the shareholder and board member of two offshore companies. Deng closed the companies in 2012 when Xi became the top leader.

Hu Yaobang (胡耀邦), former CCP General Secretary: Hu’s son, Hu Dehua (胡德华) was the shareholder and board member of an offshore company, Fortalent International Holdings, Ltd. Hu Dehua explained that he registered that company to help his other company to go through an IPO in Hong Kong, so his registration used all real information, including has name, Chinese passport, and address. The Hong Kong IPO didn’t work out. He hasn’t run any business through Fortalent since, nor does Fortalent have any assets. He just felt there was no need to close the company.

Sources:
1. BBC Chinese, April 6, 2016
http://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/china/2016/04/160406_panama_papers_china_capital_outflows
2. RFA, May 4, 2016
http://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/hk-secretfiles-05042016095619.html
3. South China Morning Post, April 8, 2016
http://www.nanzao.com/sc/national/153f3d1c34c61cb/ba-na-ma-wen-jian-pu-li-an-gong-si-hu-de-hua-tang-tang-zheng-zheng

Briefings | | May 12, 2016 | 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.