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

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

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

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

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Why a College Student’s Death Led to Baidu and a Beijing Hospital Being Punished

The death of Wei Zexi, a college student from Shaanxi Province, who received false information from Baidu on treatment for his cancer, has stirred up a big anti-Baidu wave in China.

Wei Zexi had synovial sarcoma, a rare form of cancer. When he searched on Baidu, the search engine showed him that the Second Hospital of the Beijing Armed Police Corps offered effective treatment. Wei decided to forego another treatment which had some, but not very high chance of a cure, and went with the Armed Police Corps Hospital. His family spent 200,000 yuan (U.S. $30,000), depleting the family’s entire saving and even borrowing money, for the treatment.

It turned out that the Baidu search result for the Second Hospital of the Beijing Armed Police Corps was a paid advertisement. The hospital was, in fact, making a false claim. However, since the hospital paid Baidu a large fee, Baidu displayed its claim among the top search results. As Baidu did not differentiate between its paid ads and its regular search results, it misled Internet users into thinking paid ads were authoritative results.

The Second Hospital of the Beijing Armed Police Corps had been widely collaborating with "Putian doctors." "Putian doctors" are people from Putian City, Fujian Province, who may or may not have had a medical education, but claimed they were doctors and rented hospital’s offices to offer medical services. "Putian doctors" count for 80 percent of the private medical practices in China.

The hospital’s treatment offered no help to Wei Zexi who eventually died on April 12. Before his death, he posted his story on the Internet. A wave of public denunciation of Baidu for its lack of moral standards flooded the Internet and the media.

The State Internet Information Office led an investigation over Baidu’s role in this death incident. It recently required Baidu to carry out the following corrections:

1. Overhaul all its commercial services for the medical practice industry. Take offline any information violating regulations, and do not promote any medical institution that does not have proper medical practice qualifications.

2. Change its search ranking algorithm from paid fee based to reputation based; add a mark to indicate those that are paid ads; and limit paid ads to less than 30 percent per result page.

3. Establish a netizen’s rights protection mechanism. Speed up the process to handle Internet users’ cases; immediately put a stop to all information that violates the law, regulations, or netizen’s rights; compensate netizens for their losses due to inaccurate ads on Baidu.

The Second Hospital of the Beijing Armed Police Corps was ordered to stop all services to the public immediately. It was also ordered to make the following corrections:

1. Immediately stop cooperating with Shanghai Claison Bio-tech, which offered the cancer treatment solution to Wei Zexi.

2. Overhaul all false information and medical advertising. Review the medical qualifications of every medical practitioner and take proper actions.

3. Punish medical practitioners involved in Wei Zexi’s case, including revoking the doctor’s certificate and taking legal action.

4. Carry out legal and disciplinary education; improve the hospital’s management.

Sources:
1. BBC Chinese, May 9, 2016
http://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/china/2016/05/160509_weizexi_investigation_second_hospital
2. Xinhua, May 20, 2016
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2016-05/10/c_128973832.htm

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Xinhua: CMCCDI Dispatches Discipline Teams to CMC Branches and Theater Commands

Xinhua recently reported that the Chinese Central Military Commission (CMC) dispatched teams from the military Commission for Discipline Inspection (CDI) to all branches of the CMC and all five military theater commands. This is the first time in the communist army’s history that the CMC has “stationed discipline supervision” in various military branches. A total of ten stationed military CDI teams have been dispatched. A concentrated two-day training of all military CDI team members was conducted in Beijing. Deputy CMC Chairman Xu Qiliang pointed out in the training that the goal of this new reform is to establish a new anti-corruption prospect in the entire military system. The training focused on discipline inspection and supervision, case proceedings, and inspection patrols. 
Source: Xinhua, May 5, 2016
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2016-05/05/c_1118808497.htm
Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

Caixin: April Manufacturing PMI Showed Further Slowdown

Well-known Chinese financial site Caixin recently released its official Chinese Manufacturing PMI index number for April, which at 49.4 is lower than March (49.7). Caixin PMI was formerly known as HSBC PMI, which was a well-respected economic indicator monitored globally by financial institutions. All sub-indexes of April manufacturing PMI declined. The index showed that operating conditions across China’s manufacturing sector continued to deteriorate in April, albeit marginally. Total new orders stagnated and new export work fell for the fifth month in a row. Weak market conditions and muted client demand contributed to a further solid decline in employee headcount. Manufacturing product prices indicated that inflationary pressures intensified across the sector in April, with material costs rising at the quickest pace since January 2013, which in turn underpinned the quickest rise in sales charges since October 2011. PMI (Purchasing Managers Index) is an indicator of financial activity reflecting purchasing managers’ acquisition of goods and services. A PMI number below 50 typically reflects a decline. 
Source: Caixin, May 3, 2016
http://pmi.caixin.com/2016-05-03/100938959.html
Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Xinhua: Over Two Million Migrant Workers Suffered Wage Arrears

Xinhua recently reported, based on data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, that over 2.77 million migrant workers suffered wage arrears in 2015. That’s a 20 percent increase over 2014. In 2015, average migrant worker monthly income was RMB 3,072 yuan (around US$473) and the average annual wage arrears was RMB 9,788 yuan (around US$1,506). Only 36.2 percent of the migrant workers had a formal labor contract with their employers. Statistics also showed that 39.1 percent of the migrant workers worked over eight hours daily and 85 percent worked over 44 hours weekly. Among the migrant workers with wage arrears, those who worked in Central China suffered the most, with those in Western China second; those in Eastern China suffered the least. In 2015, most of the wage arrears occurred in the construction industry, followed by the manufacturing industry; the transportation industry was third. Migrant worker wage arrears occurred across all major industrial categories. The average age of migrant workers has been increasing consistently over the past several years.
Source: Xinhua, April 28, 2016
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2016-04/28/c_128940698.htm
Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Central Military Commission Launched Trial Sites to Cease PLA and Armed Forces’ Paid Services

Guangming Daily reported that, on May 7, a conference was held in Beijing to carry out the directives to cease the PLA and the Armed Forces’ paid service work. Xi Jinping and the Central Military Commission had initially initiated the work at the end of March. The conference listed 17 paid service groups for the first round of trial units. The list included vacant land leasing agencies, military hospitals, news publishers, and hotels. The goal is to use these trial sites to gain the experience to come up with policies which can be used to close all paid service work.

According to the article, the Central Military Commission published a notice at the end of March which requires all PLA and Armed Forces to cease all paid service contract work. The notice stated that, effective immediately, no new projects will be launched, no existing projects will be renewed, and any projects that can be stopped through negotiation must end. The notice also included rules and guidelines to implement these directions. It said that the Commission plans to spend the next three years implementing the plan.

Source: Guangming Daily, May 8, 2016
http://politics.gmw.cn/2016-05/08/content_19996662.htm

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

China to Further Control Land Use for Urbanization

On May 9, 2016, officials from the Ministry of Land and Resources explanained its thirteenth five-year plan, which was recently released. The plan covered the period from 2016 to 2020.  

Although the second national land survey showed that farmland has increased overall, some areas may not be used for farming and will be degraded into forests. Other problems include a serious shortage of reserve resources and mounting pressure on farmland due to disasters and construction. China must ensure it has no less than 18.65 million mu of arable land for steady farming. 
In regulating land use, consistent with the capacity reduction requirement, the supply of land for the production of iron and steel, coal and other industries with excess capacity and "zombie companies" will be strictly controlled. Policies will be developed to encourage and support exit, conversion, and mergers and acquisitions. 
For cities with a higher real estate inventory, the supply of land for housing will be reduced and ultimately eliminated.  Where any construction has not yet started, the use of the land will be allowed to change to the construction of resettlement housing and apartments for rent.  
Source: People’s Daily, May 9, 2016 
http://politics.people.com.cn/n1/2016/0508/c1001-28332853.html
Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Xinhua: MOHURD to Issue Guideline to Curb Disturbing Conduct in Real Estate Brokerage Industry

Xinhua published an article reporting that, according to the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MOHURD), a guideline will soon to be issued to regulate China’s real estate brokerage industry. The article claimed that there has been disturbing conduct in this industry. For example, inappropriate commission rates are charged and the actual information about the house that is on sale is being covered up or falsely presented. The Ministry plans to regulate the industry to ensure that information is accurate, comprehensive, and timely; that there is an online authorization of the contract agreement; and that the escrow fund, the record keeping, and the personnel management are handled properly. The first round of the regulatory effort will take place in brokerage firms in cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen.

Source: Xinhua, May 8, 2016
http://news.xinhuanet.com/house/bj/2016-05-08/c_1118823946.htm

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Guangming Daily: China to Regulate Personal Information Collection and Safety Management

Guangming Daily carried an article that pointed out that the personal information safety violations of Chinese online users are very serious. The China National Information Technology Standardization Committee recently held a conference in which it disclosed that the committee plans to issue guidelines to standardize the personal information collection process. In particular, proper guidelines will be provided for businesses to collect customer information as well as for information management. According to a 2015 Investigation of Online Users Personal Information Safety Report, 63.4 percent of the telephone communication and online purchase information as well as 78.2 percent of the personal identification information including name, home address, personal ID number and employer information of the online users has previously been leaked.

Source: Guangming Daily, May 8, 2016

http://politics.gmw.cn/2016-05/08/content_19996534.htm 

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology