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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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Former PLA Colonel Luo Yu Talks about Xi Jinping

Voice of America (VOA) interviewed Luo Yu, a former People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Colonel working at the PLA General Staff Department who left China in late 1989 after the PLA’s Tiananmen Square Massacre. Luo Yu has a special status. He is a princeling who knew Xi Jinping personally. His father was Luo Ruiqing, one of the ten Grand Generals (ranking lower than ten Marshalls but higher than other Generals) that China conferred in 1955, after the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) took over in China.

Luo Yu pointed out that there is strong political in-fighting going on within the CCP. Therefore, Xi has had to collect power under himself and use the anti-corruption campaign to cleanse disloyal officials. He suggested that Xi has taken on political reform to lead China to democracy.

"His anti-corruption [campaign] was actually against a political coup [that had formed against him]. If he were truly against corruption, then the Communist Party would be gone because the whole Party is corrupt. So his anti-corruption was [just] against the political coup."

"I feel that he has faced a lot of resistance. It has been hard to tell which things were done because he wanted to do them so his subordinates did them for him and which were done when he didn’t want them, but his subordinates did them in order to create trouble for him. So, [though wrongs things happened in China], I still have hope for him."

"I can understand why he collected power under himself. That was because, among the people around him, whether it was the Politburo Standing Committee members or Politburo members, only a few truly shared the same view with him. It was just Wang Qishan and Li Zhanshu (Chief of Staff of the General Office of the CCP Central Committee). Within the Politburo Standing Committee, only one (Wang Qishan) supported him, one (Li Keqiang) stayed neutral, and four others waited to see him fall. For that reason, he couldn’t give power to others. He had to collect the power under himself."

"I felt that he would change something. At least he will no longer follow the old practice of appointing a successor. I hope he chooses the Presidential election [to identify the next leader.]"

"If Xi Jinping chooses the Democracy path, it will be fortunate for China. Problems that can’t be solved today, from religion to morality, from finance to the economy, banking, insurance, the military, education, healthcare, and retirement funds, will all be solved."

"If [Xi] does not take this path, since the CCP is totally corrupt, it will be finished."

"Is there a third path?" (Asked the reporter.)

"There is no third path."

Source: VOA, March 9, 2016.
http://www.voachinese.com/content/interview-luoyu-on-xijinping-20160309/3228611.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

BBC Chinese: Twelve Countries Condemned the Worsened Chinese Human Rights Conditions

BBC Chinese recently reported that the United States and another eleven countries jointly made an announcement in the United Nations Human Rights Council, condemning China’s human rights record and asking China to release detained human rights activists and lawyers. The U.S. representative Keith Harper delivered a speech at the Council, also representing Australia, Britain, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Norway, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Chinese U.N representative Fu Cong responded with a stern rebuttal with very strong language pointing out that the U.S. attitude is hypocritical, which can be proven by its Guantanamo Bay detention camp, its wide-spread gun violence, and its deep racism. Fu also asked the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein to stop making unfounded subjective comments.
Source: BBC Chinese, March 10, 2016
http://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/china/2016/03/160310_un_china_human_rights
Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Tsai Ing-wen: Taiwan Expects to Sign FTA with Japan

The major Taiwanese newspaper China Times recently reported that Taiwanese President-Elect Tsai Ing-wen expressed her hope that she would be able to start a negotiation of the Taiwan-Japan Free Trade Agreement (FTA). She commented that Taiwan is determined to get this task done. Tsai made this comment when meeting with Mikio Sasaki, Council Chairman of the Interchange Association Japan (IAJ), which acts as the non-official Japanese Embassy in Taiwan. Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has long maintained a close and interactive relationship with Japan. Tsai suggested that Japan can actively participate in her “Five Major Innovation Industries Initiative,” which includes green energy, precision machinery, biotechnology, Internet of Things (IoT) and the defense industry. She also said that Japan can work jointly with Taiwan to develop the Indian and Southeast Asian markets. Mikio Sasaki expressed his agreement on strengthening the relationship between Japan and Taiwan. He thought that Taiwan and Japan are highly complementary in industrial development.
Source: China Times, March 8, 2016
http://www.chinatimes.com/realtimenews/20160308006494-260407
Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Global Times: ZTE Faces U.S. Sanctions

Global Times recently reported that the U.S. Department of Commerce sanctioned ZTE, a major Chinese multinational telecommunications equipment and systems company. ZTE’s U.S. suppliers are not allowed to export to ZTE. The sanction was based on ZTE’s violation of the U.S. export control policies against Iran. According to U.S. Department of Commerce investigations, ZTE signed multi-million-dollar contracts with Iran reselling well-known U.S. products from Microsoft, IBM, HP, Oracle and Dell. The U.S. vendors claimed that they were not aware of these deals that violated the U.S. ban on exporting to Iran. ZTE announced four years ago that it would “limit” its relationship with Iran. According to recent media reports, the U.S. Department of Commerce obtained ZTE internal top secret documents which proposed a “break-through” plan and recommendations from ZTE’s legal department on setting up “shell companies” with no ZTE branding to conduct business with Iran. The ZTE Chairman commented that the U.S. investigation was “unfair.” Some Chinese analysts expressed the belief that ZTE is just another victim of the political games among countries.
Source: Global Times, March 7, 2016
http://finance.huanqiu.com/roll/2016-03/8665052.html
Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

VOA: Survey Showed that Fewer Japanese People Feel Close to China

Voice of America published an article which stated that fewer Japanese citizens feel close to China. Japan’s Cabinet authorized the survey. In January, 3,000 people were interviewed and 60 percent of them responded. Of those, 83.2 percent felt that they did not feel close to China. The number is up by 0.1 percent from 2015. It is the highest number since the survey was first conducted. Meanwhile the number of people who feel close to China remains at 14.8 percent, the same as in 2015. The results also showed that 9.5 percent of the people feel that the relationship between China and Japan is relatively good, while 85.7 percent feel the opposite. According to the article, Japan’s Kyodo News felt that the reason that Japanese citizens’ negative feelings toward China have not improved could be related to their concerns over China’s activities in the South China Sea. In addition, it is also an indication that the efforts that Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzō Abe put forth since 2014 in his contacts with China’s President Xi Jinping have not seemed to gain recognition from his people back home.

Source: Voice of America, March 12, 2016
http://www.voachinese.com/content/japan-china-20160312/3233063.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Xinhua: Why Does Japan Want to Keep Holding onto Large Amounts of Nuclear Materials?

Xinhua collected a series of articles questioning Japan’s nuclear ambitions. In the introductory paragraph, the article commented, “Japan is a signatory state of ‘the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.’ It claims to adhere to the ‘Three Non-Nuclear Principles.’ These are, ‘not possessing, not manufacturing, and not importing nuclear weapons.’ However, for a long time, it has stored large amounts of sensitive nuclear materials, a serious nuclear safety and nuclear proliferation risk. Right now, Japan has more than 1200 kilograms of highly enriched uranium and about 47.8 tons of separated plutonium, which is enough to produce over a thousand nuclear warheads. Experts have pointed out that Japan’s current storage of sensitive nuclear materials is far beyond what it actually needs. What on earth is Japan planning to do by holding onto so much sensitive nuclear material?” Below are the titles of the articles in the series: 

U.S. Experts Criticize Japan for Holding an Excessive Amount of Plutonium, Causing Worries about the Proliferation of Nuclear Materials
 
Chinese Foreign Ministry: Hope Japan Will resolve International Concerns about Excess Storage of Nuclear Material 
Japan Stores Large Quantities of Sensitive Nuclear Materials; it May Bring Three Risks [of nuclear safety, nuclear proliferation, and nuclear terrorism] 
What Does Japan Want to Do by Holding onto American nuclear materials? 
How long does Japan want to “Deceive (use the logic of an ostrich)” on Nuclear Issues? 
Abe Deliberately Avoids Mentioning the "Three Non-nuclear Principles," Reminding the World [of Japan’s real nuclear risk] 
Japan Never Gave up its Nuclear Ambitions, a Potential Nuclear Power outside the “Nuclear Threshold” 

Source: Xinhua, March 9, 2016 
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2016-03/09/c_128783163.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

RFA: Cell Phone Real Name Registration is Meant to Exercise Censorship Online

Radio Free Asia recently published an article on registering cell phones. According to the article, six months ago, Guangdong Province instituted requirements for all cell phone users to register their cell phones using thier real names. Since then, people still have not completed the real name registration process. Recently three telecommunication companies in Guangdong Province issued a last notice warning its customers, giving them a deadline of March 30. Those who haven’t registered their cell phones using their real names before that date will have their cell phone numbers disabled.

RFA quoted interviews with citizens inside China. Some stated that the cell number registration is really meant to limit freedom of speech online. One person told RFA that he received many random sales calls on his cell phone because the telecommunication companies sell their database for money. Another person told RFA that the authorities use public security as the excuse but their real intent is to control and monitor different opinions. According to the article, cell phone real name registration was launched in Xinjiang and Tibet several years ago. “This is an indication that China’s Human Rights has taken a step backwards. One rights activist in Inner Mongolia told RFA, "We are calling on the international community to pay attention to this matter.” 

Source: Radio Free Asia, March 12, 2016
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/meiti/ql2-03122016092151.html

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

VOA: Xinhua Journalist Published Open Letter to Condemn China’s Internet Surveillance Department

VOA published an article that reported about a Xinhua journalist who recently published an open letter on his microblog account on Sina criticizing Chinese Internet management agencies because they violated citizens’ basic rights of freedom of speech when they deleted online posts or shut down microblog accounts. The open letter stated, "They have violated the basic rights of freedom of speech and press that the Constitution protects. According to VOA, even though the open letter has been deleted from the Internet sites in China, the news media overseas have already picked it up. The article said that this is the second instance in which the people inside the Chinese media system stood up to express dissatisfaction with the Chinese authorities’ suppression of freedom of speech and of the press. The last open letter was published in Caixin after the Internet surveillance department deleted one of its articles. The open letter also demanded a full investigation of media attacks against Ren Zhiqiang, a Chinese businessman for his concerns about why the media should be loyal to the Party.

According to VOA, the handling of Ren Zhiqiang’s case and the open letter suggest that major differences and a power struggle exist inside the top leadership, especially between the Publicity Department and the Central Discipline Inspection Commission.

Source: VOA, March 11, 2016
http://www.voachinese.com/content/xinhua-journalist-internet-regulators-20160311/3232956.html

Briefings | | |   Social Stability