China’s Anti-Terrorism Act to Be Effective January 1, 2016
On December 27, 2015, Xinhua reported that, effective January 1, 2016, the "People’s Republic of China Anti-Terrorism Act," which the National People’s Congress Standing Committee passed on December 27, 2015, will become the law. The Anti-Terrorism Act has 10 chapters and 97 articles covering identification of terrorist organizations and personnel, security, intelligence information, investigations, response, international cooperation, safeguard measures, and legal responsibilities.
Xinhua: Xi Jinping Met with HK Chief Executive Chun-ying Leung
Xi’s Camp Hinted That the North Korean Music Troupe Incident Was a Planned Scheme.
On December 18, 2015, Caixin (http://www.caixin.com/), a Mainland China media that is closely related to Xi Jinping’s leadership camp, published a commentary on the cancellation of a North Korean’s music performance in Beijing. This original article was removed from the online site, though the title of the article can still be found on Google.com (朝鲜演出事件与中朝关系_观点频道_财新网). However, before the removal of the article, some overseas Chinese media had soon reprinted it and added their comments.
On December 18, 2015, creaders.net published an article titled, “Xi’s Camp hinted that the North Korea music troupe incident was a planned scheme.” Caixin’s article, according to creaders.net, implied that the cancellation of the North Korea concert was due to North Korea’s announcement of having developed a hydrogen bomb on the same day when the music troupe arrived in Beijing. This must be the scheme planned by the fraction of Jiang Zemin, who was the former top leader of China. Jiang’s faction attempted to tie up Xi Jinping’s authorities with the North Korean dictatorship.
Jiang’s faction is very close to North Korea’s Kim’s family. Inviting the North Korean troupe to China and announcing having H-bomb in the same period of time could be a scheme plotted by Liu Yunshan, who is Jiang’s follower. On October of 2015, Liu Yunshan, Head of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Propaganda Department and a member of the Standing Committee of the CCP, attended North Korea’s celebration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Kim’s ruling party. Having Xi Jinping’s authorities and North Korea tied up would benefit North Korea on the one hand and attack Xi Jinping on the other hand. Liu Yunshan might have manipulated the Mainland Chinese media to promote the North Korean concert heavily when the troupe arrived.
Source: Creaders.net, December 18, 2015
http://news.creaders.net/china/2015/12/18/1619338.html
The Economic Observer: Do Online Stores Drive Retailers Out of Business?
The Economic Observer, a weekly, Beijing-based national paper that features economic developments, published a commentary on its website which discussed a government commission’s concern that online e-commerce stores are driving retail stores out of business.
Study Times: Approaches to Handling Social Conflicts
Study Times published an article proposing several approaches that would help reduce social conflicts as China faces “the grim situation of public security” and as “social conflicts and social unrest remain high.” In order to handle social unrest or public safety emergencies, these approaches focus on the following: establishing mechanisms to arbitrate conflicts within the local communities and within trades, recruiting retired Party members and officials to work with those released from prison, encouraging trade associations to exercise self-monitoring and self-disciplinary functions with their members, incentivizing security firms to provide public security services, utilizing trade unions to ensure production safety, and establishing professional response teams, both privately and government funded.
The Economic Observer: Do Online Stores Drive Retailers Out of Business?
The Economic Observer, a weekly, Beijing-based national paper featuring economic developments, published a commentary on its website, discussing a government commission’s concern that online e-commerce stores have driven retail stores out of business. The Central Economic Work Conference brgan December 18, 2015, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), directly affiliated with the State Council, submitted a report to the central government. The NDRC report noted: "Despite some jobs have been created by online stores, courier delivery services, and associated new lines of business, one must not ignore the impact on physical retail store, which are being replaced." While people are cheering the record setting one-day sale of RMB 91 billion (around USD 14 billion) on November 11 at the Tmall online website, owned by Alibaba Group, retail outlets for books, clothes, and household appliance are hit the worst. There are even cases that retail stores are being closed en masse. Some traditional department stores have also lost their appeal. All negatively impacted employment outlook in these areas. While the commentary did not challenge the claim by Ma Yun (Jack Ma), chairman of the board of the Alibaba Group, that Alibaba’s online e-commerce platform has 8.5 million active vendors, which created directly 10 million employment positions, and indirectly 3.5 million more. Ma categorized this group as "online merchants," which include merchants with well-known brands, vendors specializing in channel marketing, logistics, and indirect participants doing outsourcing work in communications, design, and sales. However, the commentary focused on the retail sector, spanning urban communities as well as rural areas. It raised the question that those who have been displaced by e-commerce platform, such as Tmall, are not in the position to get into logicstics, or manufacturing, or name branding due to technology and intellectual property barriers. The commentary looks up to the government to offer assistance to people losing their retail jobs. Source: The Economic Observer website, December 21, 2015 http://www.eeo.com.cn/2015/1221/281974.shtml
Guangming Daily: Are China and Russia Partners or Allies?
Guangming Daily, a newspaper directly affiliated with the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, published a lengthy article on China’s relations with Russia. The article’s English version appeared in the January/February 2016 issue of Foreign Affairs. The author is Fu Ying, China’s former ambassador to the Philippines, Australia, and the U.K., who currently serves as chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People’s Congress. Guangming Daily received the exclusive authorization from Fu to publish the full, translated Chinese text.