Chinascope – Page 638

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

Briefings | | December 23, 2015 | Economy/Resources

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.

Fu reviewed the several occasions between the end of the nineteenth century and the middle of the twentieth century, when China entered into an alliance with the Russian empire or its successor, the Soviet Union. Each time, the arrangement proved short-lived, as each amounted to nothing more than an expediency between countries of unequal strength.

It was not until 1989 that the two countries restored normalcy to their relations. Two years later, the Soviet Union disintegrated but Chinese-Russian relations carried on based on the principle of “no alliance, no conflict, and no targeting any third country.” In 1992, China and Russia announced that each would regard the other as a “friendly country” and issued a joint political statement stipulating that “the freedom of people to choose their own development path should be respected, while differences in social systems and ideologies should not hamper the normal progress of relations.”

Fu noted that differences still exist between the two countries. She gave, as an example, that despite the resolution of the border issue, Chinese commentators sometimes make critical references to the nearly 600,000 square miles of Chinese territory that tsarist Russia annexed in the late nineteenth century.

Fu also took stock of where things stand between China and the U.S. given that relations between China, Russia, and the U.S. are intertwined. Chinese president Xi Jinping remarked during his state visit to the U.S. last September that, "If China develops well, it will benefit the whole world and benefit the United States. If the United States develops well, it will also benefit the world and China." Fu went on to claim that Chinese leaders attribute much of their country’s rapid ascent to China’s successful integration into the world economy.

Refuting suggestions from some scholars in China and elsewhere that, if the United States insists on imposing bloc politics on the region, China and Russia should consider responding by forming a bloc of their own, Fu argued that the Chinese leadership does not approve of such arguments. China does not pursue blocs or alliances; nor do such arrangements fit comfortably with Chinese political culture. Russia does not intend to form such a bloc, either. China and Russia should stick to the principle of partnership rather than build an alliance. As for China and the United States, they should continue pursuing a new model of major-country relations and allow dialogue, cooperation, and management of differences to prevail.

Sources: Guangming Daily, December 23, 2015

http://epaper.gmw.cn/gmrb/html/2015-12/23/nw.D110000gmrb_20151223_2-16.htm

Foreign Affairs, January/February 2016, pp. 96-105

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2015-12-14/how-china-sees-russia

Briefings | | December 23, 2015 | Government/Politics

RFA: Wikipedia Refused to Compromise for China’s Internet Censors

Radio Free Asia (RFA) recently reported that Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales attended the World Internet Conference held in China not long ago. For the first time he directly brought up the issue of China’s ban on Wikipedia (Chinese Edition) and asked China to lift the ban. However, as an answer, China blocked all languages of Wikipedia for a few days. Apparently the two sides did not reach any agreement. Wales told the press that Wikipedia will never censor any so-called “sensitive” information in exchange for lifting the ban. Wikipedia is not a web site funded commercially. Its operation is based on donations from all over the world. Wikipedia does not carry advertisements in order to ensure neutral content – even if it has a high traffic volume.

China’s “Great Firewall” has been blocking Wikipedia’s Chinese content (and sometimes the English content as well) for many years. Every year around “sensitive dates,” such as June 4, China tightens up the ban on Wikipedia to apply more social control.

Source: Radio Free Asia, December 18, 2015

http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/meiti/xl1-12182015101935.html

Briefings | | December 22, 2015 | Information/Technology

Global Times: China Voted against UN Resolution on North Korean Human Rights Violations

Global Times recently reported that the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution condemning North Korea’s long term human rights violations. China was one of 19 countries that voted against the resolution. Cuba, Russia and Syria also voted against it. Earlier, China voted in the Security Council against including this issue as an agenda item for the General Assembly to consider, but that vote did not include a veto power. Representatives from the United States, South Korea, and Japan expressed their serious disagreement with the notion that the human rights issue has nothing to do with international peace and security. UN Deputy Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein both maintained that North Korea’s large-scale, continuous, and systematic violations of human rights have been a major security concern in that region. Two refugees from North Korea were present at the UN and told the General Assembly about three generations of tragic suffering.

Source: Global Times, December 18, 2015

http://world.huanqiu.com/article/2015-12/8204723.html

Briefings | | December 22, 2015 | Government/Politics

Military Expert: China Will Not Fire the First Shot and Won’t Give a Second Chance to the Opponent

Recently, U.S. Department of Defense officials said that, within this year, the U.S. will not send any warships to the South China Sea that will navigate within 12 sea miles of China’s artificial reefs. Also, an anonymous official said that the next voyage will be in January of next year. Chinese military expert Cao Weidong, in an interview with the CCTV "Today’s Focus" program, said that the U.S. military action of cruising the South China Sea is just for show. China has always insisted on an active defense policy. China will not fire the first shot, but will never give [the U.S.] a second chance either.

Talking about why the United States would postpone its patrol in the South China Sea, Cao expressed that, in principle, military operations should be kept confidential. On the contrary, the U.S. deliberately uses the media to hype its warships patrolling the South China Sea, which is clearly contrary to the law of military operations in the true sense. We can say that the U.S. military action is just to show off.

Cao pointed out that China’s attitude toward the U.S. is very clear. When a U.S. warship went to the South China Sea in October, China clearly told the U.S. that if it came close, we would verify, track and monitor. If it took further provocative and threatening actions, we would give warnings and an eviction. If there were violations or offensive actions, we would fire back.

Source: People’s Daily, December 19, 2015

http://military.people.com.cn/n1/2015/1219/c1011-27948665.html

Briefings | | December 21, 2015 | Defense/Military

Xinhua: Obama’s Legacy of Hegemony

On December 20, 2016, Xinhua published a commentary in which it rejected the U.S. explanation that its two B-52 bombers didn’t intend to fly over China’s artificial island in the South China Sea. Xinhua questioned “a series of dangerous actions” that the U.S. had carried out in “its recent show of force” in the South China Sea. Xinhua also rebutted the U.S. explanation by citing the recent U.S. arms sale to Taiwan. It said this act “flagrantly violated international law and the norms governing international relations, severely violated the three Sino-US joint communiques, … and caused severe damage to China’s sovereignty and security interests as well as cross-strait relations [with Taiwan].” Xinhua further complained that the U.S. Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) excluded China. “People will ask what Washington is truly up to. What does Obama, who will bid farewell to the White House next year, want to leave behind as his diplomatic legacy? [The core of his legacy] is his thinking about ‘hegemony.’

Source: Xinhua, December 20, 2016

http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2015-12/20/c_128549461.htm

Briefings | | December 21, 2015 | US-China Relations

Xinhua Commentary Series: Spotlight on the U.S. Presidential Election

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.”