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

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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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Macao Chief Executive: Gambling Industry May Suffer a New Low

The South China Morning Post recently reported that Macao Chief Executive Chui Sai discussed his estimate of the City’s 2016 gambling-related income in his speech to the Macao Legislative Council. Cui projected that Macao’s gambling industry may have a pre-tax income of US$25 billion in 2016, which is lower than that of 2015 and is only half of the 2014 number. The gambling business in Macao is currently seeing its worst days in history. Analysts say the primary factors are the significantly slowed Chinese economy as well as the Mainland’s anti-corruption movement. Macao’s gambling income has suffered 17 consecutive months of decline. Although the City is still expanding its capacity to handle a large volume of tourists, the total number of visitors is seeing a decline. The upcoming holiday season is critical to Macao’s economy.
Source: South China Morning Post, November 18, 2015
http://www.nanzao.com/sc/business/1511954ac25eda1/ao-men-te-shou-bo-cai-ye-shou-ru-ming-nian-liao-xu-jiang-kong-chuang-2010-yi-lai-zui-di
Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

China to Adopt U.S. Registration System for IPOs

On November 20, Xiao Gang, Chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), stated that the State Council will push for the implementation of a registration system similar to the one in the United States to be initiated as early as March 2016. 

Currently, after they pass the review of CSRC’s Public Offering Review Committee (PORC) and complete post-review procedures, the CSRC approves all Initial Public Offering (IPO) applications of companies wishing to list their equities on the stock exchanges. Xiao Gang stated that the current approval-based system has brought about inflated financials with understated risks, excessive fund raising during the IPOs, high issuance prices, and the corruption of security officials. 
According to Xiao Gang, the upcoming registration system will be similar to the U.S. SEC registration required for IPOs. CSRC will review whether the prospective issuer has provided full disclosure of its financials and risks. The issuer will determine that the IPO share prices are based on the market. The registration system will also provide a mechanism for companies to delist from the stock exchange if they wish. 
Source:  Finance (Jing Rong Wang), November 22, 2015 http://stock.jrj.com.cn/ipo/2015/11/22153420113134.shtml
Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Russia Received Timely Chinese Oil Payment

Well-known Chinese news site Sina recently reported that China just sent Russia a large amount of pre-payment, as had been agreed upon, in its oil supply contract with China. According to information that U.S. media has provided, this pre-payment in the third quarter totaled around 97.26 billion yuan (around US$15.2 billion). China made multiple much-needed payments to Russia earlier and this latest one is the largest overseas payment Russia has received since the West sanctioned Russia. Based on the China-Russia oil supply contract signed in 2013, Russia promised to supply China with 360 million tons of oil over 25 years. The total cost of the contract is US$270 billion. Russian President Vladimir Putin once revealed that China would pay US$70 billion worth of pre-payments. According to Russian media reports, the Russian oil companies are severely suffering because of the sanctions. The latest Chinese payment is crucial to sustaining Russian suppliers.
Source: Sina, November 17, 2015
http://news.sina.com.cn/w/zx/2015-11-17/doc-ifxksqiu1646710.shtml
Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

In Shanxi Province, Corrupt Military Officers Resisted Inspection with Gunshots

On November 18, 2015, several Chinese language media outside of Mainland China republished an article from The Trend Magazine in Hong Kong (November of 2015, print edition) on a gunshot fight between a military law enforcement team and corrupt military officers in the Shanxi Province Military Region Club.

According to The Trend Magazine, the General Staff Department and General Political Department of the People’s Liberation Army of China organized a Joint Military Inspection and Law Enforcement Team that made an unexpected visit to the Shanxi Province Military Region Entertainment Club to do a corruption inspection. When the law enforcement staff ordered those "having-good-time" military officers to present their IDs, the military officers resisted and surrounded the law enforcement staff. The law enforcement team then fired some warning gunshots which failed to scatter the officers who surrounded them. When the law enforcement team tried to take away a leading officer, who was inciting the other officers to reject inspections, the military officers on the scene attacked back with cold gunshots.

Since 1989, former top leader Jiang Zemin has been implementing corruption strategies to win the support and loyalty of the CCP gang members and of army generals. In the over 10 years that Jiang was in power, the corruption in the People’s Liberation Army spread rapidly across the entire nation. The phenomena of making money through smuggling; lust as a form of entertainment; exchanges involving power and sex, as well as power and money; murdering witnesses; and fleeing overseas with huge amounts of money became very rampant.

The article concluded that, clearly, in the end, the former CCP Central Military Commission Chairman Jiang Zemin is the real cause of all the corruption.

Source: Power Apple, November 18, 2015
https://www.powerapple.com/news/zhong-gang-tai/2015/11/18/2498556.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Legal Daily: Interference in Judicial Cases Must Be Checked Early

Beijing-based Legal Daily published a commentary this Tuesday, November 17, on recent developments in overseeing interference in judicial systems. According to a press release that the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs (CPLA) of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee issued in early November, five officials and judicial personnel have been removed from their posts or given sanctions. 

This was the first time that the new regulations have been enforced since March 2015, when the Central Committee General Office and the General Office of the State Council published the "Provisions on Recording, Reporting, and Pursuing the Responsibility of Leading Cadres for Interfering with Judicial Activities or Tampering with the Handling of Specific Cases."

The Legal Daily commentary observed that the five officials publicly named were all from lower levels. The one in Shanghai was just a staff member in the Pudong New District Procuratorate who did not have the power to influence the handling of cases.

Based on past experience, the mentality and behavior of top officials and those who work within the judicial organs have a significant impact on the legal environment. To check such interference early and across lower levels is an important step.

The publication of the Provisions in March, the subsequent implementation plans detailed by the People’s Supreme Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, and the recent naming of officials by the CPLA have sent a clear message to society that prohibiting interference in the handling of legal cases is being put into practice.

Of course, we must also realize that to establish the system to prevent tampering with any specific cases takes strict enforcement over time. Fundamentally it is to restrain power, leading toward the public and society being able to exert comprehensive supervision.

Source: Legal Daily, November 17, 2015
http://epaper.legaldaily.com.cn/fzrb/content/20151117/Articel07004GN.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Corrupt Party Officials’ Fraudulent Practices in the Stock Market

Recently, the media in Mainland China exposed how officials in the Chinese Communist Party have gained huge profits using such illegal stock investment activities as embezzlement, accepting bribes, borrowing money from businessmen, and releasing unpublicized internal information to relatives or family members. Some examples follow.

Tao Liming, ex-president of the Postal Savings Bank of China, embezzled government bonds worth 340 million Chinese yuan (US $53.26 million) in speculating in the stock market for personal profit.

Yao Gang, vice-chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, was under investigation last week. His former secretary borrowed 10 million Chinese yuan (US$1.56 million) from a businessman to speculate in the stock market.

Xiao Peng, former China Southern Power Grid deputy general manager, gave insider information to a relative, helping his stock investment grow by 50 percent annually for eight consecutive years.

Sources: Sohu, November 18, 2015 & China News, November 18, 2015
http://news.sohu.com/20151118/n426825424.shtml
http://www.chinanews.com/sh/2015/11-18/7629861.shtml

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Global Times: China Should Consider Establishing Overseas Military Bases

Wang Haiyun, Senior Advisor at the China Institute for International Strategy, published an article proposing that China break through the old restriction on establishing overseas naval bases. The article provided the following arguments in favor of his suggestion: 

China has become the world’s second largest economy and is truly a big country in the world no matter which way you look at it. China’s global interests are expanding; its global responsibility is also increasing. China hopes to provide more public engagement with the international community, including more involvement in combating piracy and conducting peacekeeping operations and humanitarian relief. Regardless of which task is performed, they all depend on protection from overseas military bases. The world’s major powers all have overseas military bases. The U.S. military bases are all over the globe. Even Japan has opened a logistics base overseas. As a UN Security Council permanent member, why should China tie itself? 
China’s economy is increasingly integrating with the world economy. China’s enterprises’ "going out" process is accelerating. China’s overseas assets are growing in scale. More and more people are working and traveling overseas. The security tasks of maintaining oil and gas pipelines and other infrastructure are becoming more arduous. Because it lacks overseas military bases to provide security, China will inevitably encounter more and more problems and security risks. With the advance of “one belt, one road" initiative, this situation will become even more prominent. 
The Chinese Navy is moving from an offshore towards becoming a blue water navy. Just for the consideration of training needs, we cannot do without foreign military bases. 
Source: Huanqiu (Global Times), November 14, 2015
http://opinion.huanqiu.com/1152/2015-11/7976011.html 
http://military.people.com.cn/n/2015/1114/c1011-27815180.html
Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

Xinhua: Louis Vuitton Closed Another Store in Guangzhou

Xinhua recently reported that Louis Vuitton (LV) just closed down one of its key stores in Guangzhou, which is the capital city of Guangdong Province – one of the most economically developed provinces in China and the closest province to Hong Kong. It is very telling since the store is still profitable and it is not the only LV store to close. Louis Vuitton is a widely recognized luxury brand in China. The move is symbolic since it’s the latest event that represents a continuous “flood” of store closures across many luxury brands since last year. Other examples include Gucci and Burberry. According to a research report by Bain & Company, the Chinese luxury market started to suffer a negative growth in 2014, which saw the largest number of store closures. Experts suggested that the main causes of the decline in the luxury sector were the anti-corruption movement, low domestic consumer spending, and customers shopping directly outside of China. 
Source: Xinhua, November 13, 2015
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2015-11/13/c_128425284.htm
Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources