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Global Times: U.S. Praise of the Dongfeng 21-D Missile Harbors Ill Intentions

China’s state-media Global Times recently published an article reminding China to keep a sober mind toward the U.S. media’s praise of China’s Dongfeng-21D missile being a killer weapon that can destroy U.S. aircraft and not to follow the Soviet Unions’ path of failure. 

The article said, “As we all know, the United States has never stopped preparing for potential conflict against China. From the U.S. media or its military’s mouth, China’s arsenal Dongfeng-21D is the greatest ‘killer’ threat to the United States. It is as if, having the Dongfeng-21D, China will be able to control the U.S.’ life or death and then just sit back and relax. This kind of propaganda actually is exactly the same tactic as ‘the Soviet submarine threat’ that the U.S. used during the Cold War. At that time, the U.S. tried to do everything possible to hype that Soviet nuclear submarines are a ‘strong deterrent’ to the U.S. aircraft carrier. However, they had [secretly] balanced the development of aircraft carriers, submarines, and other ships, and built up a full range of sea power. Today, the United States hopes to use the same old trick to interfere with the balanced development of the Chinese navy so as to achieve the effect of defeating its opponent without a fight. 
“In modern warfare, one or two ‘killer’ weapons are unable to reverse the overall situation. China should keep a sober mind about the U.S. media’s touting of the Dongfeng-21D or some other ‘secret weapon.’ Thankfully, in recent years, China has been promoting the pace of key weaponry and equipment, developing large surface combat ships, new submarines, aircraft, long-range missiles with strong penetration ability, large, deep and high-speed smart torpedoes, and other new generation weaponry. This shows that the Chinese navy’s development strategy has not bit into the U.S. interference. Some U.S. groups’ ill intention is also doomed to fail.” 

Source: Global Times, August 25, 2015 
http://military.people.com.cn/n/2015/0825/c1011-27513331.html 
http://mil.huanqiu.com/observation/2015-08/7352214.html

China Three Gorges to Buy Brazil Power Assets

On Tuesday, August 25, the São Paulo-based firm and Brazilian group, Triunfo Participações e Investimentos (TPI) announced that it had agreed to sell a controlling stake in three energy subsidiaries to China Three Gorges for up to 1.9bn reais (US$538 million).
In a statement, Triunfo said the divestment included all of its shares in Rio Verde Energia, Rio Canoas Energia, and Triunfo Negócios de Energia. Triunfo added that the deal is for 970mn reais plus 770mn reais in debt, with an additional 148.5mn reais payable "upon the achievement of certain events."
Rio Verde Energia is operator of the 116MW hydropower plant of the same name in Goiás state while Rio Canoas is responsible for the 192MW Garibaldi plant in Santa Catarina. Triunfo Negócios de Energia is involved in power trading. According to Triunfo, the operation is subject to conditions and approval from local regulators.
Excluding the latest acquisition, China Three Gorges Brazil holds interests in three hydropower plants and 11 wind farms totaling 687MW of installed capacity.
Source: Xinhua, August 26, 2015
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2015-08/26/c_1116381781.htm

China Youth Daily: Reform Plans of State-Owned Companies are Shaping Up

China Youth Daily recently reported that, over the past two years, provinces in China have been working on designing new reform plans for state-owned companies. As of now, 22 provinces have released their plans and two provinces are about to release them. Only a few provinces (such as Tibet and Xinjiang) are still waiting for opinions from the central government. Some of the key features in those plans include introducing private capital into the mix of the ownership to replace full state ownership, making a public offering of the companies’ stock on the stock market, changing them from government asset management to capital management, improving regulatory systems, enhancing budget management, increasing securitization of the state ownership, looking at the human resources market for talent in company management, and adjusting company structures based on local needs. 

Source: China Youth Daily, August 16, 2015
http://zqb.cyol.com/html/2015-08/16/nw.D110000zgqnb_20150816_1-03.htm

After Chinese Currency Depreciation, Funds Began Moving Overseas

Well-known Chinese news site Sina recently reported that the sudden depreciation in Chinese currency caused a lot of wealthy Chinese people to regret that they had not moved their funds overseas sooner. As a result, they are now acting quickly to transfer a portion of their money to foreign accounts. A private business owner Mr. Tang said that he is sponsoring his son’s college studies overseas, which means he does not have the flexibility to use other than U.S. dollars. If he must change to U.S. dollars, he thinks that he will do it sooner rather than later; because of the recent RMB depreciation, he just lost nearly US$10,000. According to a Boston Consulting Group, China has a minimum of four million families with over US$1,000,000 worth of assets. Many private bankers think that many of these people are making more investments overseas. A J.P Morgan Chase analyst expressed the belief that, with the depreciation, combined with the possibility of a U.S. interest rate increase, the speed of money flowing out of China will accelerate. Many professional money managers agreed that the wealthy people in China will not count on the Chinese government’s capability to stabilize the currency. 

Source: Sina, August 14, 2015
http://finance.sina.com.cn/world/20150814/113522966474.shtml

BBC Chinese: Posters for the Movie “The Cairo Declaration” Caused Controversy

BBC Chinese recently reported that the Chinese military owns the August First Film Studio which makes movies. The studio just released posters for its upcoming new movie The Cairo Declaration. The Cairo Summit was a major milestone event that governed the end of World War II in the Pacific region. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and President of the Republic of China Chiang Kai-shek attended the Summit. Russian leader Stalin and Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong did not participate. However the posters that the August First Film Studio distributed included both Stalin and Mao but not Chiang Kai-shek. This resulted in a large wave of debate across the Chinese Internet. Many netizens accused the government of once again attempting to misrepresent history and called for telling the true story behind the Cairo Declaration. The officials from the August First Film Studio explained that the movie was to cover all aspects of the Cairo Summit and that the Communist Party did play an important role in World War II.  

Source: BBC Chinese, August 2015
http://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/china/2015/08/150815_china_movie_cairo_declaration

Guangming Daily: Survey Says 80 percent of Haigui Feel They Are Underpaid

Guangming Daily published an article reporting on a recent survey of Haigui [Chinese language slang term for Chinese people who have returned to mainland China after having studied abroad]. According to the results of the survey, 80 percent of Haigui felt that their salaries were below their expectations. In 2014, close 1.8 million people returned back to China after studying abroad, which accounted for 51.4 percent of the total who left China to study abroad. The survey showed that most of the Haigui found jobs in large cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shen Zhen. Those in the banking and financial industry amount to 14.3 percent, while the rest are spread over retail, real estate, and internet industries. Few are in new technology or in culture industries. The survey found that the overall job satisfaction of the Haigui is low. Close to 39.5 percent change jobs within the first two years and 28.8 percent change jobs between three to five years. They also need time to adjust to the domestic job market as well. 

Source: Guangming Daily, August 21, 2015
http://economy.gmw.cn/2015-08/21/content_16755740.htm

People’s Daily: China Has an Excess of Commercial Real Estate

People’s Daily published an article which reported that, during the recent 2015 Boao Real Estate Forum in Hainan, experts attending the forum concluded that the Chinese market has an excess of commercial real estate. The article said that it is a difficult situation that will last for a long period of time. Everyone must accept it and be ready to endure the resulting consequences. According to the article, in Tianjin, at least five shopping malls and department stores closed in the past six months. The empty spaces had to be rented out as business buildings. Some of them are on a month to month basis at only 80 yuan (US$12.52) per square meter. In Chongqing, the vacancy rate of the shopping centers is at 10.2 percent. The article stated that the weak consumer market has affected the vacancy rate, with the growth rate falling behind the newly developed commercial shopping centers. Some of the vacancies resulted when the centers tried to bring in improper store brands.

Source: People’s Daily, August 23, 2015
http://house.people.com.cn/n/2015/0823/c194441-27502236.html

People Daily on Party Organization Development on College Campuses

People’s Daily published an article on the development of Party organizations in colleges in China. According to the article, by June 30, 2014, there were over 90,000 student organized Party branches and 90,000 faculty organized Party branches in colleges in China. The article stated that some college Party organizations lack activities and events to attract new members, while other colleges appoint those who don’t have “high credentials,” such as those with top academic ranking and education, as the leader for the Party branch office. Meanwhile, Party development work in colleges faces a new challenge as more and more young professors are Haigui [Chinese language slang term for Chinese people who have returned to mainland China after having studied abroad]. According to the article, “It is a new task for the Party in terms of how to develop Party members among the talented youth and the elite and to rally them around the party.” The article also mentioned a few colleges and shared their experiences on how they have developed Party members at the grass roots level on campus. 

Source: People’s Daily, August 23, 2015
http://edu.people.com.cn/n/2015/0823/c1006-27502078.html