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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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Doomsday Fever

[Editor’s Note: Cheng Guangcheng is the renowned blind Chinese human rights activist who is self-taught in the law. He is best known for his class-action lawsuit against the authorities for excessive enforcement of the one-child policy. After over four years in prison, he was kept under house arrest and closely monitored. His daring escape from the police, after which he fled to the U.S. Embassy, gained him international attention. After intense negotiations with the Chinese government, Chen, his wife, and their two children, came to the U.S.. He has been publishing ever since and recently wrote a blog on Radio Free Asia, commenting on the Chinese Communist Party’s recent massive arrests and defaming of human rights lawyers in China. The following is the translation of his article.] [1]

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Reports | | |   Report

Xi Jinping’s Brother: My Father Never Made a Leftist Mistake

With the recent round up of rights lawyers, critics have voiced their concerns over whether leftist hardliners have been gaining the upper hand in Beijing’s decision making circles. Xi Yuanping, the younger brother of China’s top leader Xi Jinping, gave a speech last week in which he stated that, throughout his life, their father had never made a leftist mistake. 

On July 27, 2015, The Study Times, a newspaper that the Central Party School of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) publishes, carried the full transcript of Xi Yuanping’s speech. In addition, China’s major Internet portals have publicized it widely. 
Xi pointed out that, even during the "fanatic Great Leap Forward movement," the Xi brothers’ father Xi Zhongxun remained cool-minded and voiced opposing views. 
Citing a participant who attended the meeting with Deng Xiaoping and Xi Zhongxun, Xi Yuanping gave a detailed description of how the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone was formed. Deng told Xi Zhongxun, when Xi proposed the establishment of a special economic zone in the coastal province of Guangdong, that the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia area which Xi was in charge of before 1949 was itself a special zone. In a subsequent meeting with the then leader of the State Council, Deng again reiterated his affirmation by using the term "special economic zone." 

Source: The Study Times, July 27, 2015
http://www.studytimes.cn/shtml/xxsb/20150727/13357.shtml

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

People’s Daily: U.S. Commander’s Blatant Comment on South China Sea Is a Reflection of Hegemony

The head of the U.S. Pacific Command, Admiral Harry B. Harris, gave a talk on the South China Sea issue at the Aspen Security Forum on July 24. Jia Xiudong, an invited commentator for People’s Daily and a distinguished scholar at the China Institute of International Studies, published an article commenting on the talk Harris gave. Below is an excerpt from the article: 

“Harris’s irresponsible remark exposed the strategic intent of the United States on the South China Sea issue. Harris was holding a script, which showed he was apparently well prepared; it was not a whim or an improvisational talk.” 
“Harris is not the first one to make irresponsible remarks about the South China Sea, nor is he the most senior U.S. military official to criticize on the South China Sea. However, it is rare for someone like him to give such a lengthy talk on the South China Sea issue, to slander China, and to mix right and wrong so blatantly and explicitly.” 
“Harris claimed that the core of the South China Sea issue is maintaining vs. changing the status quo. Recently, many senior U.S. officials have become very fond of the word ‘status quo’ while talking about the South China Sea and have also proposed an initiative to maintain the South China Sea ‘status quo.’ It seems that China is a ‘status quo’ challenger, changer, and destroyer; while the United States is the ‘status quo’ maintainer. With a little analysis, one can see that the United States’ so-called ‘status quo’ is essentially to allow illegal occupation of China’s islands and reefs and the provocation of China’s sovereignty and maritime rights and interests by some neighboring countries in the South China Sea. However, the U.S. intentionally avoids or even denies the ‘real’ ‘status quo’ in the South China Sea, which is China having sovereignty over the South China Sea islands and their adjacent waters.” 
The purpose for the U.S. “hyping up and strengthening its intervention on the South China Sea issue is not to [promote] regional peace, stability, and security in the South China Sea region. Rather, it is to maintain the U.S.’ maritime and regional hegemony. All the U.S. rhetoric serves only to package its pursuit of hegemony.” 

“After all, the essence of the fight between China and the U.S. in the South China Sea is one of sovereignty vs. supremacy. Around the South China Sea issue, China desires to maintain its sovereignty; whereas the United States pursues hegemony.” 

“In dealing with this fundamental contradiction — that China maintains sovereignty and the United States pursues hegemony — don’t expect the outcome to be that China concedes on the issue of sovereignty. The sovereignty of the South China Sea is China’s core interest. The U.S. challenge to South China Sea sovereignty will eventually end up being in vain.” 
Source: People’s Daily, July 28, 2015 
 http://military.people.com.cn/n/2015/0728/c1011-27370373.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

China News: Director of the Bureau of Corruption Prevention Arrested for Corruption

China News recently reported that Zhong Shijian, Director of the Bureau of Corruption Prevention of Guangdong Province, was arrested for corruption. Zhong was also the former Deputy Secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission of the Communist Party Committee of Guangdong Province and was the former Director of the Supervision Bureau of Guangdong Province. He has been removed from his government positions and Party positions. Zhong was accused of severely violating investigation rules and discipline, leaking secrets to suspects, accepting monetary bribes, as well as other illegal activities. He was also voted to be removed from his seat as the Provincial Member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
Source: China News, July 21, 2015
http://www.chinanews.com/m/sh/2015/07-21/7418308.shtml
Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

China Significantly Increased Its Gold Reserves for the First Time in Six Years

Well-known Chinese news site Sina recently reported that, according to China’s central bank, China’s official gold reserves reached 53.31 million ounces (1,658 tons) as of the end of June. This is a 57 percent increase from the previous official number revealed in April 2009, which was 33.89 million ounces (1,054.6 tons). The central bank announced the intent to continue the increase of the gold reserves in the future to have better management of financial risks. According to the World Gold Council (WGC), China surpassed Russia to become the world’s fifth largest country in gold reserves (excluding the International Monetary Fund). Analysts have indicated that, according to cost figures, the Chinese central bank did not reach this new gold reserve level with a recent one-time acquisition. China is the largest gold producer in the world and is the second largest gold consumer after India. Since 2009, the central bank has never updated its official gold reserve level.
Source: Sina, July 17, 2015
http://finance.sina.com.cn/money/nmetal/20150717/192622719369.shtml
Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

BBC Chinese: Fake Taylor Swift Branded Products Have Flooded China

BBC Chinese recently reported that, when well-known U.S. pop music singer Taylor Swift will launch her touring concert in Shanghai this November, she plans also, at the same time, to announce her own clothing line in China. Swift is working with Chinese online shopping sites to market her authentic line of products in the Chinese market, with a guarantee to the buyers that they won’t get fakes. This is an effort to fight the widespread fake Swift products that have spread through the Chinese online market. For example, a T-shirt printed with Taylor Swift’s famous song named “Shake It Off” sells for RMB 40 yuan (around US$7) online at China’s largest online shopping site (also the world’s largest) TaoBao.com. Swift, however, never gave any authorization for it. TaoBao.com was recently accused of not making enough of an effort to crack down on counterfeits. In the meantime, Swift’s concert may face another totally unrelated issue. Her new music album is named “T.S.1989,” standing for her initials and the year she was born. However, in China, the number 1989 and the initials are considered “sensitive” because the Chinese authorities may connect them with the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre. 
Source: BBC Chinese, July 24, 2015
http://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/world/2015/07/150724_swift_china
Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Internet Users’ Information Theft Is Alarming in China

People’s Daily reported that, according to the 2015 Investigative Report on China’s Internet Users’ Protection Rights, 78.2 percent of Internet users in China have had their personal information stolen. The related financial losses that resulted were 8.05 trillion yuan (US$1.3 trillion).This is equivalent to 124 yuan (US$20) per person for the period between July 2014 to June 2015, assuming there were 649 million Internet users and close to 7 percent of the Internet users suffered financial losses as high as 1,000 yuan (US$161). The report indicated that online shopping, online searches, social websites, online games and online travel are the sites where most of the Internet users experienced information theft. According to the legal expert, the personal and identify information theft rate in China is alarming, but since the financial damage is relatively small, few of the Internet users seek legal protection.

Source: People’s Daily, July 24, 2015
http://tc.people.com.cn/n/2015/0724/c183008-27353836.html

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

By 2022, China Will Have 9.2 Million Hepatitis B Patients

Guangming Daily reported that, on July 25, 2015, World Hepatitis B Awareness Day, there were 6.9 million Hepatitis B patients in China. According to the vice chairman of the China Foundation for Hepatitis Prevention and Control, that number will reach 9.2 million by 2022. The article also disclosed that among 400 million Hepatitis B and C carriers in the world, China accounts for 25 percent of the population while the number of liver cancer patients in China accounts for half of the world’s population.

Source: Guangming Daily, July 26, 2015
http://politics.gmw.cn/2015-07/26/content_16424619.htm

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology