The New York Times reported on July 31 that the U.S. has decided to retaliate against China for the theft of 20 million American’s personal data from the Office of Personnel Management. One option under consideration is breaching China’s Great Firewall, the government imposed network of Internet censorship designed to control the information available to people inside China.
Google’s New Internet Domain Name Got Blocked Instantly
Global Times: China and Russia Conduct Joint Naval Exercises in the Japanese Sea
Xinhua: The Philippines Is Determined to Reopen the Subic Bay Base
Qiushi Theory: How Close Can the U.S. and Vietnam Relationship Be?
Qiushi Theory carried an article on the U.S. and Vietnam relationship. It relied heavily on quotes from an interview with Yuan Zheng, Deputy Director of the Division of American Foreign Policy Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The article said that the relationship between the U.S. and Vietnam is warming up due to the economic and strategic benefits that both countries are seeking from each other. According to the article, the amount of goods traded both ways between the U.S. and Vietnam has increased from US$450 million in 1995 to the current annual amount of US$36 billion. In addition to maintaining the U.S. as the largest export market for clothing and shoes, Vietnam also wishes to benefit from the Trans-Pacific Partnership that the U.S. is working on. From a strategic perspective, Vietnam is trying to use the U.S. to balance China, while the U.S. effort to improve its relationship with Vietnam is an important part of the U.S. Asia and Pacific strategy. The article said that differences still exist between the U.S. and Vietnam as the U.S. will use human rights as an excuse to control Vietnam. Meanwhile there is no independent union in Vietnam, which will be a disadvantage for Vietnam during the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations. The article also predicted that Vietnam still has reservations about the U.S. and that it is unlikely that it will lean totally towards the U.S.
Source: Qiushi Theory, August 11, 2015
http://www.qstheory.cn/international/2015-08/11/c_1116216614.htm
Huanqiu: Hong Kong is Less Appealing to Mainlanders
Huanqiu reported that Hong Kong has become less appealing to mainlanders as the number of immigrants from the mainland has been decreasing. The article said that Hong Kong has a quota of 50,000 for mainlanders to immigrate there each year. In the past, the quota has always been used up. However, this year, over 10,000 of the quota has not been used. This is an indication that Hong Kong is less appealing to mainlanders. Some experts are concerned that, due to the limitation of space in Hong Kong, it will be more difficult for Hong Kong to attract talent from other areas; this may impact its future development.
Source: Huanqiu, August 15, 2015
http://oversea.huanqiu.com/article/2015-08/7278880.html
50 Websites Punished for Spreading Rumors about the Tianjin Explosion
People’s Daily reported that, according to the Office of National Internet Information, 50 websites were under investigation for “spreading rumors” about the explosion in Tianjin. The article said that those websites published web articles with contents such as that “a minimum of 1,000 people died,” “no lives were found within 1 kilometer of the site of the explosion,” “Tianjin is in chaos; stores were being robbed,” and “the top leadership in Tianjin was being restructured.” The article claimed that some of them allow their users to upload “rumors from microblogs and WeChat” and have become the “harbor of the rumors.” “It has had a negative social impact.” The article said that 18 of those websites were ordered to be shut down permanently while the other 32 sites were to remain closed for one month.
Source: People’s Daily, August 15, 2015
http://politics.people.com.cn/n/2015/0815/c1001-27467538.html
People’s Daily Summarizes Xi Jinping’s Diplomatic Concepts with 10 Key Ideas
1. The China Dream (中国梦)