Skip to content

Wu Guoguang: Xi Jinping’s Reversal of the Course, Will China’s Transition be Peaceful or Marked with Bloodshed?

Read More ...

Cheng Xiaonong: U.S.-China Strategic Relations Have Crystallized

Read More ...

Xinhua Commentaries: “Exposing the Three Major Political Deficits of the U.S.”

Read More ...

The CCP’s Performing Arts Troupes in the U.S.

Read More ...

VOA: Does the Fall of Guo Boxiong Foretell a Rising Storm?

In his interview with Voice of America, Xin Ziling, a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) historian, said that taking down Guo Boxiong marked a victory for Xi Jinping, who handled the case both resolutely and steadily. The public announcement at this moment, right before the Beidaihe meetings this summer, is significant. It implies that the anti-corruption drive within the PLA has achieved an overwhelming victory. Xin observed that Guo was even more senior than Xu Caihou, the other vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, who died pending prosecution.
Xin cited Guo’s son, a PLA general, who boasted prior to his arrest earlier this year, "Confront our Guo family? My dad has promoted all military officials above the corps level."
Xin said that it was Jiang Zemin, the core of the third generation of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership, who put Guo and Xu in charge of the military in order to restrain Hu Jintao.
Expecting Jiang Zemin himself to be held responsible, Xin commented, "Xi Jinping said, time and again, that there is no [upper] limit, no iron hat prince, who is free from investigation. It should be so. This naturally leads to Jiang Zemin, the top former leader. Jiang’s issue has to be dealt with, but it needs to be handled more steadily, more discreetly than [the case of] Guo Boxiong. One has to be resolute, yet take steady steps. It has to be done with absolute control so as to avoid any shockwaves across the country. Taking down Guo Boxiong has shown that within the military, things will not go wrong. Xi Jinping has had a firm grip on military power. This is a prerequisite for the continuation of the anti-corruption campaign."
Source: Voice of America, August 2, 2015
http://www.voachinese.com/content/former-pla-top-leader-procecuted-for-birbery-20150731/2887997.html
Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Xinhua: Former Top Military General Guo Boxiong Expelled from the Chinese Communist Party

According to Xinhua News Agency on July 30, 2015, The Chinese Communist Party Central Committee’s Political Bureau expelled Guo Boxiong, former vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) from 2002 to 2012, from the Chinese Communist Party over corruption accusations. “The political bureau also decided to transfer his case and relevant evidence to military prosecutors for handling in accordance with the law.”

The punishment of Guo Boxiong demonstrates "the firm determination of the CCP Central Committee, led by current CCP general secretary Xi Jinping, to govern the Party and armed forces strictly in line with the law." The CCP Central Committee’s Political Bureau stated in its statement of July 30, 2015, “No matter what power one holds or how high one’s position is, if a person violates Party rules and the law, he or she should be hunted down without compromise and without mercy.” 

[Note: In the military, Guo Boxiong was regarded as a proxy for former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin.]

Source: Xinhua News Agency, July 30, 2015
http://news.xinhuanet.com/legal/2015-07/30/c_1116096002.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Caixin.com Was First to Mention Jiang Zemin’s Name in Its Report on “Guo Boxiong’s Ups and Downs”

On July 30, 2015, the same day that Xinhua reported the expulsion of Guo Boxiong from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Caixin.com, a media group that is close to current top CCP leader Xi Jinping, published a biography of Guo titled, “Guo Boxiong’s Ups and Downs.” In this report, Caixin hinted at the close relationship between Guo Boxiong and Jiang Zemin, the CCP’s former top leader.

In 1990 when Guo was an army commander, he told a group of army officials that he would build an army that met Jiang Zemin’s five-sentence requirement for a qualified army. Of all of China’s official news reports, Caixin.com was the first media that directly mentioned Jiang Zemin’s name in such an anti-corruption report.

Source: Caixin.com, July 30, 2015
http://china.caixin.com/2015-07-30/100834676_all.html#page2

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Global Times: Russia and Japan Will Not Get Close Together

Recently, news about Russian-Japanese relations has repeatedly appeared in the media. Talking about whether a closer relationship between Russia and Japan will damage China’s interests, Wang Haiyun, senior adviser at the Chinese Institute of International Strategic Association, expressed the belief that Russia and Japan will not really come together. He listed the following reasons as the basis for his opinion: 

First, the strategic interests of Russia and Japan are in conflict. Russia is an emerging big non-Western country, while Japan is a developed country which has boasted that it is an important member of the Western powers. Russia’s biggest security threat comes from the U.S.-led military alliance system, while Japan plays a very active role in the alliance system. 
Second, there is a huge difference between Japan and Russia’s strategic ideals. Russia values a multipolar world, democratization of international relations, and a diversified world civilization. It strongly advocates the establishment of a just and rational international political and economic order and safeguards the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states and the principle of an independent development path. Japan, on the other hand, has closely followed the U.S. which has repeatedly and brutally been destroying these major principles. 
Third, there are many strategic contradictions between Japan and Russia. The territorial dispute between Russia and Japan is a dead knot. 

All in all, there are many structural contradictions between Russia and Japan. Although relations between the two countries may be easing, they definitely will not get very close. It is reasonable to be vigilant to the risk that closer Russia-Japan relations may harm China’s interests, but there is no need to worry too much. 

Source: Huanqiu (Global Times), July 29, 2015 
http://opinion.huanqiu.com/opinion_world/2015-07/7129964.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Anti-corruption Campaign Has Recovered 38.7 Billion Yuan

On July 29, 2015, the Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) announced that from November 2012 to June 2015, it had recovered 38.7 billion yuan (US$16.1 billion) from corrupt officials. 

As part of its investigation of corruption, CCDI determines the amount of funds the corrupt official has obtained in violation of the Party’s discipline. CCDI then collects and returns such funds to the State coffers through confiscation, recovery, and restitution. CCDI has been confiscating gifts, rebates, and remunerations; it has recovered public property and gifts to the State that had been misappropriated; it has also ordered the restitution of spendthrift State-owned assets and unauthorized fines and fees. 
Of the 38.7 billion yuan collected from corrupt officials, CCDI returned 20.7 billion yuan (US$3.26 billion) to the State coffers and the remainder to the courts for judicial proceedings. 
Source: Xinhua, July 29, 2015 http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2015-07/29/c_1116075349.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Xinhua: Japanese Media Are Turning Right

Xinhua published a commentary stating that, since the beginning of this century, Japanese media have been turning right, following the political right-wing development. They exaggerate the “China Threat” and advocate populism, thus providing excuses for Abe to amend the Constitution to allow military expansion. 

The commentary alleged that the Japanese media make misrepresentations when reporting on China related events. It cited the September 2010 incident in which a Chinese fishing boat collided with a Japan Coast Guard patrol boat near the Diaoyu Islands and also the news reporting on the South China Seas dispute. 
The commentary further alleged that, since 2013, books that criticize China and South Korea have been selling fast. It has become a fashion in the publishing business to publish such books. 
Lastly, the commentary stated that new online media have also been following suit and are increasingly vocal about their dislike of China. In particular, the online media dedicated to China news are keen on picking negative news about China to demonstrate “their superiority over China or their hatred of China.” These reports are often reproduced on Yahoo in Japan, further amplifying the adverse effect. 
Source: Xinhua, July 31, 2015 
 http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2015-07/31/c_128076805.htm
Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

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]

Continue reading →

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