Chinascope – Page 693

Hu Shuli Criticized Ma Jian for Intervention in Judiciary; Implications for Jiang Zemin?

On April 6, 2015, Caixin Weekly published an article that Hu Shuli, the editor-in-chief of Caixin, wrote. The title was, "The Promise to Resist Officials’ intervention in the Judiciary." The article discussed the new policy that the Office of the Chinese Communist Party Central Commission and the Office of the State of the People’s Republic of China issued and published on Xinhua on March 30, 2015. [1] The policy established a penalty, thereby preventing government officials from intervening in judicial activities and meddling with the judicial records of specific cases.

Hu pointed out in her article that Ma Jian, the former Deputy Minister of State Security, who used to support Guo Wengui (as discussed in previous ChinaScope briefings [2] [3]), has repeatedly intervened in criminal cases. Ma Jian was responsible to Zeng Qinghong, who was former leader Jiang Zemin’s top advisor. Hu Shuli stated, "Obviously, Ma’s purpose was to shelter their money-power trade network. However, a corrupt official whose rank and power was higher than Ma’s would have intervened more recklessly in the judicial system, and might even have done so in the name of strengthening the Party’s leadership over judicial work. Such acts have seriously damaged the judiciary, shaken citizens’ belief in the rule of law, and become the most dangerous viruses infecting China’s judicial system." [4]

The above-mentioned "higher-rank official" who "intervened more recklessly in the judicial system" "in the name of strengthening the Party’s leadership over judicial work" is likely to refer to Jiang Zemin, because he used that term, but his successors Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping did not.

Sources:
[1] Xinhua, March 30, 2015
http://news.xinhuanet.com/legal/2015-03/30/c_1114812232.htm
[2] ChinaScope, "Big Fight May Be Going on between Zeng Qinghong and Wang Qishan"
http://chinascope.org/main/content/view/7047/40/
[3] ChinaScope, "Caixin Sues Guo Wengui and Hong Kong Media for Defamation"
http://chinascope.org/main/content/view/7046/40/
[4] Caixin Weekly, April 6, 2015
http://weekly.caixin.com/2015-04-03/100797262.html

Briefings | | April 9, 2015 | Government/Politics

Communist Youth League to Recruit 10 million Volunteers for Cyber Civilization

The Central Committee of the Communist Youth League (CYL), the Chinese Communist Party’s youth organization, issued a directive in February of this year, requiring its nationwide subordinate organizations to recruit 10.5 million "young volunteers for cyber civilization" by the end of June. The date of the issuance was February 13, 2015. The title was, "The notice of the Communist Youth League about establishing teams of young volunteers for cyber civilization on a large scale, and advancing the operations of young volunteers for cyber civilization."

The document was issued to all CYL committees in provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities, CYL committees at national railway and civil aviation authorities, organs under the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee, CYL’s working committees at central government agencies, and large state-owned enterprises.

According to the Notice, these "young volunteers" are in charge of promoting positive energy online, and actively participating in the CYL Central Committee’s "Sunshine posting" operations, as well as pro-actively resisting negative energy in cyberspace. They are required to participate in at least three major activities in 2015.

The 10.5 million volunteers include four million from Chinese colleges and universities. Every higher education institute is required to submit the number of its volunteers. For example, Guangzhou based Sun Yat-sen University is supposed to supply 800; a demand was made that mainland campuses of The Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Baptist University must provide 800 and 100 each.

Source: BBC Chinese, April 7, 2015

http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/china/2015/04/150407_china_youth_internet

Briefings | | April 9, 2015 | Information/Technology

CCTV: China Worked with a Yemen Governor on Its Evacuation Operation

After China’s Linyi Warship evacuated 225 peoples from the Aden port in Yemen on April 2, 2015, CCTV did an interview with Jiang Guoping, the commander of the operation.

All the people who were rescued were foreigners. They were from 10 different countries, including Germany, Pakistan, and Singapore. In his interview, Jiang mentioned how they obtained local support, “To make this operation work, China’s Consul General in Aden City used his personal connections to get to the Governor of the Aden Governorate. That governor asked a favor of him, namely, that the Linyi ship take one of his relatives out. Thus, [China’s Consul General] did a favor for that governor and the governor did a favor for him. Then they gathered all of the people [to take out].” Jiang didn’t mention how those people were selected.

Source: People’s Daily Online, April 6, 2015
http://military.people.com.cn/n/2015/0406/c1011-26801887.html

Briefings | | April 8, 2015 | Geo-Strategic Trend

RMB Saw a Decline in Global Usage

Well-known Chinese news site Sina recently reported that SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) February numbers indicated that the Chinese currency, the RMB, saw a 2.2 percent decline in the total volume of global settlements. This data may indicate that investors and companies are slowing down on using RMB. Based on Dealogic’s data, the number of offshore RMB bonds issued since the beginning of this year is showing a significant decline as well. In the meantime, an HSBC report also showed, in a year-over-year comparison, that fewer global companies are using RMB for cross border settlements. Even Chinese companies are switching to other currencies, such as the Euro, to issue their bonds overseas. In the past year, the Chinese government made a great effort to expand the use of RMB in the international market. However it seems the expectation that the RMB will depreciate is becoming stronger.

Source: Sina, March 30, 2015

http://finance.sina.com/bg/wsj-ftchinese/ftchinese/20150330/15251235619.html

Briefings | | April 7, 2015 | Economy/Resources

BBC Chinese: Google Rejected CNNIC Issued Web Certificates

BBC Chinese recently reported that Google announced on April 1 that it will no longer trust the certificates that the CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center) issues. The decision means that Google’s popular web browser Chrome will no longer recognize the web sites that carry CNNIC certificates, which are meant to provide proof that the site can be trusted. Chrome will instead issue a security warning to the users and recommend that they not open the web page. CNNIC then issued a statement calling Google’s move, “difficult to understand and accept.” Google officially explained that the decision was based on the fact that CNNIC allowed the Egyptian company, MCS Holdings, to issue unauthorized certificates for a number of Google domains (in short, a domain is an identifier for a computer on the network). This left users and websites vulnerable for hackers to conduct “man-in-the-middle” attacks (the attacker secretly relays and possibly alters the communication between two parties who believe they are directly communicating with each other). After learning of Google’s announcement, both Microsoft and Mozilla also revoked CNNIC certificates. Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla are the top three browsers in the world.

Source: BBC Chinese, April 2, 2015

http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/china/2015/04/150402_china_google_internet

Briefings | | April 7, 2015 | Information/Technology

People’s Daily: Ministry of Foreign Affairs Commented on U.S. Planes Landing in Taiwan

People’s Daily recently reported that, on April 1, two U.S. military airplanes landed at Tainan Airport in South Taiwan due to a technical emergency. The spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hua Chunying, later commented at a press conference that China had made a solemn representation to the U.S. government, asking the United States to be prudent and properly handle the relevant issues in order to avoid similar incidents in the future. According to Taiwanese media, two of the U.S. Navy’s F-18 fighter jets made a request of the Taiwanese air traffic authorities that they make an emergency landing. Later, after obtaining permission, they landed at a local air force base. Taiwanese military officials said that the U.S. Navy will send out repairmen in the future. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not explain the reasoning behind their statement.

Source: People’s Daily, April 2, 2015

http://politics.people.com.cn/n/2015/0402/c70731-26792112.html

Briefings | | April 7, 2015 | Defense/Military

Ministry of Education Named Seven Most Corrupt Areas in Colleges and Universities

China Review News published an article on the recently held 2015 Ministry of Education video conference on the “development of the Party’s conduct and of an honest and clean government.” The anti-corruption effort in colleges and universities will be its key focus in 2015. Among the seven areas that have the most serious corruption, the article named building construction and purchasing as the top two. In addition, corruption has also been reported in such areas as admission, accounting, research funding, school-managed enterprises, and academic dishonesty.

The article named a few college officials who had recently been taken down from their posts. They include the party secretary of Jining Medical University, the Principal of Nanchang University, the Party secretary from Ling Jing University and several others. It also mentioned that Renmin University was reported as having committed 49 counts of violations including in the area of student admissions. The result was that 47 people will be going through legal proceedings, 114 have received the Party’s disciplinary fine, and 14 received verbal warnings.

Source: China Review News, April 5, 2015
http://hk.crntt.com/doc/1036/9/7/1/103697173.html?coluid=241&kindid=13578&docid=103697173&mdate=0405094523

Briefings | | April 6, 2015 | Government/Politics

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

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

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

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