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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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Former Auditing Official: Overseas Assets of State-Owned Enterprises Are Not Audited

Dong Dasheng, Former deputy auditor general of the National Audit Office, stated that China has not audited the overseas assets of the centrally administered State-owned enterprises (SOEs). Those assets amount to over 4 trillion yuan (US$639.6 billion). 

According to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, as of the end of 2013, the value of the assets that over 110 centrally administered SOEs owned totaled 35 trillion yuan (US$5.59 trillion), 12.5 percent (around 4.3 trillion yuan) of which was located overseas. 
According to Dong, "In the last years, the unwritten practice has been that the National Audit Office only audited 57 of the 118 central State-owned enterprises for the economic responsibility of leading cadres. It was left to other departments to organize or hire accounting firms to conduct audits of the rest of the SOEs. The National Audit Office has not audited the subsidiaries of the central SOEs. Basically there has been no audit of the increasingly large overseas investments of the central SOEs, leaving a large number of blank audit spots among the SOEs.” 
Dong recommended that auditors be co-located at these central SOEs. 
Source: China Economic Net, March 3, 2015 http://big5.ce.cn/gate/big5/wap.ce.cn/szsh/201503/03/t20150303_4706218.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Qiushi: The Need to Maintain Information Sovereignty

Quishi published a commentary on the U.S. response to China’s proposed anti-terrorism law. The article stated that the law is to meet the needs of anti-terrorism work in China and was drafted based on the legislature and on the practice of other countries. It is a major step towards the rule of law. “However, some foreigners do not seem to understand China’s development of its anti-terrorism law. They particularly disagree with the part related to information security.”

“In order to maintain their own information security and related businesses, [the U.S.] asks its companies” to comply with the requirements of its national laws, but the U.S. expects that its companies not respect China’s information security within China. The United States is probably still using last century’s calendar. As we comprehensively promote the rule of law at the beginning of the year, we need to maintain China’s information sovereignty.” 
Source: Qiushi, March 5, 2015 
http://www.qstheory.cn/freely/2015-03/05/c_1114527416.htm
Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Chinese Official Acknowledges the Economic Data Fraud

At a session of the recent Chinese People Consultative Conference in Beijing, Dong Dasheng, former Deputy Auditor General of the National Audit Office, talked about serious economic data fraud. Dong quoted a local official who said, "In the past few years the numbers were made too high. If the number is lowered (to match the reality) at once, it will (look like) a fall off the cliff. We have to digest the numbers over the years."
The issue of Chinese economic data fraud has been a widespread concern. This is the first time a former Chinese official has publicly acknowledged the problem.
As economic growth has been the main measure of performance evaluation of local governments, the GDP growth rate fraud is a very common problem. According to the Anbang Insurance Group, local data fraud includes not only foreign investment, but many areas such as GDP data, tax revenue, and investment. For example, tax revenues in many local governments saw a serious decline in 2014 and some places even had negative growth. In order for the numbers to look good, (local officials) would make adjustments in statistical definitions and the basis of comparison. Some simply cooked the numbers.
Source: BBC Chinese, March 4, 2015
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/china/2015/03/150304_cn_economic_data 
Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Xinhua: Increasing the Defense Budget to Support Achieving the Goal of Having a Strong Army

On March 4, a Xinhua reporter interviewed Major General Chen Zhou, a delegate to the National People’s Congress (NPC) and a researcher at the Academy of Military Science. In the interview, Chen stated that "strong material support is indispensable in achieving the Communist Party’s goal of having a strong army in the new situation.” 

Chen also asked, "How much are the needs for national security and how much will our defense spending be? Wherever our national interests extend, that is where our defense investment will follow. This is the principle that investment in national defense must follow." 
According to the Second Session of the NPC Meeting spokeswoman, Fu Ying, the draft budget proposal for 2015 indicated there was an increase of about 10 percent over the previous year. 

Source: Xinhua, March 4, 2015 
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2015lh/2015-03/04/c_1114523378.htm

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

Study Times: How Overseas Think Tanks Study China

Study Times published an article on how Western think tanks study China issues and what China should do about it. 

The article stated that first, those in the U.S. lead the Western think tanks in studying the China topics that they select. These topics are very focused, pragmatic, and forward-looking. For example, the U.S. think thanks study China’s rise, the return of the U.S. to Asia, China’s energy strategy, the North Korean nuclear issue, the impact of the U.S.-Iran relationship on China, and the China-India relationship. Second, Western think tanks have high quality researchers and research products due to the revolving door where researchers move among government, think tanks, and academia. Third, Western think tanks tend to be very influential in many ways. 
The article recommended that China should attach great importance to timely tracking and analyzing the progress of the overseas think tanks’ studies of China; proactively participate in the China study programs of these think tanks, and actively promote exchanges and cooperation between Chinese think tanks and international think tanks. 
Source: Study Times, March 2, 2015 
http://www.studytimes.cn/shtml/xxsb/20150302/9526.shtml
Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Red Flag Manuscript: Convert Development Advantage to Benefit Theoretical Work and Discourse Power

Red Flag Manuscript published an article stating that, in current theoretical work, (we) "must pay high attention to the development of our discourse system" and "truly convert the [economic] development advantage of the Socialist Path with Chinese Characteristics to an advantage in theoretical work and discourse power."

The article said that there are four main discourse systems in China: political discourse, academic discourse, public discourse, and Internet discourse. The Communist Party should extend its control over all four systems. During that process, "The core discourse about Marxism and the Socialist Path with Chinese Characteristics cannot be lost or blurred. (We) should apply the core concepts of the ‘China dream,’ to these systems, while ‘comprehensively deepening reform,’ ‘Socialist core values,’ and ‘the rule by law on the Socialist Path with Chinese Characteristics.’"

Source: Qiushi Online, February 25 2015
http://www.qstheory.cn/dukan/hqwg/2015-02/25/c_1114432795.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

China’s First Round of Anticorruption Inspections Starts with SOEs

According to a republished report on Xinhua, "The first round of the anticorruption inspections in 2015 will target 26 State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs)." 

"On [March 1], the Central inspection teams arrived at 20 SOEs." These SOEs included China National Petroleum Corporation, China National Offshore Oil Corporation, China Power Investment Corporation, China Telecom Corporation, China Mobile Communications Corporation, and Baosteel Group, among others.

The inspection team will stay at the SOEs for two months (from February 28 to April 29). Its main task is to collect and review public reports on "issues about top leaders, their subordinates, and managers in key positions."

Source: Xinhua, March 2, 2015
http://news.xinhuanet.com/legal/2015-03/02/c_127531616.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

China Review News: The South China Sea Is China’s Future Economic Growth Point

According to a commentary that China Review News recently published, China’s "Maritime Silk Road" is not only an economic development plan, but also a strategic solution to breaking the U.S.’ tight control of the Strait of Malacca.

Since the U.S. stationed war ships in Singapore to control this world cargo center, China’s best counter solution is to build a deepwater port in the South China Sea, changing that area into another "Singapore" and China’s future international transportation hub.

"China can build natural deepwater ports there because the several dozen coral reefs that it controls are relatively close to each other. They can thus be used to build cities over the sea. The Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands) can be the South China Sea’s administrative service center; Dongsha Island can be the production center; and the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands) can be the cargo center, settlement center, and the tourism center."

China has conducted large scale infrastructure construction (building airports and harbors on top of coral reefs) in the Spratly Islands area. Some important harbor cities have started to show up and take shape. China’s land creation by dumping sand and earth into the ocean is not just for fishing; nor is it just for oil and gas extraction. It is to build a future economic growth point for China.

"As China builds more and more airports on those coral reef islands and converts more and more coral reef islands into natural deepwater ports, China’s South China Sea region will replace Singapore as the world’s logistics center. The Chinese government will follow the momentum to set up financial service institutions there to serve the world’s cargo transportation enterprises. The South China Sea will no longer be a quiet ocean. … It will become the most developed area in the world."

"Besides speeding up the infrastructure development, China should create new policies to encourage the development of the South China Sea region, for example, building it as a world’s offshore center and encouraging more companies to register there. The South China Sea should also be the world’s largest duty-free zone and largest free trade zone."

Source: China Review News, February 21, 2015
http://hk.crntt.com/doc/1036/2/2/0/103622065.html?coluid=169&kindid=12098&docid=103622065&mdate=0221000747

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend