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People’s Daily: The U.S. Must Adapt to The New Norm in International Relations

People’s Daily recently published an article discussing the position the United States should take in the new world order. The author started by suggesting that the United States does not like to hear people say the U.S. is suffering a decline in power. President Obama has already repeated numerous times that the United States is the only super power and will continue to lead the world for another century. However, the article expressed the belief that U.S. power, at least “relatively,” has declined. Although it has largely maintained the global allied structure, the U.S. has shown weaknesses when defending its power on too many fronts across the world. President Obama’s strategies have not worked out domestically in the partisan fights. They have not worked out in the Asia-Pacific with regard to “rebalancing.” They have not worked out in Europe, the Middle East, and Russia. With China, the U.S. did not handle things well either, such as with the classic “Taiwan issue.” The author concluded that the world order has changed in the new century and the U.S. needs to learn to be an “equal player” that must adapt to “The New Norm.”
Source: People’s Daily, October 18, 2014
http://world.people.com.cn/n/2014/1018/c1002-25859142.html

Close to 50 Percent of Real Estate Development Companies Went Out of Business in the Past Five Years

Guangming Daily recently published an article about real estate development companies. The article stated that by the end of 2013, the number of real estate development companies registered in China was 42,000, which was 36.6 percent lower than the number in 2010 and 50 percent lower than 2008. The article said that, because the current real estate market continues to be soft, most of the small to mid-size real estate development companies face serious cash flow issues. Some of them have a debit ratio close to 120 percent, while the short term liquidity ratio and total Asset Turnover are getting worse as well. In addition, the on-hand inventory level continues to grow. The article said that the only solution to the problem is to have an aggressive sales strategy and to use the income from sales revenue to pay back the debts.

Source: Guangming Daily, October 17, 2014
http://economy.gmw.cn/2014-10/17/content_13565131.htm

Art Expert: We Lack Art Works That Can Truly Represent China

China Economy reported on a research and study forum on contemporary art that was held in Wuhan city in Hubei Province on October 17. During the forum, an art expert in attendance there said that 3,000 art exhibits had been held in China in 2013. However, very few of those displayed high quality art works or could be used for research purposes. The art works lacked depth or creativity. There was also shortage of artists and art works that could truly represent China or its culture, or which had any ethnic significance.

Source: China Economy, October 18, 2014
http://www.ce.cn/culture/gd/201410/18/t20141018_3727568.shtml

People’s Daily: Xi Jinping Discusses Negative Trends in the Culture Industry

People’s Daily published an article in which it discussed an important speech that Xi Jinping delivered during an arts and cultural forum held in Beijing on October 15. The article said that Xi not only laid out the Party’s expectations about cultural work in the current age; it also criticized certain phenomenon in the culture industry. It listed five major negative trends in the culture industry. According to Xi, the problem with art and cultural works include the following. They have become a slave to the market and only seek economic benefits. Those who work in the field only seek fame and success but are not willing to work earnestly on creativity. They are copycats of each other, focusing only on quantity but not quality. They are distant from reality, are filled with off-color humor and have vulgar contents. Finally, those who work in the field lack professional ethics and have a poor public image.

Source: People’s Daily, October 20, 2014
http://culture.people.com.cn/n/2014/1020/c87423-25865500.html

Why Can’t Civilized People Attain Democracy?

[Editor’s Note: After China’s National People’s Congress finalized its decision to "control" who gets nominated to run in the election for the chief executive of Hong Kong in 2017, the people in Hong Kong went to the street to demand true universal suffrage. At first, it was known as the "Occupy Central" movement. The world looked on in amazement. Pro-democracy media supported the movement, while the pro-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) media blamed the protesters for disrupting the social order and damaging Hong Kong’s economy. Diane Liu, an independent Chinese writer, discusses the maturity of the protesters and how civilized their actions are, as well as the lies and distortions that the CCP disseminates in order to defame them. A translation of her discussion follows.] [1]

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Health Authorities: Temperature of Nigerian Quarantined Earlier Returned to Normal

In news related to the Ebola virus, on October 17, 2014, the Municipal Health Bureau in the city of Ningbo announced that the temperature of the Nigerian man who had been quarantined earlier returned to normal. On the afternoon of October 16, after landing from Taiwan around 6:00 pm local time, the Nigerian man was found to have a slight fever and was taken to a Ningbo hospital for observation. 

Regarding the overall issue of how Ebola may effect China, according to customs officials in charge of the ports in Guangdong Province, Guangdong ports are considered high risk. Of all the ports in China, those in Guangdong Province have the largest number of passengers entering China from African countries, the current location of the Ebola outbreak. For example, the Guangzhou airport, Guangdong Province, is one of the busiest airports with over 160 direct flights from Africa and about 41,000 people entering into China every month. In addition, there are large numbers of people from Africa visiting China via Hong Kong, Qatar, and other international hubs. 

Sources:
China News, October 17, 2014 
http://www.chinanews.com/sh/2014/10-17/6688471.shtml 
Caijing.com
October 16, 2014 http://caijing.shiliunet.com/cn/1191154.htm

Medical Facilities to Conduct Self-Examinations of Readiness for Ebola

On October 16, 2014, China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission issued a directive requiring that, by October 31, hospitals, clinics, and emergency centers are to complete a self examination of their readiness for handling Ebola. 

The self examination should include whether a collaborative mechanism has been established to issue alerts, share data, and identify responsibilities across provinces and departments. The following should also be examined: whether hospitals that have been designated to provide treatment for Ebola patients have adequate facilities and equipment including protective supplies; whether they have isolation centers where they can observe those who have contact with Ebola patients; whether all medial staff that will be involved in providing treatment, care, inspection, cleaning, and disinfection have adequate experience to protect themselves; and whether a process has been established to pre-examine and segregate fever patients while protecting medial staff involved in the pre-examination. 
Source: Xinhua, October 16, 2014 
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2014-10/16/c_1112858243.htm

China’s State Media Touts Three “Highlights” of Li Keqiang’s Russian Visit

China’s state media, People’s Daily published a commentary on Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to Russia to attend the 19th regular meeting between the prime ministers of China and Russia. The article touted the strategic cooperation between China and Russia. It listed three highlights of the visit’s accomplishments. The first highlight was that "the potential for Sino-Russian relations is far from exhausted. Take the economic and trade exchanges [as an example]. Russia expects that, next year, trade with China will reach US$100 billion; it will reach US$200 billion by 2020. Mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation is just one of the highlights of Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to Russia." 

"The ‘one channel and one [rail]way’ initiative to connect China and Russia for the Russian Far East mega development marked the second highlight of the visit. Li Keqiang’s visit to Russia is expected to accelerate the inland cooperation between China and Russia."  
“Highlight three was that China and Russia will give strong political support to each other. They agreed to prepare together for next year’s celebration of the 70th anniversary of the victory in World War II and to support each other on issues involving each other’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, security, and other core interests. China and Russia are both permanent members of the United Nations. Bilateral cooperation in the United Nations will help to strengthen the authority of the United Nations and defend the post-war international order.” 

Source: People’s Daily, October 15, 2014 
http://politics.people.com.cn/n/2014/1015/c1001-25840042.html