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Xinhua Commentary Series: Spotlight on the U.S. Presidential Election

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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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China News: Microsoft Investigated for Chinese Antitrust Violations

China News recently reported that the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) confirmed that Microsoft is being investigated for antitrust violations. SAIC did a “spot check” against Microsoft branches in four major cities without any pre-notice. The case against Microsoft was based on “incomplete information disclosure” of problems in software packages like Windows and Office. The damages include compatibility issues, unlawful bundled sales, “file verification issues” and more importantly, price gouging. SAIC “suspects” Microsoft is conducting anti-competitive behavior. Many western countries have associated this investigation with the Snowden incident. However some Chinese legal experts expressed their disagreement by suggesting that SAIC was only doing its job to enforce the Chinese antitrust law. Microsoft issued a short announcement promising active cooperation with the investigation. Currently foreign vendors dominate the technologies deployed in key Chinese industries such as finance, telecommunication, energy, and civil aviation. The China News report concluded that domestic vendors will have “expanded room to compete” after this investigation concludes.
Source: China News, July 30, 2014
http://finance.chinanews.com/it/2014/07-30/6438951.shtml
Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

Xi Jinping: Willing to Give up Personal Life to Fight Corruption

Xi Jinping recently made a statement that he is willing to fight corruption even at the cost of his personal life or personal fame. In its August 4th edition, Changbaishan Daily, a local newspaper in Changbaishan City, Jilin Province, made Xi’s statement its headline article.

Xi’s original statement, which was reported to have been given at the new round of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection’s local inspection tour, was "[We should] fight corruption. [Our] personal lives or deaths and our personal reputations or blame do not matter. Since the Party and the nation have given their future and their fate to us, we need to shoulder this responsibility."

Xi’s speech also mentioned that, currently, the battle between the corruption group and the anti-corruption group has reached a "stalemate." Wang Qishan stated that the anti-corruption situation is "still severe and complicated." He also stressed that the battle is a critical political issue in which officials need to decide which side to take.

Several media in China republished the article. However, in the U.S., as of the morning of August 5, they were no longer available. Searching Xi’s Chinese words "与腐败作斗争，个人生死，个人毁誉，无所谓" on Google resulted in several broken links. The article is no longer viewable on the Changbaishan Daily website either.

Source: Unavailable on web. Chinascope has a copy of the republished article from one website.
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/zhengzhi/sd-08052014132939.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

People’s Daily: CCDI Established New International Bureau

People’s Daily recently reported that the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Discipline Inspection Commission (CCDI) established a new unit called the International Cooperation Bureau. The key mission of the new Bureau is to pursue stolen money and escaped law-breaking former officials overseas. Over the years, a large number of corrupt officials successfully fled China and transferred a massive amount of money overseas. The new Bureau is to take advantage of the latest developments in the international banking industry to investigate and track down the criminals’ financial chains by working with foreign authorities and banks. This is a major organizational change for the CCDI, which is a Communist Party branch with a newly added function to conduct investigations in legal cases.
Source: People’s Daily, July 28, 2014
http://politics.people.com.cn/n/2014/0728/c70731-25356331.html
Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

People’s Daily: Thailand Resumed Railway Project Connecting China

People’s Daily recently reported that the military government that is currently in-charge in Thailand just approved the resumption of the project to build two high-speed railways connecting Southern China. The project had been halted earlier due to political uncertainties and the Thailand Constitutional Court ruled in March that the entire infrastructure building project was unconstitutional. The new government started reviewing the railway project in May after taking over day-to-day government operations. According to the budget plan, the project is worth around US$23.2 billion. The construction is planned to begin next year. The resumed project plan, however, adjusted the target operating speed from 200 kilometers per hour down to 160. The government is still looking for ideas to bring the cost down further. 
Source: People’s Daily, July 31, 2014
http://world.people.com.cn/n/2014/0731/c1002-25379272.html
Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Seventy Percent of Coal Mining Companies Are in the Red

The level of the inventory in China’s coal mining industry reached a record high in the first half of 2014 in spite of measures to reduce the price and to restructure production. Seventy percent of these companies are in the red.

Recently, the largest 14 coal mining companies agreed on four measures. They agreed that, for the second half of 2014, they would reduce the output of their production by 10 percent; they would reduce the June level of their inventory by 50 percent; they would regulate and standardize coal imports and they would establish a self-regulatory mechanism within the coal mining industry. 
According to the statistics that the China Coal Industry Association released on July 12, 2014, as of the end of June 2014, China’s coal inventory had reached 99 million metric tons. Nine provinces had experienced industry wide losses in coal mining. Twenty out of 36 of the largest coal mining companies are in the red. Nine of those are on the brink of bankruptcy. Seventy percent of the coal mining companies in China are in the red. 
Sources: 
Securities Daily reprinted by People’s Daily, July 29, 2014 http://energy.people.com.cn/n/2014/0729/c71661-25361362.html 
Economic Information Daily, July 28, 2014 
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2014-07/28/c_126803768.htm
Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

State Media Link Jiang Zemin with Zhou Yongkang and Bo Xilai

The People’s Daily website published a series of pictures with texts under each of them titled, “Charts: The Mysterious Petroleum Billionaire behind Zhou Yongkang.” 


The charts show that Zhou, the former Minister of Petroleum, has tightly controlled the petroleum industry through extensive and close connections both in and outside of the government. Most of these connections have been prosecuted or placed under investigation.  

The final chart shows the personal profile and rise of Zhou identifying him as part of petrochemical fraction and as someone who “knows Jiang Zemin and Bo Xilai well.” On July 29, Xinhua announced that Zhou was placed under investigation for "serious disciplinary violations.” On September 22, 2013, Bo was found guilty of corruption, stripped of all his assets, and sentenced to life imprisonment. 

The charts are no longer available on the People’s Daily website, although the title remained. 

Source: People’s Daily reprinted by Tencent Financial, July 31, 2014
http://energy.people.com.cn/n/2014/0731/c71661-25379629-5.html (See title of the article listed) http://xw.qq.com/c/finance/20140731076721
Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

What Does the Showdown Between Xi Jinping and Zhou Yongkang Tell Us?

The day after Xinhua announced the downfall of Zhou Yongkang, it published a blog commentary entitled “What Does the Investigation of Zhou Yongkang Tell Us?” 

According to the blog commentary, first, the showdown indicates that the anti-corruption movement is pressing ahead with no return. Second, Xinhua‘s announcement did not call Zhou Yongkang “comrade” indicating a fundamental change in Zhou’s case. Third, it shows that the anti-corruption campaign has no ceiling and will go after anyone who is involved in corruption. Fourth, retirement does not shield corrupt officials from an investigation. Even after a corrupt official retires, he may still be brought to justice. Fifth, there is no scapegoat for corrupt officials. They will be held accountable for their own actions. The fall of other corrupt underlings in the past has paved the way to investigate higher-ranking officials. Sixth, there is no special procedure – even Zhou Yongkang has to be subject to the investigation of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party. 
Source: Xinhua Blog, July 30, 2014 http://big5.xinhuanet.com/gate/big5/khyyaaa.home.news.cn/blog/a/0101003E31C10D010E29FE8E.html
Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

More Party Inspection Teams Conduct Corruption Investigations

Within days after July 29, when the announcement was made that an investigation had been instigated against Zhou Yongkang, several inspection teams of the Central Committee of the Communist Party were on their way to conduct investigations in Hebei, Shanghai, Helongjiang, and at the Chinese state-owned automotive, the First Automobile Works Group located in Changchun, Jilin Province. 

For the next two months, the inspection teams will stay in Hebei, Shanghai, and Helongjiang, respectively. They will also spend one month at the First Automobile Works Group. Xinhua has published the inspection teams’ hotline phone numbers and mailing addresses to encourage whistle blowers to contact them and report incidents of corruption and abuse of power. 
Shanghai, one of the inspection teams’ destinations, has been a long time base of the Jiang Zemin faction with which Zhou was aligned. The timing of the dispatch of these inspection teams was within three days of Xinhua’s announcement that the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China had decided to investigate Zhou Yongkang for suspected "serious disciplinary violations." Zhou is a former member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Central Committee of the Communist Party.
Soho.com has compiled a list of 422 Party officials taken down from July 2012 to July 2014, including Zhou Yongkang.
Sources: 
Xinhua, July 31, 2014 
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2014-07/31/c_1111873238.htm
Soho.com 
http://news.sohu.com/s2014/2832/s395957637/?pvid=470ca54660a1099c
Briefings | | |   Government/Politics