On June 15, 2014, Qiushi Theory, a political theory periodical that is published by the Chinese Communist Party Central Party School and the CCP Central Committee, reprinted an article from “Chinese Social Sciences Today” titled “Closely Watch Out for Ideology Security on Internet.” According to the article, maintaining the security of ideology on the Internet is as important as maintaining the security of technical information. Some Western countries have been promoting Western ideology and [the Western] political system on Internet, which is a “War without Smoke.” Thus, China cannot secure its national political system if it does not control the ideology circulating on the Internet. 

Source: Qiushi Theory, June 15, 2014
http://www.qstheory.cn/bwtj/2014-06/15/c_1111148848.htm  

China Youth Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Youth League of China, published an article about Chinese students’ lack of aptitude for innovation. The paper interviewed the Chinese scholar, Zhang Xueji, director of the research center at the School of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Science and Technology in Beijing. Zhang stated that more and more Chinese students are losing interest in innovation. When compared to college and graduate students in the U.S., they lag far behind in creativity skills.

Zhang told China Youth Daily that the talent for innovation is the scarcest resource for a country. Zhang listed a number of reasons that caused the lack of innovation consciousness and ability in the academic field of research in China. First, the transmissive style of teaching does not nurture an interest in creativity. Second, the existing assessment of the scientific and technological achievement process also needs to be changed. Zhang said that the system shouldn’t emphasize whether a research paper that a graduate student publishes during his graduate education meets a quota, but rather, whether the quality of the paper meets the requirement. This emphasis has resulted in a lack of original research projects. A third factor that Zhang brought up is the lack of trust between research fellows working for a company and those research fellows working for the college. The fact that both sides are afraid of potential risks presents a barrier to their ability to collaborate.

Source: China Youth Daily, June 15, 2014
http://qclz.youth.cn/lzrs/201406/t20140615_5366719.htm

Guangming Daily carried a commentary about the new guidelines the General Office of the Chinese Communist Party recently published. The guidelines are to be used in growing Communist Party membership. The commentary stated that, for the first time, the guidelines clearly raised the requirement to “control the quantity; optimize Party structure; improve quality and the ability to carry out tasks…” According to the commentary, the guidelines call for control of the quality of the Party members to the point where, if necessary, any unqualified members will be dismissed, if necessary. The commentary stated that the Party’s organization department and its research institute often question why the Soviet Union established itself with 200,000 party members; sustained its growth with 2 million party members, but collapsed when it had 20 million members.

According to the statistics from the Organization Department, by the end of 2012, the total number of members of the Chinese Communist Party had reached 85 million, making it the Party with the largest number of members in the world. However, according to the commentary, “how to maintain the advanced spirit of the Party members and guarantee that each member truly believes in the Communist ideology” has become a new challenge for the Party.”

Source: Guangming Daily, June 13, 2014
http://dangjian.gmw.cn/2014-06/13/content_11601891.htm