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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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Farming Industry under Pressure with Climbing Labor Rates of Peasant Workers

Xinhua recently published an article on the pressure the farming industry in China faces. According to the article, the cost of labor for peasant workers on the outskirts of Beijing grew 89.7 percent over the last five years. The farming industry in the area is under pressure to save labor costs and to improve the efficiency of its farm equipment. The article said that even though more and more farmers are using agriculture machinery, there are still tasks that require a large number of peasant workers, especially skilled laborers. Farming experts also suggested that the government should provide the farmers and the peasant workers with more farm subsidies to help ease the pressure.

Source: Xinhua, June 15, 2014
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2014-06/15/c_1111149829.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Chinese Scholar: Current Education System Does Not Nurture Student Creativity

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

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Guangming Daily Commentary: CCP to Emphasize the Quality of Party Members over the Quantity

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

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Qiushi on Universal Values

[Editor’s Note: Qiushi, a Communist China periodical on political theory, published an article criticizing "universal values" at the theoretical level. The article argued that "universal values" is just a fantasy term that the capitalists use to cover up the reality of the capitalist political and economic system, where money controls everything. It denounced the elite group in China that promotes "universal values" and declared that it is the most dangerous enemy of the Chinese people. The following is an excerpt from the article.] [1]

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Reports | | |   Report

It Will Take Five Years to Deplete China’s Housing Inventory

On June 13, 2014, China Business News (also called First Financial Daily or Yicai) reported that, as of the end of 2013, 4.863 billion square meters of residential housing were under construction. Based on the annual average sales between 2009 and 2012, it will take five years to deplete the 4.863 billion square meters, assuming there are no other new developments after 2014. Thirty five major cities have hit a record high in their housing inventories. Twenty nine of them have shown an increase over last month. Three of those hit the hardest are Nanchang with an increase of 77.4 percent; Ningbo with 60.9 percent, and Jiujiang with 56.9 percent. According to analysts, using five to ten months as the normal time to deplete the inventory, starting from March 2014 it will take 100 months in Tangshan, 57 in Wuxi, 39 in Tianjin, 36 in Ningbo, 33 in Shanghai, 33 in Hangzhou and 30 in Xian. 

Source: China Business News, June 13, 2014
http://www.yicai.com/news/2014/06/3924379.html
Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Xinhua: U.S. Intends to Hit “Three Birds” by Placing Anti-Missile Defense in East Asia

Xinhua published a commentary on the U.S. deployment of its anti-missile system in East Asia. The following is an excerpt from the Xinhua article:

 
“Recently, the United States media disclosed, one after another, that the United States is considering deploying its terminal high altitude area defense (THAAD) system in Korea. The Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has publicly vowed to strengthen missile defense cooperation with Korea. Seeking to strengthen anti-missile deployment in East Asia is another major trend for the United States."
“From the current situation in the Asia-Pacific region and the background of the U.S. promoting a ‘rebalancing Asia’ strategy, the United States is trying to achieve three main objectives.” 

“First, through deploying its anti-missile facilities in Korea, it can advance the layout of its East Asian missile defense systems, thus boosting U.S.-Japan-Korea trilateral military cooperation. 

“Second, the United States can defend any ‘missile threat’ from related countries [North Korea and Russia]. 

“Third, the United States is using cooperation on missile defense in the region in an attempt to sell arms.” 

“The U.S. deployment of an East Asia anti-missile network will have multiple negative impacts in the region. “The biggest impact will be the destruction of strategic stability in Northeast Asia and the subversion of China’s national security. Since 2013, the United States has been advancing East Asian missile defense deployment continuously. Compared to the other military measures of the U. S. ‘rebalancing Asia’ strategy, deploying its anti-missile system, if it continues, will present China with more real and more profound pressure on its national security.” 

Source: Xinhua, June 11, 2014 
http://news.xinhuanet.com/globe/2014-06/11/c_133394093.htm

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

State Media on One Country, Two Systems

China’s two state media, Xinhua and People’s Daily, both published editorials on the white paper titled, “The Practice of the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ Policy in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.” China’s State Council issued the white paper on June 10, 2014. 

Xinhua’s editorial stated that, unfortunately, some people in Hong Kong do not understand "one country, two systems" and the Basic Law. “Some incorrect views on economic, social, and political issues are affecting social security, economic development, democracy, and progress in Hong Kong, and are causing problems …” Xinhua further stated that one should always be alert to external forces using Hong Kong to interfere with China’s domestic affairs and should prevent and contain the handful of Hong Kong people who disrupt the implementation of "one country, two systems" in collusion with those external forces. 
People’s Daily emphasized that being patriotic to Mainland China is a basic political requirement for Hong Kong’s self-rule and that Hong Kong must be ruled by those Hong Kong people who are patriotic toward Mainland China. 
Sources: 
Xinhua, June 10, 2014 
http://news.xinhuanet.com/gangao/2014-06/10/c_1111077352.htm 
People’s Daily reprinted by Xinhua, June 11, 2014 
http://news.xinhuanet.com/gangao/2014-06/11/c_126605318.htm
Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Study Finds China’s Homeownership Rates and Housing Vacancy Rates Are High

On June 10, China’s Southwestern University of Finance and Economics (西南财经大学) released a report showing the results of a study on the country’s housing market. The report showed that, in 2013, the rate for home ownership in China was as high as 90.8 percent. The rate was 95.8 percent for rural homes and 87.0 percent for urban homes. The rate measures the percentage of homes that were owner occupied. The statistics showed the rate was 65 percent in the U.S., 60 percent in Japan, and 63 percent for the entire world. The urban ownership rate for multiple homes, which gauges the percentage of urban families that own multiple homes, was 18.6 percent in 2013, an increase of 2.7 percent over the figure for 2011. In March of 2014, the urban multi-home ownership rate jumped to 21.0 percent.
In 2013, China’s urban housing vacancy rate, the proportion of the homeowner inventory that was vacant for sale, was 18.6 percent, 1.8 percent higher than the rate in 2011. The report estimated that there were 48.98 million vacant homes in urban China. Outside of China, the housing vacancy rate was between 1 percent and 3 percent in the U.S., below 5 percent in Hong Kong, around 9.5 percent in the EU countries, 13.1 percent in Japan, and 17.6 percent in Taiwan.
Interestingly, the vacancy rate for low-end housing, that is, government subsidized low price housing sold to low-income earners, was as high as 23.3 percent. The study also showed that the proportion of ownership of low-end housing is the highest among the top 25 percent of households in terms of income level, while 27.5 percent of the low-end housing owned by the top 25 percent of households is empty. The report concluded that "a serious waste of resources exists and there is a ‘mismatch’ in the allocation of low-end housing."
Source: Beijing Youth Daily, June 11, 2014
http://epaper.ynet.com/html/2014-06/11/content_64516.htm
Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources