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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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People’s Daily: Street Politics is not Democracy

People’s Daily published a commentary on “street politics” or “color revolutions,” citing interviews with three Chinese scholars of international political science.  

According to the article, Western media tend to characterize street protests aimed to overthrow the government as resulting from people’s great efforts for democracy, while they dub other street events as "anarchist riots." Contrary to democracy, countries with street protests for “democracy” suffer from chaos and violence. This is because of the major forces that promote “street politics” from behind the scene. The influence of Western forces is behind the scene in many of the countries where they take place. Repeated changes of governments bear a close relationship to whether or not the West likes them. All countries can explore their own path, but it must be done according to the laws of that country. 

Source: People’s Daily reprinted by Xinhua, April 3, 2014 
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2014-04/03/c_126349005.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Huanqiu: Lesson from Ukraine: China Must Strengthen Cyber War Capability to Counter the West

Huanqiu (Global Times) published an article explaining that China should learn a lesson from the Ukraine crisis and improve its ability to conduct both cyber-attacks and defense. Yang Chengjun, a senior fellow of the national security policy committee, and Jiang Zheng, an engineer at a government department, co-authored the article. 

The article stated, “In the Ukraine crisis, Internet public opinion was a factor that influenced the political landscape. The West particularly spent a lot of effort on it. This gave us a lot of warnings.” 
The article asserted that the West caused the Ukraine’s crisis, as it controlled the Internet. 
“After Ukraine suspended the preparatory work of the ‘Association Agreement’ [a treaty between the European Union (EU) and Ukraine that establishes a political association between the two parties], the U.S. and the European countries were extremely dissatisfied and then stepped up their Internet monitoring and efforts to control the Ukrainian authorities. The following is a description of some of their acts.
“1) They guided and manipulated public opinion. In the upheaval in Ukraine, the U.S. and European countries emphatically used the Internet to create and disseminate political rumors. By applying a variety of hacking techniques such as theft, interception, and attack, they made the opinions of Ukraine mainstream media websites seem to be almost one-sided; the media were full of attacks and criticism of the government. People’s discontent spread rapidly.
 
“2) They implemented Internet monitoring and information attacks; strengthened the monitoring of the websites of the Ukrainian government and military; and carried out several large-scale virus attacks. 
“3) They provided significant financial support and related Internet information to the Ukrainian opposition, thus enabling those who opposed the authorities; they were well aware of the trends and weaknesses. Eventually, this caused the complete paralysis of the official websites and laid the foundation for the overthrow of the regime.” 
The article also warned that China’s cyber security is facing a grim situation and China should step up its efforts to counter the West’s attacks. 
“With the support and connivance of Western powers, some hostile forces established dedicated websites and hired online writers to spread rumors and attack [China’s] social system.” “We can learn from the practices and experiences of developed countries and how they stepped up the development of Internet forces and the training of high-level Internet talent.　　 

“Our goal is to create strong offensive and defensive capabilities in cyber space as soon as possible. First, we should improve our capabilities in order to fight back. We must have the ability to interfere up to the point of being able to paralyze the enemy’s important network, the key nodes, and the key links. We should have the ability to erase the data and its traces after an attack. Second, we must improve our Internet defensive capability. Third, we must improve our Internet reconnaissance capabilities. Finally, we must strengthen the exercises of cyber-attacks and defense.” 

Source: Huanqiu (Global Times), March, 21, 2013 
http://mil.huanqiu.com/observation/2014-03/4920443.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Beijing Business Today: What is the Biggest Problem for the Chinese Economy?

Beijing Business Today published an interview of Professor Huang Guoxiong of China People’s University on the Chinese economy. In Huang’s opinion, “The high growth rate with low efficiency is the biggest problem currently facing the Chinese economy. The development of the services industry is the key to expanding domestic demand.”

Huang stated that, “at present, the key issue of China’s economy is not the growth rate of seven percent or eight percent. The biggest problem is a high growth rate and low efficiency, with the output having value, but revenue missing.” Production, according to indices such as GDP growth, employment, and capacity, can no longer meet the current development, and will exacerbate overcapacity. Small to mid-sized businesses can adjust by producing according to orders received. Large, particularly State-run or centrally run, enterprises are still producing according to indices on capacity, GDP growth, and employment. 
Source: Beijing Business Today reprinted by Xinhua, March 31, 2014 
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2014-03/31/c_126334826.htm
Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

China Youth Daily: 73 Percent of Poll Respondents Support Increase of China’s Military Spending

In March 2014, the Guangzhou Public Opinion Research Center conducted telephone interviews on a sample 2,000 urban residents, collecting opinions on China’s national security and the growth in military spending.

81 percent of respondents believed the long run existence of the terrorism threat; 14 percent disagreed, and 5 percent found it "hard to say." On China’s defense and military spending, 44 percent believed that China’s military spending is "not much." 16 percent thought it was "too much," and 40 percent believed it was "just enough." 92 percent of the interviewees agreed that China’s "national defense capabilities must be commensurate with its economic development," and only 3 percent hold the opposite view. The poll also showed that 73 percent of the respondents supported the recent decision of the Chinese government to place a fiscal budget on military spending, with only 14 percent not supportive and 13 percent "hard to say."

According to the Guangzhou Public Opinion Research Center, the poll covered 23 provincial capital cities and four municipalities directly under the central government. It sampled over 2,000 urban residents of different genders, ages, occupations, and education levels.

Source: China Youth Daily, March 31, 2014
http://zqb.cyol.com/html/2014-03/31/nw.D110000zgqnb_20140331_5-04.htm

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

Beijing Daily on How to Use Beautiful Words to Promote Socialist China

On March 24, 2014, Beijing Daily published an article on how to use beautiful words to promote socialist China. According to the article, China must tell its own “good stories” with beautiful words supported by some theories so as to respond to all the different opinions that oppose China’s socialism with the Chinese characteristics.

For example, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) must solve a theoretical problem of how to understand “faith.” When the contemporary Chinese people are criticized for their lack of faith, the best explanation is that atheism is also a faith and the Chinese government must respect freedoms of faith and cope correctly with religious pluralism in the world. Another important theoretical problem that the Chinese Communist Party must solve is how to use theories to explain scientifically that the Chinese Communist Party’s character is also the character of the Chinese people. If the Chinese Communist Party cannot convince people that the CCP and the Chinese people are one and the same, it will be difficult to tell good Chinese stories inside out.

Source: Beijing Daily, March 24, 2014
http://bjrb.bjd.com.cn/html/2014-03/24/content_163545.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Guangming Daily: Create a New Generation Internet for Safety Control

On March 27, 2014, Guangming Daily published an article on how to strengthen Internet control in order to ensure the safety of China’s national Internet and its information. The article first blamed the United States for systematic spying on the Internet, giving the “Prism” incident as an example.

According to the article, China urgently needs to elevate the Internet Information safety issue to the national strategic level. To be specific, China must plan and design the national information Internet at the top-level of the government and create a new generation of Internet that the government can control completely. The article listed several ways to achieve this goal.

Source: Guangming Daily, March 27, 2014
http://epaper.gmw.cn/gmrb/html/2014-03/27/nw.D110000gmrb_20140327_1-16.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Study Times on Handling Internet Crises

Study Times recently published an article on how to improve the handling of crises that spread over the Internet. The article recommended that China should develop an Internet security and information control mechanism, strengthen its monitoring and emergency response capability for such crisis, develop new technologies, improve communication between the government and the people, and educate the media and the people about how to be cautious. The article suggested that the government initiate efforts in the following areas:

1. Strategy and institutional structure: The government should include Internet crisis management as part of its national security strategy and develop a proper institutional structure and laws on Internet information management. Also the government should clarify the structural relationship between the National Security Commission, the Central Internet Security and Information Leading Group, and local governments.

2. Early detection of and emergency response to Internet crises: The government can establish Internet information collection teams to monitor news discussion groups, forums, and search engines’ search results; it can also collect information on the hot issues and events as well as on people’s opinions on these issues and events.

3. Internet technology: The government should put the R&D of Internet technology in a core position and strive for China’s own innovations of core Internet technology.

4. Crisis management: The easiest way is for the government to tell the truth, so as to gain people’s trust and weaken the impact of negative opinions.

5. Education: The government should educate media professionals on professional ethics and professional “discipline.” It also needs to educate the general public about Internet crisis – to train citizens on how to tell, criticize, and evaluate information on the Internet. It can do this through the use of television, newspapers, the Internet, school, and special education programs.

Source: Study Times, March 24, 2014
http://www.studytimes.cn/shtml/xxsb/20140324/4272.shtml

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

People’s Daily: Volume of Swiss Watches Exported to China Fell

People’s Daily recently reported from the Basel Watch Fair, the World Watch and Jewellery Show that is taking place from March 27 to April 3 in Messe Basel, Switzerland. It is the largest watch fair in the world. The Swiss Exhibitors Committee Chairman, F. Thiebaud, reported the statistics for the Swiss watches that were exported to Mainland China. He stated that the total value of the exports in 2013 was 1.2 billion Euros, which represents a 12.5 percent decline from the previous year. The exports to Hong Kong were 3.4 billion Euros, a decline of 5.6 percent. All other key export markets enjoyed growth. China is the primary market for Swiss watches and jewelry, and China is also a primary partner in the Fair. Since last year, the Chinese government has been vigorously cracking down on corruption, which is widely recognized as the key force behind the luxury watch sales in mainland China. However Ms. Ritter, the Chief Executive of the Basel Watch Fair, pointed out that China still remains a very important market even after the “adjustments to the consumer structure.”
Source: People’s Daily, March 29, 2014
http://lady.people.com.cn/n/2014/0329/c382558-24770444.html
Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources