Chinascope – Page 786

Beijing New Home Sales Dropped Drastically in February

According to Xinhua, in February, Beijing’s new home sales were particularly disappointing. As of February 23, new home sales were 1,545 units, a 61.5 percent drop compared to same period last year. The monthly sales were even below normal weekly sales. Existing home sales were equally disappointing. As of February 25, there were 4, 224 existing home sales, a 45 percent decline compared to the same period last year. The fourth week in September last year saw 4,201 home sales, three times the monthly sales of February 2014. In November and December 2013, the weekly sales were above 1,500.

Source: Xinhua, March 1, 2014

http://news.xinhuanet.com/house/bj/2014-03-01/c_126207078.htm

Briefings | | March 6, 2014 | Economy/Resources

Silent Contest

[Editor’s Note: The PLA National Defense University recently created an educational video called “较量无声” (Silent Contest) on the behind-the-scenes battle between China and the United States. [1] General Liu Yazhou, Political Commissar of the military institution and son-in-law of former president Li Xiannian, produced the work. It postulated that the Soviet Union’s collapse was due to the U.S. inciting a “peaceful revolution.” Using that viewpoint to examine the Sino-U.S. relationship, the video concluded that, while the U.S. has maintained an outward appearance of warmth and peaceful cooperation, beneath the surface it has always been trying to destroy China, using the same methods it applied to the Soviet Union.

To support its premise, the video further outlined five areas in which the U.S. is undermining China: political infiltration, cultural infiltration, public opinion and ideological infiltration, organizational infiltration, and political interference and social infiltration.

This video was produced as an educational document within the Party for specific groups such as the army and university classes. Somehow, in late October 2013, Silent Contest leaked out and circulated widely on the Internet. On October 31, 2013, it began disappearing from Chinese websites. [2] Nevertheless, a number of media have commented on it. [3]

The following is the translation of the Prelude and Part I of the video. Please note that the source of a number of quotes in English could not be identified. Unless the original English source is indicated in the end notes, the quotes in the video are translated from the Chinese text in the video. The translation of Part II will appear in a future issue.]

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Reports | | March 5, 2014 | Report

Qiushi: China’s Manufacturing Industry Faces Ten Dilemmas

On March 3, 2014, Qiushi, a journal of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, published an article titled, “China’s Manufacturing Industry Faces Ten Dilemmas.” A description of the ten dilemmas follows:

A lack of the capacity to innovate: China lacks self-owned independent intellectual property products.
Low value-added products: China is the equivalent of a world plant; however, it makes only minimal profits because foreign multinational companies, which have Research and Development (R & D) and management advantages, take away most of the profits.
Severe overcapacity: China currently has a total of 24 sectors, but 21 out of these 24 sectors already have overcapacity problems.
High-end talent shortage: China lacks Research and Development talent.
Corporate tax burden is too heavy: Chinese enterprises have to pay a tax of over 30 percent. Then there is the cost of corruption, plus additional fees. Thus China’s actual corporate tax burden is among the highest of all countries in the world.
Increasing costs: Salaries and wages keep increasing.
A shortfall in funding: The problem of financing directly restricts the survival and development of small and medium enterprises.
Strained resources and the environment: Pollution
Deterioration of the domestic environment: These include debt problems, a widening gap between the rich and the poor, economic depression, and the abnormal development of real estate.
Trade barriers: Increasing trade conflicts with other countries

Source: Qiushi, March 3, 2014
http://www.qstheory.cn/zs/rdht/201403/t20140303_326550.htm

Briefings | | March 5, 2014 | Economy/Resources

Xinhua: Corrupt Officials Who Fled China Were from Economic-Related and Public Security Departments

On March 2, 2014, Xinhua reprinted an article that Beijing News had published on the same day regarding corrupt officials who had fled from China from 1992 to 2012. According to the article, the highest level official who had fled was Gao Yan, who was the Chinese Communist Party Secretary of Yunnan Province. The cases involving those who fled were in areas that were economic-related government departments, state-owned enterprises (mainly in transportation, energy, tobacco and public security) and financial institutions. The final destinations for those officials who fled were developed countries, especially the United States, Canada, Australia, and EU member countries. Most of them fled to the United States. They made detailed arrangements before they escaped from China. Some of them were already “naked officials” before they left; that is, their spouses, lovers, children and even relatives had already emigrated overseas.

Source: Beijing News and Xinhua, March 2, 2014
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2014-03/02/c_126209520.htm
http://www.bjnews.com.cn/feature/2014/03/02/307000.html

Briefings | | March 5, 2014 | Government/Politics

People’s Daily: Huawei Again Attempting to Expand Its U.S. Market Share

People’s Daily recently reported that Eric Xu, one of Huawei’s three chief executives, delivered a speech at the Mobile World Congress, which is the largest international conference in the mobile industry. Xu suggested that Huawei is planning to introduce a series of new Huawei-branded mobile phones to the U.S. market. Huawei expects to sell 80 million to 100 million mobile phones globally in 2014. This figure represents eight percent of the global mobile phone market. Xu expressed interest in shifting the company’s focus to high-end smart phones. The United States still excludes Huawei from the list of permitted suppliers for the U.S. communications infrastructure. Xu admitted that his company suffered a tough time last year in the U.S. market due to the lack of new products. He promised to deliver more new products to U.S. customers. However, Huawei will not “actively seek” infrastructure deals in the U.S.

[Editor’s note: Huawei is the second largest communications equipment manufacturer in the world. Due to its close historic ties to the Chinese military, Huawei’s products have been banned from communications infrastructure level bids in many industrialized countries such as the United States, Canada, and Australia. Huawei is not a publicly traded company.]

Source: People’s Daily, February 28, 2014

http://world.people.com.cn/n/2014/0228/c157278-24488876.html

Briefings | | March 4, 2014 | US-China Relations

People’s Daily: Unusual PM2.5 Levels in South Korea and Japan

People’s Daily recently published a report summarizing the media coverage in Japan and South Korea on the topic of PM2.5 pollution “possibly caused by the nearby Chinese haze.” On February 25, many regions in Japan started seeing a PM2.5 level that was over 85. The Japanese standard has a base safety level of 70. Residents in the polluted regions were warned to control outdoor activities. South Korea media reported that, since February 21, PM2.5 levels have been between 81 and 120. These readings were two to three times higher than normal readings. Some areas actually reached 200. In the past week, around 15 percent of China, including Beijing and over ten other major cities suffered haze pollution with a PM2.5 level that remained continuously over 400 and sometimes even reached 600. PM2.5 particles are air pollutants with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or less, making them small enough to invade even the smallest airways. These particles generally come from activities that burn fossil fuels, such as traffic, smelting, and metal processing.

Source: People’s Daily, February 26, 2014

http://world.people.com.cn/n/2014/0226/c157278-24474527.html

Briefings | | March 4, 2014 | Geo-Strategic Trend

Beijing News: Xinzhou 60 Airplanes Grounded Due to Continuous Failures

Beijing News recently published a series of reports on the latest failures related to the Xinzhou 60 airplane, which is a regional jet model that a Chinese company completely designed and manufactured. On February 25, a sensor malfunction caused a landing gear false alarm in a Xinzhou 60 airplane operated by Aokai Airlines. Only three weeks ago, the landing gear failed when another Xinzhou 60 was landing near the city of Zhengzhou. The manufacturer of this airplane model, Xi’an Aircraft Industrial Corporation, told the reporter that it will request the government authorities to ground all domestic Xinzhou 60 planes for now. This model has a long record of accidents. On a previous occasion, it had been grounded for 74 months. Most of the Xinzhou 60 planes were sold internationally. They have suffered eight accidents outside of China, causing a total of 27 deaths. By the end of last year, 88 Xinzhou 60 had been sold to 27 buyers in 16 countries. The CEO of the manufacturer admitted that the model’s reliability is “not high.”

Source: Beijing News, February 26 & 27, 2014

http://www.bjnews.com.cn/news/2014/02/26/306455.html

http://www.bjnews.com.cn/news/2014/02/27/306596.html

Briefings | | March 4, 2014 | Information/Technology

Epoch Times: Unusual Protocol: Notice of Action against Zhou Yongkang Appeared on Non-Xinhua Website

According to an article published on March 2 in Epoch Times, news about disciplinary action against Zhou Yongkang appeared in the news twice. The first time was at 3 p.m. Beijing time during a press conference that the 2nd session of the 12th CPPCC (Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee) held. A reporter from the Hong Kong South China Morning Post raised a question about recent reports on Zhou Yongkang and asked if the CPPCC had any answers. The response from Lu Xinhua, the speaker, was that anyone who violated the law would be subject to punishment no matter what official rank that person had. Lu said, “I can only give you this answer. You should understand.”

Following Lu’s response, at 8:35 p.m. Beijing time, China’s Lianzheng (clean government) website published a notice saying, “Zhou Yongkang is suspected of serious disciplinary violations.” The notice stated that Zhou had been expelled from the party and will be subject to further notification until the fourth plenary of the 18th Congress. Epoch Times said that it was a rare occurrence for a news website other than Xinhua to publish such an important announcement.

Sources:
Epochtimes, March 3, 2014,
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/14/3/3/n4096103.htm%E8%AF%A1%E5%BC%82%EF%BC%81%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E5%BB%89%E6%94%BF%E5%BB%BA%E8%AE%BE%E7%BD%91%E6%8A%A2%E4%B8%AD%E5%8D%97%E6%B5%B7%E8%AF%9D%E8%AF%AD%E2%80%9C%E9%80%9A%E6%8A%A5%E5%91%A8%E6%B0%B8%E5%BA%B7%E2%80%9D.html?photo=2
Lianzheng, March 2, 2014
http://www.lianzheng.org/plus/view.php?aid=11362

Briefings | | March 3, 2014 | Government/Politics

Wu Guoguang: Xi Jinping’s Reversal of the Course, Will China’s Transition be Peaceful or Marked with Bloodshed?

Cheng Xiaonong: U.S.-China Strategic Relations Have Crystallized

Xinhua Commentaries: “Exposing the Three Major Political Deficits of the U.S.”

The CCP’s Performing Arts Troupes in the U.S.