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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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China to Build Railway Connecting Xinjiang and Pakistan for Strategic Energy Channel

China Review News (CRN) recently reported that, in addition to highways, China and Pakistan have decided to build a railroad connecting Xinjiang Kashgar and Gwadar Port located on the Arabian Sea and at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. CRN stated, “Following the China-Myanmar Oil Pipeline, this project carries a strategic significance. It indicates that China has another channel it can use to have direct access to an energy source in the Arabian Sea which connects to the Indian Ocean region.” China has signed a series of collaboration agreements with Pakistan to build an economic corridor between the two countries. From 2002 to 2006, China invested US$200 million to turn Gwadar Port into a deep water harbor. In February 2013, China Overseas Holdings Ltd. officially gained operating rights to the Gwadar Port.

Source: China Review News, July 21, 2013
http://www.zhgpl.com/doc/1025/7/3/7/102573708.html?coluid=136&kindid=4730&docid=102573708&mdate=0721003247

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

People’s Daily: Philippines Plays Tough toward China and Is Flattering the United States

The People’s Daily Overseas Edition published a commentary article in which it called the Philippines “the fox borrowing the tiger’s fierceness.” Its purpose is to mess around and cause trouble [in the South China Sea issue]. The article pointed to the Philippines’ Foreign Ministry spokesman Hernandez’s statement on July 15, 2013, that, "It is impossible for the Philippines to continue bilateral negotiations with China on the South China Sea dispute." 

The commentary said that "after a series of interactions with the United States, the Philippines considered itself more emboldened and its spine was harder.” “The Philippine’ Presidential Palace stated that U.S. President Barack Obama had warned China not to use force or threatening means with neighboring countries in its maritime disputes. The Philippines believes that Obama’s statement fortified the Philippines’ position in maritime disputes.” Therefore, for the Philippines to play tough with China is not unexpected. 
The article said that “towards its U.S. ‘big brother,” the Philippines is greeting with all smiles on its face.” “Now it seems that the Philippines is willing to be the ‘little brother’ and is determined to realize its maximum benefits along with the U.S.’s ‘Asia-Pacific rebalancing.’” 

The article said that the “government of the Philippines seems to have lost the right direction.” 

Source: People’s Daily, July 18, 2013 
http://military.china.com/important/11132797/20130718/17951825_2.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Beijing University Survey: Income Inequality Is Serious

Beijing University released its China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), which shows that income inequality is increasing, with the top five percent’s income being 234 times that of the lowest five percent. The Studies based its report on statistics for the 2010 to 2012 period. 

The CFPS shows that the average per capital income for a household is 13,033 yuan, with the lowest five percent at 1,000 yuan, the lowest five to 10 percent at 2,000 yuan and the top five percent at 34,300 yuan. 
As for the total household income, the income of the bottom five percent of the lowest-income households accounts for 0.1 percent of the income of all households surveyed; the lowest five to 10 percent accounts for 0.5 percent, and the top five percent of highest-income households accounts for 23.4%, which is 234 times that of the bottom five percent. 
Wages remain the main source of income.  

Source: Nanfang Dushi Bao (Southern Metropolis Daily), July 18, 2013. 
http://epaper.oeeee.com/A/html/2013-07/18/content_1897841.htm

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Beijing News: 100 Million Suffer from Mental Illness

On July 11, 2013, Beijing News reported that, according to statistics from China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, there are over 100 million people who suffer from various forms of mental illnesses. Over 16 million of them have severe mental illness, meaning one in every 100 has severe mental illness. For treatment, two percent of the 16 million take medicine, while less than 10 percent receive in-patient treatment. Reports indicate that about 10 percent show an inclination to commit violence. It is common for family members to chain these people in a cage at home. In Hebei Province alone, the number of people “living in a cage” has reached 100,000. 

“There is ‘little’ assistance available for this group. China has only 20,500 registered psychiatrists and 30,000 nurses. … They face tremendous work and psychological pressure. … The medical infrastructure that health care relies on also seems ‘thin.’ Even in Beijing with its top medical facilities, a person has to wait up to six months for a bed in Hui Long Guan Hospital, which specializes in psychiatric treatment.” 
Source: Beijing News, July 11, 2013 
http://www.bjnews.com.cn/feature/2013/07/11/272800.html
Briefings | | |   Social Stability

IHT: Sino-Russian Joint Military Exercise Has Obvious Intention to Contend with U.S. and Japan

Hu Siyuan, a professor at the PLA National Defense University, published an opinion piece in Xinhua’s International Herald Tribune commenting on the implications of the 2013 Sino-Russian joint military exercise. 

In the article Hu said, “The exercise is an actual action to implement the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Russia that the leaders in the military field in China and Russia had proposed.” 
“There are two main foundations for the joint military exercise. First, in recent years, the United States deployed a strategic missile defense system in areas that included Eastern European countries, thus seriously squeezing Russia’s strategic space. Second, the U.S. shifted its strategic focus to the Asia-Pacific, winning over Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Australia, and other Asia-Pacific countries, in a joint attempt to contain China. In China’s territorial disputes with neighboring countries, whether it is the East China Sea issue, or the South China Sea issue, one can see the shadow of the United States in the background.” 
The article concluded that both Russia and China have realized that the two countries need to form an alliance in order to reduce the pressure from United States.

“In this context of history and reality, this exercise has historic and forward-looking strategic significance. Such joint military exercises create a psychological deterrence to the U.S. And Japan.” 
”Both China and Russia, if not united together, might be defeated individually. Once China and Russia join together, it will cause some psychological deterrence to the U.S. and Japan, making, the U.S. and Japan hesitant to provoke territorial disputes and other issues in Northeast Asia.” 

Source: International Herald Tribune (Xinhua), July 15, 2013                                                         http://ihl.cankaoxiaoxi.com/2013/0715/239296.shtml

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Number of Chinese Netizens Reaches 591 million, Mostly Mobile Phone Users

On July 17, the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) released its 32nd issue of the China Internet Development Statistics Report. It showed that, as of the end of June 2013, the number of China’s netizens reached 591 million. Of those, the mobile phone users reached 464 million, or 78.5 percent.

The first half of this year has seen 26.6 million new netizens, 70.0 percent of whom use their mobile phone to access the Internet. The Internet has also expanded rapidly in rural areas, with 54.4 percent of the new Internet users coming from rural areas. The CNNIC report attributed the rapid increase to the development of the 3G network, wireless network, and mobile phone app innovations. Among all means of communications, Chinese netizens still favor instant messaging. As of the end of June 2013, 497 million people were users of instant messaging. Of those, 397 million used their mobile phones to send and receive messages.

Source: People’s Daily, July 18, 2013
http://finance.people.com.cn/n/2013/0718/c1004-22234040.html

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

Xinhua: GSK Is not Alone

On July 14, 2013, Xinhua published an article commenting on the Chinese bribery investigation into the British  pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), stating that GSK is just one of many foreign firms that have been involved in bribery in China. “In recent years, multinational companies have caused China to become one of the hardest hit in the commission of bribery.”

According to Xinhua, in December 2012, Eli Lilly settled for $30 million when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged it with bribing foreign government officials to expand its market in Russia, Brazil, China, and Poland. In August 2012, Pfizer paid $60 million in fines for offering bribes to government medical staff in eight countries including China. Toward the end of 2008, Siemens was fined $1.3 billion for its corrupt practices involving five Chinese government-owned hospitals. It had paid tens of millions of dollars in bribes to physicians and lab personnel, ultimately resulting in huge orders for medical equipment.

“From the 1990s to the present, well-known multinational companies, including Morgan Stanley, IBM, Lucent, Wal-Mart, Diagnostic Products Corporation, Avery Dennison, and many others have been charged with bribery in China.” 
Source: Xinhua, July 14, 2013 
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2013-07/14/c_125005890.htm
Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

BBC Chinese: It Would Be Hard to Solve China’s Environmental Problems in 20 to 30 Years

According to a joint study by Chinese and Western scholars from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing University, and a professor at the Hebrew University of Israel, severe air pollution in northern China reduces the average life expectancy by at least 5.5 years. However, in an interview with BBC Chinese, Professor Song Yuqin from Beijing University’s School of Environmental Science and Engineering expressed his doubts about the “5.5 years life expectancy reduction” conclusion. “You do not need to take it (the conclusion) seriously.” In Prof. Song’s opinion, it is unlikely that smog could be eliminated in 20 to 30 years because China is in the process of development. He did, however, call on the government to take action because "the root cause still lies with the government."

Source: BBC Chinese, July 10, 2013
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/china/2013/07/130710_china_environment_south_north.shtml

Briefings | | |   Social Stability