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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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Xinhua: China No Longer Limits Commercial Loan Interest Rates

Xinhua recently reported that the Chinese central bank announced it will no longer control the interest rates that banks set for commercial loans. The new policy takes effect starting July 20, 2013. The banks now have the full power to decide their interest rates. This is very different from the traditional method that the central bank required, which was to satisfy a floating minimum rate based on a formula. Rural area credit unions can now also enjoy the freedom of offering their own commercial loan interest rates without the central bank imposing an upper ceiling. However, in order to “protect the healthy development of this market sector,” the new policy does not apply to mortgage loans for the housing market. The central bank suggested that the new policy is to expand the room for negotiation between banks and their customers and to encourage differentiation among banks and bank products. One of the goals of the new policy is to lower the financing costs for companies in the real economy.
Source: Xinhua, July 19, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2013-07/19/c_116614513.htm
Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Xinhua Commentary: Reported Housing Statistics Are Questionable

On July 19, China News Review published a report on the “2013 Development of People’s Livelihood in China.” The report claimed that close to 90 percent of Chinese families own their own housing space. The average size for housing is 100 square meters (1,076 square feet) per family or 30 square meters (323 square feet) per person. On July 20, Xinhua published a commentary calling the published results questionable and misleading because they used the average statistical method. The commentary stated that some families don’t own houses while some groups of people own multiple or even dozens of housing properties. It questioned whether the data was correct, why the housing leasing market would be so prosperous in the city, and why large numbers of families still live in “snail house” conditions. In the end, the commentary suggested that a different methodology should be applied in calculating the results so that it truly reflects reality.

Source: Xinhua July 20, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/comments/2013-07/20/c_116613384.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Beijing Youth Daily: Business Entities’ Savings Grew While Personal Saving Declined

Xinhua carried an article that Beijing Youth Daily had originally published. The article said that People’s Bank published financial statistics showing that, by the end of June, the total national savings in China had reached 1.009 quadrillion yuan (US$160 trillion). This was the first time it broke the 1 quadrillion mark. In the first half of 2013, total savings grew 9,090 trillion (US$1,480 trillion), up 1,710 trillion (US$278 trillion) compared to 2012. Specifically, personal saving grew 4,139 trillion (US$674 trillion) and savings for the non-financial entities grew 2,320 trillion (US$378 trillion). The article disclosed that growth in government and business entities has propelled the growth in national savings; whereas personal savings, as a percentage of the national savings, has been declining over the past ten years. The article stated, “It is an indication that the public funding allocated to education and health areas are far less than desired thereby pushing the general public to find ways to come up with "preventive savings" themselves.

As to the reason for the growth in personal savings, the article pointed out that, first, people are reluctant to spend money because many still receive a low income; second, the government provides insufficient funding for the education, medical, and housing areas, which forces residents to have their own “preventive savings.”

The article called the imbalance of the saving ratio a key issue to be addressed in income distribution reform.

Source: Xinhua, July 21, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2013-07/21/c_116622492.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

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