Chinascope – Page 843

Global Times: China Accused of Having a Political Motivation for Helping Nicaragua Build Canal

Global Times recently reported that the Congress of Nicaragua passed a proposal to allow the government to award an exclusive commercial contract to the Hong Kong headquartered HKND Group to construct the Nicaragua Canal. The Nicaragua Canal Project is to build the world’s largest and deepest inter-oceanic canal. It will compete head to head against the Panama Canal. Western media, such as Time Magazine, questioned whether China’s motivation behind the bid had geo-political considerations. The US$40 billion agreement with the Chinese company included fifty years of special operational rights which can be extended for another fifty years. Spanish media also suggested that the lack of transparency in the congressional vote as well as the impact of environmental damage are all issues that may require further discussion. The chairman of the 10-month-old HKND Group claimed the company had "rich experience" in developing and managing large infrastructure-building projects. Reuters suggested that China has a "strong enough economy" to invest into modernized ocean based transportation opportunities and that it’s about time. Time Magazine also commented that China has been expanding its influence in the U.S. backyard for some time now. However, Nicaragua is still one of the very few countries that maintains an official relationship with Taiwan.

Source: Global Times, June 15, 2013

http://world.huanqiu.com/exclusive/2013-06/4028674.html

Briefings | | June 18, 2013 | Geo-Strategic Trend

Xinhua: Ministry of Foreign Affairs Established Office of Internet Affairs

Xinhua reported that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs officially announced at a recent press conference that the Ministry had created a new organizational unit called the Office of Internet Affairs. The new unit will be responsible for Internet-related foreign relations developments. At the press conference, the spokeswoman was asked about the latest evidence that demonstrated that the U.S. has been attacking the Chinese networks for many years. She suggested that China was one of the most attacked countries in the world and the Internet space does not need war and hegemony. The Ministry set up the new office to work with various parties to cooperate under the UN international framework and rules for Internet related matters. The spokeswoman also suggested that there is a working group under the China-U.S. Strategic Security Dialog Framework. China will continue to use that channel to work with the United States.

Source: Xinhua, June 15, 2013

http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2013-06/15/c_116153301.htm

Briefings | | June 18, 2013 | Government/Politics

Blue Book of China Audio-Visual New Media: The New Media Are Taking Control

The research center of the State Administration of Radio Film and Television recently published the 2013 Annual Report on the Development of China’s Audio Visual New Media. According to the report, the new media have had a significant impact. Personal computers, flat panel computers, and smart phones have brought the number of households living in Beijing who watch TV down to 30 percent from 70 percent three years ago. The report said that the audience for traditional media has shifted towards the senior population. A majority of the audience that watches television is age 40 years and older. In the meantime, the number of online television and video users has gone up. The Internet has become a major venue for watching popular TV movie series.

The report also suggested that, as the traditional media are losing their young audiences, their advertising market is shrinking as well. From 2007 to 2012, online advertising grew 120 percent for three straight years, significantly surpassing the increase in the television market.

It was reported that the annual income of the online video industry was 3.14 billion yuan (US$0.51 billion) in 2010, 6.27 billion (US$1.02 billion) in 2011 and 9.25 billion (US$1.51 billion) in 2012. The public opinion monitoring room of People’s Daily disclosed that the official media had 80 percent of the discourse rights in the 1980’s while non-official media gained 75 percent of the discourse rights on the top 20 popular social events in 2012.

Source: Xinhua, June 16, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/info/2013-06/16/c_132458593_8.htm

Briefings | | June 17, 2013 | Information/Technology

Li Keqiang Introduced Ten Air Pollution Prevention Measures and Promoted Photovoltaic Industry

On June 14, China’s new Premier, Li Keqiang, hosted the State Council meeting where he introduced plans for ten air pollution prevention measures and promoted the development of the photovoltaic industry.

The ten measures for preventing air pollution included, but were not limited to: limiting air pollution emissions; limiting production and growth of industries that consume high energy and create pollution; actively promoting “clean” manufacturing while reducing pollution emissions for key industries by 30 percent or more; increasing the usage of natural gas and coal methanol in order to speed up adjustments in the energy structure; strictly enforcing clean energy guidelines; and promoting incentives on projects to save energy. … The Council also stated that the photovoltaic industry is an important field for new energy development, although it is suffering from weak demand in both the domestic and international markets. The council called for efforts to strengthen the photovoltaic industry and promote product innovation and development to regain the photovoltaic market.

Source: Xinhua, June 14, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2013-06/14/c_116152393.htm

Briefings | | June 17, 2013 | Government/Politics

Developing Party Membership in Private Companies in Kunshan City

Xinhua published an article about developing Party membership in Kunshan City, Jiangsu Province, where 98 percent of the economic production comes from private enterprises.

According to the article, in the mid 1980’s, as more and more foreign investments poured in from Europe, the U.S., Japan, and Korea, the municipal government of Kunshan formulated a clear direction: to treat the importance of appealing to foreign investments the same as when developing the Party structure in private enterprises. For every foreign investment plan that was to be developed, all levels of municipal departments were required to come up with a plan to develop the Party structure in order to ensure that the “Party’s development moved in parallel with the economic development for each investment opportunity.”

According to the article, the City of Kunshan sent 352 full time Party cadres to the private enterprises. Those cadres, together with 3,668 Party leaders selected from the employees of the private sectors, formed a Party development team in Kunshan. They received financial incentives, as well as retirement and pension plans from the city.

The article disclosed that, because of the consistent Party development efforts in Kunshan, Kunshan currently has achieved "total coverage of Party membership" in private enterprises. Over 2,700 Party organizations have formed in private enterprises. They include 20,000 Party members, which accounts for 35 percent of the total Party members in Kunshan City. Of those, 75 percent hold key positions in their company.

Source: Xinhua, June 16, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2013-06/16/c_124861568_3.htm

Briefings | | June 17, 2013 | Government/Politics

Xinhua: The Troika Out of Steam and Economic Recovery Difficult

According to the macro-economic statistics recently released for the month of May, investments, exports, and consumption all fell below market expectations. The total social financing was 1.19 trillion yuan, a drop of over 30 percent from the figure for April. Since September of 2012, the Producer Price Index (PPI) and the industrial value added have hit new lows.

A review of the “Troika” (fixed asset investments, retail sales, and exports) that is deemed to be the driving force for economic growth shows fixed-asset investments grew slower than April by 0.2 percent compared to the growth from last year which was 20.4 percent; retail sales, with a growth of 12.9 percent from a year ago, was also below market expectations; exports in May grew one percent from a year earlier, a reduction of 13.7 percentage points compared to April’s growth. This was way below the 5.6 percent market expectation; it has hit its lowest point since last July.

Source: Xinhua, June 13, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2013-06/13/c_124847267.htm

Briefings | | June 14, 2013 | Economy/Resources

People’s Daily: The Black Hands Loomed out, Shorting Gold to Save Dollars

People’s Daily overseas edition published an article that stated that the current bear market in gold results from a conspiracy between U.S. financial institutions and the Federal Reserve.

Since April this year, the international price of gold has continued to fall. In contrast, with the improvement in U.S. economic data, the U.S. dollar has gradually grown stronger. So what is the source of this shorting power that caused the price of gold to plummet?

Honng Hao, a scholar at the Securities and Futures Institute of the Central University of Finance, believes that U.S. financial institutions actually manipulate the international price of gold. Once the 12-year long gold bull market bubble bursts, the United States can negate a large number of its printed dollars. To digest large quantities of printed money, the best way is to burst the asset bubbles and transfer the loss to the investors.

Yao Tongxin, Deputy Director of the China Center for Strategic Studies at Peking University believes that the real black hands behind the scene are the Wall Street financial giants who are working together with the Federal Reserve. They have jointly controlled this round’s crash in the price of gold. The purpose of manipulating the price of gold is not just to profit through the shorting mechanism. They had a larger strategic plan in mind. That is to destroy investor confidence in gold and allow the dollar to continue to grow in strength through suppressing the price of gold, thus enhancing the dollar’s credit and in the end allowing the U.S. debt chain and financial cycle to continue.

Source: People’s Daily (overseas edition), June 12, 2013

http://finance.people.com.cn/n/2013/0612/c1004-21815613.html

Briefings | | June 14, 2013 | Geo-Strategic Trend

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.