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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 its Largest Hydroelectric Dam

China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) has given the go-ahead for the construction of what will become the country’s tallest hydroelectric dam despite acknowledging that it will have an impact on plants and rare fish. The move met with criticism from experts due to the potential damage to the environment.

The Shuangjiangkou hydro-power dam will be on the Dadu River in southwestern Sichuan Province. It will be 314 meters (1,030 feet) high. A subsidiary of the State power firm, China Guodian Corporation, will build it over a 10 year period. The cost has been estimated to be 24.68 billion yuan ($4.02 billion) in investment.

The MEP said an environmental impact assessment had acknowledged that the project would have a negative impact on rare fish and flora and affect protected local nature reserves. The project still requires the formal approval of the State Council.

Experts argued that the dam would alter the patterns of discharge and the degradation of pollutants and be followed by changes in water quality. The construction may generate geological instability, there may be a major safety threat during the construction, and it may bring disastrous consequences in the operation phase. Considering the ethnic composition of the local minority population, their cultural practices, and their living habits, their cultural heritage would be lost and resettlement would be very difficult. Further, due to the changes in the aquatic ecological environment, local rare fish would not survive.

Source: Polaris Hydroelectric, May 13, 2013
http://news.bjx.com.cn/html/20130513/433976.shtml

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Large State-owned Enterprises Continue to receive Government Subsidies

According to Shanghai Securities News, from 2008 to 2012, State-owned Enterprises (SOEs) that are directly under the central authorities paid the central government dividends totaling 358.9 billion yuan. Of the dividends paid, 330.9 billion yuan were remitted back to these SOEs. During the same period, those large SOEs that are publicly listed and under the control of State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council received government subsidies in the amount of 173.6 billion yuan. That amount was equal to more than double the total profits of those small to medium high tech companies listed in the second market.

For the past several years, the ratio of debt to total assets showed that creditors financed 80 percent of the assets of the top five power companies. In 2012, part of the dividends that the five companies paid was returned to the companies’ capital accounts.

Source: Shanghai Securities News reprinted by Xinhua, May 13, 2013
http://www.js.xinhuanet.com/2013-05/13/c_115739881.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Wen Wei Po: Party’s Central Committee Issued Document on the Ideology Struggle

According to Hong Kong based Wen Wei Po, on May 8, 2013, the Chinese Communist Party Committee of Chongqing City’s Urban and Rural Construction Committee held a meeting to study the Notice on the Current Situation in the Field of Ideology, which the General Office of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee had issued.

It was mentioned at the study session that "the Party’s Central Committee has a profound analysis and firm attitude toward seven prominent issues in the field of ideology. The Party has more clarity and understanding of the acuteness and complexity of the struggles in the field of ideology."

The report believes that it is the first time that the Party has issued official documents of this kind since the 18th National Congress. It was found by searching online that the "notice" has been issued at the grassroots level of the hierarchy across the nation. At present, government authorities and Party committees at all levels have been organized to study the “notice.”

Source: Wen Wei Po, May 14, 2013
http://trans.wenweipo.com/gb/news.wenweipo.com/2013/05/14/IN1305140064.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Massive Chinese Capital Flows Out of China through Underground Banks

Chinese media reported that large amounts of Chinese capital are being transferred overseas through many means, the majority of which are underground banks. 

According to a rule of the People’s Bank of China, the maximum for any individual’s annual foreign exchange is limited to US$50,000. Such a limitation is simply too small to meet the quota of foreign investment and immigration needs, so how do they get the money out of China? 
According the a media report, underground banks are a major channel for transferring the money. In the southern city of Shenzhen, there are many hidden underground banks. An agent nicknamed Addie told the reporter that, although the Foreign Currency Administration Bureau can control large sums of money that flow in or out, they are apparently powerless if the amount is in the millions or even tens of millions of RMB. Addie explained, "As long as the customer tells us half an hour in advance the amount and type of currency to transfer, I will be able to help the customer to send the money out in accordance with the real-time exchange rates. We charge a fee of approximately 0.8-1.5 percent." 

Source: China Economic Weekly (republished by Xinhua), May 14, 2013                                    http://news.xinhuanet.com/overseas/2013-05/14/c_124705454_2.htm

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

IHL: The Basis for the U.S. China Threat Theory

The International Herald Leader (IHL), which is under Xinhua, recently published a commentary stating that the United States has exaggerated its “China Threat” theory by identifying several "weapons" ranging from military threats to security threats and the economic threats. The article alleges that China’s normal development and Chinese products, technology, or companies have all become targets of the U.S. “China Threat” theory.

IHL lists a few such "weapons": “The Report on China’s Military Power,” China’s anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBM) as represented by Dongfeng-21D, the 2007 Chinese anti-satellite missile test, China stealing U.S. nuclear technology, “Chinese State owned communications companies that threaten U.S. national security by acquiring U.S. companies,” cyber attacks by Chinese hackers, and the Chinese RMB exchange rate.

Source: International Herald Leader, May 9, 2013
http://ihl.cankaoxiaoxi.com/2013/0509/205800.shtml

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Beijing News: Ten Listed State-Owned Enterprises Spent Over 2.9 Billion Yuan on Hospitality

On May 13, 2013, Beijing News published an article titled, “Ten Listed State-Owned Enterprises Spent over 2.9 Billion Yuan (U.S. $471,835,800.00) on Hospitality in order to Maintain Good Public Relations.”

In the 2012 annual reports, 1,720 listed companies disclosed a total of 13.3 billion yuan in "Business Hospitality Expenses." The ten companies that spent the most on hospitality expenses were all state-owned enterprises. The hospitality expenses were spent on “eating and drinking.” Since companies are not required to disclose their “Business Hospitality Expenses,” China’s big state-owned enterprises: “China National Petroleum, China Petrochemical, Construction and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China,” have not disclosed any of this data.

Source: Beijing News, May 13, 203
http://www.bjnews.com.cn/finance/2013/05/13/263318.html

Briefings | | |   Grapevine

Rebellion in China û Villagers Captured Riot Police

On May 13, 2013, Aboluowang republished a news article from Apple Daily (the original article can no longer be found on Apple Daily) titled “About One Thousand Villagers ‘Rebel,’ Stripping Female Officials and Walking a Captured Policeman through the Streets.” There was a photo circulated on the Internet showing that ordinary Chinese people had captured riot police in Dongqiao town, Huian County, Fujian Province. With a long rope in her hand, a village woman was walking ahead of a young man in a riot police uniform; his hands were tied with a rope, which was connected with the long rope in the woman’s hand.

About one thousand villagers besieged the Village Council and threw stones and bricks at the riot police. The villagers captured one policeman and detained the mayor as well as two female government officials. To prevent them from escaping, the villagers stripped the two female officials. The reason behind the rebellion was that, in 2004, the government had forcibly taken away over 30,000 mu (4942.11 acres) of land along the sea shore from 13,000 villagers. The village council has only received ¼ of the compensation while the other ¾ of the compensation disappeared. The villagers have protested for years and some of them were even arrested and sentenced. On May 4, 2013, about one hundred police raided the village, arresting and beating rights activists. When the policemen came to the village again, on the night of May 10, and in the morning on May 11, 2013, the angry villagers pressed the siege of the city council and kept throwing stones at the policemen. The police had to step back.

Source: Aboluowang, May 13, 2013
http://www.aboluowang.com/2013/0513/305671.html

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Maintain Mao Zedong’s Historical Status and Mao Zedong Thought

On May 7, 2013, Guangming Daily published an article explaining the political significance of the speech Xi Jinping gave on January 5, 2013. When discussing the relationship between Mao’s class struggle period (1949 to 1978) and the economic reform and opening period (1978 to the present), Xi Jinping said, “We cannot use the historical period after the reform and opening to negate the historical period before the economic reform and opening; we cannot use the historical period before the reform and opening to negate the historical period after the economic reform and opening.”

According to the article, the whole history before the reform and opening is closely related to Mao Zedong. The Chinese regime must maintain the historical status of Mao Zedong and Mao Zedong thought. If the Chinese regime negates Mao Zedong, it is negating the history of the Chinese Communist Party, the People’s Republic of China, and also the Party’s leadership and China’s socialist system, since Mao Zedong was the creator of the Chinese Communist Party, the People’s Republic of China, and China’s socialist system.

Source: Guangming Daily, May 7, 2013
http://politics.gmw.cn/2013-05/07/content_7538912.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics