Chinascope – Page 852

Ministry of Environmental Protection Issued its May Report on Air Quality

According to China Review News, on June 19, the Ministry of Environmental Protection issued its May report on the air quality in 74 cities. In those cities, the number of days that met the air quality standard was only 60 percent. The number was much lower in the Beijing, Tianjing, and Shandong province region which dropped from 50.6 percent in April to 27.4 percent in May. Beijing was again listed among the ten cities with the worst air quality. In May it only had 8 days during which air quality met the standard. In Hebei Province alone, six cities placed in the top ten list of those with the worst air quality.

Source: China Review News, June 20, 2013
http://www.zhgpl.com/doc/1025/8/9/9/102589915.html?coluid=45&kindid=0&docid=102589915&mdate=0620101342

Briefings | | June 24, 2013 | Information/Technology

Top Party Official Affirmed Policy that “Party Members Are Not Allowed to Practice Religion”

According to Huanqiu, in a recent interview with China Newsweek, Zhu Weiqun, the head of the Committee for Social, Legal，Ethnic, and Religious Affairs and former executive vice director of the United Front Work Department stated once again, “It needs be very clear and firm that Communist Party members are not allowed to practice religion.” According to Zhu, “If the Party members are allowed to practice religion, our Party will be demobilized in Party ideology and organizational structure while we will lose the Party’s advanced nature.”

Zhu also denied that his statement contradicts the “freedom to practice religion” as guaranteed in the constitution. He believes that one can choose either to practice a religion or to join the Party, but not both.

Zhu did acknowledge that the number of people who practice religion is growing and that the influence that religion is having on society is also increasing. He estimated the total number of people who practice the top five religions in China is over 100 million.

Source: Huanqiu, June 16, 2013
http://china.huanqiu.com/roll/2013-06/4031025.html

Briefings | | June 24, 2013 | Government/Politics

China State-Run Media Use the Snowden Incident to Attack U.S. Values

People’s Daily, overseas edition, which is distributed to Chinese all over the world, published a commentary that used the Snowden incident to attack the U.S. values of human rights and freedom of expression.

The article was titled, “The Snowden incident blew off the cosmetics of the human rights issue from the American face.” The article said, “The ‘Prism project’ clearly tells people that the United States is trying to control the massive information transmitted within the entire Internet.” “The leader of equality, democracy, freedom, and fraternity" is nothing but a thick layer of ‘cosmetics’ covering the face of the United States." “The truth is that the U.S. has been using a double standard, yelling at other countries but being indifferent to its own illegal acts. The U.S. intelligence system has been using a variety of means to monitor the flow of information in cyberspace in order to ensure U.S. national security, even if it is at the cost of individual citizens’ privacy being potentially or actually threatened.”

The article was re-posted all over the websites of China’s state media.

Source: People’s Daily, Overseas edition, June 20, 2013

http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2013-06/20/c_124880986.htm http://news.cntv.cn/2013/06/20/ARTI1371688926444143.shtml

http://world.huanqiu.com/regions/2013-06/4044520.html http://www.qstheory.cn/gj/gjgc/201306/t20130620_241558.htm

Briefings | | June 21, 2013 | US-China Relations

Huanqiu Warns Chinese Dissidents Not to Flee to the United States

Shan Renping, a commentator for China’s state-owned Huanqiu, published a commentary on Chen Guangcheng, the blind activist who fled China with the help of the United States. The commentary was clearly intended to dissuade other Chinese from taking similar actions. “There are some dissidents in China who believe that once they arrive in the United States, they will be treated as a treasure. This is their misunderstanding.”

“China and the United States are not enemies. Cooperation between the two countries will confuse those who live off the rice bowl of ‘Sino-US confrontation.’ They will feel that the United States is ‘not resolute’ in its attitude toward China, and that the United States chickens out during its fight against China. They even complain about ‘being ‘betrayed’ because they answered the call of the United States and took China as the enemy, only to be ‘abandoned halfway.’”

“China’s rapid development has attracted people around the world to come to look for development opportunities. At this time betraying this country’s mainstream development process and attempting to develop a personal life through renouncing this country is bound to be difficult in the long run. Such people will have no future.”

Source: Huanqiu, June 20, 2013
http://opinion.huanqiu.com/opinion_world/2013-06/4044144.html

Briefings | | June 21, 2013 | US-China Relations

Overseas Chinese Media Share the “China Dream”

On June 8 in Xining, the capital city of Qinghai Province, He Yafei, the deputy director of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office under the State Council, and Liu Beixian, President of the China News Agency, met with personnel from overseas Chinese language media for a face-to-face discussion. The overseas Chinese media executives from Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand, Malaysia, and other countries shared their "China Dream."

The "China Dream" is not a narrowly defined dream of the Chinese people, but the dream of all mankind and of the whole world," said Liu Yang, the President of VCChina, a Belgian Chinese radio station. Gao Jin, the chairman of the Romania based Europe Bridge Media (欧桥传媒) also believed that overseas Chinese should combine the "China Dream" with the dream of the hosting countries. He Wanmi from Malaysia’s Sin Chew Daily (星洲日報) said, "I am a third generation Chinese in Malaysia. My fellow Chinese there are deeply rooted in the local country, but we still identify ourselves as part of the Chinese culture." Chen Weirong, the President of New Zealand’s Chinese Herald (中文先驱报) said that New Zealand’s Chinese care very much about the "China Dream." Some proposed that Chinese characters are an important carrier of Chinese culture and suggested establishing a "Chinese Character Day."

He Yafei offered three wishes for the overseas Chinese media: that the Chinese media objectively report China and tell the "China story" and the "China Dream" to the world; that Chinese media become the promoters of the Chinese culture and national spirit; and that the Chinese media become the bridge and pioneers in public diplomacy to facilitate communication between China and other nations.

Source: China News Service, reprinted on the website of the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department, June 19, 2013.
http://www.zytzb.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/tzb2010/S2012/201306/740513.html

Briefings | | June 20, 2013 | Geo-Strategic Trend

Outlook: The China Dream Depends on the Strong Leadership of the Party

Outlook Newsweek, an official Chinese Communist Party publication, published an interview with Li Jie, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences regarding the “China Dream.”

When asked what the critical factors are in realizing the "China Dream," Li stated, “Achieving the ‘China Dream’ depends on the strong leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. For making things happen in China, the key is the Party. It is particularly important that we always maintain the Party’s advanced nature and purity, always maintain the Party’s spirit of reform and innovation, always maintain the Party’s close ties with the masses, and always maintain the Party’s integrity.”

“The realization the the ‘China Dream’ depends unswervingly on taking the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics. … At present, [we] must be firmly confident in our path, theory, and system and continue to develop the socialist road with Chinese characteristics, the theoretical system, and the institutional system creatively, with confidence, and with persistence.”

Source: Outlook Newsweek reprinted by the Chinese Communist Party website, June 18, 2013 http://theory.people.com.cn/n/2013/0618/c40531-21877753.html

Briefings | | June 20, 2013 | Government/Politics

Xi Jinping: The CCP’s Survival or Death Relies on the Public Attitude for or against the Party

On June 18, 2013, Xi Jinping, the CCP Central Committee General Secretary and State Chairman, delivered a speech at the working meeting on the Party’s Mass Line Educational Practice. Xi said, “The CCP’s survival or death depends on the Public’s Attitude for or against the Party.”

To secure the Chinese Communist Party’s power, the Party must solve serious problems that the people report and let them feel satisfied. As many Party officials are separated from the masses, the CCP Central Committee will launch a large number of investigations, corrections, and cleaning within the Party. Called “Educational Practice Activities,” these activities will focus on self-cleaning, self-improvement, and self-innovation. It will be just like “looking into the mirror, straightening up one’s hat and clothing, taking a bath, and treating ones illness.” Those who have serious problems will be specially investigated and punished.

Source: Xinhua, June 18, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2013-06/18/c_116194026.htm

Briefings | | June 19, 2013 | Government/Politics

China’s Reaction to Trump’s Election Win

Xinhua Commentary Series: Spotlight on the U.S. Presidential Election

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