Skip to content

BBC Chinese: China Cautiously Mediating Peace in Middle East

BBC Chinese recently reported that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu both visited Beijing in the same week. However, neither of the two sides nor the new Chinese President Xi Jinping seemed to be ready to start a negotiation with China being the mediator. Meanwhile, Xi Jinping did offer a four-point peace proposal. Although Xi’s proposal does not have anything new or creative, the report expressed the belief that he was somewhat playing a mediator’s role, with caution. When Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met with Netanyahu, he suggested that the sole solution to the Middle East peace and stability issue is conducting dialogues and peace talks. Li also mentioned that China is willing to work with the two sides on the peace-making effort, since China is a common friend of both. China has a US$10 billion annual trade volume with Israel and half of China’s annual oil imports are from the Middle East region. 
Source: BBC Chinese, May 9, 2013
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/press_review/2013/05/130509_press_review_china_middleeast.shtml

2013 College Graduates Face Tough Job Market

According to the Ministry of Education, 6.99 million college graduates will face a tough job market this year. The number of graduates is 190,000 higher than the number in 2012 and one million higher than 2009. 2013 graduates will compete with 25 million people who are looking for employment in the country and urban regions where the demand for college graduates continues to decline due to a number of changes in industrial structure and a decline in the export market. Among all the professions, there has been a slight increase in demand in the medical profession and in the consulting, business, travel, culture, and sports industries but the demand in steel, machinery, mining, energy, and architecture is shrinking.

Source: Xinhua, April 11, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/edu/2013-04/11/c_115357763.htm

PLA Formed First Carrier-borne Naval Air Force

On May 10, 2013, with the approval of the Central Military Commission, the PLA formed the first carrier-borne naval air force. Xinhua reported that the naval air force consists of elite candidates selected from the existing PLA aviation force. The qualifications include their record for flying a minimum of five different types of aircraft and a minimum of 1,000 hours of air time. They must have completed training certification at the PLA Dalian Naval Academy, have the experience of participating in military exercises and be considered the highest-potential candidates in their unit.

Source: Xinhua, May 10, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2013-05/10/c_124694934.htm

Internet Affairs Bureau Launched Effort to Regulate Online News Communication Channels

Xinhua reported that the Internet Affairs Bureau has launched a two-month effort to regulate online news communication channels. The bureau stated that the goal is to tackle improper news posting behavior. Articles are improper if they have inconsistent references for the sources, are false reports, alter the news title, or use fictitious media agencies.

Source: Xinhua, May 10, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2013-05/10/c_115720522.htm

Xinhua: Why Does the United States Always Vilify China Year after Year?

Following the release of the United States annual report on China’s military power, Xinhua published a series of commentaries. Below is one of them: 

“Each year, when, with a Cold War mentality, the United States releases a China’s military power report, it does so out of consideration for its own interests. For example, from the perspective of the U.S. military, the first consideration is to ask for money for the military budget from the U.S. Congress by speculating on China’s military development. At the same time, the United States disseminates the China military threat theory to achieve the purpose of creating a reason for its return to the Asia-Pacific with the so-called Asia-Pacific rebalancing strategy. Then it can also pull its allies in to share responsibilities and let its allies stand as the front for it in this region.” 

“In addition to the usual ‘smearing,’ it is noteworthy that the report also said that the momentum of bilateral military exchanges is good despite the leadership turnover of both countries in 2012. On the one hand, the report contains groundless accusations and disseminates the China threat theory; on the other hand, it also signals to maintain communication on both sides. It reflects the U.S. strategy of ‘having both hands ready’ towards China. From a series of recent statements that the U.S. Defense Department made, the goal of the U.S. military to stress communication and contacts with China is more ‘one-dimensional.’ It is trying to strengthen communication and exchanges in order to make China agree and accept the U.S. viewpoint, rather than let both sides understand each other in order to reach a compromised view through the exchange.” 

Source: Xinhua, May 9, 2013 
http://www.xinhuanet.com/world/jrch/20130509.htm

BBC: Hundreds Protest in Beijing over Girl’s Death

A large number of migrant workers from Anhui Province took to the street in a rare protest to demand a full investigation of the death of Yuan Liya, 22, also from Anhui.

According to the official weibo (China’s version of twitter) of the Beijing police authorities, on May 3, 2013, Yuan Liya, a 22-year-old from Anhui, fell to her death from a mall in Fengtai district in Beijing. Close to a hundred people gathered near the mall and the police quickly arrived at the scene.

Many indicated on-line that they found the death to be suspicious. The on-line pictures showed that more than a hundred people were there. Some said it was closer to a thousand. Dozens of police vehicles and hundreds of police lined the streets near the mall where Yuan had died. The pictures posted on-line showed migrant workers marching on the streets, holding banners in protest.

Source: BBC (Chinese), May 8, 2013
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/china/2013/05/130508_beijing_anhui_girl.shtml

PLA Daily: U.S. Report on China’s Military Power Based on Chinese Netizens’ Speculation

People’s Liberation Army Daily published a commentary on the recent U.S. Department of Defense report on China’s military power. The commentary stated that the report relied for its information on what so called U.S. experts on China had copied and pasted from Chinese military websites. The information did nothing but reflect what Chinese netizens speculated and imagined.

“Each year the United States routinely publishes a report on China’s military power. This is totally a gross interference in China’s internal affairs. China has repeatedly stressed that the development of China’s military is defensive in nature. Let us ask, since China, in strengthening its national defense and building its military, is not targeting any country, why does the U.S. consider it its own business?"
 
The commentary stated that the U.S. motivation behind its speculations and accusations is self-evident. “On the one hand, it touts the "China military threat theory" to sow discord between China and other countries, especially, its neighboring countries, aiming to contain China. … On the other hand, the U.S. exaggerates China’s military threat to promote its domestic interest groups and arms dealers. Presumably U.S. arms manufacturers are already gearing up to count their money.”

Source: Xinhua, May 8, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2013-05/08/c_124681010.htm

CASS: Imbalance in Housing Market, Price Hikes to Continue

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, for the month of March 2013, 68 out of the 70 cities across the country saw housing prices rise higher than the previous month. A report, released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), pointed to the observation that overall prices of real estate rebounded after the State Council’s February measures to curb housing prices. The report warned of the fact that supply and demand in the housing market are out of balance and that prices face the danger of getting completely out of control.

The industry generally believes that, by adopting means under a planned economy to handle commercial residential real estates driven by market forces, the government has moved on the wrong direction in its current real estate market regulation policy.

In analyzing the causes of the current round of price increases, Bowen Xi, a manager at a real estate company, mentioned three main factors. The first is the fiscal pressure of local governments. At present, only Beijing city has implemented the 20 percent transaction tax; other cities are looking for ways to circumvent it. Second, on a long-term basis, what determines the housing price is supply and demand. There are still large numbers of people who do not have a house. Due to urbanization, for a long period of time, many people have been moving into cities. Third, China’s prices are also affected by the monetary policy of the Western countries. Quantitative easing of western currencies will result in an issuance of more RMB to the market, causing an increase in the price of assets.

Source: People’s Daily, May 7, 2013
http://house.people.com.cn/n/2013/0507/c164220-21385112.html