Chinascope – Page 870

Sichuan Hit by the Worst Drought in over Twenty Years

Sichuan Province is now in the middle of the worst drought in over 20 years. Since November 2012, the average precipitation has dropped by 52 percent. Drought continued after the spring of 2013, spreading rapidly throughout Sichuan Province, which has the largest drought-stricken area in over 20 years.

According to the Sichuan authorities, over 6 million of its population have been hit by drought. About 1.15 million people and 360,000 large livestock suffer from a lack of drinking water. The drought has also damaged or destroyed 395,000 acres of crops, with the direct economic loss alone reaching 1.74 billion yuan (approximately US$277 million).

Source: People’s Daily, March 21, 2013
http://politics.people.com.cn/n/2013/0321/c70731-20869736.html

Briefings | | March 22, 2013 | Economy/Resources

China’s Oceanic Environment Continues to Deteriorate

On March 20, 2013, China’s State Oceanic Administration released its 2012 report on China’s oceanic environment. The report indicated that the quality of the seawater along China’s coastline deteriorated in 2012 as a result of disasters including oil spills. For example, the oil spill from the sub-sea wells in the Penglai 19-3 oil field in June 2011 and from the oil explosion at the Dalian Xingang on July 16, 2010, continue to have an adverse effect on the adjacent waters and the ecological environment.

An increasing volume of pollutants are being dumped into the sea. In 2012, the pollutants discharged from 72 rivers into the ocean rose from last year to a total of 17.05 million tons. Liaohe estuary, Yellow River estuary, Yangtze river estuary, and Zhouhai estuary have seen dramatic adverse ecological deterioration. About 70 percent of the nearby waters are below standard.

The report also said that a total of 170,000 square kilometers of near-shore waters are now below the first grade of seawater quality, which is the level suitable for hosting marine life and natural reserves.

Source: China’s State Oceanic Administration, March 20, 2013
http://www.gov.cn/gzdt/2013-03/20/content_2358728.htm

Briefings | | March 22, 2013 | Economy/Resources

Xinhua: China Faces Serious Threat of Cyber Attacks from U.S.

On March 19, 2013, the National Emergency Response Center (CNCERT) released a report claiming that China faces a serious threat of cyber attacks from outside of China.

The report said that in 2012, there were about 73,000 Trojans or botnet network control servers (NCS) involved in the control of host servers in Chinese territory, a year-on-year increase of 56.9 percent; also, 1802 government websites were defaced (altered), a year-on-year increase of 21.4 percent.

The CNCERT report also stated that, in 2012, 12,891 network control servers from the United States controlled more than 10.512 million host servers in China. In addition, it stated that 96.2 percent of the fishing sites targeting China were located offshore, up to 83.2 percent of them being from the United States.

"The attacks on China’s Internet are mainly from the United States," reported Zhou Yonglin, director of the Operations Department of CNCERT.

Source: Xinhua, March 19, 2013

http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2013-03/19/c_115081043.htm

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

New Chinese Stealth Frigate Commissioned

On March 12, 2013, at a naval port at Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province, the People’s Liberation Army Navy officially commissioned a new Chinese next generation of stealth frigates.

According to Sun Min, a military representative that supervised the manufacturing process, the new frigate has three distinctive features. It has low tonnage but comprehensive equipment; it has a completely automated control cabin; and it can be produced in large quantities. “According to our plan, the frigate will most likely become the largest group of military vessels, to be manufactured concurrently by multiple shipyards with strong capabilities, a first in the Chinese history of frigate manufacturing.” The vessel has not incorporated many new stealth technologies, added Sun.

Source: Huanqiu, March 19, 2013
http://mil.huanqiu.com/china/2013-03/3748371_3.html

Briefings | | March 21, 2013 | Defense/Military

People’s Daily Online Launches Hong Kong Branch

The network department of the Chinese Communist Party’s official newspaper, People’s Daily, People’s Daily Online Co., Ltd. has established a Hong Kong branch. The inaugural ceremony was held in Hong Kong on Tuesday, March 19, 2013.

People’s Daily Online, born in 1997, appears in 15 languages and 16 editions, with 24-hour rolling news reports. Liao Hong, the president of People’s Daily Online, said at the inaugural meeting, that the expansion of People’s Daily Online to Hong Kong was to "build a platform for communications between the government and the people and to promote social harmony." According to Liao, People’s Daily Online has no plans, in the short term, to be listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

In recent years, China’s official media have continuously expanded overseas. Newspapers and TV networks have launched or expanded their businesses in the West by setting up offices in Western Europe and the United States. People’s Daily Online, which has 29 domestic branches, has already been operating overseas branches in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Korea, Russia, Australia, and South Africa.

Source: BBC Chinese, March 20, 2013
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/china/2013/03/130320_people_daily.shtml

Briefings | | March 21, 2013 | Geo-Strategic Trend

British FT Chinese on the Reform of China’s State-Owned Enterprises

On March 5, 2013, the Financial Times Chinese website published an article on how the Chinese state-owned enterprises should be reformed. The article suggested to 1) gradually break up the monopolies and create a market environment for fair competition; 2) manage and share the State-owned enterprises’ huge profits with the entire society.

By the end of 2012, there were 10.8572 million national private enterprises, with 31.1 trillion yuan of registered capital and 20.1 trillion in sales revenue; there were 120 central government enterprises attributable to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC), with total assets of 31.2 trillion yuan and 22.5 trillion in operating income.

Source: The Financial Times Chinese, March 5, 2013
http://www.ftchinese.com/story/001049183?full=y

Briefings | | March 20, 2013 | Economy/Resources

Chinese Scholar Criticizes the U.S. for Launching Iraq War

On March 20, 2013, People’s Daily published an article titled “A Typical ‘Multi-Failure’ War.” Li Shaoxian, Vice President of the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR) authored the article. According to Li, there have been no winners in the Iraq War that was launched on March 20, 2003. Ten years have passed; thousands of civilians have died in the terrorist bombing; and the nation is seriously split apart, which restricts the reconstruction and development of post-war Iraq. The war led to a serious geopolitical power imbalance in the Middle East. The cost of the war to the U.S. was both the huge military expenses and several thousand lives of American officials and soldiers. As to the evidence to start the war (Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and had connections with terrorist organizations), it turned out to be fabricated. The United States suffered a significant loss to its international reputation.

The article concluded that the Afghanistan War, Iraq War and Libya War, which the U.S.-led Western countries initiated, all brought serious consequences to those countries.

Source: People’s Daily, March 20, 2013
http://world.people.com.cn/n/2013/0320/c1002-20845492.html

Briefings | | March 20, 2013 | Defense/Military

China Has Become the World’s Fifth Largest Arms Exporter

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), a respected think tank based in Sweden, China has become the world’s fifth-largest arms exporter. Pakistan is the largest recipient of Chinese arms, accounting for 55 percent of Chinese arms exports.

“China replaced Britain in the list of the top five arms-dealing countries for the period between 2008 and 2012. According to SIPRI, the United States and Russia dominated the group, accounting for 30 percent and 26 percent of weapons exports.” Germany and France ranked third and fourth on the list of arms exporters.

China is also the world’s second largest arms importing country. The number of arms China imported from 2008 to 2012 accounted for 6 percent of the global total. The top arms importers between 2008 and 2012 were India, China, Pakistan, South Korea, and Singapore.

Source: Reuters Beijing and BBC Chinese, March 17 – 18, 2013
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/17/us-china-arms-exports-idUSBRE92G0L120130317
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/china/2013/03/130318_china_arms.shtml

Briefings | | March 20, 2013 | Defense/Military

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.