Chinascope – Page 874

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

People’s Daily: Xi Jinping Will Soon Visit Russia

People’s Daily recently reported that the new Chinese Premier, Li Keqiang, said at a press conference that the new Chinese President, Xi Jinping, will soon visit Russia. This will be the first country Xi visits as President. Li suggested that this planned visit itself represents the importance of the China-Russia relationship. Li expressed the belief that the political relationship between the two countries is currently “very good, so that the focus should be on actionable cooperation plans.” Li also suggested that the China-Russia trade volume could easily increase several times more “without a problem.”

Source: People’s Daily, March 17, 2013

http://cpc.people.com.cn/n/2013/0317/c164113-20816833.html

Briefings | | March 19, 2013 | Geo-Strategic Trend

CRN: Chinese Currency Supply Causes Concern

China Review News (CRN) recently published a commentary that discussed the newly released currency supply level number. According to China’s central bank, February’s M2 number reached RMB 99.86 trillion, which represents a 15.2 percent increase over last year. M2 is a broader classification of money supply. Economists use M2 when looking to quantify the amount of money in circulation. The Chinese central bank expressed a strong intent to manage the risk of inflation. The new number set a record for the money supply in Chinese history. It is also the highest in the world, which is 1.5 times higher than the U.S. Dollar. However the author of the commentary suggested that China needed to print more money to satisfy the rapid increase in currency demand in the services industry, which includes the financial sector that historically has suffered low-efficiency. In spite of some special cases that temporarily created currency demand, the article called for more conservative money supply policies.

Source: China Review News, March 16, 2013

http://www.zhgpl.com/doc/1024/7/1/2/102471261.html?coluid=53&kindid=0&docid=102471261&mdate=0316072620

Briefings | | March 19, 2013 | Economy/Resources

RFA: Scholars Challenge China’s WTO Commitments

In a press conference held during the National Congress, Chen Deming, Minister of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce denied the claims that China has not come forth with any new initiatives since it joined the WTO. Chen insisted that China has fulfilled the commitments it made when it joined the WTO. As to the requirement for the Chinese government to break up its monopolies and the other special rights it holds, Chen insisted that there will be reforms in state owned enterprises with the condition that the status of the socialist economic system of public ownership is maintained.

Many Chinese scholars believe that issues remain with China’s open door policy where China should make further efforts to open its doors in both domestic and foreign markets, break up the monopolies of the State Owned Enterprises, and return the gains back to the people. Hu Xindou, an economist from Beijing, told RFA that, since China joined the WTO, its monopoly in the finance industry has remained an unsatisfactory condition, especially in the banking industry and in the free exchange of currency. Sun Wenguang, a retired professor from Shandong Province stated that there are many issues in terms of whether China has been following the common regulation since it joined the WTO. For example, there is unfair trade because Chinese movies and cultural products are exported overseas while many Hollywood movies are banned in China. Sun stated that China is not an economic market country. Its telecommunication, coal mine industry, and railroads are state owned. This results in corrupt interests that only benefit special classes.

It was reported that the Agreement on Government Procurement that China submitted in December 2012 was said to be protective of its domestic enterprises, since state owned enterprises’ procurements are excluded from the agreement, while the total coverage in the agreement only accounts for 2-3 percent of China’s total procurement market.

Source: Radio Free Asia, March 8, 2013
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/zhengzhi/xl-03082013110340.html

Briefings | | March 18, 2013 | Economy/Resources

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.