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People’s Daily: China Leads the US with New Airborne Warning Plane

People’s Daily recently reported on the newly revealed award winning Chinese AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) aircraft KJ-2000. The report claimed that the KJ-2000 is one generation ahead of the most advanced U.S. AWACS aircraft E-3C. The Chinese KJ-2000 captured nine technological Number One titles in the world’s history of the development of AWACS aircraft. One example is that the Chinese system is equipped with three radar devices while the U.S. Air Force E-3C has only one, which has to spin continuously to cover the 360 degree range. However all experts agreed that the Chinese system lacks serious combat testing while the U.S. models have been tested in real battlefields for decades. Reliability is another key concern.
Source: People’s Daily, January 20, 2013
http://military.people.com.cn/GB/n/2013/0120/c1011-20262851.html

CRN: Experts Criticize China’s Official Gini Coefficient

China Review News (CRN) recently reported on the Gini Coefficient that the National Bureau of Statistics released. It has been over a decade since the Bureau last released China’s Gini Coefficient. In this current new release, the Bureau published official numbers for the past ten years. All numbers were between 0.473 and 0.491. Immediately after the official announcement, many economists posted their comments online. Some called the official numbers “unbelievable” compared to unofficial numbers that are typically around 0.6. Some even described the official results as “braver than fairy tales.” The most conservative comments suggested that these numbers “still reflected a big income gap between the rich and the poor.” The Gini Coefficient is commonly used as a measure of the inequality in income or wealth. The global average Gini Coefficient is 0.44, and the Index number of 0.4 is a widely accepted international red line. All experts asked for the details on the methodology used for the official calculation.

[Editor’s Note: The Washington Post reported on December 11, 2012, for example, that a new study from Southwestern University of Finance and Economics found "that China’s Gini coefficient was, as of 2010, an alarmingly high 0.61."]

Source: China Review News, January 19, 2013
http://www.zhgpl.com/crn-webapp/doc/docDetailCreate.jsp?coluid=45&kindid=0&docid=102408573&mdate=0119153611

Red Flag Manuscript: The Decline of Western Market Fundamentalism

[Editor’s Note: Qiushi Online republished an article from Red Flag Manuscript on Western Market Fundamentalism. The article claimed that the recent global financial crisis has proven that Capitalism is approaching its end; that the Wall Street oligarchs and the U.S. government launched an unprecedented disaster affecting everyone on the planet; and that the world is turning to Marxism for a solution. The author, Yu Zurao, is a guest researcher at the World Socialism Research Center, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The following is a translation of the article.] [1]

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Huanqiu: China’s Has Urgent Need to Introduce the Grand Strategy of a Powerful Maritime Nation

Liang Fang, Professor of military strategy at the National Defense University of the PLA in China, published an article in Huanqiu (Global Times) urging China to implement a grand strategy to become a powerful maritime nation as soon as possible. He reasoned that “China’s maritime security faces unprecedented grim threats and challenges. The United States has carried out a full range of strategic encirclement and containment tactics in the Pacific by implementing its ‘Asia-Pacific re-balancing strategy.’ In the East and South China Sea, disputes with the neighboring countries over their maritime interests are becoming increasingly fierce. … The potential threat of conflict is increasing. At the same time, as the second largest economy in the world, economic globalization has transformed China into an export-oriented economy dependent on strategic maritime channels. Facing such a complex maritime security situation, China needs to develop and introduce a maritime strategy as soon as possible and speed up its development as a powerful maritime nation.” 

Professor Liang listed four characteristics for China to have as a maritime power: 1) a developed marine economy; 2) powerful naval power; 3) a strong Marine Stewardship; 4) well established marine regulations. 
Source: Huanqiu, January 13, 2013 
http://opinion.huanqiu.com/opinion_world/2012-11/3269823.html

National Audit Office Discovered Repeat Offenders in Central Government

On January 16, 2013, China’s National Audit Office released its 2011 audit report on the implementation of the budget and on other revenues and expenditures of the central government. The audit report showed that, as of the end of last October, the 50 central government departments and their affiliates spent 10.281 billion yuan in violation of financial management regulations. “As for repeat offenders, the person-in-charge at the National Audit Office observed that every year the audit report covered the same audit targets with the same audit scope. Thus, to a certain extent, the audit led to the discovery of problems that were similar to those of previous years. This gave the public the appearance that it revealed the same old face and the same old problems."

Source: Huanqiu, January 17, 2013
http://finance.huanqiu.com/china/2013-01/3514269.html

People’s Daily: Senior Executives at State-Owned Enterprises Have “Golden Rice Bowls”

The State Newspaper, People’s Daily (overseas edition), published a commentary criticizing the current appointment system for officials at central government-owned enterprises. The commentary was titled “Senior Executive Positions in Central Government-owned Enterprises Are a Means of Compensation; If One Cannot Become Deputy Provincial Governor, He Will Be Appointed Chairman of the Board.” The commentary stated, “Due to pressure from vested interests, the current personnel management at Central Government-owned Enterprises lacks a mechanism of constraints and incentives. Senior executives have become a privileged class, which has a significant negative impact on the national economy. It is imperative that this administrative appointment and dismissal system of personnel management be reformed. The commentary called those highly paid executive positions “golden rice bowls.”

Source: People’s Daily, January 16, 2013
http://energy.people.com.cn/n/2013/0116/c71661-20219834.html

Chinese People Continue to Petition for Press Freedom

On January 13, 2013, a group of people in Beijing held petitions in front of the office building of the Beijing News newspaper, expressing support for the editors and reporters of the newspaper who the authorities had disciplined. On January 12, dozens of people in Guangzhou gathered in front of the Southern Newspaper Group to express solidarity with the Southern Weekend and support the value of freedom of the press. On the same day, some of the residents of Suzhou City (in Jiangsu Province) arrived at the tomb of Lin Zhao, who died in the tragic persecution during the Anti-Rightist Campaign and the Cultural Revolution, showing banners in support of the Southern Weekend. These activities clearly relate to the incident of Southern Weekend’s New Year’s editorial being censored.

Li Xiaobing, a Professor and Director of the Western Pacific Institute at the University of Central Oklahoma, said that since the new Communist Party’s leadership of Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang, China has not seen real freedom of the press, but people want to have an independent media.

Source: Radio Free Asia, January 13, 2013
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/sd-01132013142859.html

People’s Daily: The China Model Is Smashing the Hegemony of (Western) Universal Values

People’s Daily (overseas edition) published a commentary touting how the China Model will transform the world’s universal values and establish the direction for the future of human civilization.

The article started by attacking the nature of Western values. It stated, “Once upon a time universal values became synonymous with the hegemony of Western values. … When the torch of Western civilization spread to the United States, it pushed the hegemony of Western values over the limit. The Western world, represented by the United States, in the name of the international community, monopolized the right to interpret the development model; so much so that American liberal capitalism has become the ‘ultimate goal.’" 
The article then claimed that China’s rise seriously challenges the validity of (Western) universal values. It said, "The rise of China, as the representative of the emerging economies, is severely impacting Western universal values. This has led to the spread of different versions of the ‘China threat theory.’ … For China, the only way to quash the ‘China threat theory’ is to realize ‘re-globalization.’ The current ‘globalization,’ in essence, is merely the ‘globalization’ of Western contents, system, and culture.” 
“In the new era, the world needs the Chinese dream, because the China model is enriching the fundamentals of universal values.” 
The article closed by stating, “Through China’s revitalization, [China] will Lead the ‘post Western era’ in order to achieve the sustainable development of human civilization; China will fundamentally be established as the legitimate world leader.” 

Source: People’s Daily, January 12, 2013 
http://military.people.com.cn/n/2013/0112/c1011-20179476.html