Meng Sutie, the Yunan Party Secretary of Politics and Law, announced that Yunnan would cease processing “cases of re-education through labor,” effective immediately. It has been common in China for the authorities to suppress opponents of the government by administratively sentencing them to forced labor camps as punishment. Meng, as Yunnan’s top law enforcement official, made the announcement on February 5, 2013, “Throughout the province, Yunnan will cease to approve and review all cases of re-education through labor for three alleged actions: endangering national security, constantly petitioning the authorities to redress officials’ abuse of power, and vilifying a leader’s image. The processing of cases based on other grounds will be suspended and will be handled in accordance with relevant laws; re-education through labor will not be used."
Source: Xinhua, February 7, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2013-02/07/c_124332693.htm
Xi Jinping Calls for Enhancing Combat Readiness
Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the China Central Committee and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, visited the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center and the Lanzhou Military District Command on February 2 and 3, 2013. While touring the Lanzhou Military District Command, Xi emphasized that China “must make efforts to expand and deepen military readiness, to promote the acceleration of the development of information technology, and to constantly enhance the combat capability of information systems; this is to ensure that the military troops quickly respond when called upon, are ready to fight when responding, and will win if engaged in a war.”
Source: Xinhua, February 6, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2013-02/06/c_114637957.htm
People’s Daily: U.S. Primarily Responsible for Curbing Cyber Warfare
A February 7, 2013, People’s Daily opinion piece opened with the New York Times report about President Obama’s broad power to order a preemptive strike if the United States detects credible evidence of a major digital attack looming from abroad. It also mentioned the Washington Post report about the Pentagon’s approval of a major expansion of the U.S. cybersecurity force over the next several years. The size will increase more than fivefold in order to bolster the nation’s ability to defend critical computer systems and conduct offensive computer operations against foreign adversaries.
The article continued, "Coincidentally, at the same time that the United States revealed its network warfare plans, some U.S. media also began, based upon hearsay evidence, to run rampant speculation about the so-called ‘China network threat theory,’ thus trashing China. It’s not the first time; nor will it be the last time for the real thief to assume innocence by preemptively calling others thieves. The purpose is to artificially create enemies and provide an excuse for the United States to engage in network warfare."
"The United States is in a leading position in the field of information technology. It holds most of the world’s Internet resources and critical infrastructure. It also has primary responsibility for the maintenance of peace and security in cyberspace. The United States should clearly recognize that taking the lead in developing cyber warfare capabilities and pursuing absolute military superiority will lead to an arms race and military conflict in cyberspace, bringing unpredictable catastrophic consequences to human society."
Source: People’s Daily, February 7, 2013
http://media.people.com.cn/n/2013/0207/c40606-20457814.html
Xinhua: U.S. Frequent Speculation about Chinese Hacker Attacks Is to Make China Lose Face
He Hui, Deputy Director of the Public Opinion Institute of Communication at the University of China, published an opinion article on the Xinhua website discussing the U.S. media’ reports regarding Chinese hackers attacking U.S. entities. He points out that the U.S. media have three motives for repeatedly hyping these Chinese hacker attacks.
1) They want to encourage the United States and the even the whole world to guard against China. China is already the world’s second-largest economy. Due to the rapid pace of China’s development and the growth of its economic strength, it is not easy to attack China directly or to block China’s development. Instead, they use a devious strategy that can have some effect or interfere to some extent.
2) The U.S. government shows an ambiguous attitude toward the U.S. media’s hyping [of Chinese hacking] and stays in the background to harvest the benefits, "reserving" its use as an excuse to increase its military budget.
3) They are attempting to fortify the U.S.’s dominant position in the information field. Hyping the news that U.S. companies suffer from Chinese hacker attacks will undoubtedly make Chinese information companies lose face. … Hyping the report that China has used hacker attacks to obtain information illegally will not only make the Chinese government face a credibility crisis; it will also subject Chinese information technology companies to suspicion that they are engaging in improper competition. Naturally, this is beneficial to the U.S. government and to American companies.
Source: Xinhua, February 4, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/yzyd/mil/20130204/c_114607399.htm?prolongation=1
CRN: Inflated GDP Hurts China’s Economy
China Review News published a commentary on the gap between the official GDP and the GDP as calculated by totaling the figures from local governments. According to the preliminary number that China’s National Bureau of Statistics released earlier, the domestic GDP for 2012 was 52 trillion yuan (about US$8.3 trillion). However, the total of the GDP figures that the local governments released was 5.76 trillion yuan (about $9.3 trillion), a discrepancy of 5.76 trillion yuan. The two figures have been inconsistent for several years.
According to the author, “the cause of the difference is that the local governments inflate GDP. Apart from statistical standards and technical reasons, the figure bears a direct relationship to how a number of local officials measure their performance. The most direct consequences of this inflated GDP are that it leads to economic data distortion and misguided macro-control policies; it adversely affects the moral integrity of the government and its attempt to build its credibility; and, eventually, it will hurt the healthy and steady development of the national economy and the people’s vital interests.”
Source: China Review News, February 5, 2013
http://www.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1024/3/0/3/102430386.html?coluid=123&kindid=0&docid=102430386&mdate=0205104515
High House Prices Have Taken over China’s Entire National Economy
On February 3, 2013, in his personal blog on the website of Caijing Magazine, a business and finance magazine in Beijing, a professor of economics published an article about the problem of China’s high housing prices. According to the article, the Chinese government is responsible for the high housing prices in China. Many large state-owned enterprises, rather than upgrading their products, have been rushing to buy land and build buildings. To do so, they have used hundreds of trillions of easily earned monopoly profits. As a result, China’s real estate prices have shot sky high. Due to the high housing prices, many “ghost towns,” where nobody lives, have emerged in China. Meanwhile, migrant workers cannot afford to bring their families from the countryside to the cities where they work. That is why China always faces extremely high traffic congestion during the annual “Spring Festival Travel Rush,” when migrant workers return home to see their families.
The article concluded that the high price of housing has commandeered China’s entire national economy. Although huge amounts of wealth and resources have been invested in real estate, ordinary Chinese people still cannot afford an apartment.
Source: Caijing Magazine website, February 3, 2013
http://blog.caijing.com.cn/expert_article-151350-47336.shtml
China Has Developed an Anti-interference Electromagnetic Shield for Its Beidou System
China National Radio (CNR) reported on a recent announcement from the China Satellite Navigation System Management Office, stating that China has developed satellite anti-interference equipment, an “electromagnetic shield,” for its Beidou Satellite Navigation System. The Beidou system is fully capable of covering the Asia-Pacific region.
The Beidou System can be used for both military and civilian purposes. It has a positioning accuracy of 10 meters, a velocity measurement accuracy of 0.2 meters/second, and a timing accuracy of 10 nanoseconds. It is said that the system is equal to the Global Positioning System (GPS) of the United States especially in positioning accuracy in the Asia-Pacific region.
Source: China National Radio, February 4, 2013
http://china.cnr.cn/ygxw/201302/t20130204_511919697.shtml
http://eng.chinamil.com.cn/news-channels/china-military-news/2013-02/05/content_5210150.htm
Huanqiu: China Must Avoid Being Kidnapped by the DPRK’s Nuclear Policy
On February 6, 2013, Huanqiu (the Chinese edition of Global Times) published an editorial article titled “China Treasures the Sino-DPRK Friendship; North Korea Should Also Cherish It.” Below is a summary of the article:
It is beyond doubt that North Korea is very important to China. However, China must avoid being kidnapped by the DPRK’s nuclear policy. If North Korea insists on conducting a third nuclear test, North Korea will get less assistance from China. However, China probably will not “punish” North Korea in the same way as the U.S., Japan, and the South Koreans. China is not afraid of North Korea, which is an important principle. Some Chinese scholars, however, do have concerns about a breakup of the Sino-DPRK relationship due to China’s participation in international sanctions against North Korea. Without China’s support, North Korea may “survive” but it will certainly not be better off.
Source: Huanqiu, February 6, 2013
http://opinion.huanqiu.com/editorial/2013-02/3622838.html