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China’s Reaction to Trump’s Election Win

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Xinhua Commentary Series: Spotlight on the U.S. Presidential Election

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Wu Guoguang: Xi Jinping’s Reversal of the Course, Will China’s Transition be Peaceful or Marked with Bloodshed?

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Cheng Xiaonong: U.S.-China Strategic Relations Have Crystallized

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Beijing Mayor’s Call for Flood Disaster Donations Meets Refusals and Abusive Language

The Beijing municipal government, using a microblog, called on Beijing residents to make donations to help the victims of the deadly flood in Beijing. The ordinary citizens on the Internet responded to the microblog request with strong attacks. Internet users, one after another, not only refused to make donations; they also ridiculed and hurled accusations at the Beijing authorities. Within two hours of the donation account being opened, it received over 70,000 replies. Most of the replies used abusive, slandering language (in the category of four letter words). One of the most popular replies was "donate your sister.” It appeared 26,845 times.

Sources: Tianya, July 29, 2012 and Boxun, July 30, 2012
http://bbs.city.tianya.cn/tianyacity/content/5010/1/33913.shtml
http://boxun.com/news/gb/pubvp/2012/07/201207300919.shtml

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

China Establishes its First Armed Urban Management Department

On August 1, 2012, Wuhan City in Hubei Province announced that, for the first time in China, it had established an Armed City Urban Management Department. The department had an initial staffing of 40 militia personnel. Most of the personnel were ex-servicemen. The militia will receive readiness training and national defense education. During times of peace, the Armed Urban Management Department will be responsible for combat readiness, maintaining social stability, and flood rescue. In times of war, it will be responsible for organizing and leading the militia reservists to join the armed forces. According to People’s Daily, the announcement invoked heated discussions online. Chinese netizens have expressed concerns and questioned the move.

Source: People’s Daily, August 2, 2012
http://society.people.com.cn/n/2012/0802/c1008-18659281.html

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

Huanqiu: A Victory for China

Huanqiu published a commentary on the recent protests in Hong Kong against the plans (for the mainland) to introduce a “National and Moral Education” course into the Hong Kong public school curriculum. The commentary stated that Hong Kong residents were claiming that it amounts to “brainwashing” young people with pro-mainland propaganda. It observed, “These protesters act more like they have been brainwashed by the British colonial and Western ideology, since they are so paranoid and resistant about the course. Their views of mainland China are totally Western views. … The core of the ‘National and Moral Education’ course is to provide national and civic education to students, with answers to such questions as ‘Who am I?’ ‘What is Hong Kong?’ and ‘What is China?’ It is not to instill allegiance to the central government into the people of Hong Kong. The patriotism in this course is beyond the political realities. … But we believe that the Hong Kong SAR Government will not concede to its opponents on whether to provide national education, which is a matter of principle.”

The commentary concluded, “The final outcome of the controversy on national education in Hong Kong will be nothing but a ‘victory for China.’ Perhaps it is not realistic for the protesters to pursue their own victory.”

(Editor: According to an opinion piece in the New York Times about the course, "It decries multiparty democracy as unfavorable to the lives of ordinary people …" and contains only praise, with no mention of faults.)

Sources: Huanqiu, August 1, 2012
http://opinion.huanqiu.com/1152/2012-08/2974531.html
New York Times, August 1, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/02/opinion/chinese-indoctrination-in-hong-kong.html?_r=2

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Scholar Details U.S.’s Short-term Strategy against China

In an op-ed published on People’s Daily, a Chinese scholar laid out the strategies the U.S. will use against China over the next five to ten years.

“… the United States will make greater use of non-military means to delay or interfere with the process of China’s rise in order to reap strategic benefits, revive its national strength, and ensure its hegemonic position. Its main tactics will include: comprehensively breaking into China’s tertiary industries to reap huge financial benefits while controlling the lifeline of the Chinese economy; using the yuan exchange rate as a breakthrough point and opening up China’s financial and insurance market as an interim goal; under the banner of ‘Internet Freedom,’ abandoning the traditional ‘top-down’ mode of promoting democracy in China, and, instead, aiming to infiltrate the grassroots of Chinese society with a ‘bottom-up’ approach, allying with human rights lawyers, underground religions, political dissidents, Internet opinion leaders, and marginalized social groups, to create conditions for ‘change’ in China; enhancing its partnerships and strengthening its relations with allies; sowing discord between China and North Korea, Pakistan, and Burma; re-launching U.S.-Russia relations, so as to put China in a diplomatically disadvantageous position; weakening the external environment for China’s rise and squeezing the strategic space for China’s rise; using issues in the ‘global domain’ such as ‘sea, air, sky, and web’ as the starting point to promote related dialogue mechanisms and develop guidelines so as to essentially weaken the strategic challenges from China in the above areas.”

The article did not give the name of the author, but identified him as Director of the Institute of American Studies under the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations.

Source: People’s Daily, July 31, 2012
http://ccnews.people.com.cn/n/2012/0731/c141677-18636091.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

People’s Daily: PLA to Ensure Communist Party Remains in Power

People’s Daily published an editorial to celebrate the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA’s) 85th anniversary to take place on August 1, 2012. The editorial stated that the PLA must provide armed forces to ensure that the Communist Party remains in power. “The international situation is unpredictable; the security situation is complex; external risks are unprecedented; and reform and development are tough. In the face of such an internal and external environment, the PLA must serve as an important force for the Party to consolidate its ruling position, provide strong security for national development, and act as the strategic support for safeguarding the national interest …”

Source: Xinhua, July 31, 2012
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2012-07/31/c_112585037.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

South Korean Rights Activist Kim Young-Hwan Said He Was Tortured in China

Huanqiu, whose English name is Global Times, is a publication under Xinhua News. A  Huanqiu reporter, Li Daming, reported from South Korea that Kim Young-Hwan, a South Korean “human rights activist for North Korea,” claimed that he was “severely tortured” while he was detained in China and that he was studying ways to sue the Chinese government through the International Criminal Court. The report stated that China arrested Kim because he was conducting subversive activities against North Korea in China and that Kim claimed this nonsense recently after he was released and returned to South Korea.

Source: Huanqiu, July 30, 2012
http://world.huanqiu.com/exclusive/2012-07/2964333.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

In Dongwan, Guangdong, Two Children Per Day “Disappear”

In Dongwan district, Guangdong Province, since the beginning of the summer vacation, cases involving missing children have risen sharply. The police in Dalang town, Dongwan City, announced that 49 children had been kidnapped or lost between July 1 and 23, 2012. On average, two children have "disappeared" on a daily basis. Most of those lost are the children of migrant workers from other provinces.

According to an NTDTV report, since Dongwan police ignore reports of missing children, traffickers openly take the children in Dongwan. 

Source: NTDTV, July 31, 2012
http://ntdtv.ca/b5/2012/07/31/Art80178.html

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Thousands of Protesters Broke into the Qidong City Government Building

On July 28, 2012, thousands of protesters in Qidong City, Jiangsu Province, held a large-scale mass demonstration against a pipeline construction project intended to discharge water piped away from a paper mill owned by Japan’s Oji Paper Co. The protesters broke into the government building and searched the offices for condoms, imported wine, and poker paraphernalia.

After the protest, the Qidong government stated on its website that it would “permanently halt” the water discharge project. However, the Qidong Municipal Public Security Bureau soon announced that it would retaliate against those who had participated in the protest and those who spread the news on the Internet.

Source: RFA, July 28, 2012
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/sy-07292012150531.html

Briefings | | |   Social Stability