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Xinhua: Chinese State Council Released 2011 U.S. Human Rights Records

On May 25, Xinhua reported that the State Council Information Office had just released a report called "The 2011 U.S. Human Rights Records." This report was in response to the U.S. State Department’s 2011 World Human Rights Report released one day earlier. The Chinese “Records” report accused the U.S. report of distorting the actual human rights situation in China. It suggested that the handling of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement proved that the authorities in the U.S. heavily violate (its citizens’) freedom to demonstrate and their freedom of speech. It further claimed that the United States government applies strong control and filtering of news media as well as the Internet. The “Records” also stated that U.S. citizens suffer from a high crime rate due to poor gun control and they also suffer a high unemployment rate coupled with poor unemployment benefits. The “Records” suggested that the U.S has violated the sovereignty of many other countries and the human rights in those countries. It concluded that the U.S. does not “qualify” to be the “world judge” and should stop using a double standard.  

Source: Xinhua, May 25
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2012-05/25/c_112038431.htm  

BBC: Chinese Yuan Will Soon Be Exchangeable with Japanese Yen

 On May 26, BBC Chinese reported on news received from major Japanese media on the same day that the Chinese government and the Japanese government plan to reach an agreement in June, which will be implemented soon thereafter, to make the two countries’ currencies directly exchangeable. This will be the first time the Chinese yuan (RMB) will be directly exchangeable with another foreign currency without a “middleman” currency such as the U.S. Dollar. The agreement originated at the leadership summit the two countries had last December. Actual negotiations started this February. The Tokyo and the Shanghai foreign exchange markets are preparing for the operational mechanism, which has a delivery target of this June. This move is widely considered as a symbolic action for the Chinese yuan to “de-link” from the U.S Dollar. Currently Great Britain and Singapore are both in talks with the Chinese government to cut similar deals.

Source: BBC Chinese, May 26, 2012
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/business/2012/05/120526_japanese_chinese_yuan.shtml

China’s State-Run Media Criticizes U.S. for Giving a Hard Time to Confucius Institute Teachers

People’s Daily and Xinhua published a news report following the U.S. Department of State’s memorandum to rein in the use of J-1 visas for Chinese teachers at the Confucius Institutes. The report criticizes the U.S. memorandum for disrupting the educational activities at the Confucius Institutes across the U.S. The report used such subtitles as “unilateral halt baffling,” “political forces continuously vilifying (the Confucius Institute),” “U.S. public highly regards the exchanges.”  

The report quoted insiders (informed sources) as saying that “the Confucius Institute class does not have the issue of accreditation because it does not count for subject credits or give degrees;” and “the memorandum is apparently a move to attack the institute. … There are indeed some political forces in American society that have, without justification, been attacking and defaming the educational activities of the institute.”

[Editor’s note: According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, a Department of State "memorandum, dated May 17, states that any academics at university-based institutes who are teaching at the elementary and secondary school levels are violating the terms of their visas and must leave at the end of this academic year, in June. And it says that, after a ‘preliminary review,’ the State Department has determined that the institutes must obtain American accreditation in order to continue to accept foreign scholars and professors as teachers."]

Sources: People’s Daily and Xinhua, May 24, 2012
http://world.people.com.cn/GB/17969508.html
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2012-05/24/c_123181802.htm
Chronicle of Higher Education                                                                                                              http://chronicle.com/article/State-Department-Directive/131934

In the First Quarter Total of Local GDP Exceeded National GDP by 480 Billion RMB

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, in the first quarter of 2012, the total national GDP in China was 10,800 billion RMB, while the total of all local GDP amounts was 11,280 billion RMB for the same period. The difference is 480 Billion RMB (US $75.65 billion). China Economy reporters calculated the total through a summation of the local numbers. Every year since 1985, when local and national governments started to calculate GDP separately, the two numbers have been inconsistent. While different methodologies may have contributed to the inconsistency, the authorities believe that data fraud has been a cause. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, despite government efforts to curb fraud, local governments frequently use their administrative power to arbitrarily adjust the GDP number upward to demonstrate their achievements and competence.

Source: China Economy reprinted by Xinhua, May 24, 2012
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2012-05/24/c_123184185.htm

Hu Jintao: the Military Must Maintain Absolute Loyalty to the Party

People’s Daily reported that on May 23, 2012, Hu Jintao, together with Xi Jianping, the Vice Chair of the Party’s Central Military Commission, met with the Communist Party representatives from the Beijing Military District. Hu Jintao made some comments in which he emphasized that the build-up of the military must be focused on the "fundamentals of resolutely following the command of the Party and constantly maintaining absolute loyalty to the Party."

Source: People’s Daily, May 24, 2012
http://mil.huanqiu.com/china/2012-05/2751271.html

China’s State Bank Took Over U.S. Branch of Bank of East Asia

On May 9, 2012, days after high-level US-China economic talks took place in Beijing, the Federal Reserve approved an application from the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) to buy a majority stake in the U.S. subsidiary of the Bank of East Asia. The transaction will make ICBC the first Chinese state-controlled bank to acquire retail bank branches in the United States.

ICBC has total assets of roughly $2.5 trillion. It will buy up to 80 percent of the U.S. branch of the Hong Kong-based Bank of East Asia, which operates 13 branches in New York and California.

In other Fed board decisions, the Bank of China, the country’s third-largest bank, won approval for a branch in Chicago. The Agricultural Bank of China, the fourth-largest bank, is set to establish a branch in New York City, where it already operates a representative office.

Source: International Herald Leader under Xinhua, May 21, 2012
http://ihl.cankaoxiaoxi.com/2012/0521/40050.shtml

Chinese Scholar: Crisis May Force U.S. to Take Unusual Measures to Maintain Its Global Hegemony

People Daily published an article written by Cheng Enfu and Yang Bin that analyzed the economic and financial strategies that the U.S. is using during the crisis. The authors are scholars from the Marxist Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Cheng is the director of the institute. The following is a brief summary the article:
 
As a capitalist country controlling a global economic and military hegemony, the U.S. will not allow the financial and economic crisis to erode its international position; it will not even tolerate the loss of the U.S. dollar’s dominance.

First, the U.S. Wall Street is utilizing its influence on the government and national regulations to further expand the position of U.S. financial monopolies over other industries and countries. For the U.S. to be injecting gigantic amounts of money to rescue the market is, in essence, a new innovative means of exploitation in which Wall Street kidnaps the government and the public to obtain extraordinary interests.

Second, the U.S. is trying to explore gaining extra interests even during the time of global economic stasis via strengthening its control over resources, carbon discharge, and intellectual property.

Third, the U.S. is still using neoliberal policies to misdirect the economic and financial reform of other countries, and to plot insidious economic and financial wars to subvert the economic and currency systems of other countries.

Fourth, the U.S. pilfers the world’s wealth by recklessly issuing dollars, transferring the losses from the crisis to others.

Finally,the U.S. may even take Keynesian military action to launch a war (including the U.S. return to Asia and emphatically strengthening the military encirclement of China) when economic and financial means alone cannot rescue them from the crisis.

Source: People’s Daily, May 23, 2012
http://world.people.com.cn/GB/17958585.html

Open Letter of Senior Party Members Denounces Mao and Other Party Leaders

According to reports, on May 9, 2012, 16 senior Communist Party members from Shaotong City, Yunnan Province, published an open letter to Hu Jintao on the website canyu.org. In their letter, they denounced Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Bo Xilai, Wang Lijun, and Liu Yunshan. The letter demanded the removal of Zhou Yongkang and Liu Yunshan and appealed on behalf of the victims of past political movements, the students of the June 1989 Tiananmen Massacre, and Falun Gong. It was reported that the authorities immediately threatened them. “Zhou Yongkang was said to have ordered that these unstable elements must be brought under complete control and surveillance. If any similar incidents occur again, whoever is involved will be arrested immediately and may be executed.” The two drafters of the letter were placed under 24 hour surveillance and deprived of access to cell phones. The average age of the 16 senior Party members is over 80 years old. They were part of the underground Communist Party in Yunan prior to the Communist takeover of China.

Sources:
canyu.org, May 9, 2012
http://www.canyu.org/n48532c6.aspx
Boxun, May 23, 2012
http://boxun.com/news/gb/china/2012/05/201205232352.shtml