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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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CRN: China’s Manufacturing Industry Is Actually Weak

China Review News (CRN) recently published a review by Zhou Yanwu, the Chief Research Officer of an industrial research institute, Research in China. The review gave a few examples to demonstrate the weakness in China’s manufacturing industry. One example was automobile seats, which, (instead of the engine) are the most costly component in a regular car. The 10 top manufacturers hold 95% of the world market, but not one of them is a Chinese company. Another example was paint and coating products. Although China is the largest producer in the world, in 2010, all 2,749 large-scale Chinese companies in this industry made a total profit of US$2 billion. This amount equals the profit of one U.S. competitor – PPG. At the same time, the company that holds the largest share of China’s domestic paint and coating market is a Japanese vendor named Nippon. A third example was the LED industry. China has over 1,000 companies in this category. Their total income is only half that of their Japanese competitor, Nichia. On the profit side, the total of the profits that these Chinese companies receive equals only 20% of Nichia’s profits. The author concluded that China is a big manufacturing country, but it is also a very weak one.
Source: China Review News, June 19, 2012
http://www.zhgpl.com/doc/1021/4/4/9/102144949.html?coluid=53&kindid=0&docid=102144949&mdate=0619074950
Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

People’s Daily: A Summary of Party Development Work at Universities and Colleges

In August 2004, Hu Jintao led the central administration in issuing the “Opinion on Further Strengthening and Developing Political Education for College Students.” Since then, the Central Propaganda Department, the Ministry of Education, and the Central Commission of the Chinese Communist Youth League have developed a total of 17 guidelines and plans. On July 20, 2012, People’s Daily published an article that summarized the systematic effort the central administration has carried out over the past eight years to strengthen the political ideology education work throughout the university system.

According to the article, since 2004, the Organization Department, the Central Propaganda Department, and the Ministry of Education have conducted six meetings on college campuses on the subject of Party development work. By June 30, 2011, 81,311 Party branches had been established on 2,383 colleges and universities. The end result is that there are Party members in each freshman class, Party groups in each sophomore class, and Party branches established in the junior and senior classes.

The Department of Education also established an Ideological and Political Theory Course as a college requirement for students. For example, Nankai University invested at least 500,000 yuan in annual funding in this area.

In addition, an effort has been made to develop Party assistants on each campus so they can play significant roles in Party development. The media and the Internet have also played key roles in Party development work.

Source: People’s Daily, June 20, 2012
http://politics.people.com.cn/GB/1026/18239464.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Chongqing New Leadership Vows to Maintain a Clean Government to Gain the People’s Trust

On June 22, 2012, the 4th Municipal Committee of the City of Chongqing held its first plenary session. Zhang Dejiang was elected secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Committee. In a speech that Zhang gave, he promised, on behalf of the new committee, to run a “clean government.” Zhang requested that each committee member should exercise self restraint in his personal behavior and should manage himself, his spouse, his children and his assistants in order to establish a reputation for clean governance and to gain the people’s trust.

Source: Xinhua, June 23, 2012
http://news.xinhuanet.com/local/2012-06/23/c_123320299.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Xinhua Commentary Calls for Counter Measures against the Law on the Sea of Vietnam

On June 21, 2012, the Vietnamese National Assembly passed the "Law on the Sea of Vietnam." The law proclaimed Vietnam’s sovereignty over the Paracel and Spratly Islands. However, China claims the islands are the “indisputable” territory of China. Jia Xiudong, a research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies, wrote a commentary on Vietnam’s action, originally from People’s Daily’s overseas edition, which Xinhua published on June 23.  

In the commentary Jia called the "Law on the Sea of Vietnam" viciously provocative, saying it openly intensified the dispute between China and Vietnam over the South China Sea. The commentary claimed that the law is illegitimate because it seriously violates the basic principles of international law, including the "Declaration on the Code of Conduct on the South Sea," an agreement that both parties reached last October. The article called Vietnam’s government “too selfish” and “lacking sincerity.” In the end, Jia called for counter measures against Vietnam until it backs off on this issue.

Source: Xinhua, June 23, 2012
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2012-06/23/c_112273765.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Dai Xu on Establishing the South China Sea Construction Corps

[Editor’s Note: Dai Xu is a Chinese Air Force Colonel and a researcher at the Center for Strategic Study at Peking University. He is a leading “Hawk” in the Chinese military. Dai recently suggested establishing a paramilitary organization, the South China Sea Production and Construction Corps. Such a corps would combine both military and production functions. It would be stationed in the disputed South China Sea area to carry out economic development under a self-provided armed escort. The following is a translation of his article.] [1]

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Reports | | |   Report

Huanqiu Editorial Comments on U.S. Congress’s Regret for Passing the Chinese Exclusion Act

After the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution on June 18, 2012, expressing regret for having adopted the Chinese Exclusion Act 130 years ago, China’s state-run media, Huanqiu, published an editorial commenting on its passage. Huanqiu said, “China should probably not place a whole lot of hope on the American’s ‘new awakening.’ The U.S. Congress’s awakening has already sent us enough messages. The U.S. is a country that can also make mistakes. Its attitude toward other countries may well be out of whack, or even too extreme. When it involves China, we should particularly pay attention to the truth.” “Today, the U.S. attitude toward China is far from being based on any system of objective evaluation. A vast majority of the American elite are full of prejudice toward China, which is very similar to the situation over 100 years ago when Americans discriminated against the Chinese. American media usually use such labels as ‘tyranny’ or even ‘totalitarian’ to describe China. They are not willing to carefully study the internal force behind China’s rapid development.”

Source: Huanqiu, June 20, 2012
 http://opinion.huanqiu.com/1152/2012-06/2836326.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

15,000 in Northern China Defend Falun Gong

On June 19, Epoch Times reported that 15,000 people defied Chinese authorities and signed a petition in support of a family that practices Falun Gong. Twenty-three year old Qin Rongqian wrote a petition asking for help. Qin wrote on her petition, “Every signature and thumbprint of yours, your kindness, and your attention to this matter will help my family obtain justice for my father and freedom for my sister and mother. In two weeks, she collected over 15,000 signatures and thumbprints. In February 2011, her father died in prison, where he was serving a 10 year sentence because he refused to give up the practice of Falun Gong, a meditation practice that has been banned in China since 1999. Although the father had injuries that were obviously from severe beatings, the authorities notified the Qin family that he died of natural causes. Qin’s mother and sister had recently been arrested due to their efforts to appeal the case to the authorities.

Source: Epoch Times, June 19, 2012.
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/12/6/19/n3616011.htm

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

A Crisis Looms in China: Too Many Males

Wang Xia, head of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, stated that the male-to-female ratio in China started to narrow in 2009 and declined to 117.78 in 2011 (117.78 males to every 100 females). He said that the decline is limited. As the ratio is over a dozen points above normal, the task to stabilize the ratio remains daunting.

A natural gender ratio at birth could be somewhere between 103 and 107 males to every 100 females. As a result of the one child government policies, China’s male-to-female birth ratio has hovered at a high level, reaching a record high of 120.56 in 2008. Xinhua reported that, according to official statistics, males under the age of 30 exceed females by more than 20 million. 

Source: Xinhua, June 21, 2012
http://news.xinhuanet.com/photo/2012-06/21/c_123313000.htm

Briefings | | |   Social Stability