Skip to content

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

Read More ...

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

Read More ...

Xinhua Commentaries: “Exposing the Three Major Political Deficits of the U.S.”

Read More ...

The CCP’s Performing Arts Troupes in the U.S.

Read More ...

Xinhua: Strengthen China’s International United Front in Response to the U.S. Eastward Shift

On March 20, 2012, Xinhua published an article on the eastward shift of the U.S. global strategic focus. The article asserted that, in order for the United States to maintain its hegemony in the world, it is determined to contain China and gradually weaken the Chinese Communist Party. The U.S. will do this not only through military containment, but also by using its economic, judicial, and ideological influence.

The article proposed that, in response, China should implement several diplomatic strategies, one of which is to strengthen China’s international united front. To this end China should: 1) continue to consolidate and develop the Sino-Russian strategic cooperative partnership; 2) further develop the Shanghai Cooperation Organization; 3) stand firmly on the side of the developing countries and oppose the world powers’ interference in the internal affairs of developing countries; 4) ensure that the ‘BRICS’ play an effective role by increasing their mutual trust and strengthening cooperation between them. (Ed. The BRICS include Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.)

Source: Xinhua, March 20, 2012
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2012-03/20/c_122855344_2.htm  

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Huanqiu: South Korea Has No Right to Ask China to Do Anything for North Korean Refugees

[Editor’s Note: China has been regularly repatriating North Korean refugees who manage to cross the border into China. These people then face severe punishment at the hands of the North Korean regime. The international community has been asking China not to return the refugees. Chen Yan, who does research in the area of international relations, wrote an article published by Huanqiu, or Global Times, which Xinhua then republished, the purpose of which was to rebut the international criticism against China. The article claimed that, since South Korea hasn’t done enough to accept the North Korean refuges, it has no right to blame China. [1]

Contrary to Chen’s argument, South Korea has long been asking Beijing not to repatriate the North Koreans and stated that they are accepting these refugees in South Korea after they apply for asylum. In an attempt to apply more pressure to Beijing, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has stated that these refugees are South Korean nationals by law and that he will take their cases to the U.N. [2] “Although China is a state party to the U.N. Refugee Convention, it has prevented the U.N. refugee agency, the U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR), from gaining access to the North Koreans in China.” [3]

Recently, Chinese repatriation of over thirty North Koreans, many of whom have family members in South Korea, has created a public outcry in South Korea and a comment from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, “We believe that refugees should not be repatriated and subjected once again to the dangers that they fled from. . . we urge all countries in the region to cooperate in the protection of North Korean refugees within their territories.” [4]

The following is Chen Yan’s article:]

Continue reading →

Reports | | |   Report

Intensive Training to be held for 3,300 District Political and Legislative Bureau Members in Beijing

Xinhua reported that, according to the Party’s Political and Legislative Affairs Committee, training sessions have been planned for the political bureau members at the provincial, city, and county levels for the first half of this year. The goals are to “further study and carry out the scientific development concepts as well as the key messages from the Two Conferences; to further strengthen the members’ understandings of politics, the overall situation, their responsibilities, and legal and clean governance; and to improve their leadership skills.” The first session will be held in Beijing starting next week. The news report stated that the large scale training will start at the end of April. Over 3,300 political bureau members at the provincial, city, and county levels are expected to participate.

(Ed. The order did not mention Zhou Yongkang who is the head of the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee.)

Source: Xinhua, March 22, 2012
http://news.xinhuanet.com/local/2012-03/22/c_122865300.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Huanqiu Urges Party Leaders to Speak up and Stop Rumors about a Rift

The state media Huanqiu published a commentary seeking an immediate clarification from top Communist Party leaders regarding online rumors that there is a rift among the top leaders over the change in the Party leadership of Chongqing. “Since the Chongqing incident, many people have made a lot of comments. It is normal, because the matter deserves this much attention. … It looks like rumors are running wild, but, in fact, the whole society is waiting for the authoritative voice of the Party Central Committee. … We believe the Party Central Committee is working on political issues of great concern to the public. We also hope the conclusions are reached quickly. The sooner the authoritative voice speaks, the clearer the picture that society has will be, and the more relieved the public will be. Sometimes, the significance of speed means more than the speed itself.”

Source: Huanqiu, March 22, 2012
http://opinion.huanqiu.com/roll/2012-03/2545323.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Censored Key Words Briefly Searchable in China

Observers noted that the political infighting in the upper ranks of the Chinese Communist Party seems to have extended to cyberspace. Politically sensitive terms related to the June 4 Tiananmen Square massacre and the Falun Gong spiritual practice were recently searchable—and some still remained available as of March 22. The term “June 4” in Chinese was briefly unblocked on Baidu, China’s main search engine, and the first item was about Wen Jiabao wanting to give the event a political rehabilitation. Terms related to Falun Gong were unblocked for a period of time as well. No message appeared saying results were censored.

The violent crackdowns and political sensitivities associated with those terms go to the heart of the Chinese regime’s ruling legacy. They are also both connected to former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin, whose allies form one of the factions within the Party.

Sources: The Epoch Times, March 23, 2012
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china-news/chinas-internet-censors-take-break-during-party-infighting-209412.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Party’s Power Struggle Extends to China’s Top Cop

After Bo Xilai was ousted from his position as Chongqing’s Party chief, speculation has been running high on the next target, Zhou Yongkang, Bo’s patron at the Politburo Standing Committee. They are part of the same Jiang faction, Party seniors who remain loyal to former President Jiang Zemin instead of current leader Hu Jintao.

Zhou, one of the nine-member Politburo Standing Committee and the chief of the Party’s Political and Legislative Affairs Committee (PLAC), controls the police, the Armed Police, the courts, and the procuratorate—nearly everything having to do with law enforcement. Zhou has been China’s top cop for a long time—he has headed the PLAC since 2007 and before that was the Minister of Public Security. Bo was Zhou’s handpicked successor to head the PLAC.

On the evening of March 21 Party mouthpiece Xinhua announced that the PLAC would hold a nationwide training session, the first meeting of which would take place on March 26. However, on March 19 when Zhou held a full meeting of the PLAC, he never mentioned that a nationwide training would take place in one week. Also, the announcement on March 21 did not mention Zhou himself. However, the announcement did mention Party head Hu Jintao. The training session would be devoted to the study of Hu’s contribution to CCP ideology, the theory of Scientific Development, which is considered a sign of paying loyalty to Hu.

Also on March 21, the Financial Times quoted “one person with close ties to China’s security apparatus” as saying “Mr Zhou had been ordered not to make any public appearances or take any high-level meetings and was ‘already under some degree of control.’”

On March 21, Hong Kong’s Apple Daily reported multiple arrests of top figures. The paper quoted Wu Guancong, a CEO of Guangzhou Sports Development Company, as saying a person from Beijing with inside information told him that the Party Central had a severe split regarding how to handle Bo Xilai. “Wen Jiabao and Zhou Yongkang had a serious conflict,” Wu was quoted as saying. “I heard that the gang of four [of the Jiang faction], Bo, Zhou, Jia (Qinglin), and Li Changchun, have all been sacked.”

Source:
The Epoch Times, March 22, 2012
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china-news/zhou-yongkang-lost-power-struggle-say-chinese-netizens-209107.html
Financial Times, March 21, 2012
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/650bb0f6-735f-11e1-aab3-00144feab49a.html#axzz1poJYt4qe
Apple Daily, March 21, 2012
http://hkmagazine.net/news1/apple/art_main.php?iss_id=20120321&sec_id=15335&art_id=16175010

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

PLA Daily Editorial Rejects Nationalizing the Military

On March 19, 2012, People’s Liberation Army Daily published an editorial criticizing the idea of nationalizing the military. The editorial firmly rejected the ideas of “non-affiliation between the military and the CCP, depoliticizing the military, and the nationalization of the military.” “[We] must unswervingly uphold the principle of the absolute leadership of the Party over the military and ensure that the military follows the command of the Party and Hu Jintao, the President of our country and the Chairman of the Party’s Military Commission.”

The PLA editorial was published immediately after the abrupt removal of Bo Xilai, the former Party Secretary of Chongqing. His removal appears to have touched off fierce clashes among the Party’s leaders.

Source: People’s Liberation Army Daily reprinted by People’s Daily, March 19, 2012 http://wap.people.com.cn/newsView.php?sid=&cnid=1323815&chid=1_11&coid=1_11_3_1&wv=2&v=l&return=channel&fromid=&uc_param_str=dnup

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Xinhua: Be Vigilant to the West’s Spread of New Interventionism

Xinhua published an editorial that was critical of Western countries’ intervention in countries ruled by authoritarian dictators. The article said that the Western countries’ military strike on Libya to overthrow the Gaddafi regime one year ago set a new “example" for how Western countries intervene in other countries’ internal affairs. The “New Interventionism” has become a cloud hanging over international relations.
 
The article described the “New Interventionism” as being very deceptive. Compared to traditional interventionism which included an explicit armed invasion and a military coup, "the ‘New Interventionism’ is under the guise of being legitimate.” “It is troubling that the West is showing a pattern of spreading the use of ‘New Interventionism.’ Western countries have already chosen Syria as another target following Libya; they aim to overthrow the Bashar government.”

“As a matter of fact, their so-called ‘democracy’ and ‘freedom’ are only excuses for the West’s ‘New Interventionism.’ There is no fundamental difference between ‘old interventionism’ and ‘New Interventionism.’ They are both authoritarian politics and hegemonism with the same goal of protecting the West’s strategic interests.“ “No matter how the West makes its point, it will not erase the disaster that the ‘New Interventionism’ brings to the affected country.”

The article concluded that "the ‘New interventionism’ is a violation of the principles of the ‘United Nations Charter’ and is an action against the tide of history. [We] should be vigilant against the spread of the ‘New Interventionism.’”

Source: Xinhua, March 18, 2012
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2012-03/18/c_111669360.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics