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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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CNOOC in Joint Venture on Uganda Refinery

According to a Xinhua article published on February 21, 2012, state owned China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), along with Anglo-Irish Tullow Oil, and France’s Total, will invest in an oil refinery in the Lake Albert rift basin in western Uganda. The projected cost is $1.5 billion. The report said that the three companies investing in the refinery will have a one-third interest in each of the basin’s three blocks. Tullow said Tuesday that it had finalized a long-delayed $2.9 billion sale of two-thirds of its Uganda oil licenses to Total and CNOOC. The group will now focus on a $10 billion plan to start pumping oil from huge reserves discovered on the shores of Lake Albert. Early production is scheduled to start in 2013 before ramping up to a major production phase in 2016.

Source: Xinhua, February 21, 2012
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2012-02/21/c_122734986.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Qiushi: Negative Online Behavior Must be Punished

Qiushi published an analysis on the subject of state control and the behavior of Chinese Internet users. “At present, a number of Chinese Internet users play a destructive role. Sometimes, negative, extreme, shallow or one-sided information, along with bad sentiments, spread very rapidly on the Internet, exerting a strong destructive power.” As a result, when a social issue escalates on the Internet, serious conflict quickly develops and people become very emotional, forming an online “tyranny of the masses.” The analysis found that laws and regulations were insufficient, that implementation was ineffective, and that there was a lack of law enforcement on the Internet. The article recommended promulgation and implementation of additional laws and regulations to penalize those users who do not abide by the law. “If the online behavior of some users adversely impacts the lives of others or if they break the law, the user must bear the corresponding social and legal consequences of their behavior.”

Source: Qiushi, February 14, 2012
http://www.qstheory.cn/zz/shzyzzzd/201202/t20120214_138512.htm

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

Seeing through the United States’ Movement to the East

Qiushi published an article that discussed China’s strategic vision to cope with the U.S. "Movement to the East." The article stated the following: The "Movement to the East" is a major strategic change in U.S. foreign diplomacy. To a large extent, it targets China. [China] should study it carefully and cope with it appropriately. First, we need to understand the dichotomy in Sino-U.S. relations. On the one hand, there is an un-resolvable conflict between China and the U.S., namely China’s "Peaceful Development" and U.S. hegemony. This is the fundamental reason for the U.S. "containment" policy. On the other hand, China and the U.S. are highly inter-dependent. This inter-dependence is not just limited to the economic area, but also includes other areas such as the political and diplomatic areas. This is the reason for the U.S. "engagement" policy.

Based on the above understanding, we should further perfect our foreign strategy. That strategy should not only target the U.S., but should also focus on the whole world. [We should] look at the big picture from the long-term perspective; [we should] not be limited to the [U.S.] "Movement to the East," but should look at the whole world; not just the current situation, but also the long-term objective, focusing on strengthening ourselves (including our economic, military and political influence); … [we should] develop relations with neighboring countries, big countries and developing countries, and [we should] actively initiate multilateral diplomacy. At present, [we] should especially focus on consolidating our cooperation with neighboring countries and on strengthening cooperation with the gold brick countries, work on the G20 mechanism, the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization), 10+1, 10+3, and the China-Japan-South Korea free trade zone.

Source: Qiushi, February 21, 2012
http://www.qstheory.cn/gj/gjgc/201202/t20120221_139934.htm

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

People’s Daily: How to Understand and Maintain Internet Sovereignty

On February 2, 2012, People’s Daily published an article titled “How to Understand and Maintain Internet Sovereignty.” The article declared that “Internet sovereignty is a new form of national sovereignty,” which needs regulations and rules of conduct. The Internet is a new medium for exercising national information sovereignty. To some extent, however, the Internet erodes national information sovereignty. “The State is no longer the only center for the dissemination of information. Various actors can release information on the Internet, which undermines the state’s power over information ownership and control.”

The article suggests “exploring an Internet development path that suites China’s national conditions” so as to “effectively prevent Internet risks and resolve Internet crises.”

Source: People’s Daily, February 2, 2012-02-22
http://opinion.people.com.cn/GB/17003075.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Communist China’s Five-Step Process on Guiding Public Opinion

On September 5, 2011, Zhejiang Daily published an article, titled “A Five-Step Process: Actively Guiding Public Opinion Online.” A CCP propaganda department chairman in Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province, wrote an article summarizing Taizhou City’s propaganda process on how to deal with sudden public incidents.

Step 1: Within three hours of a sudden incident, publish an online news brief and become the first authoritative voice on the Internet. Step 2: Within 12 hours, hold an online news conference to announce the relevant information based on “the principle of a quick release of the facts with cautious reports on the reasons and more reports on attitude” (relating to the sincerity of the government). Step 3: Mobilize Internet commentators (paid by the government) to set up online discussion topics and give positive responses. Step 4: Immediately follow-up with reports on any new developments. Step 5: Toward the end of the incident, when the public’s attention shifts away, issue fewer reports. At that time, no summarized reports or experience sharing reports are allowed so as to avoid another wave of heated discussion on the Internet.

Source: Zhejiang Daily, September 5, 2011
http://zjdaily.zjol.com.cn/html/2011-09/05/content_1069329.htm?div=-1

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Guangdong to Organize Thousands of Internet Commentators to Guide Public Opinion Online

On February 21, 2012, Nanfang Daily, an official Guangdong Provincial Communist Party newspaper, reprinted an article from People’s Daily (the original article is no longer available on the Internet), titled “Guangdong to Organize Thousands of Internet Commentators to Guide Public Opinion Online – Don’t Remain Silent When an Incident Occurs.”

In a speech that Zhu Mingguo, the deputy secretary of the CCP’s Guangdong Provincial Committee, delivered at a conference held by the Guangdong Provincial Federation of Labor Union, Zhu stated, “In today’s era of the Internet and blogs, everyone is a spokesman; everyone can be a reporter. The younger generations of workers all know the Internet. Therefore, the (CCP) labor union cadres must also know how to use the Internet. Whenever anything bad happens, cadres must not remain silent. ‘Not saying anything’ or ‘speaking too much’ will make things worse.”

Source: Nanfang Daily, February 21, 2012
http://media.nfdaily.cn/content/2012-02/21/content_38425919.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Many Civilian Technologies To Be Used for Military Purposes

China Review News (CRN) recently republished a report originally from People’s Liberation Army Daily (PLA Daily) that a mixed civilian and military weapons research, development, and manufacturing system had been established. As of mid-February, more than one hundred civilian enterprises passed the military qualification screening and became eligible to use civilian technologies for weapons development. One example is a civilian robot model that, after some modifications, is now being used for military purposes (such as nuclear reconnaissance). In the past few years, the army has established a system of regulations for managing civilian procurements. In some cases, the cost savings reached 50% and civilian technologies provided significant help in dealing with today’s diversified military missions.

Source: China Review News, February 19, 2012
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1020/1/5/1/102015109.html?coluid=45&kindid=0&docid=102015109&mdate=0219094107

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

CRN: Challenges the RMB Faces in Dominating the Market

China Review News (CRN) recently republished an article by Professor Zhao Xiao from the Beijing University of Science and Technology. The article stated that the total amount of international settlements done with the Chinese currency in 2011 was RMB 2.08 trillion (around US$306 billion). At the same time, the U.S. unemployment rate was above 8.5% and 15% of the U.S. population received government help. Professor Zhao believes that China’s currency is preparing to challenge the dominance of the U.S. dollar and the United States is playing defense. Zhao pointed out three major challenges China has to overcome: (1) maintaining the stable growth of both the domestic economy and China’s exports; (2) gaining enough national acceptance by promoting fairness, justice, and democracy; (3) establishing an international alliance against the current currency leader – the United States – by enhancing China’s soft power, or even its “hard” power.

Source: China Review News, February 13, 2012
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1020/0/8/3/102008309.html?coluid=53&kindid=0&docid=102008309&mdate=0213081204

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources