All posts by AEF - 26. page

[Editor’s Note: State media Huanqiu Online published a commentary on May 29, 2012, “Fighting Corruption Is a Tough Uphill Battle for China’s Social Development.” [1] The article stated that “corruption cannot be ‘fixed completely’ in any country. The key is to control it to a level the public can accept.” It added, “The public should understand the objective reality that China cannot completely suppress corruption at the present time.” On May 31, China Youth Daily countered Huanqiu‘s article by publishing an article, “Without a Change in the System and Democracy, There Is No Cure for Corruption.” [2] It stated that “the Party’s top leaders have stressed on many occasions that (we) must have zero-tolerance for corruption. Having zero-tolerance for corruption should be the current universal standard.”

It is rare to see two of China’s state media express completely opposite viewpoints. Voice of America (VOA) suggested that “the debate among top level state media indicates that the dispute among China’s top leaders is so great that even the Party’s Central Propaganda Department can no longer cover it up.” [3] The following are translations of excerpts from these articles.]

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[Editor’s Note: The political shake-up started when Wang Lijun made his way to the U.S. Consulate in Chendu in an apparent asylum attempt. Since then, Bo Xilai has been suspended from the Politburo and is being held incommunicado while he is investigated and Zhou Yongkang, one of the nine member Politburo Standing Committee (PSC), was reported as having “handed operational control of the pervasive Chinese security apparatus” over to another. [1] Their connection to Jiang Zemin, the former CCP head, has also surfaced. To help Western readers understand the complexity of the situation and the nuances inherent in the political infighting, Chinascope has collected and translated some reports about Bo, Zhou, and Jiang from Chinese media (both inside and outside of China). A major source for the Chinascope report is the Epoch Times, which, as an independent Chinese media, has done a number of in-depth reports and analyses into the issue. Many other Chinese media are, directly or indirectly, controlled by Beijing and have been unable to do so.]

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[Editor’s Note: Qiushi Theory recently published a thesis by Li Shenming, who is the Deputy President of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. [1] Li discussed the opportunities and challenges that China faces in both the international and the domestic arenas and from the political and economic points of view. Li proposed specific strategies for China to undertake in responding to these challenges. He predicted that the global socialist movement will make more progress in the coming years and that, by 2050, “global socialism will once again shine brightly.” Some of the data that Li referenced are a few years old, but his points are still valid. The following is an excerpt from Li’s article.]

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[Editor’s Note: Since Wang Lijun went to the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, seeking political asylum and Bo Xilai was removed as Chongqing’s top leader, the Chinese people have had widespread discussions about Bo’s style of government, which has come to be called the “Chongqing Model.” The general characteristics of the “Chongqing Model” include heavy borrowing to stimulate economic growth, the ideology of returning to the “left,” and the political movement that Bo initiated. Bo Xilai pushed the “Chongqing Model” to the center of China’s political stage using his high-profile “singing the red” campaign, where people were organized to sing songs ythat were popular in the Mao Zedong era in praise of the Communist Party, and the “striking the black” campaign in which the Chongqing authorities bypassed the regular legal system claiming they were eradicating triads in Chongqing.

Voice of America (VOA) reported that, in recent discussions, many Chinese scholars have expressed their disapproval of the “Chongqing Model.” The following is the translation of the VOA article.] [1]

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[Editor’s Note: Recently an Internet article titled “SOEs Are Asked to Clear Their Real Estate Inventories. Is a Wave of Unemployment around the Corner for China?” has been widely re-posted on China’s websites. [1] It quoted some unidentified sources and also many state media reports, questioning whether the problems in China’s economy will explode soon. Chinascope could not verify the source of the information. Nevertheless, due to the topic’s relevance, we translated the article so that our readers would be aware of the information and could evaluate it on their own.]

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[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:]

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