| Village Paper Dares to Challenge the Official Line Posted: 03 Mar 2013 11:39 PM PST For the Telegraph, Malcolm Moore profiles a village newspaper near Shijiazhuang which has established itself as the opposition to the local official propaganda paper: "We wanted to rebuke the lies of the official newspaper," said He Jianguo, 44, a former pharmaceuticals salesman who has become one of the editors of the Voice of the People. "Because we have a saying here in China: if you repeat a lie 100 times, it becomes the truth." [...] "We want to tell the people that they have a voice. A paper is old-fashioned, but we are hoping the villagers who read it will then spread our information over the internet," said Ms He. The editors said the Communist party is aware of the paper, but so far has decided not to squash it. "The province's Propaganda department knows about us. They ask us not to publish at particularly sensitive times. But otherwise we are too small and we do not earn any money, so we are under their radar," said Mr He. The village chief has never acknowledged the existence of the Voice of the People.
© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: independent media, local media, propaganda
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| Photo: Serve the People, by shutter©lee Posted: 03 Mar 2013 11:01 PM PST |
| As NPC Convenes, Factions Jockey to Solidify Power Posted: 03 Mar 2013 10:51 PM PST With the 12th annual National People's Congress opening in Beijing, the Chinese government is set to conclude the second stage of its once-a-decade leadership transition when Xi Jinping takes over as president and Li Keqiang takes over as Premier. As the Wall Street Journal reports, the meetings offer the new Xi administration a chance to outline concrete plans for anticipated reforms: The Parliament meeting will be an early gauge of the new leaders' commitment to carrying out broad changes in China's economy that Messrs. Hu and Wen talked about for years, but did little to accomplish—remaking the economy so it relies more on domestic demand and less on investment in capital-intensive industries at home and demand for Chinese exports abroad. [...] One major change that Parliament is expected to approve is a plan to streamline the State Council—or cabinet—by, among other things, merging the Railways Ministry into the Ministry of Transport, a move that many analysts believe is linked to a high-speed train crash in 2011, and the dismissal the same year of the railways minister, Liu Zhijun, on corruption charges. Agencies monitoring food safety—another issue of huge public concern following a string of scandals in recent years—may also be merged, and greater powers given to the State Oceanic Administration, the agency responsible for maritime patrols around disputed islands in the South China Sea and East China Sea, according to Chinese academics familiar with the plans. Chinese experts say the restructuring is designed to cut down red tape, enhance interdepartmental coordination and break apart vested interests in the bureaucracy. But many analysts are skeptical, arguing that more fundamental changes are needed, such as forcing all officials to declare their financial assets publicly, to enhance government transparency and accountability.
The meetings will also announce key personnel postings, and some insiders are anticipating that more liberal members of the Communist Party elite, including Li Yuanchao and Wang Yang, who were not nominated to the current Politburo Standing Committee, may be named to top government posts, according to the WSJ report. Reuters looks at the factional battles taking place behind the scenes to decide who will take over the Standing Committee in 2017, when five of the current members will retire: Two main factions are competing for power within the Standing Committee. Members of the "Shanghai Gang", headed by former Party chief Jiang Zemin, have connections to China's commercial capital. The other main faction, the "Tuanpai," is led by outgoing President Hu Jintao. Its members, like him, cultivated their careers in the Communist Youth League. Most of the Politburo members and provincial Party secretaries eligible for promotion in the next term in 2017 have experience in the Communist Youth League, according to data from "Connected China"(connectedchina.reuters.com), a Reuters site that tracks the careers and connections of China's top leaders. Although the Politburo appointed in November shows strong ties to Jiang Zemin, analysts say outgoing President Hu Jintao's Communist Youth League faction will gain the upper hand over the longer term. A third group has also ascended rapidly – the princelings, or privileged children of revolutionary leaders. Key princelings include Xi and Politburo Standing Committee members Yu Zhengsheng, Wang Qishan and Zhang Dejiang.
For more on the agenda of the NPC meetings, see, "What to Expect at the 12th National People's Congress" from CDT.
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Post tags: Communist Youth League, food safety, Hu Jintao, Jiang Zemin, Li Keqiang, Li Yuanchao, NPC 2013, political reform, Wang Yang, Xi Jinping
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| China Keeps Peace at Sea Posted: 03 Mar 2013 11:53 AM PST As China and Japan move to ease tensions over the Diaoyu Islands, Allen Carlson at Foreign Affairs says China cannot afford a military conflict with any of its Asian neighbors: It is not that China believes it would lose such a spat; the country increasingly enjoys strategic superiority over the entire region, and it is difficult to imagine that its forces would be beaten in a direct engagement over the islands, in the South China Sea or in the disputed regions along the Sino-Indian border. However, Chinese officials see that even the most pronounced victory would be outweighed by the collateral damage that such a use of force would cause to Beijing's two most fundamental national interests — economic growth and preventing the escalation of radical nationalist sentiment at home. These constraints, rather than any external deterrent, will keep Xi Jinping, China's new leader, from authorizing the use of deadly force in the Diaoyu Islands theater. But Xi does not seem blind to the principles that have served Beijing so well over the last few decades. Indeed, although he recently warned unnamed others about infringing upon China's "national core interests" during a foreign policy speech to members of the Politburo, he also underscored China's commitment to "never pursue development at the cost of sacrificing other country's interests" and to never "benefit ourselves at others' expense or do harm to any neighbor." Of course, wars do happen — and still could in the East China Sea. Should either side draw first blood through accident or an unexpected move, Sino-Japanese relations would be pushed into terrain that has not been charted since the middle of the last century. However, understanding that war would be a no-win situation, China has avoided rushing over the brink. This relative restraint seems to have surprised everyone. But it shouldn't. Beijing will continue to disagree with Tokyo over the sovereign status of the islands, and will not budge in its negotiating position over disputed territory. However, it cannot take the risk of going to war over a few rocks in the sea. On the contrary, in the coming months it will quietly seek a way to shelve the dispute in return for securing regional stability, facilitating economic development, and keeping a lid on the Pandora's box of rising nationalist sentiment. The ensuing peace, while unlikely to be deep, or especially conducive to improving Sino-Japanese relations, will be enduring.
Chinese state media reports China's ambassador to Japan is still 'optimistic' about ties, Xinhua reports: Chinese Ambassador to Japan Cheng Yonghua said Sunday that he is optimistic for the future of China-Japan relations, despite the lingering tension between the two nations. "What the two countries need to do now is to improve crisis control and avoid accidents getting out of hand," said Cheng, who is in Beijing for the annual session of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the country's top political advisory body. He said the disputes over the Diaoyu Islands, which were triggered by Japan last year and have not been well handled by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration, "is the biggest challenge in improving China-Japan relations." "As the saying goes, whoever started the trouble should end it," the ambassador said.
Despite attempts to cool down the Diaoyu Islands dispute, AP reports China has issued another attack on Japan over the disputed region. This statement comes days ahead of the opening of the Chinese national legislature's annual session: The spokesman for the legislature's chief advisory body, Lu Xinhua, told reporters at a Saturday news conference that if any unintended clash occurred as a result of their patrol boats and planes operating close to one another, Japan would "be held solely responsible for all consequences."
Read more about Diaoyu Islands dispute, via CDT.
© Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: diaoyu islands, east china sea, Japan, maritime disputes, senkaku islands, territorial disputes
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| Spill Underlines Environmental Concerns Posted: 03 Mar 2013 11:33 AM PST CDT previously reported on the aniline spill in Changzhi that affected the water supply of a handful of cities. The New York Times reports this spill has drawn attention to the growing water problem in northern China: "Problems with water weren't so serious before, but they have become much worse with industrial consumption," said Yin Qingli, a lawyer in Handan who filed a lawsuit in January against Tianji, which uses water to convert coal to fertilizer at the factory in Changzhi. Greenpeace said Tianji is "notorious for its pollution." In 2010 and 2011, Tianji had been judged by Shanxi's environmental protection bureau to be polluting above normal levels in four quarters and was fined each time. Tianji's pollution was abnormally high throughout most of 2011, so provincial officials asked the Changzhi environmental protection bureau to monitor the factory, Greenpeace reported. On Jan. 9, the Handan Winter Swimming Association announced that it had filed a lawsuit in a Handan court against Tianji, seeking more than $3 million in compensation. But like the lawsuit of Mr. Yin's, it has gone nowhere. Mr. Yin said he had been asked by local officials to withdraw his lawsuit. The Handan officials had entered into secret negotiations with their Changzhi counterparts for compensation. Recently, official Chinese news organizations have run articles or editorials on water pollution, in part spurred by the recent spill. People's Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party, published a commentary on Feb. 21 by Yan Houfu, who specializes in environmental law, saying that fines against polluting companies have little impact because the amounts typically range from $8,000 to $80,000. And "the Ministry of Environmental Protection, intentionally or otherwise, has not been strict in enforcing the law," he wrote.
As Weibo users call on officials to swim in the polluted rivers, one environmentalist, Chen Yuqian, was beaten after asking local officials to brave the waters they were supposed to keep clean, from The Telegraph: Mr Chen, a farmer who has spent the last decade fighting pollution, posted his challenge on the internet, hoping it would trigger government action. Instead, his daughter says he was severely beaten by a gang of baton-wielding men at around 6am last Sunday. "My father was alone at home," said 32-year-old Chen Xiufang. "Some 40 people turned up in plain clothes, some holding batons. The only thing they said was: "[You] used the internet, you always use the internet!" The claims come amid reports that China's environmental protection agency is refusing to publish the findings of a nationwide survey of soil pollution claiming the data constitutes a "state secret". It has been estimated that up to 10 per cent of Chinese farmland is contaminated with toxins such as arsenic, lead, mercury and cadmium.
Read more about water pollution in China, via CDT.
© Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Changzhi, Handan, industrial pollution, pollution, water pollution
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