Posts tagged ‘communist party of china’

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08/05/2013

* Detention of petitioners denounced

China Daily: “Anti-graft officials vow protection of whistle-blowers from retaliation

Officials with China’s top anti-graft authority expressed firm opposition on Tuesday to the detention of petitioners.

Authorities are not allowed to detain petitioners at any level of petition offices and at public venues, said Zhang Shaolong, deputy director of the office of letters and calls of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China.

It is a legal channel for petitioners to submit whistle-blowing materials face to face to the anti-graft authorities, and the petitioners should receive a warm welcome from anti-corruption agencies, he said.

Zhang made the remarks on Tuesday during an online interview with two other anti-graft officials from the commission.

Under the administrative mechanism in most places, the leading officials will not get promoted if too many petitioners appeal to higher authorities.

Many corrupt officials were exposed by online posts, Zhang said, adding that some inaccurate online information has also made the investigations of corrupt officials difficult.

Among all the cases investigated by the commission last year, about 41.8 percent of the clues were collected from the public whistle-blowers through online reports, letters and calls, Zhang said.

Guo Hongliang, Zhang’s colleague who also attended the online interview, said that the commission has received 301,000 online whistle-blowing reports from 2008 to 2012.

The commission established 12388.gov.cn, its online whistle-blowing website, in October 2009, and the Internet has become one of the most important channels for the commission to collect information, he said.

Deng Jixun, another colleague of Zhang who attended the interview, said that real-name whistle-blowing activities should be encouraged to promote the efficiency of anti-corruption work.

The anti-graft authorities should protect real-name whistle-blowers from being victims of retaliation, he said.

Zhang acknowledged that some officials try to prevent people from petitioning to higher levels of government, and these officials’ behavior should be firmly opposed.

A report in People’s Daily revealed that many petitioners had been detained by the government of Hai’an county in Jiangsu province since March when they tried to visit the anti-graft officials from an inspection team sent by the provincial government.”

via Detention of petitioners denounced |Politics |chinadaily.com.cn.

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03/05/2013

* Xi Jinping’s vision: Chasing the Chinese dream

The Economist: “THESE have been heady days for Chen Sisi, star of a song-and-dance group run by China’s nuclear-missile corps. For weeks her ballad “Chinese dream” has been topping the folk-song charts. She has performed it on state television against video backdrops of bullet trains, jets taking off from China’s newly launched aircraft-carrier and bucolic scenery. More than 1.1m fans follow her microblog, where she tweets about the Chinese dream.

Ms Chen is playing her part in a barrage of dream-themed propaganda unleashed by the Communist Party. Schools have been organising Chinese-dream speaking competitions. Some have put up “dream walls” on which students can stick notes describing their visions of the future. Party officials have selected model dreamers to tour workplaces and inspire others with their achievements. Academics are being encouraged to offer “Chinese dream” research proposals. Newspapers refer to it more and more (see chart in full article). In December state media and government researchers, purportedly on the basis of studies of its usage, declared “dream” the Chinese character of the year for 2012.

It was, however, one very specific usage just before that December publication which set the country dreaming. On November 29th, two weeks after his appointment as the party’s general secretary and military commander-in-chief, Xi Jinping visited the grandiose National Museum next to Tiananmen Square. Flanked by six dour-looking, dark-clad colleagues from the Politburo’s standing committee, Mr Xi told a gaggle of press and museum workers that the “greatest Chinese dream” was the “great revival of the Chinese nation”.”

via Xi Jinping’s vision: Chasing the Chinese dream | The Economist.

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19/04/2013

* Supreme Court criticizes official bureaucracy

Xinhua: “The Supreme People’s Court (SPC) on Thursday named six officials and institutions that have violated eight bureaucracy-busting guidelines announced by central authorities late last year.

English: a Balance icon ‪中文(繁體)‬: 天平圖示

English: a Balance icon ‪中文(繁體)‬: 天平圖示 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The officials involved in the cases have been punished, according to a statement from the SPC.

Since the election of the new leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in November, the CPC has launched a high-profile campaign to stamp out bureaucracy, formalism and the improper spending of public funds.

The bureaucracy- and formalism-fighting guidelines were introduced by a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee in December.

In one of the cases, officials from the Intermediate People’s Court of the city of Huanggang in central China’s Hubei Province spent 14,396 yuan (2,329 U.S. dollars) on two dinners and were reimbursed by the court. Two officials involved in the case have been punished.

Another case involved two judges from a court in Xishui County in southwest China’s Guizhou Province who left the office on a weekday afternoon to play cards at a teahouse on Jan. 8. The two officials have been punished with administrative discipline.”

via Supreme Court criticizes official bureaucracy – Xinhua | English.news.cn.

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17/03/2013

* China’s Glamorous First Lady Peng Liyuan Saving the Communist Party With Song

The Daily Beast: “A U.S. president married to a Hollywood celebrity would spark a full-blown media frenzy in America. But China, for one, is not fazed. In 2007, when now president Xi Jinping was named to the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), his wife, Peng Liyuan—a glamorous and wildly popular singer—quietly disappeared from public view.

China's New First Lady Peng Liyuan

Peng, 50, is known for singing soaring patriotic songs in praise of the Communist Party, often while clad in glittering floor-length ball gowns and occasionally in Chinese ethnic minority costume (think Barbra Streisand in Native American garb). She was born in Shandong province, enrolled at Shandong University of Art and Design at age 14, and joined the People’s Liberation Army in 1980, at 18. In 1986 she married Xi Jinping. Her daughter, Xi Mingze, was born in 1992 and stays invisible too (she studies at Harvard under an assumed name).

Peng’s star began to ascend in 1983, when she performed in state broadcaster China Central Television’s inaugural new year’s gala, today the most viewed TV program in the world. (Celine Dion performed at this year’s). Peng sang in the gala almost every year until 2007.

I was working in Beijing for a Chinese government-overseen magazine in 2007. We tried to run a profile describing Xi as “the son of a veteran revolutionary and the husband of Peng Liyuan, a famous singer,” but our censor asked us to delete that line. When we resisted, she forwarded us an email in bold red font from her superior at the Ministry of Commerce, stressing that we weren’t allowed to write about the personal lives of government officials, “especially family background or marital life.” To commit this “rudimentary political error,” he wrote, was to “touch a high-voltage line.”

Chinese government officials have many reasons to avoid revealing their personal sides. Many analysts say the CCP’s power relies on a façade of unity, and that means disappearing into a monolithic, faceless abstraction. Xi’s predecessor Hu Jintao was known for his blandness, but a video unearthed late last year of a smiling, animated Hu in 1984 suggests that his evolution toward inscrutability was purposeful.

It’s also posited that Chinese culture encourages conformity; there is an oft-quoted Chinese expression, “The bird that sticks out its neck gets shot.” Moreover, the idea of a high-profile first wife conjures the ghost of Jiang Qing, Mao’s wife who was also a performer and is widely considered responsible for China’s horrific Cultural Revolution. And, as exposés on the family wealth of Wen Jiabao and Xi have revealed, digging into the personal lives of China’s political elite tends to unearth skeletons.

In the face of this kind of competition, a little stardust from China’s new First Lady might be the Party’s best weapon.

Fast-forward to now: the Financial Times just reported that Peng will not only accompany Xi to the BRICS summit in Durban, South Africa, this month, but will speak there. “She can help China build soft power,” said a source in the piece. Peng also became a Goodwill Ambassador for tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS—a controversial subject in China—for the World Health Organization last year and won a splashy $160,000 China Arts Award in December.

Is Xi Jinping –and the Party at large—embracing American-style politicking? It’s widely opined that Bo Xilai, the charismatic Chongqing Party secretary purged last year, was brought down for being too threateningly populist. Yet, Xi Jinping seems to be styling himself in Bo’s mold. He’s made highly publicized visits around China the last few weeks, intended to echo Deng Xiaoping’s 1992 “southern tour” that jump-started China’s economy, and inspired enthusiastic tea-leaf readings that he’ll be a reformer. Though Bo was kicked down, perhaps the party has learned from his talents.

Pressure is on for the CCP to burnish its image. Overly outsize stars within—or married to—the party can be reined in, but society at large is developing a celebrity culture, and that’s a threat too. More and more, people look up to leaders from business, pop culture, and the Internet. Alibaba founder Jack Ma inspires Steve Jobs–like reverence in China. Real-estate tycoon Zhang Xin is affiliated with the World Economic Forum and the Council on Foreign Relations and is becoming a thought leader. And the rabid following behind Li Yang, founder of Crazy English, is downright cultlike.

These people have the power to influence the masses and could do so in dangerous ways. Kai-Fu Lee, former president of Google China, has microblogged veiled criticisms of the government on his Weibo account, which has over 32 million followers. Yang Lan, the “Oprah of China,” has griped about China’s media censorship (“There are frustrations”) to overseas publications like Marie Claire. And the most popular blogger in China is Han Han, known for his cynical attitude toward Chinese politics and society.

In the face of this kind of competition, a little stardust from China’s new first lady might be the party’s best weapon.”

via China’s Glamorous First Lady Peng Liyuan Saving the Communist Party With Song – The Daily Beast.

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14/03/2013

* Xi Jinping named president of China

BBC: “Leaders in Beijing have confirmed Xi Jinping as president, completing China’s 10-yearly transition of power.

Mr Xi, appointed to the Communist Party’s top post in November, replaces Hu Jintao, who is stepping down.

Some 3,000 deputies to the National People’s Congress, the annual parliament session, took part in the vote at the Great Hall of the People.

The new premier – widely expected to be Li Keqiang – is scheduled to be named on Friday, replacing Wen Jiabao.

While votes are held for the posts, they are largely ceremonial and the results very rarely a surprise.

Mr Xi, who bowed to the delegates after his name was announced but made no formal remarks, was elected by 2,952 votes to one, with three abstentions.

He was named general secretary of the Communist Party on 8 November and also given the leadership of the top military body, the Central Military Commission.

China’s parliament engaged in a political ceremony that involved all the hallmarks of a real election: a ballot box, long lines of delegates queuing to vote, and a televised announcement of a winner. However, no-one was surprised to hear the results: with a whopping 99.86% of the vote, Xi Jinping was anointed President of the People’s Republic of China and Chairman of the People’s Liberation Army.

In November, Mr Xi was elevated to the top spot in China’s Communist Party. However, he did not become the country’s official head of state until his candidacy was approved by China’s parliament.

According to China’s constitution, almost 3,000 NPC delegates are allowed to “elect” candidates for the state’s top positions. However, in practice, delegates merely endorse the names put forward by the party.

Perhaps the only interesting result of the election is that Mr Xi did not receive 100% of the ballot. One person voted against him and three people abstained. The result leaves some in China to wonder: perhaps, in an act of modesty, Mr Xi voted against himself.

This vote, handing him the role of head of state, was the final stage in the transition of power to him and his team, the slimmed-down, seven-member Standing Committee.

The largely symbolic role of vice-president went to Li Yuanchao, seen as a close ally of Mr Hu and a possible reformist.

The 61-year-old, who is not a member of the Standing Committee, has in the past called for reforms to the way the Communist Party promotes officials and consults the public on policies.”

via BBC News – Xi Jinping named president of China.

Posted in 10 year leadership change, China alert, Politics | Leave a Comment »

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07/03/2013

Maybe these empty apartments will be used to house the 400m rural people being moved to cities in the next 20 years. But NOT at 45 times the annual income. So there is bound to be a massive devaluation. That in turn could lead to massive dis-satisfaction by the ‘upper’ middle class onwers of these empty flats, which in turn …

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01/03/2013

* China plans bond overhaul to fund $6 trillion urbanization

Reuters: “China plans major bond market reform to raise the money the ruling Communist Party needs for a 40 trillion yuan ($6.4 trillion) urbanization program to buoy economic growth and close a chasm between the country’s urban rich and rural poor.

A man walks past a construction site for a new stadium in Mentougou district, suburb of Beijing February 28, 2013. REUTERS-Kim Kyung-Hoon

The Party aims to bring 400 million people to cities over the next decade as the new leadership of president-in-waiting Xi Jinping and premier-designate Li Keqiang seek to turn China into a wealthy world power with economic growth generated by an affluent consumer class.

The urban development would be funded by a major expansion of bond markets, sources with leadership ties, and a senior executive at one of China’s “Big Four” state banks, who was formerly at the central bank, told Reuters.

“The urbanization drive will push the domestic capital market liberalization agenda,” the senior bank executive said on condition of anonymity. “Urbanization is Li Keqiang’s big project. He has to get it right and he is willing to pursue innovation to make it a success.”

Set to be confirmed as premier at the end of the annual meeting of China’s rubber-stamp parliament, which opens next week, Li must find ways to pay for the urban development that he has made a policy priority.

Central and local governments, as well as bank loans, will fund the costs, the sources said. But, sweeping reforms to create a fully-functioning municipal bond market, boost corporate and high-yield bond issuance and actively steer foreign capital into the sector, are crucial to raising the sums of money China will need, they added.

Despite its ranking as the second-largest economy globally after three decades of stellar growth, China remains an aspiring middle-income country riven with inequality and dependent on state-backed investment.

“If we continue to walk down the path of government spending, it’ll be like wearing new shoes, but walking the old road,” a source with leadership ties said, requesting anonymity to avoid repercussions for speaking to foreign media without authorization.”

via Exclusive: China plans bond overhaul to fund $6 trillion urbanization – sources | Reuters.

Posted in Chindia Alert, Economics, urban development | 1 Comment »

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24/02/2013

* Migrant workers invited to prominent holiday gala

Xinhua: “Four migrant workers were invited to a high profile gala on Saturday evening, which was once mainly reserved for distinguished intellectuals.

Chinese leaders Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli were present at the event organized by the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee to mark the upcoming Lantern Festival.

New guests to this year’s show also include representatives from different sectors and model workers.

Liu Yunshan hosted the gala and in his speech highlighted the contribution of intellectuals and ordinary workers to the country’s achievements and called for joint efforts from ordinary workers in all walks of life to contribute to the nation’s great rejuvenation.

China has 260 million migrant workers by 2012. They usually leave their hometown to seek employments in urban areas.

The Lantern Festival falls on Sunday this year and traditionally marks the end of the Spring Festival season.”

via Migrant workers invited to prominent holiday gala – Xinhua | English.news.cn.

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04/02/2013

* China to help migrant workers in urbanization

China Daily: “Chinese authorities on Thursday underlined the need to help rural migrant workers become urban residents, calling it an important task for the country’s urbanization, according to its first policy document for 2013.

To promote urbanization, especially concerning migrant workers, China will put forward reforms of its household registration system, loosening requirements for obtaining residency permits in small and medium-sized cities and small townships, the document said.

The country also vowed more efforts in providing professional training for migrant workers, ensuring their social security and protecting their rights and interests, according to the document.

Migrant workers should enjoy equal rights and benefits in payments, education of their children, public health, housing and cultural services, the document said. It added that authorities will work to extend basic public services to all permanent residents in cities.

The central government also urged more serious attention be given to the left-behind population, namely children, women and old people in rural areas after their family members go to work in cities.

Local authorities at all levels as well as the public should guarantee the rights and safety of the left-behind population with support, help and care, said the document.

The first policy document, issued by the central committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council every year, is dubbed the No 1 central document. This is the 10th consecutive year in which the document has focused on rural issues.

Chinese official data showed that the country’s migrant worker population amounted to 253 million by the end of 2011, among which 159 million were working away from their homes.”

via China to help migrant workers in urbanization |Economy |chinadaily.com.cn.

See also: https://chindia-alert.org/2012/12/17/testing-time-for-chinas-migrants-as-they-demand-access-to-education/

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22/01/2013

* China’s Xi urges swatting of lowly flies in fight on everyday graft

Reuters: “Chinese president-in-waiting Xi Jinping on Tuesday took his campaign against corruption to the petty bureaucracy and minor infractions of lowly officials who are the bane of many Chinese people and businessmen’s everyday lives.

China's Communist Party chief Xi Jinping looks on during his meeting with U.N. General Assembly President Vuk Jeremic at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing December 27, 2012. REUTERS/Wang Zhao/Pool

Xi, in comments carried by the official Xinhua news agency, said it was just as important to go after the “flies”, or lowly people, as it was to tackle the “tigers”, or top officials, in the battle against graft.

“We must uphold the fighting of tigers and flies at the same time, resolutely investigating law-breaking cases of leading officials and also earnestly resolving the unhealthy tendencies and corruption problems which happen all around people,” he said.

Bureaucrats must not be allowed to get away with skirting rules and orders from above or choosing selectively which policies to follow, added Xi.

“The style in which you work is no small matter, and if we don’t redress unhealthy tendencies and allow them to develop, it will be like putting up a wall between our party and the people, and we will lose our roots, our lifeblood and our strength,” Xi told a meeting of the party’s top anti-graft body.

Xi called for “a disciplinary, prevention and guarantee mechanism” to be set up to prevent corruption, Xinhua said, though Xi did not provide any details.

Chinese bureaucrats have long had a poor reputation for laziness, a love of excessive paperwork and minor acts of corruption which infuriate the man on the street and add to growing mistrust of the party.

Since taking over as Communist Party head in November from Hu Jintao, Xi has vowed to root out corruption no matter how high it is, warning the party’s survival is at risk if it does not take the problem seriously.”

via China’s Xi urges swatting of lowly flies in fight on everyday graft | Reuters.

See also: https://chindia-alert.org/2012/12/03/5515/

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