Posts tagged ‘Communist Party’

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14/11/2012

* China turns to machines as farmers seek fresh fields

Unless China solves the agricultural productivity soon, it will become a global rather than a Chinese problem.

Reuters: “China needs to replace millions of workers who have quit farms for cities, but even its vast state power might not be able to transform the countryside into a network of big industrial farms capable of feeding its growing economy.

A farmer drives a harvester to reap through a corn field in Suibin state farm, Heilongjiang province in this October 16, 2012 file photo. China needs to replace millions of workers who have quit farms for cities, but even its vast state power might not be able to transform the countryside into a network of big industrial farms capable of feeding its growing economy. Pulling together small plots of land to make larger operations and introducing modern mechanical techniques would help boost productivity, vital if China's agricultural sector is to meet soaring domestic food demand.REUTERS-David Stanway-Files

Pulling together small plots of land to make larger operations and introducing modern mechanical techniques would help boost productivity, vital if China’s agricultural sector is to meet soaring domestic food demand.

But efforts to modernize the sector are struggling to gain traction because many farmers are suspicious about giving up their land, and even for some mechanized farms, there are too few workers.

Guaranteeing food security is a major tenet of the ruling Communist Party. The country is self-sufficient in rice and wheat, but is struggling to meet corn demand and has long given up trying to satisfy soy demand. It is the world’s biggest importer of soybeans, and a major buyer of corn.

It has increased grains output for nine straight years and aims to add 50 million tonnes per year by 2020 to the record 571.21 million tonnes of grain harvested in 2011.

“It now needs the government to come out and manage the land of those who give consent, and improve economies of scale,” said Fu Xuejun, a manager at the Baoquanling farm, owned by the Beidahuang Group, a huge state-owned farming conglomerate in Heilongjiang in northeast China.

Some say China should give up its fixation with self-sufficiency and take advantage of growing grains trade internationally.

“China used to emphasize self-sufficiency because the international environment was not favorable,” said Li Guoxiang, researcher with the Rural Development Institute of the China Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). “Food security should have two aims – one is domestic production and the other is the ability to buy overseas.”

via Analysis: China turns to machines as farmers seek fresh fields | Reuters.

See also: https://chindia-alert.org/2012/02/23/china-finally-realises-that-migrant-workers-are-not-a-transient-issue/

Posted in agriculture, China alert, Economics | 1 Comment »

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21/09/2012

* Shaanxi bus crash: China sacks ‘smiling official’

BBCNews: “A safety official in China who sparked a public outcry after images showed him grinning at the scene of a fatal bus crash has been sacked, officials say.

Police officers and rescuers inspect the wreckage of a bus and tanker in Yanan, 26 Aug 2012

Yang Dacai has been stripped of all his official duties for “serious wrongdoing”, Shaanxi province officials said in a statement.

Pictures of Mr Yang smiling while visiting the site where 36 people died on 26 August were posted online.

Outrage grew when netizens found images of him wearing luxury watches.

An investigation into Mr Yang’s “inappropriate behaviour of ‘grinning’ as well as wearing luxurious watches” found him guilty of “serious wrongdoing”, the Communist Party’s discipline commission in Shaanxi said.

Officials are still further investigating “trails of [Mr Yang’s] other wrongdoing”, according to the online statement.

Mr Yang, head of Shaanxi’s Provincial Bureau of Work Safety, fielded questions on his Twitter-like weibo microblog after netizens posted images of him wearing expensive watches on various occasions.

Responding to criticism that he grinned at the scene of the crash he said: “My heart was heavy when I reached the scene… Junior officials appeared nervous when they were updating me on the situation.

“I was trying to get them to relax a little, so maybe, in an unguarded moment, I got a little too relaxed myself.”

He also explained that he “used legal income” to buy a number of watches, saying that the most expensive one he owned was worth 35,000 yuan ($5,550, £3,420).”

via BBC News – Shaanxi bus crash: China sacks ‘smiling official’.

See also: https://chindia-alert.org/2012/08/31/beleaguered-official-faces-netizens-online/

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18/07/2012

* As China Talks of Change, Fear Rises on Risks

NY Times: “A heavyweight crowd gathered last October for a banquet in Beijing’s tallest skyscraper. The son of Mao Zedong’s immediate successor was there, as was the daughter of the country’s No. 2 military official for nearly three decades, along with the half sister of China’s president-in-waiting, and many more.

“All you had to do,” said one attendee, Zhang Lifan, “was look at the number of luxury cars and the low numbers on the plates.”

Most surprising, though, was the reason for the meeting. A small coterie of children of China’s founding elites who favor deeper political and economic change had come to debate the need for a new direction under the next generation of Communist Party leaders, who are set to take power in a once-a-decade changeover set to begin this year. Many had met the previous August, and would meet again in February.

The private gatherings are a telling indicator of how even some in the elite are worried about the course the Communist Party is charting for China’s future. And to advocates of political change, they offer hope that influential party members support the idea that tomorrow’s China should give citizens more power to choose their leaders and seek redress for grievances, two longtime complaints about the current system.

But the problem is that even as the tiny band of political reformers is attracting more influential adherents, it is splintered into factions that cannot agree on what “reform” would be, much less how to achieve it. The fundamental shifts that are crucial to their demands — a legal system beyond Communist Party control as well as elections with real rules and real choices among candidates — are seen even among the most radical as distant dreams, at best part of a second phase of reform.

In addition, the political winds are not blowing in their favor. The spectacular fall this spring of Bo Xilai, the Politburo member who openly espoused a populist philosophy at odds with elite leaders, offered an object lesson in the dangers of challenging the status quo. And official silence surrounding his case underscores high-level fears that any public cracks in the leadership’s facade of unity could lead its power to crumble.

As a result, few people here expect the party to willingly refashion itself anytime soon. And even those within the elite prepared to discuss deeper changes, including the second-generation “princelings,” as they are known, have a stake in protecting their own privileges.

“Compare now to 1989; in ’89, the reformers had the upper hand,” said Mr. Zhang, a historian formerly associated with the government’s Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, referring to the pro-democracy student protests that enjoyed the support of a number of important party leaders but were crushed in Tiananmen Square. “Twenty years later, the reformers have grown weaker. Now there are so many vested interests that they’ll be taken out if they touch anyone else’s interests.”

To Mr. Zhang and others, this is the conundrum of China’s rise: the autocracy that back-flipped on Marxist ideology to forge the world’s second-largest economy seems incapable of embracing political changes that actually could prolong its own survival.

Much as many Americans bemoan a gridlocked government split by a yawning partisan gap, Chinese advocates for change lament an all-powerful Communist Party they say is gridlocked by intersecting self-interests. None of the dominant players — a wealthy and commanding elite; rich and influential state industries; a vast, entrenched bureaucracy — stand to gain by ceding power to the broader public.

Many who identify with the reform camp see change as inevitable anyway, but only, they say, because social upheaval will force it. In that view, discontent with growing inequality, corruption, pollution and other societal ills will inevitably lead to a more democratic society — or a sharp turn toward totalitarianism.

An overriding worry is that unless change is carefully planned and executed, China risks another Cultural Revolution-style upheaval that could set it back decades.”

via As China Talks of Change, Fear Rises on Risks – NYTimes.com.

See also: https://chindia-alert.org/prognosis/chinese-challenges/

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18/06/2012

* China publishes books on officials’ morality

Xinhua: “A book series expounding the moral issues of officials, the first-ever publication on the topic in China, was released for sale Monday in Beijing as part of government-backed efforts to promote integrity among civil servants.

The four-book series embodies the results of research conducted by experts with the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences at the request of Beijing authorities two years ago, according to a report published by the Beijing Daily.

The books record the development of theories about officials’ morality through Chinese history and provide case studies, as well as highlight the importance of raising officials’ moral standards in modern society, an official with the Beijing Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China (CPC) was quoted as saying in the report.

The major difference between good and bad officials simply lies in whether they perform duties with a conscience, says the prologue of the series.

Nowadays, the CPC, as the ruling party, must value virtues of officials and it is a general trend for officials to abide by professional ethics, according to a passage in one of the books.

The book also points out a moral official in modern China should always serve the people as well as be loyal, pragmatic, fair-minded and incorruptible, while always improving oneself.

The series will serve as anti-graft reading material for all Communist Party cadres in Beijing, according to the report.”

via China publishes books on officials’ morality – Xinhua | English.news.cn.

Let’s hope the cadres take this book as seriously as their forebears took Mao’s Red Book.

Posted in China alert, corruption, Good news, Illegal practices, Rule of law | 2 Comments »

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08/03/2012

* China highlights human rights in criminal procedure law revision

Extracted from Xinhua: “China’s legislature has underlined the principle of “respecting and safeguarding human rights” by explicitly writing it into a draft amendment to the nation’s Criminal Procedure Law.

The draft was submitted Thursday to the ongoing 5th session of the 11th National People’s Congress (NPC) for third reading. …

Since China is in a transition period with prominent incidence of conflicts, the number of criminal cases remains large and severe violent crimes are on increase, Wang Zhaoguo, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), said. …

China’s criminal justice system should be improved step by step based on the country’s reality, he said, summarizing, “Improvements should be made to keep up with the times without surpassing the present realities or blindly copying any foreign judicial and litigation systems.”

PREVENTING TORTURE OF SUSPECTS

… The draft amendment, for the first time, has made clear that confessions extorted through illegal means, such as torture, and witness testimony and depositions of victims obtained illegally, such as by violence or threats, should be excluded during the trials.

To institutionally prevent extortion of confession by torture, the draft has regulated that suspects be sent to a detention facility for custody after being detained or arrested and be interrogated there. The process of interrogation shall be audio or video-taped. …

“The revisions on ruling out illegal evidence and strictly regulating the procedure of collecting evidence will effectively curb torturing practices,” he went on.

REVIEWING DEATH PENALTY

The draft amendment also specifies the procedures for the Supreme People’s Court to review death penalty cases in order that such cases will be handled “with sufficient care” and “legal oversight” will be strengthened. According to the draft, the supreme court shall issue an order approving or disapproving a death sentence after reviewing it. If the supreme court overrules the death sentence, it may remand the case for retrial or revise the judgement thereof. …

“The proposed revisions will improve the procedure and guarantee the legal oversight necessary before taking somebody’s life,” he said.

LAWYERED UP

A proposed revision allowing the criminal suspect to engage a lawyer as his defense counsel when the police first interrogate him has been widely welcomed by lawyers. Under the current law, a suspect can only have a defense counsel when the case is handed over to prosecutors. Lawyers can only provide legal help for suspects under police investigation. …

DEFINING HOUSE SURVEILLANCE

The draft amendment defines the measure of house surveillance and stipulates the conditions for its application. …

NOTIFYING FAMILY

The draft amendment also strictly limits exceptions to the provisions of notifying family members of the suspect after a coercive measure is adopted.

The current law, while providing that a person’s family be notified within 24 hours of their detention or arrest, also gives two exceptions — one is under the circumstance where the notification may obstruct investigation, and the other is if his or her family can not be reached.

Under the proposed revision, for a person under arrest, the first exception is deleted since “obstruct investigation” is ambiguous.

In cases of detention, the draft amendment regulates that, only when he is involved in crimes of endangering national security and terrorism, the police may not inform his family for fear of hindering investigation.

It also stipulates that, for people under house surveillance in a designated place, their families should be informed within 24 hours after the coercive measure is taken, unless they can not be reached.”

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2012-03/08/c_131453966.htm

Although some Western human rights campaigners are bound to assert: “not far enough”, the very fact that this issue is being taken into account in the new criminal procedure law revision must be a step in the right direction. In many ways, the Communist Party is demonstrating that it is maturing and slowly but surely getting less fraught about subversion. It is realising that most of the protests are about tangible problems often caused by over zealous or, worse, corrupt local officials and not about challenging the power or authority of the Party.

Posted in China alert, Human rights, Rule of law | Leave a Comment »

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