IN PRAISE OF CHINA

Starting a Restaurant in Thailand

2014-07-18T20:10:00.003-07:00

Starting a Restaurant in Thailand

2014-07-18T20:10:00.001-07:00

Why I Moved to Thailand: Rob Palmer's story

2014-07-17T19:42:00.003-07:00

Why I Moved to Thailand: Rob Palmer's story

2014-07-17T19:42:00.001-07:00

China and Russia Pivot to Eurasia

2013-07-31T06:45:00.000-07:00

While much hot air has been expended on America's 'pivot' to the Pacific, China and Russia have been quietly wrapping up the part of the world that decides all our destinies, Eurasia. They've now aligned most of the countries between the Baltic and the Pacific, as the following items make clear:

Setback for EU plan to curb Russia gas dependency

BY ANDREW RETTMAN

BRUSSELS - EU plans to lower dependence on Russian gas in south-eastern member states have suffered a setback with the death of the "Nabucco" pipeline scheme.

Russia uses gas dependency to exert political pressure on former Iron Curtain countries (Photo: eni.com)

Austrian firm OMV, part of the Nabucco consortium, said on Wednesday (26 June) that Azerbaijan, the gas supplier, has opted for the rival "Tap" pipeline instead. Read the whole thing. Austrian firm OMV, part of the Nabucco consortium, said on Wednesday (26 June) that Azerbaijan, the gas supplier, has opted for the rival "Tap" pipeline instead.

"[Azerbaijan's] Shah Deniz II consortium informed OMV, as a shareholder of Nabucco Gas Pipeline International, about the decision on their preferred gas transportation route to Europe. The Nabucco West project was not selected by the consortium," it noted on its website.

Turkey Makes It Official With SCO

April 28, 2013 - 10:51am, by Joshua Kucera

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and SCO Secretary General Dmitry Mezentsev sign an agreement on Turkey's accession to dialogue partner status in the SCO. (photo: MFA of Turkey)

Turkey has formally become a "dialogue partner" of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a step with unclear practical consequences but substantial symbolic import. Turkey is the first NATO member with any sort of formal relationship with the SCO, which is often represented an Eastern "anti-NATO." All the cliches about Turkey being "caught between East and West" -- here they are, codified in agreements with political-military blocs.

During the signing ceremony in Almaty on Friday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu used some lofty rhetoric about his country's new partners, saying that Turkey "shares the same fate" as SCO member states: Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. From Hurriyet Daily News:

“Now we declare that Turkey also shares the same fate as Shanghai Cooperation Organization countries.

We are thankful for being accepted as a member of this family,” Davutoğlu said. “This is only a start.

Maybe [it only seems like] a complementation of a process but [in fact] it is the start of a long way we will walk together hand by hand. This is our point of view on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and we will move in this direction,” he continued. Read the article.

Uzbekistan kicks US out of military base

Pentagon given six months to quit
The air base near the southern town of Khanabad, known as K2, was opened weeks after the September 11 attacks to provide vital logistical support for Operation Enduring Freedom in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Analysts have said that Uzbekistan agreed to the base, the first Pentagon presence in what is a former Soviet stronghold of central Asia, because of a large US aid package and Washington's silence about the country's appalling human rights record.

While the US talks about saving Afghanistan with a “New Silk Road,” China is actually doing it

For two years, the US State Department and the Pentagon have been incubating a plan to win the Afghan war without actually defeating the Taliban on the battleground. The idea is to triumph commercially by building a “New Silk Road”—a transportation-and-energy route to the West whose long-term financial dividends would prompt combatants to set aside their arms and get rich instead.

Now China is stepping up an apparent effort to outpace the US plan to reconstruct the ancient trade route.

The US idea is a network of roads, electric grids, rail, energy pipelines, and assorted commercial ventures along a channel leading from Afghanistan to the world at large. It would end up in Europe–ignoring China, Russia and Iran, the region’s biggest and most geopolitically assertive players.

Beijing’s less-ambitious version, by contrast, goes east, into China. It does not have a name, but it does appear to be actually materializing. – By Steve LeVine July 31, 2013

Freedom of Speech in China and France

2013-07-30T17:55:00.002-07:00

Freedom of Speech: Case Study on That Medieval, Backward, Senseless French Law Against Insulting the French President

July 30th, 2013AllenLeave a commentGo to comments

China is often regarded as a nation without Freedom of Speech – or at least a nation that disrespects Freedom of Speech, or a nation with serious infractions of Freedom of Speech. I have often argued that such disparaging conclusions rarely turn out to based on Freedom itself, but a disrespect of China’s social, historical, and political contexts and current interests. I will use recent events to further demonstrate my thinking.

For those of you paying attention on issues surrounding “Freedom of Speech” on the international stage, you might have noticed that France caused quite a stir last week by finally abolishing a law against insulting its president.

The law in question was thrown into the international spotlight when President Sarkozy charged fellow Frenchman Hervé Eon for holding up a cardboard sign at a 2008 rally where Eon had held up a placard telling Sarkozy “Casse-toi pov’con,” a profanity in French although a direct translation would mildly translate it to “break yourself off, poor jerk.” Here is an excerpt of the article “Yes, it really was a crime in France to insult the president until this week. Here’s why” from the Washington Post:

[A]fter 132 years, 20 presidents, one Vichy Marshal and five provisional heads of state later, a left-activist named Hervé Eon will be the last Frenchman to ever violate the law, which the French Parliament finally overturned on Thursday after a ruling from the European Court of Human Rights.

Read this fascinating article in its entirety at Hidden Harmonies blog...

China's Amazing Economy, Part III

2013-07-05T23:10:00.001-07:00

I’ve talked about the need to change patent law to create better welfare outcomes. I’ve talked about the rip-off Apple is and how the anti-trust decision against Samsung is extraordinarily welfare destroying for the US.

But this is not the key policy challenge.

It’s not a key challenge because these large companies are relatively small employers. Apple, particularly, is a very small employer of US citizens. This is true of much of the listed sector. It’s a small employer in the aggregate. Of course, the listed sector is a big (over-sized) source of stories about the economy because it has such an incentive to tell its story.

No, the key policy challenge is in a line at the end of the blog:

Another is that a lot of what we consider output is “produced” at low or zero marginal cost.

How do you incentivise capital to invest aggressively at low returns on capital?

As I’ve discussed, the Chinese have no problem doing this. Like the rest of the world it enjoys surplus capital. The price tells us that. But China is able to mobilise this cheap capital in a way no-one else does. Partly it’s the extraordinary initial profitability to 2007, partly it’s capital controls and mainly it’s political. Political advantage in China comes from investing and creating higher levels of activity, either as entrepreneurs or cadres.

The solution to the problem is public sector investment. It’s investment in infrastructure, in the platform of the economy that creates growth. It is, and this addresses Krugman’s first point, also a matter of thinking about reforming patent and copyright law. China is an open-source economy. This makes it terrible for capital. It’s the worst place in the world to invest. But it creates a strong platform for growth and with the platform for growth comes usage payments: taxes.

http://anabundantworld.com/2013/06/20/krugman-exploring-a-post-capital-world/

Chinese Censorship, US Espionage, and Propaganda

2013-06-28T23:59:00.000-07:00

China, Censorship, and the NSA
The Chinese Government is no slouch when it comes to computing. China has, for example, the

State Department Forbids Access to Wikileaks

world's fastest computer, the most advanced photonic communications devices, and the most computer science Ph.D.s on earth. They have long been aware of the spying carried out by America's NSA, and of the destructive propaganda that passes for news spread by the West's corporate-controlled, government-based media designed to destroy governments like themselves, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Russia.

China could have elected to compete by spreading propaganda themselves but instead have chosen to restrict the spread of such poisonous nonsense by making access to such espionage/propaganda difficult – though not impossible, as any resident of China will attest. In retrospect, this policy seems wiser and more moderate than engaging in a pissing match against the massed forces of the West's corporate-controlled, government-based media.

Western media has, at the same time, been practicing the most blatant form of censorship by deleting information that might embarrass Western corporations or the governments which they fully control. As an example, have you read the Application for Asylum submitted by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden? It's a public document, submitted by a US citizen to one of the most respected courts of justice in the world and it's been read by hundreds of millions of people. But none of them in the West. So, as you read Mr. Snowden's request, ask yourself, "If Western media were government-controlled, would it be any different?"

Here's the missing element from the Snowden story:

"I, Edward Snowden, citizen of the United States of America, am writing to request asylum in the Republic of Ecuador because of the risk of being persecuted by the government of the United States and its agents in relation to my decision to make public serious violations on the part of the government of the United States of its Constitution, specifically of its Fourth and Fifth Amendments, and of various treaties of the United Nations that are binding on my country.

As a result of my political opinions, and my desire to exercise my freedom of speech, through which I’ve shown that the government of the United States is intercepting the majority of communications in the world, the government of the United States has publicly announced a criminal investigation against me. Also, prominent members of Congress and others in the media have accused me of being a traitor and have called for me to be jailed or executed as a result of having communicated this information to the public.

Some of the charges that have been presented against me by the Justice Department of the United States are connected to the 1917 Espionage Act, one of which includes life in prison among the possible sentences.

Ecuador granted asylum to the founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, in relation to this investigation. My case is also very similar to that of the American soldier Bradley Manning, who made public government information through Wikileaks revealing war crimes, was arrested by the United States government and has been treated inhumanely during his time in prison. He was put in solitary confinement before his trial and the U.N. anti-torture representative judged that Mr. Manning was submitted to cruel and inhumane acts by the United States government.
The trial against Bradley Manning is ongoing now, and secret documents have been presented to the court and secret witnesses have testified.

I believe that, given these circumstances, it is unlikely that I would receive a fair trial or proper treatment prior to that trial, and face the possibility of life in prison or even death".

Here are a few more (of thousands) of examples of censorship in the West. While you're looking at them, remember that 80% of Chinese trust their media. 40% of Americans trust theirs:

US National Archives Has Blocked Searches for ‘WikiLeaks’

Screen shot of blocked US National Archives search

Searches for “WikiLeaks” in the public search engine for the US National Archives have been blocked, according to a posting at Cryptome.org. Any search containing the word “WikiLeaks (like “Congress” and “WikiLeaks”) turns up an error message.

WikiLeaks reacted on Twitter, “The US National Archives has literally turned into Orwell’s Ministry of Truth.” In another more vivid message, “The US state is literally eating its own brain by censoring its own collective memories about WikiLeaks.” And, in another message, “The US National Archives censoring searches for its records containing the word ‘WikiLeaks’ is absolutely absurd.”

"The announcement first came from EUTELSAT, a French-based company that runs satellites which broadcast news over Europe as well as the Middle East, Africa, India and parts of Asia and the Americas. Without warning, the company informed Iran’s Press TV, the English-language 24-hour news channel, that it
was not allowed to beam its TV shows to Europe. I should add that I once anchored for the channel and now make an independent production for them. (I’ll get to the ban being a precursor for media-management of another terrible war, later.)

Press TV rang a spokesperson at EUTELSAT who explained it wasn’t their fault: they said they had been told to ban the channel by the European Commission. And Press TV, wasn’t the only one – the continent that cradled the Enlightenment also thought eight more television channels were too dangerous for Descartes, Locke, and Voltaire to watch." http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/11/05/when-censorship-goes-system-wide/ And...

Thirty-three percent of Britons were confident about the quality and integrity of their media
in the winter of 2011-2012, marking the first measurable decline in years.

Read more at GALLUP.com.

And...60% of Americans have "no trust at all" in their media.

For more on censorship world wide, see Censorship America

And for more about censorship in China, from a very experienced journalist, see this :

And still more on censorship in the USA, where we find precisely the same kinds of crimes
are censored

And this beauty:

Google: If You Use Google Search, The FBI Are Watching You

And this:

(Reuters) - Iran's English-language Press TV channel has been dropped from the satellite platform that allowed it to broadcast in the United States and Canada, the channel said. The state-owned, 24-hour network broadcasts world news and pro-government views beyond Iran's borders. Press TV had broadcast in North America on the Galaxy 19 satellite platform. The channel did not say when it was dropped. Read more..

US Military Preserves Network Hygiene

The US military has blocked access to the Guardian news website, but it wasn't done to censor free speech, but just "to preserve 'network hygiene'". :)

Military admits to filtering reports and content relating to government surveillance programs for thousands of personnel

The Pentagon insisted the Department of Defense was not seeking to block the whole website, merely taking steps to restrict access to certain content.

"The Department of Defense routinely takes preventative 'network hygiene' measures to mitigate unauthorized disclosures of classified information onto DoD unclassified networks."

And more here

The Pan-Asia Railway

2013-06-28T21:10:00.002-07:00

Chinese Railway Link to Asian neighbors

From Beijing you can go South to Hanoi, Vietnam or west to Astana, Kazakhstan. You could choose Ulan Bator, Mongolia or go to Harbin and Vladivostok, then on to Moscow via the trans-Siberian railroad. Having made the trans-Siberian trip in 1970, I would love to do it again today to see the changes.

Eurasian Rail Bridge?

The Trans-Asia Railway, or Eurasian Land Bridge (the trans-Siberian line is part of this) and the New Eurasian Land Bridge are components of railway networks designed to connect China to Europe through Central Asia. In fact, there is already regular freight service from Beijing to Berlin!

Reuters recently reported that Kazakh authorities have added another link to this project by launching a new line between Zhetygen and Korgas – completed last year.

There’s also a 223-mile high-speed rail link under construction to the North Korean border as part of three planned high-speed railways to connect China and North Korea – thus bringing the DPRK into the Eurasian Land Bridge and posing a strong incentive for South Korea, which would love to ship its goods to Europe by land.

According to Xinhua, the 253-km line from Lhasa, Tibet, to Xigaze should be completed by the end of this year. And talks are already underway about a link onwards to Nepal. Talk about exotic rail travel!

The most interesting scheme, however, is the plan to build a line between Vientiane, Laos, and Kunming, southern China, as a trade route between the two countries and as a link in a planned connection between China and Singapore. Singapore and China will probably combine forces to finance the cost of this line because its cost is almost as big as Laos’ $7 billion GDP!

Rail-wise, things are jumping on the Eurasian continent. Stay tuned. In the meantime, here's a personal look at one of the high speed trains:

The Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe International Railway

Posted on February 20, 2012 by China Briefing

By Julia Gu

Feb. 20 – Since separating from Southwest China’s Sichuan Province in 1997, the municipality of Chongqing has emerged as one of China’s fastest developing regions and is regarded by Beijing as the epicenter of the country’s “Go West” campaign.

Last year, the province-sized city with a population of 28.85 million attracted US$11 billion in foreign direct investment and its GDP grew 16.5 percent year-on-year to RMB920 billion (US$145 billion). According to the Chongqing municipal government, the city expects 13.5 percent GDP growth this year.

Chongqing’s officials attribute this tremendous economic growth largely to the city’s continually improving infrastructure, particularly its transport system.

Even just a few years ago, if trading companies in Chongqing wanted to send goods to Europe, they would have to first go through a coastal port city such as Shanghai or Guangzhou to then be shipped through the Straits of Malacca – which was both time-consuming and expensive. In addition, some sections of the shipping route warranted serious safety concerns.

Inspired by the “New Silk Road” (also known as the New Eurasian Land Bridge or the Second Eurasian Continental Bridge) that connects Lianyungang Port in Jiangsu Province with Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Antwerp in Belgium, Chongqing’s government leaders in July 2008 brought about a plan to make use of the continental railway network to open up a trade channel for the city.

This ambitious plan manifested itself in the form of the Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe international railway, which officially came online on July 1, 2011. The new route starts from Chongqing and arrives in Duisburg, Germany – covering 11,179 kilometers in 16 days. The domestic section of the railway passes the inland cities of Xi’an, Lanzhou and Urumqi, and enters Kazakhstan in Central Asia from the Alataw Pass (Alashan Kou) in the Börtala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The international section of the railway travels through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and Poland before reaching Germany.

Currently, the train leaves Chongqing for Duisburg once a month, but train services may be increased to once per day in the future as the city’s exports to Europe increase, according to Chongqing’s Mayor Huang Qifan. The article continues here...

China's Communist Party: Democracy Now?

2013-06-28T14:35:00.000-07:00

ONE MAN. ONE VOTE?

Chinese democracy under the Communist Party has a fascinating history that is little known in the West. The Cultural Revolution, for example, was an attempt to implement direct democracy...in a recklessly revolutionary manner.
More recently, the Party has been implemeting democratic reforms at all levels in keeping with their stated intention of bringing China to full democracy faster than the USA did–which was 190 years (if we ignore the still-critical Electoral College).

Chinese people today enjoy greater democractic particiaption than ever in their 3,000 year history. The article below, from China Daily, reflects the next step in a 10-year process of involving more people–82,000,000 Party members–in electing China's supreme governing body. Note the sting in the last paragraph: Party members are still resisting disclosing their personal assets, though this proposal was introduced 5 years ago.

For a really wonderful debate about democracy in China, watch this

Official Vows to Promote
Greater Party Democracy

"The transparency of the Party has improved, but in a gradual manner. Obligations of Party officials, such as releasing their personal assets, need stricter enforcement".

(China Daily: 8/15/2012) Competitive elections and tenure system will help push ‘crucial task’
A senior official of the Communist Party of China pledged on Tuesday to carry out greater intra-Party democracy, a task experts said is crucial. The pledge came as the 91-year-old Party elected 2,270 delegates to attend a national congress later this year.
The elections, held from October to July, have seen an unprecedented choice, with every 100 delegates elected from a field of more than 115 candidates.

This represents a bigger choice than the 2002 and 2007 congresses.
The elected delegates will represent more than 82 million CPC members to attend the Party’s 18th National Congress.
They will vote in a once-in-five-year leadership election of the CPC Central Committee and its Political Bureau Standing Committee.
They will also review reports delivered by the CPC Central Committee and the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC.
Wang Jingqing, deputy head of the CPC Organization Department, said members of the CPC Central Committee, a high-level ruling body of the Party, will also be elected with a wide pool, but the exact figure has yet to be decided.
Wang, speaking at one of the first news conferences concerning the congress, said on Tuesday that intra-Party democracy is the lifeline of the Party and should be steadily encouraged across the board.
Wang said he foresees growing endorsement of the rights of Party members, among other steps, on the road to greater intra-Party democracy.
Referring to elections offering greater choice, Wang said the CPC has also, for the first time, used the multi-candidate method when working out preliminary lists of candidates for elections.
Some local Party committees have, for the first time, released the names of delegates on newspapers and TV programs to encourage more Party members to participate and offer feedback for the election.
Wang said future efforts will include increasing the number of grassroots delegates to attend the Party congress.
"In addition, a better enforcement of the right to know as well as the right of participation, decision and supervision are also essential in reinforcing the dominant power of the Party members," he said.
Wang admitted that meeting the goal requires a modification of the Party congress system, which primarily involves better implementation of the tenure system of delegates.
Under the system, delegates will be empowered to supervise Party organizations and leading officials, to recommend, elect and assess Party officials, said Lin Zhe, professor at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee. They can also put forward proposals for dismissing Party officials, among many other rights, throughout their tenure.
The system was designed for delegates to better supervise Party officials even when the congress was not convened.

Western Democracy

Everyone knows that a relatively small number of wealthy people donate the lion’s share of money to political campaigns. But, you probably never suspected just how small that group actually is.

Thanks to the amazing Sunlight Foundation, we now know that just 31,385 people — one tenth of one percent of the overall U.S. population — are responsible for nearly 30 percent of the $6 billion (yes, billion with a “b”) contributed to federal campaigns and committees in the 2012 election.

The 31,385 people who qualify as the one percent of the one percent of political donors wouldn’t even come close to filling a football stadium. 84 percent of those elected in 2012 took more money from these 1% of the 1% donors than they did from all of their small donors combined.

The full Sunlight report is fascinating and chock full of great charts that illustrate the one percent of the one percent. Check it out.

Chinese and American People Grade their Governments

2013-06-18T19:33:00.000-07:00

American Governance Seen Through Americans' Eyes

CBS News, June 28, 2011, 12:01 AM. Americans see their leaders in Washington as overpaid agents of wealthy individuals and corporations who are largely disconnected from the concerns of average Americans.

Don't take my word for it: For our series "United States of Influence," which debuts today, CBS News asked Americans why they are so constantly frustrated with the men and women charged with representing them. (Read more about the series)

Their responses were striking, though their frustration is not new. Seven in ten said people like them have little say in what their government does; eight in ten said most members of Congress are primarily interested in serving special interests, not the people they ostensibly represent. (Read the full poll)

Two in three - including nearly half of Republicans - say the rich benefit most from the federal government's policies. More than seven in ten say special interest groups and large corporations have too much influence on American life. Nearly the same percentage says the salaries and benefits of most members of Congress are too high.

It adds up to the fact that most Americans feel alienated from their political leaders and dissatisfied or angry with Washington. Read the rest on CBS News.

Chinese Governance Seen Through the People’s Eyes

Tony Saich, Harvard University– East Asia Forum

The central leadership seems well aware of the problems confronting it and has responded with calls for better and more transparent government and for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to monitor itself and the actions of government more effectively.

The key challenge is whether the CCP can develop the governing capacityto deal with the multiple challenges it faces (inequality, social unrest, unemployment, effective urbanisation, environmental degradation) or whether these questions will rise to a level where they overwhelm the administrative capacity to deal with them. The leadership rejects ‘Western-style’ political structures and thus it is incumbent on them to develop the kind of institutions within the framework of one-party rule that can not only maintain economic growth but also deal with social tensions, provide sufficient transparency to reduce corruption, and make officials accountable to the citizens who pay their wages.

Liberalisation will have to be at least a partial substitution for full democratisation.

Since taking power in 2002–2003, General Secretary Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have committed the administration to improving the quality of governance and, in particular, improving the lot of those who have not benefitted so well from the reforms to date. Managing this process would be a tall order for any system. One important question is what the Chinese people think of the nation’s governing capacity. It is reasonable to presume that, if citizens are more satisfied with government performance and the provision of public goods and services, the administration will have a greater capacity for policy experimentation and enjoy a residual trust that may help government to survive policy errors.

To investigate this, I surveyed some 4,000 respondents on their attitude towards government. There are two sets of findings with implications for governance and reform.

First, how satisfied are citizens with their government? With substantial political reform ruled off the agenda anytime soon, policy is focused on improving the quality of local officials and instilling in them a more upright, moral vision of what a good official should be — a Confucian notion in all but name. Policy initiatives have been introduced to help those at the bottom of the pile.

Two clear trends are visible. Citizens ‘disaggregate’ the state and, while they express high levels of satisfaction with the central government, satisfaction declines with each lower level of government. While in 2009, 95.9 per cent were either relatively or extremely satisfied with the central government, this dropped to 61.5 per cent at the local level (see graph below).

In China, local governments provide almost all public services and the fact that satisfaction levels decline as one gets closer to the people is a worrying sign. However, satisfaction with lower levels of government has risen steadily since Hu and Wen took over leadership, rising from 43.6 per cent. In the villages, the highest and the lowest income earners are the most satisfied. This would suggest that the wealthy have done well under the current system, while the poorest are clearly responding to such Hu-Wen policy initiatives as the abolition of the agricultural tax or the extension of medical insurance and basic welfare guarantees. This notwithstanding, the trend is distinct from that in many developed economies, where satisfaction levels tend to rise as government gets closer to the people, indicating that people in other countries feel that they may have greater control over the decisions of local government than Chinese citizens do.

So what do Chinese citizens want their government to do? Citizen satisfaction with the provision of specific public services reveals some interesting insights that are helpful for thinking about what local government should concentrate on to improve satisfaction levels.

Essentially, citizens are satisfied with those services that the traditional model could deliver well (water and electricity supply, road and bridge construction, family planning) but want the government to concentrate on providing solutions to those challenges that derive from the shocks of the transition to a market-influenced economy (job creation, labour and medical insurance, environmental health). It is unlikely that local governments will raise more funds to provide these services, with the consequence that they will have to reduce costs, contract out services or find new partnerships and focus more clearly on the kinds of services local governments can and should provide.

While the consequences of these findings may raise concerns about the quality of local governance, it is not necessarily bad news for the central government. In 2009, 30 per cent of respondents thought that their officials were incompetent, and 40 per cent that they just looked after their own interests. Corruption is always ranked as the biggest problem. The low levels of satisfaction might be an indicator of possible social instability, but the survey suggests that citizens do not see the problem as lying with the central government but rather with poor implementation at the local level or the incompetence or venality of local officials.

Percentage of citizens relatively satisfied or extremely satisfied with government

(Author’s own surveys 2003–2009)

Tony Saich is Professor and Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. This article also appeared in the most recent edition of East Asia Forum Quarterly, ‘Governing China’.

China's Economy for April 2012: By the Numbers

2013-06-15T01:12:00.001-07:00

Whenever I get a comprehensive snapshot of China's economy from China Daily I'll paste it here. China's stats are probably

more realistic than ours, as professional investors in China, like Mark Mobius, attest.

Check out this link for a quick picture of China's economy 90 days ago:

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2013Numbers_04/

How Will China Rule the World?

2013-06-14T03:36:00.000-07:00

The same way they've always done: by amazement and admiration. They're drawing on 2,200 years of continuous, archived history and promote their 39,000 geniuses (IQ 160+) to positions of responsibility – just as they've always done.

That's why, in Chinese historical dramas, you see everyone so respectful of Beijing officials: they're geniuses and they run the damn country. The previous Chinese president/premier duo were child prodigies who were nurtured by the Party from an early age, and promoted fast enough to keep them interested and learning. That's why you see billboards in China advertising appliances announcing that the Government buys these air-conditioners, or whatever. The message is, "If the smartest people on earth use Flying Pigeon Air Conditioners...Sholdn't You?"

Quicker, easier and, in the long run, much cheaper than militarism.

Below, you see the fruits of these geniuses' labors. % years ago they said they wanted the inland provinces to grow so as to make incomes in China less unequal (the coastal provinces were getting the lion's share).

Fast forward to today and...

China, Hong Kong, and Edward Snowdon

2013-06-12T18:27:00.004-07:00

Bearing in mind that this is a political case, and that all politics is local politics, here's my preferred

China, Hong Kong, and Edward Snowdon

scenario for how the NSA/Edward Snowdon/Hong Kong drama will play out: "Hong Kong" – used by the West for so long as a stick to beat China – will now be used as a stick to beat the West.

The CCP will take an ostensible 'hands off' approach to the whole affair, which looks good to Taiwan as it prepares for reunification with the mainland. And Taiwan is the key to this drama, as it is to all of China's foreign policy. The sequence will be a very public form of Chinese water torture:

The US will apply to Hong Kong to extradite Mr. Snowdon.
Mr. Snowdon will appeal to the Government of Hong Kong.
In keeping with Hong Kong's tradition of "free speech" the Government of Hong Kong will allow his appeal and set a court date for an initial hearing three months thence.
The public hearing will allow Mr. Snowdon to air – in front of the world press – his side of the story, along with new revelations – thus keeping the scandal alive in the Western media.
The judge will permit Mr. Snowdon's appeal to go ahead and will set a court date for initial submissions 3 months thence.
Rinse and repeat for 3–5 years. An excruciating process for the USA and a deeply gratifying one for the CCP
The Government of China will wash its hands of the matter, claiming that the 'one country two systems' policy prevents their interference.

Hong Kong has long served as the base for Western sedition and spying on China, with the USA alone pouring billions of dollars into it and where US ambassadors routinely advocate the overthrow of the CCP. The irony of the situation – and the collateral payoff in terms of Taiwanese reactions – is truly wonderful.

Of course, the USA could foresee this sequence and decide simply to assassinate Mr. Snowdon, as he acknowledges. But that's another matter.

Taiwan China Reunification Watch

2013-06-11T21:38:00.000-07:00

MAKING ROOM FOR TAIWAN

U.S. imperialists invaded China's territory of Taiwan and has occupied it for the past nine years. A

Xi & Honorary Chairman of the KMT Party Wu Poh-Hsiung

short while ago it sent its armed forces to invade and occupy Lebanon. The United States has set up hundreds of military bases in many countries all over the world. China's territory of Taiwan, Lebanon and all military bases of the United States on foreign soil are so many nooses round the neck of U.S. imperialism. The nooses have been fashioned by the Americans themselves and by nobody else, and it is they themselves who have put these nooses round their own necks, handing the ends of the ropes to the Chinese people, the peoples of the Arab countries and all the peoples of the world who love peace and oppose aggression. The longer the U.S. aggressors remain in those places, the tighter the nooses round their necks will become.
– Mao Tse Tung, September 8, 1958, at the Supreme State Conference.

Reunification with Taiwan has been China's core strategic goal for 60 years. Now the vagrant province is on the glide-path to reunification during President Xi's tenure. Happily, China has been reabsorbing wayward provinces since Jesus walked the earth and it's a familiar ritual whose celebrants know their roles.

For all but the terminally deluded like Taiwan's ex-President Chen Shui-ban (currently languishing in jail for his naivety) reunification was always a foregone conclusion. The Jovian pull of China's gravitational field is irresistible. It's so strong that, during my annual visits to Australia the country's leading businesspeople – on the front pages of the national press and on their mainstream TV – loudly advocate replacing Australia's US alliance with a Chinese one. Australia's continued alliance with the US is a 'hindrance' they say, and a 'danger'.

The same tractor-beam that attracts big, distant Australia draws tiny, close Taiwan closer each day. Heads of both of Taiwan's major political parties – urged on by their leading industrialists – have already pilgrimaged to The Forbidden City and pledged allegiance to the Emperor. Like repentant schismatics over the centuries they were sent back to their island-province laden with gold, fine silks, and even finer promises. Promises to upgrade the wealth and status of the Taiwanese elite, to grant privileged access for every Taiwanese industry, and promises to continuing to stream millions of wealthy mainland tourists to keep the island's hotels and stores filled to capacity. More than 3 million of them will arrive this year, and the program is just getting started.

Taiwan's banks and insurance companies, savvier marketers than their mainland rivals, get access to China's conservative, under-insured, increasingly wealthy consumers. Doors closed to foreigners will be opened for Taiwan.

New legislation already promise such obscure benefits as access to China's inland waterways, the cheapest freight access to the heartland. Soon Taiwanese vessels will sail thousands of kilometres up the Yangtze and the Yalu to deliver Taiwanese cargoes. No outside country – Japan or South Korea – can dream of such access. There's an exhaustive list of concessions and every item on it has an assigned 'minder', a mainland bureaucrat responsible for ensuring that good things happen for Taiwan.

In addition to the gravitational pull two recent developments have accelerated the convergence.

President-elect Xi's campaign to clean up mainland corruption (currently no worse than Taiwan's, according to Taiwanese investors) adds significantly to the attraction of reunification. Xi is an uncommonly moral man ("a Chinese Mandela" according to Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew). If he can do for China what he did for Shanghai – which has been exemplary in its honesty and efficiency since Xi's cleanup – it will be a powerful attractant to island Chinese who share mainlanders' longing for moral leadership.

Japan has hastened reunification by playing its familiar role as aggressor. On a clear day Taiwanese can see the Diaoyu Islands. Taiwanese regard them as 'theirs' just as passionately as mainlanders do. They know that only China can enforce their sovereignty in the face of Japan's grab. The threat to the Diaoyus has done more to weaken the Taiwan independence movement than any event since 1947.

It also helps that Xi has family in Taiwan. Given his genial image a 'family' visit to Taiwan is easy to imagine around, say 2020.

Reunification is all over bar the shouting.

The already muted shouting will be reduced to grumbling until Taiwanese public sentiment catches up. Then it's a matter of implementing the already-agreed negotiation terms. Taiwan is getting a deal so good – Keep your own system while we make you richer – that nearby Okinawans will eye it enviously (see this, for example: http://stratrisks.com/geostrat/10609).

In addition to privileged access to continental China, Taiwan will enjoy a 'peace dividend'. Most of the island's $20 billion annual defence budget will be plowed back into shiny new infrastructure. Taiwanese pilots will get new Chinese fighters, their generals promotions and decorations. That's why Taiwan isn't pushing for F-16s any more.

The Taiwan schism is the last wound still suppurating after our attacks on China began 200 years ago. Its healing will allow China to accelerate its social reform program and greatly relax its posture in the region and in the world. The celebration will make the Beijing Olympics look like a sideshow.

Signs include:

Submarine fiber-optic cable links Taiwan, China.
Taiwan to Let Banks do Yuan Trade.
Taiwanese permitted to invest in Chinese public companies – a privilege heretofore given to mainland Chinese citizens.
Beijing and Taipei plan exchange of government officials: Representative offices on both sides of strait will house government officials, who may be granted privileges enjoyed by foreign diplomats
Senior U.S. senator faults Taiwan over arms "complacency"When it comes to Taiwan's military capabilities, there seems to be a puzzling sense of complacency in Taipei, said Senator John Cornyn. Gosh, I wonder why?

Talk of the Day -- Next stage in Taiwan-China relations

2013/02/21 22:13:31

The two sides of the Taiwan Strait will soon begin a new stage of interaction in the wake of power transition in the Communist Party of China (CPC), according to local media reports.

Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang has confirmed that its honorary chairman, Lien Chan, will depart for Beijing Feb. 24 for a four-day visit at the head of a delegation of KMT officials and business executives.

Media reports said Lien, a former vice president of the Rwan), is visiting Beijing at the invitation of the CPC's upper echelons and that he wil

And This:

Taiwanese media? More like TSAIwanese media

Taiwan's answer to monolithic media dictator Rupert Murdoch, Tsai Eng-Meng has set his sights on procuring a 32 percent majority share in his biggest rival company, Next Media Group, which will make him helmsman of just under half of Taiwan's newspapers.

Critics argue that Tsai's distinctly pro-PRC position threatens the independence of Taiwanese media and is at odds with Taiwan's efforts to distance their own political interests from those of Beijing.

In an interview with Washington Post in January 2012, Tsai expressed his belief that Taiwan's merger with China "is going to happen sooner or later." Though doubtless he is pushing for the former.

An internal company newsletter in 2008 quoted Tsai proclaiming that the very reason he acquired the China Times Group was to "use the power of the press to advance relations between China and Taiwan".

And this:

Taiwan slipping off US agenda: panel - Taipei Times
Defense policy adviser Eric Sayers, a member of Virginia Republican Representative Randy Forbes’ staff, said that Taiwan was not mentioned often on Capitol Hill because Taipei had established such a close relationship with Beijing. “That is not necessarily a good thing because there are some shortfalls going on in terms of arms sales,” he said. Addressing a Heritage Foundation symposium on the view of Asia this year from Washington, Sayers said that arms sales to Taiwan were winning less attention than in the past

And this:

Ma less trustworthy than Xi Jinping: poll

By Chen Hui-ping and Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter, with staff writer/ Taipei Times

SHAKY SUPPORT:More than half of the respondents said they do not trust President Ma, compared with 34.4 percent who said they are skeptical of the new Chinese leader

And this:

Taiwan allows Chinese banks to buy bigger stakes in local lenders | TODAYonline-
Taiwan will ease rules to allow Chinese banks to buy bigger stakes in local banks and permit more Chinese firms to invest in its financial industry, the island’s financial regulator said on Monday, marking a major advance in cross-strait ties.

And this:

Xi Jinping to meet KMT honorary chairman

BEIJING, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, will meet with Wu Po-hsiung, honorary chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT) later this month, a mainland spokeswoman announced on Sunday.
Wu will lead a KMT delegation from Taiwan on a visit to the mainland from June 12 to 14, according to Fan Liqing, of the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office.
Xi will exchange views with him on issues such as relations between the CPC and KMT as well as mainland-Taiwan ties, Fan said.
The spokeswoman said the meeting will be "an important activity" in the high-level exchanges between the two parties under new circumstances.
A press release posted on the KMT official website on Sunday also praised the upcoming meeting as a "new beginning" and said both sides are attaching great importance to it.
KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou will meet with some of the delegation members before they leave for the mainland, the release said.
It described the meeting as a "constructive dialogue" that indicates the two parties' emphasis on the KMT-CPC platform and their commitment to maintaining and advancing the peaceful development of cross-Strait ties.

And this:

Beijing's 31 ways to win over Taiwan hearts and minds

Director of cross-strait offices uses high-level forum to unveil initiatives to deepen economic, cultural and social exchanges. Beijing has unveiled a basket of initiatives to deepen economic, cultural and social exchanges across the Taiwan Strait, following a high-profile meeting last week between President Xi Jinping and Wu Poh-hsiung, the honorary chairman of Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang.

Wu, who is believed to act as a proxy for Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou, also expressed Taiwan's desire to join Asia's Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and to participate in other global activities.

The director of the mainland's Taiwan Affairs Office, Zhang Zhijun, said yesterday at the opening of a week-long high-level forum on cross-strait exchanges in Xiamen, Fujian province that the mainland would announce 31 measures this week to cultivate cross-strait interactions.

Among the six measures that he disclosed was the access that Taiwanese would be given to 10 categories of accreditation tests on the mainland, as well as the establishment of 10 cross-strait cultural exchange centres on the mainland.

Further, the mainland's Supreme People's Court will grant legal status to civil arbitration agreements formulated by arbitration committees in Taiwan.

And this:

Ma says meeting with Xi Jinping rests on popular approval

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- President Ma Ying jeou said yesterday that a meeting with Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping (習近平) depends on the approval and support of the Taiwanese people. The president made the above comment during an interview with Bloomberg News.

Ma said that if he were to meet Xi, he would meet him as president of the Republic of China, and that even though he hasn't excluded the possibility of meeting Xi before stepping down in 2016, the conditions for such an event are still not in place.

Tiananmen: Did a Massacre Happen?

2013-06-02T15:00:00.000-07:00

Was There a Massacre in Tiananmen Square?

According to the Department of State, The Columbia Journalism Review, and Britain's Daily Telegraph, the Tiananmen "massacre" never happened. Yet the "massacre" is constantly referred by Western media to this day.

The Rape of Nanjing did happen – the worst massacre in recorded history – is thoroughly documented, and is never referred to when speaking of Japan. Here's a reminder of that incident:

One of the greatest atrocities in history was the rape of Nanking. Most humans are capable of great evil and this is one horrific example. Several hundred thousand were raped, murdered and tossed into the Yangtze River. There were so many bodies, the water turned red. Others were buried alive after digging their own graves.

Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanking was published November 1997 and became a bestseller while Japan tried to discredit the book. Iris Chang committed suicide on November 10, 2004. She was 36 and left behind a husband and two-year-old child.

Then in 2011, The Flowers of War was released, a movie that focuses on the rape of Nanking, starring Christian Bale.

Roger Ebert wrote in his movie review, "The Rape of Nanking (1937-38), one of the most horrifying atrocities in history, during which the Imperial Japanese Army invaded the Chinese capital city and slaughtered an estimated 300,000 civilians, usually raping the women first. It is one thing for civilians to die in the course of a war, and another for them to be hunted down and wiped out on a personal basis for the crime of their race.

Here's some in-depth research that's worth reading: What is the Truth about Tiananmen Square?

And here's an interesting update, posted on the anniversary of the Incident, about the Hong Kong Mothers of Tiananmen and their demonstration for 'justice':

HRIC is funded by private foundations and individuals from Europe, Asia, and North America. HRIC obtained supported from the Open Society Institute, the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, the European Human Rights Foundation, Human Rights Watch, Asia Watch, etc. It also receives funding from National Endowment for Democracy (NED). The New York University School of Law honored Robert L. Bernstein by establishing the Robert L. Bernstein Fellowship in International Human Rights in 2006, annually providing an opportunity for a recent School of Law graduate to engage in full-time human rights work at HRIC

So we have George Soros, the NED, and the usual suspects. (In case you've forgotten, the NED is an arm of the freedom-loving CIA).

China's Economic Growth is ACCELERATING, Not Slowing

2013-06-02T03:36:00.001-07:00

Much is being made of the "slowdown" of the Chinese economy, and even of its 'slump' because its rate of growth has been throttled back from 10% annually to 7.5%.

So, yes, the growth RATE has fallen. But the ECONOMY itself is growing faster than ever before – an almost unbelievable feat.

At 7.5%, China will be growing much faster in the next ten years than in the previous decade.

That’s because the economy was only $4 trillion, or half its current size ($8.5 trillion) ten years ago.

10% of 4 trillion (2002 GDP) is 400 billion

7.5% of $8.5 trillion (2012 GDP) = $638 billion.

$638 billion is how much China will ADD TO ITS GDP in 2013.

In 2014, at 7.5%, it will add another $690 billion. And so on for 10 years.

How shall I put it? CHINA’S GROWTH IS ACCELERATING.

[Just to be sure, I ran this by someone who is trained in such calculations. Here is his response: "Your conclusions are correct. The percentage rate of growth of China's economy has moderated, but absolute GDP growth is accelerating because, as you correctly pointed out, we are calculating from a much higher base.

All the 'slowdow' rhetoric emanates from the West, mostly the US, who takes pride in even false statistics. When China soon passes the absolute size of the US economy, this will probably disappear from the narrative because the Americans tend to dwell only on those measures where they can be seen as leader. When China's GDP is larger than that of the US, GDP will magically no longer be a useful indicator of anything; it will be the "quality" of GDP that is important.

This has already happened with patents, where China has passed #2 Japan and is nearing the US in applications. The noise today is that China applies for patents, but they are of "low quality", definition of which adjective is of course not provided".]

Corruption With Chinese Characteristics

2013-06-01T21:49:00.000-07:00

Corruption Prosecuted Only in China?

Western media have been waging a corruption perception war on China since the Communist Party came to power 60 years ago but lately the framing of the story has changed.

Our press talks, almost daily, about corruption in Chinese government yet is silent about the systemic corruption in our own. They'll cover domestic corruption incidents if they're scandalous but frame the issue so that our legislators and businessmen who get caught are merely rotten apples. Western governments themselves are almost completely silent about government corruption. Our business leaders' corruption is, of course, ignored, and the rare prosecution is aimed at underlings and whistleblowers and, even then, carried out with obvious reluctance.

The Chinese media, by contrast, shout from the rooftops that corruption will doom the Communist Party. The country is going to the dogs, they say, and it's the corrupt officials who are to blame. And the business class? They're often presented as even more venal than the government; prosecutions of the Chinese financiers are reported in lip-smacking details and, if the wretched businessman is condemned to death (not uncommon), then so much the better! Kill the chicken, frighten the monkeys.

You get the impression that a corrupt official in China can make a lot of money. But you also get the impression that he can be imprisoned or executed with considerable relish.

Framing the Chinese Narrative
Western Media: Our politicians are moral and trustworthy with the exception of a few bad apples. The system they govern is the world's best because it's free and democratic. Compared to ours, China's leaders are authoritarian princeling slave-drivers who exploit their people for personal gain and power. And China's economy is about to collapse – its people are on the verge of open rebellion. We, the media who are reporting this to you, are honest, truthful and free because our government doesn't believe in censorship.

Chinese Media: Our politicians and business leaders are riddled with corruption from top to bottom. The system they govern is unbalanced, uncoordinated, and unsustainable. This rampant corruption is destroying the credibility of the Communist Party and if it continues it will destroy the entire country. Why aren't more officials and corrupt financiers being prosecuted? And China should study the West and learn from it because it will take us decades to reach their level of democracy, civil society, and prosperity and media sophistication. Chinese media are just learning the craft of journalism and we rely on Government censors to ensure that what we publish is fair, useful, and accurate.

Western Narrative vs. Western Reality
Our politicians auction themselves to rich people every 4 years. The 2012 Presidency was auctioned off for $1.2 billion per candidate. All other elected offices were also auctioned to the highest bidder. Our system is so crooked that it actually weeds out honest candidates. Only glib liars who are willing to vote as their sponsors demand can be elected. As a result our system is broken; wages have been falling for 40 years, people's net worth has vanished so that 80% of us will retire with no assets at all. Our oligarchs take all the money and leave little for anyone else.

I'd rather have our government warning us about government corruption than making it part of their modus operandi. In my opinion, the Chinese government is the most honest of all the major nations'. The results they obtain – year after year – cannot be accomplished by a corrupt government. And the Chinese people agree: 80% of them trust the Government of China (Pew, Edelman, Harvard). So strong is the trust that the people of Taiwan trust the President of China much more than they trust their own, recently-elected President.

Imagine what our lives would be like if we could trust our government to that degree!

China's Economy for April 2013 – The Bottom Line

2013-06-01T18:34:00.000-07:00

China's retail sales up 12.8% in April

China's retail sales grew 12.8 percent year-on-year to 1.76 trillion yuan ($283.4 billion) in April, the National Bureau of Statistics announced Monday.

FDI growth up for third consecutive month

Foreign direct investment in China grew for a third consecutive month in April, suggesting overseas investors' approval of the country's investment environment.

China's fiscal revenue rises 6.1% in April

China's fiscal revenue grew 6.1 percent year-on-year to 1.14 trillion yuan ($183.66 billion) in April, according to data released Monday by the Ministry of Finance.

China's fixed-asset investment up 20.6% in Jan-April

China's urban fixed asset investment growth accelerated 20.6 percent year on year to 9.13 trillion yuan ($147.29 billion) in the first four months of the year.

China's industrial output up 9.3% in April

China's industrial value-added output rose 9.3 percent year-on-year in April, the National Bureau of Statistics said Monday.

China's April new loans drop

China's new yuan-denominated lending dropped to 792.9 billion yuan in April, down from 1.06 trillion yuan in March.

China's April PPI down 2.6%

China's producer price index (PPI), which measures inflation at the wholesale level, fell 2.6 percent year on year in April.

China's inflation rises to 2.4% in April

China's consumer price index grew 2.4 percent year on year in April, up from 2.1 percent in March, the National Bureau of Statistics said Thursday.

China's export rises 14.7% in April

China's exports increased 14.7 percent year on year in April, while import surges 16.8 percent, the General Administration of Customs said Wednesday.

China's manufacturing PMI drops in April

China's Purchasing Managers' Index for the manufacturing sector fell to 50.6 percent in April from 50.9 percent in March, the CFLP said on Wednesday.

Thanks to China Daily
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2013Numbers_04/

Xi Jinping Discusses Latin America and the Caribbean

2013-05-31T18:49:00.000-07:00

(Global Times) Chinese President Xi Jinping gave a joint written interview to the media of Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica and Mexico ahead of his state visits to the three countries.

The following is the full text of the interview:

Q: What is the significance of your forthcoming visit to Latin America and the Caribbean? What are your expectations for closer relations between China and the Latin American and Caribbean countries?

A: I visited Latin America and the Caribbean region back in 2009 and 2011 in the capacity of China's Vice President. The warm hospitality of the friendly Latin American people and their profound goodwill towards the Chinese people left a deep impression on me.

My upcoming visit will be my first trip to Latin America after becoming the President. The purpose of the visit is to deepen the traditional friendship between China and Latin America and expand their mutually beneficial cooperation. During the visit, I will have in-depth exchanges of views with leaders of Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica and Mexico on ways to strengthen respective bilateral relations and China-Latin America ties in general and make extensive contacts with people from various communities in these countries. I am confident that the visit will give a strong boost to the China-Latin America comprehensive and cooperative partnership featuring equality, mutual benefit and common development.

Q: How do you view the growth of China's relations with Costa Rica? What are your expectations of bilateral cooperation in the future?

A: President Laura Chinchilla paid a state visit to China in August 2012. We had a very nice meeting. President Chinchilla's willingness to develop relations with China left a deep impression on me.

Although China and Costa Rica established diplomatic ties only six years ago, the two sides have seen rapid and steady development of bilateral ties as well as fruitful cooperation in all fields. Bilateral relations have become a model of cooperation between countries of different size and national conditions.

Costa Rica is the third Latin American country to sign a free trade pact with China. The pact came into effect in August 2011. The national stadium of Costa Rica, which was built with the assistance of China, has become the symbol of friendship between the two peoples. The Confucius Institute at the University of Costa Rica is the fist of its kind in Central America, and it has provided a platform for promoting understanding and friendship between the two countries. Facts have proved that bilateral friendly and cooperative relations conform to the fundamental interests of the two countries and their people and that they have strong vitality and huge space for development.

Q: How do you view the development of bilateral relations between China and Mexico?

A: China and Mexico are both newly emerged economies and large developing countries that serve as a strategic partner and major development opportunity for each other. In April, President Enrique Pena Nieto visited China to attend the Annual meeting of the Bo'ao Forum for Asia. We had a very good conversation and reached important consensus on strengthening bilateral relations. In two months, I will pay a state visit to Mexico. The top leaders of the two countries exchanging visits in a short period of time reflects the great importance that both sides attach to China-Mexico relations.

Since China and Mexico established diplomatic relations 41 years ago, especially since the establishment of a strategic partnership in 2003, bilateral relations have seen great development as the deepening of mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields brought about tangible benefits to the people of both countries. China-Mexico relations have adopted increasing significance in strategic and general terms. The two sides have maintained close communication and cooperation on major global issues and pushed the development of international order and system toward a more just and rational direction. The development of China-Mexico relations has played an important role in promoting world peace and stability.

I am looking forward to further exchanges of views with President Pena Nieto on deepening practical cooperation between the two countries during my visit and to pushing bilateral relations to a new stage.
As an ancient Chinese poem goes, "A bosom friend afar brings a distant land near." Though geographically far apart, China and Latin America and the Caribbean enjoy a friendship that dates back to antiquity. Several centuries ago, Chinese and Latin American merchants opened what we called the "Maritime Silk Road", forming an important trade route between the eastern and western hemispheres. In the face of complex and shifting international landscapes since the beginning of the 21st century, China and Latin America have upheld the principle of equality and mutual benefit, firmly pursued the goal of common development and worked concertedly for substantial progress in their relations.

Politically, the two sides have rendered each other understanding and support on the major issues bearing on respective core interests and in the course of exploring development paths suited to respective national conditions, resulting in the steady increase of their strategic mutual trust. Economically, the practical cooperation between the two sides has borne rich fruits, delivering tangible benefits to both peoples. With two-way trade reaching 261.2 billion US dollars in 2012, China has become the second largest trading partner of Latin America and the Caribbean, which witnessed the world's fastest-rising exports to China. By investing nearly 65 billion US dollars in Latin America and the Caribbean in accumulative terms, China has helped create much-needed jobs in the region.

In international affairs, the two sides have stepped up coordination and cooperation, effectively upholding their fundamental interests and the common interests of the developing countries. What is more, we have actively explored ways for all-round cooperation with a view to bringing into fuller play each other's strengths and setting up a better platform for advancing our comprehensive and cooperative partnership.

China and Latin America share the same approach to development. We have found increasingly more common language whether in respective nation-building and governance or in international affairs. Facts have proven, and will continue to show, that the growth of China-Latin America relations is an open and inclusive process featuring win-win cooperation. It not only serves the common interests of the two sides, but also contributes to peace, stability and prosperity in the region and the world at large.

Looking ahead, we are ready to work with Latin American and Caribbean countries to move forward the comprehensive and cooperative partnership between the two sides and bring about still greater benefit to the two peoples. I have full confidence in the prospects of China-Latin America relations.

Q: How do you view the growth of China's relations with Trinidad and Tobago? What types of cooperation can be conducted in the field of energy? What tariff measures will China take to give manufactured goods of Trinidad and Tobago access to the fast-growing markets like BRICS?

A: I will be visiting Trinidad and Tobago shortly. It will be my very first visit to that country and also the very first visit paid by a Chinese President to the English-speaking Caribbean. I have high expectations for the visit.

China and Trinidad and Tobago enjoy a time-honored friendship. More than 200 years ago, the first group of Chinese settlers arrived at the island of Trinidad. They have since lived harmoniously with the local communities and become an integral part of the pluralistic society of Trinidad and Tobago.

The Chinese people will never forget that even before the two countries established diplomatic relations, the people of Trinidad and Tobago cast their solemn vote in favor of restoring the lawful seat of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations.

The exchange of diplomatic recognition in 1974 turned a new page in China-Trinidad and Tobago relations. I am so pleased to see that since then and particularly since the establishment of our friendly and cooperative relationship of mutual-benefit and development in 2005, we have made substantial progress in growing our relations. Trinidad and Tobago has become one of our most important partners in the English-speaking Caribbean. Our two countries have conducted fruitful cooperation in infrastructure, minerals, finance, telecommunications, public health and other areas, which contributed to economic and social development of both countries and the well-being of both peoples.

Next year will mark the 40th anniversary of our diplomatic ties. I hope the two sides will take this opportunity to work concertedly to elevate our friendly relations and mutually beneficial cooperation to a new height.

Trinidad and Tobago is a major oil and gas producer in the Caribbean region. With strong complementarity and tremendous potential, bilateral cooperation in the energy field may very well become a new growth point in China-Trinidad and Tobago partnership. Governments, financial institutions and enterprises from the two countries can go ahead with more exploration of energy cooperation in new forms and on a larger scale.

Given the great distance between the two countries, bilateral trade may be affected by high transportation cost. China has adopted effective tariff measures to facilitate trade with Trinidad and Tobago and other Caribbean countries. Many products of Trinidad and Tobago that are traditionally competitive are subject either to zero-tariff or to fairly low tariff rates in China. In fact, Trinidad and Tobago export to China in the recent decade has grown by nearly 30 times, reaching 140 million US dollars last year. I hope enterprises of the two countries will enhance their cooperation. Trinidad and Tobago companies are welcome to do business in the Chinese market. (more)

Snapshot of China's Economy April 2013

2013-05-27T07:57:00.000-07:00

From China Daily:

China's retail sales up 12.8% in April

China's retail sales grew 12.8 percent year-on-year to 1.76 trillion yuan ($283.4 billion) in April, the National Bureau of Statistics announced Monday.

FDI growth up for third consecutive month

Foreign direct investment in China grew for a third consecutive month in April, suggesting overseas investors' approval of the country's investment environment.

China's fiscal revenue rises 6.1% in April

China's fiscal revenue grew 6.1 percent year-on-year to 1.14 trillion yuan ($183.66 billion) in April, according to data released Monday by the Ministry of Finance.

China's fixed-asset investment up 20.6% in Jan-April

China's urban fixed asset investment growth accelerated 20.6 percent year on year to 9.13 trillion yuan ($147.29 billion) in the first four months of the year.

China's industrial output up 9.3% in April

China's industrial value-added output rose 9.3 percent year-on-year in April, the National Bureau of Statistics said Monday.

China's April new loans drop

China's new yuan-denominated lending dropped to 792.9 billion yuan in April, down from 1.06 trillion yuan in March.

China's April PPI down 2.6%

China's producer price index (PPI), which measures inflation at the wholesale level, fell 2.6 percent year on year in April.

China's inflation rises to 2.4% in April

China's consumer price index grew 2.4 percent year on year in April, up from 2.1 percent in March, the National Bureau of Statistics said Thursday.

China's export rises 14.7% in April

China's exports increased 14.7 percent year on year in April, while import surges 16.8 percent, the General Administration of Customs said Wednesday.

China's manufacturing PMI drops in April

China's Purchasing Managers' Index for the manufacturing sector fell to 50.6 percent in April from 50.9 percent in March, the CFLP said on Wednesday.

Major Figures

	April	March
Price Indexes
CPI	2.4%	2.1%
PPI	-2.6%	-1.9%
Growth Indexes
GDP	-	7.7% (Q1)
PMI	50.6	50.9
Retail	12.8%	12.6%
Fixed-asset investment	20.6%	20.9%
Industrial output	9.3%	8.9%
Trade Indexes
Export	$187b	$182.2b
Import	$169b	$183.1b
Surplus	$18.2b	-$0.88b
Financial Indexes
New loans	792.9b yuan	1.06t yuan
M2	103.3t yuan	103.6t yuan
FDI	$8.44t	$12.42t
Other Indexes
Fiscal revenue	1.14t yuan	960.8b yuan
Home sales (floor space)
Power consumption		414bkWh

Opinion

Overcoming growing pains

The government will maintain a proactive fiscal policy and a prudent monetary policy due to the country's slower economic growth.

New growth model, new FDI scopes

During the past three decades, China's growth was predicated on investment and net exports. In the future, it will be driven increasingly by consumption.

Comment

Please leave your comment here.

Premier Li Keqiang's Address to the Swiss People

2013-05-24T06:23:00.001-07:00

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang published on Thursday a signed article titled "Why Switzerland?" in Neue Zuricher Zeitung, a German-language Swiss daily ahead of his visit to the European country. The following is the full text of the English translation of the article:

(Xinhua, May 24, 2013) Switzerland is the first European destination on the list of countries I will visit after becoming China's premier. In Chinese culture, being "first" always carries symbolic meaning. My choice of Switzerland is in no way haphazard: we have got a few important things to do here. They are all landmark events in China's opening-up, and they all have something to do with Switzerland.

The first job is to secure progress in the building of China-Switzerland FTA. It was during my last visit in 2010 that the two countries agreed to speed up preparations for an FTA. Over the past three years and more, the relevant departments and agencies of the two countries have worked energetically in the negotiations, and reached the final conclusion after nine rounds of talks. With the advent of FTA, Switzerland will become the first country in continental Europe and the first of the world's top 20 economies to reach an FTA with China, the implications of which will be significant.

Last year, two-way trade reached 26.3 billion U.S. dollars, including 22.8 billion dollars of Swiss exports to China. That is to say, every Swiss man, woman and child exported 2,800 dollars to China. To conclude this high-quality FTA agreement with Switzerland, China has made tremendous effort. It fully demonstrates that China will not stall in its opening-up and that it is firmly committed to upholding the multilateral trading regime, vigorously promoting regional trade liberalization, and accelerating the implementation of the FTA strategy. Moreover, a high-quality FTA agreement between China and Switzerland will also set a good example. It will not only upgrade our business and investment cooperation but also send a powerful message to the rest of the world that we reject trade and investment protectionism and instead embrace trade liberalization and facilitation. It will inject fresh impetus into China-EU business ties, bring tangible benefits to consumers and businesses in both our countries, and contribute to world trade and economic recovery.

The second job is to step up financial exchanges and cooperation between the two sides. Switzerland boasts the highest density of banks. It has a strong financial industry and rich regulatory experience. Enhancing cooperation with Switzerland in financial regulation, macroeconomic policy making, capital market development and other areas is consistent with China's need for further development of its open economy. China is introducing more reform and opening-up to its financial sector, including steadily advancing market-oriented reform of the interest rate, making RMB convertible under the capital account, putting in place a system of overseas investment by individual investors, and improving financial regulatory regime. All this will provide new opportunities for interactions and growth of our financial firms. At the same time, China and Switzerland can work together at the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other international financial institutions, so as to make greater contribution to maintaining international financial stability and promoting world economic growth.

The third job is to enhance mutual trust and understanding. How high we can go in developing our relations and our practical cooperation hinges on our ability to seize new opportunities, and more importantly, on whether or not we can reach a higher level of mutual trust and understanding. Switzerland is among the first Western countries to have established diplomatic relations with New China. The very first industrial joint venture China entered into after the beginning of reform and opening up was one with Switzerland. Switzerland is also one of the first group of European countries that recognize China's market economy status. All these constitute the basis of our mutual trust. But to go still higher, we need to do a lot more. I hope my visit here will not only deepen the understanding and trust at the leadership level, but also increase the awareness and recognition at the public level of our respective countries, thus planting more seeds of friendship for exchanges between the two peoples.

As for what opportunities China's development can offer, I will let the figures speak for themselves: China's 2012 GDP, in comparable terms, more than doubled that of 2000, registering an increase of 3.2 times. To double the GDP of 2010 by 2020, China will need to sustain an annual growth rate of around 7 percent. Over the next five years, China will import some 10 trillion dollars worth of goods from the rest of the world, and its overseas investment will reach 500 billion dollars. By vigorously advancing urbanization in a steady manner, China will see hundreds of millions of its rural population turn into urban residents, unleashing increasing market demand along the way. All these underscore the enormous prospect of China's economic development and the growth opportunities it will bring to Switzerland and other countries.

As for the policies of the Chinese government, I just want to emphasize the following: domestically, we will make an all-around effort to deepen market-oriented reform, unleash the dividends of reform, continue to grow the economy, improve people's livelihood, promote social equity and ensure equal opportunities for all. Externally, we will unswervingly follow the path of peaceful development and pursue a win-win strategy of opening-up. We will open up more areas and sectors, the services sector in particular, so as to facilitate China's reform, development and economic transformation.

For those who are still baffled by the differences between China and Switzerland, I just want to say that it is totally unnecessary. China is working to secure growth, protect human rights and promote rule of law. Due to diversity of history, cultural background and stage of development, it is hardly avoidable that the two countries have some differences. Just as a Chinese saying goes, an inch has its length and a foot sometimes falls short. Only through mutual learning can we draw on each other's comparative strength. We should always show mutual respect, increase communication and exchanges, enhance mutual understanding, look at each other with an open mind, and steadily expand our common interests for win-win results.

My last visit to Switzerland three years ago as China's vice premier remains fresh in my memory. During the four days, I had in-depth discussions with government leaders and meetings with entrepreneurs, and braving a heavy snow, I went to Davos for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting. The visit was both substantive and rewarding. Now that the shadow of the international financial crisis is still there, countries must continue to work in unison in this time of difficulties, refrain from adopting trade and investment protectionism, the frequent use of anti-dumping and countervailing measures in particular, and guard against the negative spillover effects of the monetary policy of quantitative easing.

As for the current visit, I have given it a lot of thoughts, and there are many things I wanted to do. But my time in Switzerland is limited, and it's impossible to do everything. For cooperation to deliver concrete results, we need the enterprises, the communities and the government of both countries to make joint efforts. Indeed, our two sides have already done very well in this respect, but we can do better.

That is why I have chosen to visit Switzerland.

Xinhua, May 24, 2013

China Spends Billions on Internal Security!

2013-05-22T00:41:00.000-07:00

INTERNAL SECURITY

Recently the British magazine, The Economist, breathlessly announced: "China's domestic-security budget has surged to an astonishing $110 billion a year, larger than declared defence spending."

The Economist has never been very good with numbers – or economics – though that hasn't stopped them offering advice and criticism to countries like China. The Economist has predicted a 'hard landing' for the Chinese economy 51 times since 1985, while completely missing the Great Financial Crisis.

The intent of the "astonishing" news of China's $110 billion internal security budget was to demonstrate how insecure the Chinese government is and terrified of its own people. Here's what it really shows:

The Chinese don't spend enough on its military. Compared to the USA, for example, Chinese military spending is tiny.
China spends $84 per capita annually on internal security (police, prisons, etc.)

What The Economist neglected to mention is that the USA spends $275 billion annually on everything from The Department of Homeland Security to the FBI, the CIA, and even HHS–all of which participate in America's internal security, along with the NSA and other intelligence agencies. This come out to about $670 annually for each American man, woman, and child.

If we multiply the Chinese figure of $84 by 3 to account for the dollar's higher purchasing power in China, we find that China spends about $260 equivalent dollars. Perhaps that figure is lower because Chinese police are unarmed.

Here's a clue to the US Government's approach to 'internal security' in President Obama's speech.

As if the "astonishing" figure weren't enough, the US Army is also being trained and equipped to participate in internal security:
U.S. Army Purchases Riot Gear As Fears Over Civil Unrest Grow

OUR DEFENSE DOLLARS AT WORK

Paul Joseph Watson

Infowars.com. Monday, July 30, 2012

It’s not just the Department of Homeland Security that is gearing up for the prospect of civil unrest in America. The U.S. Army also recently purchased a stock of riot gear including batons, face masks and body shields.

As we reported last week, the DHS has put out an urgent solicitation for hundreds of items of “riot gear,” in preparation for expected unrest at the upcoming Republican National Convention, Democratic National Convention and next year’s presidential inauguration.

In a previous solicitation, the U.S. Army also put out a contract for riot gear to be delivered to the United States Military Academy at West Point in New York.

The contract, which was eventually awarded to A2Z Supply Corp, included requests to supply riot shields, face shields, batons and body protection.

Fears that the U.S. military would be used to quell domestic unrest in violation of Posse Comitatus have raged over recent years.

A recently leaked US Army Military Police training manual for “Civil Disturbance Operations” outlines how military assets are to be used domestically to quell riots, confiscate firearms and even kill Americans on U.S. soil during mass civil unrest. Read more...

As always, your comments are welcome and encouraged. Issues like this need more than just one opinion. And do feel free to add links to useful sources and stories!

Some links to follow:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv7EEhsCf7E http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_police_officers_are_employed_in_the_United_states#ixzz1iA6aaI4H External Security:
http://www.wallstats.com/blog/total-military-and-national-security-spending-in-the-us-federal-budget/

China "World's Most Financially Secure Country" on Earth

2013-05-21T06:24:00.000-07:00

China 'world's most financially secure country'

GOT MONEY?

CHINA DAILY, MAY 21, 2013

China has emerged as the most financially secure country in an index jointly launched by PICC Property and Casualty Co Ltd, the largest non-life insurance company in the Chinese mainland, and Genworth Financial Inc, a Fortune 500 insurance holding company.

The report surveyed 13,000 households in 14 European countries, and five Latin American countries and China. China scored 78 out of 100, the highest score of any country and the highest since the index was launched in 2007.

Only 3 percent of Chinese households are financially vulnerable, whereas the same figure for Germany is 22 percent and 26 percent for France, according to the report.

Of more than 1,000 households surveyed in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Wuhan, only 1 percent said their financial situation will worsen over the next 12 months. Only 3 percent believed they were financially vulnerable, while 97 percent said that they have rarely experienced financial problems or had a positive outlook for the future.

Henry Chang, general manager of Genworth Consulting Services (Beijing) Ltd, said: "While Chinese households are very positive about their financial situations, they do have a number of short-term to medium-term concerns regarding job security, credit viability and income stream."

Digging deeper into the survey's underlying results, some 39 percent said they had seen their total household income fall due to several factors. Forty-eight percent reported it was due to a drop in level of income, 20 percent reported it was due to stopping work for health reasons, and 12 percent said it was due to job loss.

Chang said PICC and Genworth planned to fill this gap with their products. He also noted that a major reason for China's high savings ratio is the lack of social security coverage.

The top concern for Chinese respondents in terms of their financial security, according to the survey, was their income from work, followed by cost of living and social security. By contrast, the top concern for European respondents in terms of their financial security was the cost of living, then came income from work and savings levels.

Kevin Fleming, Genworth's vice-president for new markets, said that in southern Europe where countries were hit hardest by the sovereign debt crisis, people were more likely to link their financial security with the wider economy, whereas in China people were much less concerned with the wider economy.

Fleming noted that 76 percent of Chinese respondents said they have as much in savings as they receive in income every month.

Northern Europe was still the most financially secure region in Europe, according to the report, with Norway and Sweden ranked just after China. Three percent of respondents in Norway and 5 percent in Sweden reported feeling financially vulnerable.

An earlier report by the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics found that the average asset of a Chinese household is 1.21 million yuan ($195,000), and their average liability is 62,600 yuan.

The majority of Chinese household assets were in property. PICC and Genworth's report cautioned that Chinese households were too focused on property investments, and said their investment portfolio should be diversified.

China's Flexible Political System

2013-05-19T14:26:00.001-07:00

Eric X. Li

China's political system is more flexible than US democracy

Many people believe the Western democracy is superior to a one-party system because the rotation of political power gives government the flexibility to make needed policy changes. But China’s one-party system has proven over time to be remarkably adaptable to changing times.

By Eric X. Li / October 17, 2011

The Christian Science Monitor

SHANGHAI

Change is in the air. By revolutions, elections, and other methods, governments are changing hands across a wide swath of the world. Two of the most notable peaceful successions are occurring in none other than the most important pair of countries in the world, the United States and China. In the next 13 months, America’s two-party electoral democracy will elect a president and a new Congress, and China’s one-party state will also produce new leadership.

Intellectual giants no less than Francis Fukuyama are entering the fray. In his new tome, “The Origins of Political Order” and in related writings, Mr. Fukuyama points out that the obvious success of China’s one-party system does not solve the “bad emperor” problem: How do you make the emperor go away if and when he turns “bad”?

A newspaper commentator has gone so far as to pronounce that despite the wide popular support (as measured by opinion surveys) enjoyed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the fatal flaw in the system is that there is no way to “induce” the party to give up power if and when it loses the people’s support.

But this is a faux proposition. There is an old Chinese saying: “The people are like water, the ruler is a ship on that water. Water can carry the ship; water can overturn the ship.” Today, nation-states have replaced empires and kingdoms. In this analogy, water is still the people. The ship, however, is no longer just an emperor and his dynasty, but the larger and far more sophisticated political system that constitutes the modern nation-state.

China’s one-party rule is enshrined in its constitution, just as America’s electoral democracy is in its. The Chinese people’s overwhelming and sustained support for the Communist Party’s leadership, as consistently reflected in independent public opinion surveys, is within the context of the nation’s one-party political constitution, and therefore can only be interpreted as support for this fundamental system of government.

Americans’ support for either the Republican Party or the Democratic Party ebbs and flows, but it is not necessarily linked to popular support for its fundamental system of electoral democracy. At the moment, both nations’ peoples support their respective political constitutions.

Some say that in the hypothetical situation in which the CCP lost popular support, it should step down from power, and only when this is ensured could the support of the people the party currently carries be rendered legitimate. Such an argument, if pushed to its logical conclusion, would mean that if, in a hypothetical situation, the current electoral regime in America lost the people’s support, the US must do away with elections, cancel the Bill of Rights, and install an authoritarian or some other system of governance.

This, of course, is absurd. Rulers may be succeeded or rotated peacefully within established systems of governance. Political systems themselves cannot be changed on a dime. With few exceptions, political systems change quickly only through revolutions. In America’s short history, it took two violent wars on its soil to establish and consolidate its current governing system

Many argue that Western democratic regimes are superior because the rotation of political parties by voting allows the flexibility required for the government to make policy changes that meet the demands of changing times and thereby better reflect the will of the people. In contrast, China’s one-party system is rigid, and the CCP’s monopoly on power disconnects it from the people.

The simplest exercise in intellectual diligence would show such argument to be preposterous. Since the party established the People’s Republic in 1949, under the leadership of a single political party, changes in China’s government policies and political environment have covered the widest possible spectrum. From the so-called “New Democratic” coalition at the beginning to the dramatic land reforms of the early 1950s, from the Great Leap Forward to the quasi-privatization of farmland in the early 1960s, from the Cultural Revolution to Deng Xiaopin’s market reform and Jiang Zemin’s redefinition of the Party through his “Theory of Three Represents,” China’s domestic politics are almost unrecognizable from one period to another.

In foreign policy, China moved from a close alliance with the Soviet Union in the 1950s to a virtual alliance with the United States in the 1970s and ’80s to contain the former. Today, its pursuit of an independent course in an increasingly multi-polar world is distinctive among the nations of the world. No one could deny that its leaders, from Mao to Deng, from Jiang to Hu and to Xi next year, differ as widely in political outlooks and policy priorities as those who move in and out of power under any other political systems.

IN PICTURES: Beijing today

Through six decades, there have been many blunders and corresponding course corrections. The Cultural Revolution – a disaster – was outright condemned. And the country went from its shattered state to the China we know today. The facts demonstrate the extraordinary capability of a one-party system for change and self-correction.

On the other hand, the records of electoral regimes around the world indicate that party rotation through elections may not provide the needed flexibility or self-correction. In the United States, elections may have produced new presidents and congressional majorities, but they do not seem to have done much to tackle America’s long-term challenges.

In Europe, governments regularly get voted in and out, but no elections have produced even the minimal corrections required to address their monumental distress. In the one-prime-minster-per-year Japan, elections and party rotations have failed to lift the country out of its 20-year stagnation. Perhaps this could explain why governments produced by elections routinely fall substantially below 50 percent approval rating in their countries, and China’s one-party government has retained approval rates above 80 percent for decades.

In this season of political change around the globe, in China, in the West, in Japan, and the Arab world, is water carrying the ship? Is water overturning the ship? What kind of ship does the water truly want to carry? A little less ideological bias and a little more intellectual honesty might tell us some simple truths: Electoral rotations do not necessarily produce flexibility or legitimacy; one-party rule does not mean rigidity or lack of popular support.

Perhaps, and just perhaps, if those who are convinced of the moral superiority of their political system would spare the energy from lecturing, verbally and militarily, and spend it on some self-reflection, it might even help their own countries. Who is really having “bad emperor” problems?

Eric X. Li, chairman of Chengwei Capital, is a Shanghai scholar and entrepreneur. He is also affiliated with the Fudan University School of International Relations and Public Affairs. Eric Li’s Chunqiu Institute recently hosted a dialogue between Francis Fukuyama (“The Origins of Political Order”) and Zhang Weiwei (“The China Wave”) on the "China model."

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Premier Li Keqiang's Address to the Swiss People

China Spends Billions on Internal Security!

China "World's Most Financially Secure Country" on Earth

China 'world's most financially secure country' GOT MONEY?

China's Flexible Political System

China 'world's most financially secure country'

GOT MONEY?