"Sinocism is the Presidential Daily Brief for China hands"- Evan Osnos, New Yorker Correspondent and National Book Award Winner
- China’s Latin American Interests – Carnegie Endowment for International Peace– With its economic weight and domestic consumption increasing rapidly, China has been expanding its ties with the countries of Latin America. While China stresses the complementary nature of the relationships and the benefits of increased South-South ties, some in Latin America worry about potential dependency on the rising power.In this Q&A, Matthew Ferchen explores the growing link between China and Latin America and what that means for other world powers like the United States. The real challenge, according to Ferchen, is how to put both the economic and political China-Latin America relationship on more sustainable, longer-term footing.
- U.S. Keeping Close Eye on Chinese Upheaval – WSJ.com – China specialists say it appears the Chinese leadership is becoming more insular as it focuses on self-preservation, reducing the chance it will soon be open to the political and economic reforms the U.S. would like to see…
Such a defensive posture also could mean that in the event of a spike in tensions, Chinese leaders will feel they have more limited options, adding up to a harder line that asserts China’s sovereignty, specialists say..
“China’s leaders have closed ranks around the need to deal decisively with Bo and that’s significant,” said one U.S. official. “His ouster looks less like a playing out of factional struggles than the party’s need to protect its image and credibility, especially during a time of major leadership transition.”U.S. officials expect that the party elite will take all measures to cast Mr. Bo’s alleged misdeeds as an exception, and not representative of the rest of the ruling elite.“Looking down the line, it’s reasonable to think the party’s investigation will try to show that Bo is an aberration,” the U.S. official said. “He has supporters, but he alienated a lot of people too. Keeping the focus on Bo and his associates will probably be a pretty high priority for a party in full self-protection mode.”
As the Chinese leadership closes ranks, U.S. officials worry that key goals, such as protecting intellectual-property rights and manufacturing processes, will be delayed by sovereignty concerns.
The cautious approach taken by Beijing could continue through the fall, when China holds a series of meetings to install its new officials, including Mr. Xi, who is expected to become party leader at the 18th Party Congress. But U.S. officials now worry that Mr. Xi, whose recent trip to America left officials hopeful that the two count
- Measuring Military Modernization | China Power– The USCC staff research paper usefully draws attention to the challenges that analysts face when seeking track weapons development in China, a country that doesn’t seek to share such information. Further exploitation of Chinese-language open sources will certainly help improve future analysis. Nevertheless, the conclusions drawn in the media can’t be sustained by the paper, which itself deserves close scrutiny.M. Taylor Fravel is an Associate Professor of Political Science and member of the Security Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He can be followed @fravel.
- Erdogan Visits Xinjiang | China Power – On April 8, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Xinjiang (East Turkestan), the ethnically Uyghur, Turkic-speaking, and Muslim region controlled by China. It was the first time in 27 years that a Turkish head of government visited Xinjiang, which was historically linked to Turkey via the Silk Road. Erdogan brought with him a delegation of key officials and about 300 business leaders. While in Urumqi, the Turkish leader stated his desire to invest in a nascent industrial development zone in Xinjiang.
- 2011年中国网民最关注民生、公共安全 《中国社会舆情年度报告(2012)》在京发布 – 新华法治 – 新华网– 中国人民大学新闻学院副院长、舆论研究所所长喻国明教授介绍，该报告集中梳理和呈现了２０１１年中国网民关注的信息领域、信息偏好以及网民关注度的变化趋势，为我国网络信息社会未来的发展变化和规范管理提供一定程度的民意参照。 喻国明介绍，今年的蓝皮书数据是在与北大方正智思研究院合作开发的舆情监测智能软件的基础上，首次结合百度搜索平台上的海量数据，进行多元的社会结构层面舆情研究。
报告显示，２０１１年中国网民最为关注的是民生、公共安全、社会责任、生态环境等问题。受国内ＣＰＩ高企以及食品安全事件等影响，民生持续成为最受关注的问题；而受校车事故、高铁事故、重大车祸等事件的影响，公共安全处在第二位；受小悦悦事件、搀扶老人等事件的影响，对社会公德和社会公共责任的探讨也成为重要社会议题之一。
- 中国社会舆情年度报告指出微博推动社会改革_新闻中心_新浪网 – 中青在线(微博)北京4月13日电(记者王超) 中国人民大学舆论研究所今天在京发布了《中国社会舆情年度报告(2012)》，这份报告指出，微博作为媒体平台在2011年崛起，微力量推动社会改革，微公益提振社会和谐度。
- 微博成为舆情最大信息源 [杜强]__鲜橙互动 南都网 南方都市报 新闻互动网站 南都数字报 – 摘要：昨日，中国人民大学舆论研究所发布了《中国社会舆情年度报告(2012)》。报告指出，2011年全年具有社会影响力的网络热点事件总计349，平均每天0.96个，中国已进入危机常态化社会。
- 重庆日报：薄熙来王立军等人违纪违法身败名裂 _新闻_腾讯网– Chongqing Daily rips into Bo Xilai and Wang Lijun//中共中央决定对薄熙来同志严重违纪问题立案调查、公安机关公布对尼尔·伍德死亡案依法复查结果并将犯罪嫌疑人移送司法机关，得到全党全国各族人民的衷心拥护。中央的正确决定大快人心，薄熙来、王立军等人的违纪违法不得人心！
- Bo Xilai’s case nothing to do with ‘political fight’– Bo’s case is an independent incident of a violation of Party discipline and China’s laws. What’s going on is the inevitable result of a lawful investigation. It is an exaggeration to say the case mirrors China’s “political fight.”Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, westernization has long been dispelled as a possible choice for China’s reform. Few Chinese accept the Western doctrine that the CPC should legally have factions.
The stir around Bo’s case will fade soon. The idea that China might fall into a so-called magnified struggle, due to such an incident, has long become history.
The author is a commentator with the Chinese edition of the Global Times.
- China gives currency more freedom with new reform | Reuters – China took a milestone step in turning the yuan into a global currency on Saturday by doubling the size of its trading band against the dollar, pushing through a crucial reform that further liberalizes its nascent financial markets.
The People’s Bank of China said it would allow the yuan to rise or fall 1 percent from a mid-point every day, effective Monday, compared with its previous 0.5 percent limit.The timing of the move underlines Beijing’s belief that the yuan is near its equilibrium level, and that China’s economy, although cooling, is sturdy enough to handle important, long-promised, structural reforms, analysts said. - After Harvard, future is uncertain for Bo’s son | Reuters – Bo Guagua, a 24-year-old descendant of Chinese Communist royalty, seemed destined to one day become a rich and powerful businessman in an economy that in his lifetime would become the world’s largest.
His pedigree, elite schooling, easy confidence and connections left those who knew him in no doubt he would pursue a business career and amass a fortune.That was until a British expatriate, Neil Heywood, died last November in a hotel in a huge city in western China, a world away from the clipped lawns and hushed libraries of Harvard University where Bo was studying. The story now looks certain to ruin his family and upend his ambitions.People are no longer sure of young Bo’s fate: return to his family in China, seek asylum in the United States, or other options.
“Now he is an orphan,” a source close to Bo’s family said.
- China Says It May Reduce Role of Foreign Firms in Surveillance – NYTimes.com – The Chinese government, citing security concerns, has signaled that it may scale back the role that foreign companies play in the country’s fast-growing video surveillance industry.
- U.K. Officials in China Expressed Early Concern About Death – WSJ.com– British consular officials in China expressed suspicion over the death of a British businessman in its immediate aftermath last November, but the case wasn’t pursued because other U.K. officials believed that asking the Chinese to investigate would be problematic, according to accounts from several people familiar with the matter.These people said some British officials also knew back in November that the businessman’s Chinese wife had come under intense pressure from local police to agree to a swift cremation without an autopsy after his body was found in his hotel room in Chongqing.
- 我国居民的财产分布及其国际比较（上）_学术动态_求是理论网 – 摘 要：本文根据住户调查数据，讨论了我国居民财产构成与分布状况的变化特征，并进行国际比较。本文的分析表明，由于经济发展和体制转轨的双重影响，我国居民财产持有数量在较短的时间内以较高的速度增长；尽管与其他国家相比，我国居民财产分布的不均等程度仍不是很高，但不均等程度的扩张速度非常迅速。
- Exclusive: Iran ships off radar as Tehran conceals oil sales | Reuters – Iran is concealing the destination of its oil sales by disabling tracking systems aboard its tanker fleet, making it difficult to assess how much crude Tehran is exporting as it seeks to counter Western sanctions aimed at cutting its oil revenues
- China to begin delivering supertankers to Iran in May | Reuters – Chinese shipyards are expected to deliver the first of 12 supertankers to Iranian oil shipping operator NITC in May, two months ahead of a European ban that would make it difficult for most of the world’s fleet to carry the OPEC member’s oil.