China backs Egypt mediation #China [Global Times]

Global Times: The Chinese are concerned about the Gaza Strip. With new helmsmen, how will China see its independent foreign policy of peace and non-intervention unfold?

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China backs Egypt mediation
by Hao Zhou
Source – Global Times, published November 22, 2012

Israeli police gather after a blast ripped through a bus near the defense ministry in Tel Aviv on Wednesday. At least 21 people were injured, in what an official said was “a terrorist attack.” Text – Global Times, Photo: AFP, 2012

China supports mediation efforts made by Egypt and other Arab nations as well as the League of Arab States (LAS) to ease the current tensions in Gaza, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Wednesday.

“China is paying great attention to the situation in the Gaza Strip,” Hua told reporters.

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi spoke with Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr over the phone about the situation there, expressing China’s support for Egypt and other Arab states as well as the LAS, she said.

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President Xi’s Singapore Lessons #China [Project Syndicate]

Nobel laureate Michael Spence on a crucial point of China’s development – and how long after Deng Xiaoping’s and Lee Kuan Yew’s friendship that helped sparked the opening of China, Singapore’s lesson of one-party rule remains poignant.

As a one-party system with a somewhat similar ethnic complexion it continues to maintain popular legitimacy despite a high media literacy rate by design. Despite recent challenges, it still largely calls the shots on policy while transitioning to first world status with a knowledge economy that shifted from too, manufacturing.

Like Singapore, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan in their first few decades of modern growth, China has been ruled by a single party. Singapore’s People’s Action Party (PAP) remains dominant, though that appears to be changing. The others evolved into multi-party democracies during the middle-income transition. China, too, has now reached this critical last leg of the long march to advanced-country status in terms of economic structure and income levels.

That said, it is most probable it is a case study of the many others they would consult in taking care to cross the river in highly turbulent times. Singapore is not definitive, but a series of stones the Chinese will feel around for before updating or reconfiguring their own socialist system to fit those needs.

From financial crises to violent revolution, what reason would China have to look that way for inspiration? Only for lessons on how not to do it I believe.

China has 1.3 billion mouths to feed. Singapore has 5.3 million. The official reported population density of about 7,257sq km from Singstats in 2011 this official stat does not consider the fact that Singapore has zoned out a 40% nature green sponge if you will, for water catchment, so true habitable space = 60% of 715sqkm).

Both cannot afford to make mistakes in their use of large scale systems.

That is where the lesson will be drawn. How it seldom makes mistakes, and when it does – it knows how to handle it in both foreign while giving domestic and alternative press some leeway for discourse.

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President Xi’s Singapore Lessons
by Michael Spence
Source – Project Syndicate, published November 19, 2012

NEW YORK – China is at a crucial point today, as it was in 1978, when the market reforms launched by Deng Xiaoping opened its economy to the world – and as it was again in the early 1990’s, when Deng’s famous “southern tour” reaffirmed the country’s development path.

Throughout this time, examples and lessons from other countries have been important. Deng was reportedly substantially influenced by an early visit to Singapore, where accelerated growth and prosperity had come decades earlier. Understanding other developing countries’ successes and shortcomings has been – and remains – an important part of China’s approach to formulating its growth strategy.

Like Singapore, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan in their first few decades of modern growth, China has been ruled by a single party. Singapore’s People’s Action Party (PAP) remains dominant, though that appears to be changing. The others evolved into multi-party democracies during the middle-income transition. China, too, has now reached this critical last leg of the long march to advanced-country status in terms of economic structure and income levels.

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Xi Jinping urges to develop socialism with Chinese characteristics #China [Xinhua/China Daily]

State media sowing the seeds of the guiding ideology that will have Xi’s name on it. The long and short of it? No giant leap, but a continuation of winning a new victory for socialism with Chinese characteristics.

He told the Party members to keep in mind that the Party’s overall approach is to promote economic development tuned together with political, cultural, social, and ecological progress, and that its general task is to improve the people’s livelihoods, make the country more prosperous and achieve the great renewal of the Chinese nation. (Xinhua, November 19, 2012)

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Xi Jinping urges to develop socialism with Chinese characteristics
Xinhua
Source – China Daily, published November 19, 2012

BEIJING – Members of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee gathered on Saturday to study and exchange opinions on the spirit of the 18th CPC National Congress which concluded on November 14.

The meeting was presided over by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.

In his speech at the meeting, Xi called for efforts to uphold and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics, as it is the theme of the report to the 18th CPC National Congress, which was delivered by Hu Jintao on November 8.

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Jaguar Land Rover building factory in China [Guardian]

Guardian: JLR and Chery ramping up for China’s middle class boom? The Guardian’s industrial editor provides details as the famed UK off-road powerhouse now join European counterparts Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz with full-blown local production capability direct in the world’s biggest auto market.

Quite a few of my mainland Chinese peers who now live in Australia love the Land Rover aesthetic. Most do not push (yet) their stately steel horses to the brink, preferring to drive them inland and keeping them spotty clean but I digress.

“China is now our biggest market,” Ralf Speth, chief executive officer of Jaguar Land Rover at press briefing announcing their 10.9b yuan eastern China plant in their 65th year of operations. The plant will also see an R&D component.

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Jaguar Land Rover building factory in China
Car firm to start manufacturing vehicles in world’s largest automotive market from 2014 after agreeing £1.1bn-joint venture
by Dan Milmo, Guardian Industrial Editor
Source – Guardian, published November 18, 2012

Source – Guardian, 2012.
Jaguar Land Rover posted a 58% increase in Chinese sales in the second quarter, boosted by demand for the recently launched Range Rover Evoque, above. Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA

Jaguar Land Rover has signalled the importance of China to its growth prospects by starting the construction of a factory outside Shanghai.

JLR and its Chinese partner, Chery, formally laid the foundation stone for a plant in Changshu, near Shanghai, as part of a 10.9bn yuan (£1.1bn) investment that will include a new research centre and an engine production facility. The firm’s owners, Tata, also own a JLR assembly plant in India but the Chinese venture is the company’s first full-blown sortie into overseas manufacturing, reflecting stellar growth in the car firm’s third largest market.

The business posted a 58% increase in Chinese sales in the second quarter, boosted by demand for the recently launched Range Rover Evoque model.

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Central Committee elected #China #Leadership[Global Times]

The way forward has been set. Scientific development joins the hallways of contemporary Chinese statecraft.

For the full list of the 205 members of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) elected at the 18th CPC National Congress on Wednesday, please go here.

“In the past, the authorities focused on so-called political, economic, cultural and social development, now they have realized the importance of sustainable development, which is related not only to people’s well-being now, but future generations,” Zhang Yaocan, professor of political science with Central China Normal University.

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Central Committee elected
by Wu Gang
Source – Global Times, November 15, 2012

Delegates raise their hands to show approval for a work report at the closing ceremony of the 18th Party congress held at the Great Hall of the People Wednesday. Photo: IC, 2012

The Constitution of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has enshrined the “Scientific Outlook on Development,” a political guideline that puts people first and calls for balanced and sustainable development, the 18th CPC National Congress announced as the week-long event concluded on Wednesday.

Some 2,270 Party delegates cast votes Wednesday, electing the new CPC Central Committee and the new Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Nearly 50 percent of the new Central Committee are newcomers, indicating that the CPC, with 91 years of history and more than 82 million members, has again completed its leadership transition.

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Bill for China Ads in U.S. Election: $54.3 Million [Wall Street Journal]

Is is there room for concern behind the fact?

More than $50m were spent on the us-and-them construction of China’s national image by political parties during the US leadership transition. $54.3m is on an average, just slightly less than what a Hollywood flick might cost in 2005.

Political communication through the traditional media models continue to be interesting to observe. What was once internal top-down propaganda continues to be top-down, though this time it also takes on a role of globalised public diplomacy through the medium of advertising.

The place that saw the most China ads? Cleveland, Ohio, where TV watchers were deluged with 4,722 China trade ads, which cost the campaigns $4.6 million.

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Bill for China Ads in U.S. Election: $54.3 Million
Chinal Real-Time Report
Source – Wall Street Journal, published November 14, 2012

An Obama-campaign advertisement that said Mitt Romney has never stood up to China. Source – WSJ Online, 2012

China was at the center of the U.S. presidential debates and other contentious election fights. Now we know that the campaigns put their money where their mouths were.

According to Kantar Media’s Campaign Media Analysis Group, the two presidential campaigns spent a combined $45.7 million on television advertising that discussed China and trade. Additionally, candidates in four Senate elections tracked by the group – Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Indiana — spent another $8.6 million in China trade spots.

“In previous elections, China has sometimes been used in a national security context,” wrote Elizabeth Wilner, an analyst at CMAG, a political ad tracking firm in Washington D.C. “In 2012, it was used in an economic one.” The CMAG report didn’t analyze the content of all the ads, though the ones it did mention were negative.

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Xinhua Insight: China never to copy Western political system #China [#Xinhua]

Not unexpected – Chinese declare they will never copy Western political system (though they have learnt and experimented with it at length for centuries), but are openly acknowledging they may draw from other successes in the region that would work in cohesion with their socialist political system.

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Xinhua Insight: China never to copy Western political system
By Xinhua writers Meng Na and Mou Xu
Source – Xinhua, published November 12, 2012

BEIJING, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) — Anyone trying to keep track of the development of China’s political system must have got an unequivocal answer at the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Hu Jintao solemnly declared in his report at the opening of the congress that “we will never copy a Western political system.”

“We should place high importance on systemic building, give full play to the strength of the socialist political system and draw on the political achievements of other societies,” Hu said in the report.

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The China8 Interviews #5: on Green China with Calvin Quek #China

Wandering China is pleased to release the fifth of the China8 series of interviews. China8 is where China’s perceived and presenting selves are discussed. This it hopes to achieve by looking closely at both China’s international and domestic coherence of its harmonious ascent. Ultimately, Wandering China hopes these perspectives will be helpful for anyone making sense of depending on how you see it, the fourth rise of the middle kingdom, or sixty odd years of consciousness of a new nation-state with a coherent identity emergent from a long drawn period of ideological strife.

This time, the focus is on Green China, with insights from Greenpeace – Calvin Quek brings first-hand insights as he is right in the thick of it all. In a domain where policy formation is at critical crossroads because economic progress has to continue, Calvin is a fellow overseas-born Chinese from Singapore.

China 8.1: You made your way to China to study at Peking University in 2009 after working in Singapore’s finance sector for a number of years. Can you describe what went through your mind then? What prompted the move, and how does it feel now to be in China?

I came to China first to teach at a local university, as I had free time before my original plan to do my MBA in the US. I spent 3 months at Beijing Union University and loved the experience of interacting with China’s youth and discovering Beijing. I then discovered that there was so much to do here in environmental sector and this is what led me to reconsider my decision to study in the US. China needs all the help it can get to address climate change and other environmental issues, and I have some vain hope that I could make a difference. I still feel that way now.

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John Garnaut: He Di’s Building of China’s enlightenment #China [The Age]

The Age: He Di 何迪 had a hand to play in China’s early financial interactions with the wider world. More recently, he was a major force behind major transactions signaling China’s firm participation into the global marketplace with the successful IPO of COSCO, Bank of China, China Merchants Bank and China Merchants Securities amongst others. The advocate for a worldview shift of Chinese statecraft has his chief concern rooted in that China seems to be returning back down the old road of addiction to the power of central planning.

‘If you test how many Chinese people really want to return to Mao’s period, to become North Korea, I don’t believe it’s 1 per cent of them…’

On challenges of Chinese leadership today ‘…They were educated by the party, the old doctrines of Marxism, they lack growth experiences at the grassroots. They are really engineers who still want to enjoy the dividends from the previous-generation leadership.”

More on the Hong-Kong registered Boyuan Foundation where He Di is Director-General here. Boyuan is an NGO established in 2008 that takes a mid- and long-term view of the Chinese macro-economy, society, and international relations.

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Building China’s enlightenment
He Di wants Chinese people to live in a world of liberty, democracy and free markets.
by John Garnaut
Source – The Age, published November 12, 2012

Middle row, second from left: Taken on April 20, 1960, He Di’s father, He Kang, sits next to then Chinese premier Zhou Enlai, on right. He Di is directly below his father. Source – The Age, 2012

TWO years ago China’s most successful investment banker broke away from his meetings in Berlin to explore a special exhibition that caught his eye: Hitler and the Germans: Nation and Crime.

In the basement of the German History Museum He Di watched crowds uneasily coming to terms with how their ancestors had embraced what the curators had described as the Nazi promise of ”advancement, prosperity and the reinstatement of former national grandeur”.

The UBS banker found the exhibition so enthralling, and so disturbing for the parallels he saw developing back home, that he spent three days absorbing everything on Nazi history that he could find. On returning to China he sharpened the mission statement at his think tank and redoubled its ideological crusade.

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18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China 中国共产党第十八次全国代表大会 #China

Keep abreast of development from the Chinese state media perspective at Xinhua and China Daily. The 中共十八大, literally the eighteenth ‘big’ sees 7/9 members of the powerful Politburo Standing Committee ‘giving way’ to the next generation of leadership due to fixed term and age limit restrictions.

It is a complex reconfiguration of power, as collective leadership means responsibility is shared, sometimes influenced by powerful factions – Jiang Zemin’s continued presence is a case in point.

In any case, what is clear is that paramount leader today has to, largely place party consensus at the first as it does not offer as much ‘band-width’ or clout as the Mao and Deng days.

This time round, there are 2270 delegates selected from 40 constituencies, a 57 delegate increase plus two new constituencies from the 17th.

Click to access Xinhua’s 中共十八大 special coverage.

For special coverage from the China Daily US Edition

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