Results tagged “ccp”

Google and Yahoo have long been lambasted for the censorship policies they employ in China to appease the CCP, particularly when Yahoo handed over email information to party officials in order to convict a Chinese journalist. Now critics have shifted their attention to Microsoft's Bing search engine.

When they changed over the system from Maoist Communism to "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" (as Hu Jintao put it during the last 60th anniversary parade), the CCP apparently decided not to tell anyone what the C in their name really meant. At least according to this video by Doing Business in China, which asks a bunch of Chinese people (some of whom are famous) to define "communism" - with dumbfounding results.

• Ghosts of the Machines - OR - Just where do all of those Chinese PCs go to die, anyway? [Shanghai Scrap] On August 28, Science, one of the world’s most prestigious scientific journals, ran a news item regarding ongoing studies of the health effects caused by environmentally unsound processing of e-waste (PCs, monitors, printers, etc) in south China… But there’s a problem with the Science story, and those like it: they insist on blaming China’s e-waste problems on foreigners, and thus deflect attention away from the fact that Chinese e-waste is the fastest growing and largest component of the waste stream arriving in South China (and, especially, into Guiyu, the notorious e-waste processing hub). And, in doing so, publications like Science provide cover to the Chinese government officials, and the Western and Chinese consumer electronics companies who have - collectively - failed to do much of anything about the problem."
• China's First Female Railroad Engineer [All-China Women's Federation] "Sitting in her airy and clean apartment, 80-year-old Tian Guiying, appears no different from any other retired senior citizen. But Tian has the distinction of being New China's first-ever woman locomotive engineer. Tian was the youngest of six daughters in a fisherman's family, resident in a poverty-stricken village near the coastal city of Dalian in northeastern Liaoning Province. To her parents, Tian's birth meant little more than a heavier burden."
• Party’s Agenda in China Seems to Fall Flat [New York Times] "China’s Communist Party elite had billed its four-day strategy session as an attack on “acute problems” that threatened the party’s political standing, like official corruption, China’s yawning gap between the rich and poor, and the lack of democracy within the party’s own ranks. But besides an anticorruption directive that would force officials and their families to disclose their property holdings and investments, initial reports from the meeting last week suggested that the Central Committee’s members either were reluctant to make major changes, or disagreed over how those changes might be made."

Thought China's international media expansions are over? Think again - it seems that they're at it again. The South China Morning Post reported today that the CCP will be launching an English-language version of its venerable magazine Seeking Truth ("Qiushi", 求是).

Unless combovers and dye jobs are your thing, the Chinese Communist Party is not generally known for its youthful good looks. Perhaps that's why on Sunday, as part of a new campaign to nurture young cadres and rejuvenate the Party, a 29-year old man was elected mayor of the small city of Yicheng, in Hubei Province.

"Our Party and government long ago reached a clear conclusion about the events in China of the late 1980s, the political disturbances then and all related issues... Facts prove that the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics we have traveled accords with China's national condition, and the basic interests of the majority of the people, and reflects the wishes of the people."

Which one of these adorable little High School kids went on to become the leader of China?

• As China shouts its line on Tibet, is anybody listening? [China Media Project] "These numbers actually pale in comparison to coverage in March and April last year, when Chinese media heaped scorn on the 'Dalai clique' and the 'hostile foreign forces' sowing unrest in China after large-scale riots in the region. But last month, even as the CCP was gearing up for the sensitive anniversary of the 1959 uprising, there were half as many articles with 'Tibet' in the headline as there have been so far this month — with days yet to go until the 28th, which the CCP has designated 'Tibetan Serf Emancipation Day'."
• Taiwan’s Former President Goes on Trial for Corruption [NYTimes.com] "Prosecutors have since charged that he stole or took bribes totaling more than $30 million, sometimes in return for political favors involving land deals. His wife, Wu Shu-chen; his son; and his daughter-in-law pleaded guilty last month to money laundering, and Ms. Wu also pleaded guilty to forgery."
• Filthy hospital responsible for deaths of 5 infants [Xinhua] "Five newborn children from north China's Tianjin Municipality died from hospital-acquired infections, and the hospital's sub-standard hygiene conditions and flawed management were to blame, said experts with the Ministry of Health (MOH) Wednesday."

This shirt was originally featured on a Sohu.com blog, which was then shut down for being "unhealthy" as soon as the net nannies got wind of it. Any guesses as to why? China Rises has the answer, but we'd prefer if you take a few stabs at it before clicking through.

• B.C. model's killer sentenced to die in China [CTV British Columbia] "He has two years to show good behaviour and if he proves this his sentence could be lowered to a life sentence to be served in jail or even lighter depending on his performance," CTV's Beijing Bureau Chief Steve Chao reported Friday.
• China's last eunuch spills sex secrets [Reuters] "Only two memories brought tears to Sun Yaoting's eyes in old age -- the day his father cut off his genitals, and the day his family threw away the pickled remains that should have made him a whole man again at death...This turbulent life has been recorded in the "The Last Eunuch of China" by amateur historian Jia Yinghua, who over years of friendship drew out of Sun the secrets that were too painful or intimate to spill to prying journalists or state archivists."
• Lonely Boys and Losers: Are we overstating the fenqing phenomenon? [Jottings from the Granite Studio] "I don’t think that fenqing can be defined by a particular perspective or viewpoint. Certainly adopting the CCP or Han nationalist worldview doesn’t make one a fenqing... For me, the defining characteristic of a fenqing is not strong belief in a particular view, but rather an inability to accept that other valid perspectives might exist."

Seems like we may be looking forward to a visit from China's good buddy, Kim Jong-Il, during the 60th anniversary celebrations of the Chinese Communist Party. The Great Leader has allegedly accepted an invitation from Premier Wen Jiabao to join in on the fun. Previously, Wen was quoted telling North Korean officials that “We will ardently welcome Comrade Kim Jong-Il and senior officials of the Korean party and government to visit China at a convenient time.” Source: Channel News Asia

Looks like it's not just the Yunnan government that's recognized the power of the internet. Today, Premier Wen Jia Bao went online to talk to netizens in a chat jointly hosted by Xinhua and the central government. According to Xinhua, Grandpa Wen began internetting with the country at 3pm and responded to questions about the financial crisis, unemployed migrant workers, Sino-U.S. Relations and - surprisingly - free speech.

Of course there were going to be official speeches, a PLA march or two, and tons of fireworks... but did you know the Chinese government was also planning on celebrating its 60th anniversary this year with a star-studded blockbuster movie was well? How delightful!

The CCP warned that 2009 will be "possibly the toughest year" to secure economic and agricultural development since the beginning of the century. A document issued jointly by the State Council and the Central Committee said that the world economy's slowdown would have an increasingly negative impact on the Chinese economy. The best solution for keeping growth up would be boosting rural areas using social security schemes and rural land and employment rights protections. Will 2009 be the year migrant workers actually choose to stay home? Source: Xinhua

• Black and White Cat translates a collection of headlines from the earliest editions of Xinhua Daily, Jiangsu Province's oldest party newspaper. In its bid to oust the Kuomintang, the CCP positioned itself as a champion of democracy and demanded for change, human rights and general elections.
• Tao Wang of UBS explains to Thomas Crampton why he thinks the new wave of unemployment is unlikely to cause unrest in China.
• EastSouthWestNorth has a set of pictures of what is supposed to be Guangdong's most run-down school.

Way back in 1925, during the heyday of foreign imperialism in Shanghai, discontent was fomenting among the local populace over what were generally considered to be unfair privileges granted to foreigners and Chinese exclusion from the governing Shanghai Municipal Council. The deals the foreign powers had struck up with Manchu officials in the 19th century, suspect from the beginning, had little official legitimacy after the fall of the Qing more than ten years earlier. Tensions reached a boiling point when labor protests at a Japanese factory resulted in an assault and the death of a Chinese employee on May 15th.

In the days following the earthquake a number of stories have started surfacing about Sichuan's enormous migrant labor force and their concerns for loved ones back home. Out of the many laborers that have moved into China's rapidly developing urban areas, more come from Sichuan than any other province. A recent article from the Wall Street Journal tells us:

According to official figures, eight million migrant workers come from Sichuan. But the official figures exclude many unregistered workers and those who have left home seeking work but stay within the province. Some estimates put the number of Sichuanese migrant workers at 20 million, out of a total migrant labor force of roughly 120 million.

The propaganda department is definitely going into overdrive this week. First, if you still didn't know that China has political parties other than the CCP, the People's Daily has an interesting backgrounder of the eight parties, with short descriptions of the history of the parties and their membership size and make-up. These parties are namely: the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang (RCCK), China Democratic League (CDL), China National Democratic Construction Association (CNDCA), China Association...