Zhou Yongkang and anti-corruption efforts

1. Zhou is now called a traitor by state media: // The Communist Party’s top mouthpiece has likened disgraced security tsar Zhou Yongkang to past party « traitors », all of whom were executed. An article released through People’s Daily’s WeChat account last night said Zhou’s deeds made him « no different from a ‘traitor' », a reference that prompted speculation that the former member of the innermost Politburo Standing Committee could face the death penalty. The party announced on the weekend that a graft probe had uncovered evidence that Zhou had violated political, organisational and confidentiality rules, and was involved in corruption. // Source: SCMP
2. The Economist sees Xi Jinping’s targeting of Zhou as part of a power struggle at the highest echelons of power: // The big winner in all this is the party’s leader since that congress, China’s president, Xi Jinping. It confirms Mr Xi’s status as the strongest Chinese leader at least since Deng. He has shown where power really lies: with him; and no longer with the sort of collective leadership seen under his predecessor, Hu Jintao. In that arrangement, Mr Zhou, a man now depicted as a power-hungry villain, became nearly as influential as Mr Hu himself, in part because of his grip on the security services and legal system. Putting Mr Zhou on trial may also help boost Mr Xi’s considerable popularity, by appearing to prove the sincerity of his campaign to cleanse China of corruption, both by high-ranking “tigers” as well as the lowly “flies” buzzing around the dung heap of China’s public ethics. It lends credence to Mr Xi’s recent emphasis on the importance of the law, suggesting that no one is above it. But the party itself is above the law. The ritual of political humiliation follows a rigid protocol: first, the internal party investigation; second, expulsion from the party. Only then—at the party’s behest—are legal charges framed. In the case of Mr Zhou, the Chinese press has tried to present his fall from grace as purely about the party purging itself of corruption, rather than some internal power struggle. “The party and corruption are like water and fire,” sobbed its mouthpiece, the People’s Daily, surprising those who think they are more like dry tinder and matches. // Source: Economist
3. Naked officials demoted
   i. // Authorities in China have demoted about 1,000 government officials with relatives abroad who refused to return home, state media said on Monday, in the latest clamp down in a sweeping anti-corruption campaign. […] Authorities had identified more than 3,200 officials at county-level or above, with children or spouses who have emigrated abroad, the Xinhua state news agency, citing the Organization Department of the party’s Central Committee. […] “Personnel departments nationwide have held talks with ‘naked officials’ and asked them to choose between accepting less sensitive posts or bringing their families back to China,” Xinhua said. “Those who refused have been disciplined and personnel departments will monitor ‘naked officials’ on a regular basis in the future.” […] // Source: Reuters
4. Meanwhile, former deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and head of the National Energy Administration Liu Tienan has been sentenced to life in prison on corruption charges.
   i. // Mr. Liu, who was expelled from the Communist Party last year, is one of the first senior officials felled under President Xi Jinping’s anticorruption campaign to have gone on trial. The charges, which date back more than a decade, accuse him of accepting millions of dollars, company shares and a Nissan from businessmen. He is also accused of allowing businessmen to give his son, Liu Decheng, bribes including a villa, a Porsche and $1.2 million salary for a nonexistent job. Prosecutors are seeking a life sentence for Liu Tienan; his son is to be tried separately. // Source: NY Times
   ii. Signal preparation for pushing ambitious economic policies? // […] Some analysts of Chinese politics say the purge of Mr. Liu could signal preparations by Mr. Xi and other leaders to push forward ambitious economic policies, since the gridlock inside the bureaucracy of the National Development and Reform Commission is believed to be a major obstacle to further liberalizing China’s quasi-command economy. // Source: NY Times
   iii. Ripple effect in NDRC and state-owned energy sector: // Liu’s trial has offered a rare glimpse into the amount of power amassed by top officials, especially within the NDRC. The agency sets policy for strategic industries, approves big investments, mergers and acquisitions, and has the authority to influence prices for everything from liquor to gasoline. […] At least two other officials at the NDRC have also been swept up in the probe into the agency including Cao Changqing, who recently retired as head of the pricing division at the NDRC, and Zhang Dongsheng, who was the head of the employment and income distribution division at the agency. The government has also launched a series of probes into the energy sector that has brought down senior officials in the National Energy Administration and state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation. // Source: Reuters
5. China launches major crackdown on flow of illicit funds to Macau: // Beijing is to launch a major crackdown on the multibillion-dollar flow of illicit funds through Macau casinos in a coordinated security drive that will see the country’s powerful Ministry of Public Security play a leading role.The unprecedented move – confirmed by documents seen by the Post that were sent to Macau’s banks late yesterday by the city’s monetary authority – turns up the heat on controversial VIP junket operators who generate the bulk of Macau gaming revenues as they come under increasing law enforcement scrutiny amid the « tigers and flies » anti-corruption drive by President Xi Jinping. It also piles more pressure on the Macau government to come up with a plan to diversify its casino-reliant economy as it prepares for a visit by Xi on Friday to mark the 15th anniversary of the former Portuguese enclave’s return to Chinese sovereignty. […]According to sources with knowledge of the situation, the new security drive will give the ministry’s Economic Crimes Investigation Bureau electronic access to all transfers through the state-backed China UnionPay bank payment card to identify suspicious transactions. The bureau is spearheading the « Fox Hunt » operation aimed at securing the return of corrupt party officials who have fled overseas and funnelled millions of dollars worth of illicit funds out of the country in contravention of currency controls. The key involvement of the Ministry of Public Security – which met with senior Macau officials last month to hammer out the details of the crackdown – also provides confirmation of the long-held belief by many in law enforcement that Macau casinos are a major conduit for capital flight from the mainland. When told of the plan yesterday, a senior casino industry insider told the Post: « This is big. They’re calling it the ‘new normal’ here in Macau. This is direct control over transactions by the Ministry of Public Security. It’s serious and key people are going to be scared. » // Source: SCMP
6. PLA Daily said that anti-graft drive will go on as China can’t afford to lose corruption battle: // In a rare candid commentary, the PLA Daily said that a proper understanding of the campaign was needed if the « pernicious influence » of former Central Military Commission vice-chairman Xu Caihou was to be eradicated. It pointed to misperceptions within the army and the public about whether the drive could continue or might lose the support of rank-and-file officers. There were now two opposing sides in the campaign, which had reached a critical point, and the military should know there wouldn’t be any let-up in the fight. « If even big tigers like Zhou Yongkang and Xu Caihou have been investigated, who can’t be investigated? » said the commentary, titled « The war against corruption cannot be lost ». // Source: SCMP
7. CCTV aired a four-part documentary series (《作风建设永远在路上》) on the anti-corruption drive: //
8. CCTV, along with the Central Commission for Discipline and Inspection (CCDI), will premiere a four-episode documentary-style show on the extravagant lifestyle of corrupt politicians. According to the CCDI, the series will expose those « who abused their power to gain benefits for other enterprises and accepted huge bribes for either themselves or their family members, or had abnormal relationships with their mistresses. » Sounds juicy! The series (the lengthy title of which essentially translates to « the task of keeping the government clean will always be on-going ») will expose the early scenes of corruption from the lives of already (or soon-to-be) indicted officials. And boy, do they have a bevy of real-life creeps from which to choose. The show will feature over thirty cases of graft, but focus on a few big names. One episode features Ni Fake, former vice governor of Anhui province, who held property illegally and accepted bribes, with a particular penchant for precious jade. Another is about Fu Xiaoguang, once a provincial level official in Heilongjiang province, whose alcohol-infused debauchery led to the death of one of his companions. It will also expose the luxurious private club where former Party chief of Guangzhou Wang Qingliang celebrated his extravagant lifestyle (which included choosing the sexiest stewardesses by iPad for his first class flights.) The show will feature over one hundred interviews with attendants in clubs, private secretaries, whistle-blowers, journalists, investigators, and ordinary Chinese citizens from 18 different provinces. It will also provide commentary from top Chinese scholars and experts, who will share their opinions on the country’s growing anti-corruption campaign. // Source: Shanghaiist
9. CDDI explains the logic of why corruption investigations are usually announced on Friday:
   //此外，昨天播出的专题片第三集《狠抓节点》披露，网站是公共舆论传播平台。中央纪委监察部网站巧妙地运用传播规律——他们坚持在一段时期里相对较多地在每周五公布最新案情。几周下来，敏感的公共媒体和网民们就发现了这个规律，并且开始定时守候。这种“点击期待”也迅速成为了一个公共话题，进一步扩大了网站的影响力。“现在的网上通报我们可以说是事无巨细，原汁原味，逢节必令，点名道姓，那么它对于我们的作风建设，对于我们的政治生态的净化起到了非常积极的正向作用。”中国社科院中国廉政研究中心副秘书长高波对此评价。// Source: CCDI
   // For the past two years it has been accepted – almost as a rule of thumb – among China’s media and interested mainlanders that Fridays and weekends are the likely time for senior officials to fall from grace over allegations of corruption. Yet few observers could tell why – until now. Now the party’s top anti-graft agency has candidly revealed that Friday and weekends are officially good days for revealing big news about corrupt senior officials. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) admitted that part of a deliberate strategy to attract maximum attention to its relaunched website involves it being used to regularly announce news of major corruption cases at the same time during the week. A television programme, co-produced with state television, and broadcast last night, said the CCDI was using its relaunched website as a way to engage the public in its on-going anti-graft campaign. During the past few months the CCDI has also developed new features to attract users to the website, including a page where potential informants can report cases of possible corruption, or reveal clues about the whereabouts of corrupt officials that have fled abroad along with huge sums of stolen money and other valuables. // Source: SCMP

China’s internet and propaganda

1. Amy Chang on the Internet with Chinese Characteristics: “China is openly undermining the United States’ vision of a free and open Internet”: // China has engaged the international community on this front, wishing to signal to other countries that it is a responsible and cooperative actor on technology issues. Understanding that international norms and law have yet to codify Internet governance and cyber activity, China has invested significant effort to set the course for international norms in Internet governance. China’s push for Internet sovereignty gained momentum abroad after Edward Snowden released information about U.S. National Security Agency surveillance programs. Capitalizing on the anti-U.S. sentiment in other authoritarian countries like Russia, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, China wooed developing countries with growing online populations to consider the benefits of control of the Internet. // Source: Huffington Post
2. Zuckerberg’s pandering to China threatens Web’s values: // President Obama acknowledged Dec. 3 that the Chinese exercise of cybertheft is “indisputable.” While he encouraged American CEOs to speak out about China’s behavior, others, such as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, could not be more eager to pander to senior Chinese officials in order to nudge his way into a lucrative new market. Facebook is blocked in China. So when China’s top Internet regulator, Lu Wei, proclaimed in October that he never said Facebook could or could not enter China, Zuckerberg renewed his charm offensive.
3. The Facebook CEO was photographed showing a copy of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s book of speeches to Lu during his visit to Silicon Valley earlier this month, saying he bought the book because he wants his employees to “understand socialism with Chinese characteristics.” Why was Zuckerberg’s gesture toward Lu especially concerning? Because China is actively promoting a counter-narrative to the traditional Western notion of an open, free, networked society. China, and in particular Lu, have been proposing the concept of sovereignty in cyberspace, implying China’s ability to control its own Internet, censor information that may threaten the regime, and administer Web traffic within its own borders. China has employed this language in state-sponsored media, in government white papers, in U.N. meetings, and in literature distributed at Internet governance conferences. The message conveyed in these efforts is the antithesis of what Silicon Valley stands for. In the past several years, companies have stood up for its principles of free access to information and freedom from censorship and monitoring. In early 2010, Google said it would stop censoring Internet search results in China and subsequently ceased search services in the country. // Source: SF Gate
4. Thousands of local Internet propaganda emails leaked: // Blogger “Xiaolan” has leaked an archive of the email communications of the Internet Information Office of Zhanggong District, Ganzhou City, Jiangxi from 2013 and 2014. The archive includes correspondence, photos, directories of “Internet commentators” (网评员), summaries of commentary work, and records of the online activities of specific individuals, among other documents. Over 2,700 emails are included in the archive, many of which include attachments of Microsoft Word documents. Xiaolan calls the leak “evidence of the work of the Fifty Cent Party” (见证五毛党的工作), referring to commentators who are paid to write online in favor of government policies, attacking “public intellectuals,” boosting Xi Jinping’s image, and monitoring netizens’ activities. One list of commentators includes job titles after each name. While a “fifty center” may invoke late-night posters making money on the side, the commentators listed in this directory are cadres and officials. The QQ numbers and Weibo usernames of commentators are exposed in the lists. In all, three full-time staff and over 300 Internet commentators are listed for the Zhanggong District, which in 2013 had a population of 468,461 with local household registration (hukou), according to official data. // Source: CDT
   i. The complete leak is found here
5. ThePaper, a Shanghai-based online media, is China’s experiment of Propaganda 2.0: // This is not the standard packaging of Communist Party propaganda. The party is still getting its message across, but in the style of America’s Huffington Post, a news and opinion site. The Paper aims to be accessible to a generation of Chinese that uses smartphones and social media. The Shanghai Observer, another new-media publication that is part of the same state-owned group as the Paper, made a splash in October by publishing a story about a day in the life of President Xi Jinping—even though it gave little away (he is “at work both day and night”, readers were told). Even the People’s Daily, which is the party’s main mouthpiece and is renowned for the turgidity of its print edition, now publishes news on WeChat, a hugely popular messaging service used on smartphones, about the doings of “Uncle Xi” and his wife Peng Liyuan, or “Aunt Peng”. … By presenting news in a livelier and more accessible fashion, the Paper and other new media are trying to broaden the party’s reach: unconventional language like “Xi Dada” (Uncle Xi) appeals to younger readers who abhor the often soporific print media. On December 4th, China’s first “national constitution day”, Xuexi Daguo (“A great power that learns”), a WeChat service probably linked with the People’s Daily, published a story with the headline, “What is the difference between Xi Dada’s ‘governing by the constitution’ and ‘constitutionalism’?”—hardly snappy, but not the kind of words used by the print edition. Attracting online readers is crucial to the party. About 80% of those connected to the internet in China use it to browse the news. This is a potential audience for the party’s digitised line of 500m—200m more than five years ago, according to the China Internet Network Information Centre. Many read the news on WeChat, which has nearly 470m active monthly users, most of them in China. The Paper had the 13th-most popular WeChat media account in the first week of December, according to an independent ranking. The top such accounts were those run by two of the party’s most trusted organs: China Central Television and the People’s Daily. //

China purges foreign technology

1. // China is aiming to purge most foreign technology from banks, the military, state-owned enterprises and key government agencies by 2020, stepping up efforts to shift to Chinese suppliers, according to people familiar with the effort. The push comes after a test of domestic alternatives in the northeastern city of Siping that was deemed a success, said the people, who asked not to be named because the details aren’t public. Workers there replaced Microsoft Corp.’s (MSFT) Windows with a homegrown operating system called NeoKylin and swapped foreign servers for ones made by China’s Inspur Group Ltd., they said. The plan for changes in four segments of the economy is driven by national security concerns and marks an increasingly determined move away from foreign suppliers under President Xi Jinping, the people said. The campaign could have lasting consequences for U.S. companies including Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO), International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), Intel Corp. (INTC) and Hewlett-Packard Co. “The shift is real,” said Charlie Dai, a Beijing-based analyst for Forrester Research Inc. “We have seen emerging cases of replacing foreign products at all layers from application, middleware down to the infrastructure software and hardware.” // Source: Bloomberg

After Occupy, more Hongkongers back government’s reform package

1. // More Hongkongers now want legislators to approve the government’s electoral reforms next year than before the start of the Occupy Central civil disobedience action for democracy, a university poll has found. The Chinese University survey findings raise questions about whether the 79-day Occupy protests have backfired in terms of public support. The university interviewed 1,011 people from December 8 to 12 – the last day coinciding with the police’s clearance of the Occupy base camp in Admiralty. In the poll, 38 per cent said the Legislative Council should endorse the government’s reform package even if it followed Beijing’s restrictive framework. That was nine percentage points higher than in a survey before the protests began on September 28. Support for lawmakers to vote down the framework fell 10 percentage points to 43 per cent. // Source: SCMP

Rethinking ‘One Country, Two Systems’

1. Hong Kong needs to be ‘re-enlightened’ on law following Occupy protests, says top Beijing official: // Hong Kong needs « re-enlightenment » to give citizens a better understanding of « one country, two systems », a top Beijing official said yesterday in remarks seen as signalling a harder line on the city’s affairs. And Zhang Rongshun, vice-chairman of the legislative affairs commission under the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, also spoke of switching from stressing the status quo to exploring how the « one country, two systems » principle could « evolve ». His remarks came at a conference of the semi-official Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, a think tank created last year. Association chairman Chen Zuoer also spoke at the meeting of 140 scholars in Shenzhen. He urged Hongkongers to « reflect deeply » on how to contribute to the nation’s security and other interests. // Source: SCMP
2. Beijing official tells Hong Kong delegation to ‘contemplate’ relationship with mainland: // A senior mainland official has asked Hongkongers to contemplate the relationship between democracy and the rule of law after the recent Occupy protests. The official, Wang Guangya, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, also asked residents to think about why a campaign that involved illegally occupying roads could last for almost 80 days in a place known for its rule of law. Wang raised the issue during a meeting in Beijing yesterday with a visiting Hong Kong delegation led by Connie Wong Wai-ching, the president of the Kowloon Federation of Associations. Wang « wants us to contemplate the relationships between ‘one country’ and ‘two systems’, between democracy and the rule of law, and between Hong Kong and the mainland, » Wong said, after meeting Wang. Some observers dismissed Wang’s remarks as misleading. « Democracy and the rule of law are not mutually exclusive, » said Dr Chung Kim-wah, a political scientist at Polytechnic University. « Rather, the two are complementary. // Source: SCMP
3. Hong Kong minister says China alone pledged to keep city’s way of life intact: // The constitutional affairs minister is under fire after claiming that Beijing alone promised to keep Hong Kong’s way of life intact for 50 years, rather than forming part of its deal with Britain. Arguing that Britain has « no moral duty » towards its former colony, Raymond Tam Chi-yuen gave his interpretation of the key concept in the 1984 Joint Declaration that paved the way for the 1997 handover and underpinned « one country, two systems ». // Source: SCMP