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Chinese Military,Political and Social Superthread

Mao's communist insurgents only had a small part in the ultimate victory against Japan in World War II, but they're celebrating as if they're the main victor. Oh well, to think China's young minds are easily influenced by revisionist history.

Canadian Press

China showing off huge trove of new military gear at parade; missiles to be closely watched
The Canadian Press
By Christopher Bodeen,

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PARADE BASICS:

The parade will feature more than 12,000 troops, upward of 200 planes and helicopters and around 500 pieces of equipment, including tanks, rocket launchers and missiles of all sizes and ranges. China says more than 80 per cent of the gear is being shown in public for the first time.

Of greatest interest are China's strategic weapons: bombers and missiles capable of attacking targets thousands of kilometres away. That's of particular concern to the U.S. and its allies in the region, especially Japan, with whom China has tussled over mineral rights and the ownership of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea.

China's rising capabilities also expose the vulnerability of Taiwan, the self-governing island democracy that Beijing claims as its own territory and threatens to conquer by force if necessary.

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MISSILES:
China's missile corps, formally known as the Second Artillery, has long served as its most potent means of projecting force abroad, and new developments are always closely scrutinized. Unlike the United States and Russia, China is not bound by the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and has poured resources into developing missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,000 kilometres.

Observers will be looking for an appearance by the DF-16, a short-range ballistic missile loaded two to a truck, along with the DF-21D, an intermediate-range, anti-ship ballistic missile capable of sinking an American aircraft carrier in a single strike.

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Meanwhile, a former Taiwan vice-president with a pro-reunification tilt gets slammed by Taiwan's current president for attending the parade:

Shanghaiist

Ma Ying-jeou rebukes Lien Chan for attending Beijing's WW2 military parade

Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou said that it is "inappropriate" for former Vice President Lien Chan to be traveling to Beijing for the upcoming "Victory Day" parade on September 3.

Lien, ex-chairman of the Kuomintang, flew out to the Chinese capitol yesterday along with a political envoy, including Chang Jung-kung, former Vice Secretary-general of the KMT. They are scheduled to meet with

Chinese President Xi Jinping on September 1 for the purpose of pursuing "peace in the Taiwan Strait and stability in the region," according to Chang.

This is despite Ma criticizing the move at a polling station in Taipei just a day before.

“It is not appropriate [for Lien] to attend, and that is the stance of the Republic of China [ROC] government,” he told reporters outside the Taipei City Council building on Saturday.

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While Obama visits Alaska...the PLA-Navy shows its global reach:

Reuters

Five Chinese ships in Bering Sea as Obama visits Alaska
Wed Sep 2, 2015 5:08pm EDT
By Phil Stewart

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Five Chinese Navy ships are sailing in international waters in the Bering Sea off Alaska, the Pentagon said on Wednesday, in an apparent first for China's military that came as U.S. President Barack Obama toured the U.S. state.

Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said it was the first time the United States had observed Chinese Navy ships in the Bering Sea.

"We respect the freedom of all nations to operate military vessels in international waters in accordance with international law," Davis said.

The appearance of the ships is an example of the expanding reach of China's navy and overlapped with a three-day visit by Obama to Alaska as part of his efforts to raise awareness about climate change.

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Quite interesting that Xi would choose to announce this on the same day the PLA is conducting a massive parade in Beijing for the World War II victory 70th anniversary. Now, the PLA is getting even further from its former size when it used to be the "2 million man Army" :

Reuters

Xi says Chinese military will cut forces by 300,000
Wed Sep 2, 2015 10:28pm EDT
BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Thursday that China will cut its number of troops by 300,000, as he kicked off a massive military parade marking 70 years since the end of World War Two in Asia.

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S.M.A. said:
Quite interesting that Xi would choose to announce this on the same day the PLA is conducting a massive parade in Beijing for the World War II victory 70th anniversary. Now, the PLA is getting even further from its former size when it used to be the "2 million man Army" :

Reuters


I think it's important to remember two things:

    1. The old, two million (plus) strong "people's army" was well nigh useless on anything like a modern battlefield. The new, much smaller PLA is much more professional, better equipped, trained, more modern and sophisticated;

    2. The Chinese "People's Armed Police" (1.5 million strong) is, now, since the mid 1980s, responsible for most public safety/security issues ~ tasks for which the PLA was responsible in the 1950s through the 1980s.

 
 
meanwhile out in the Bering sea

http://www.ibloomberg.net/five-chinese-navy-ships-are-operating-in-bering-sea-off-alaska-coast/

Five Chinese navy ships are currently operating in the Bering Sea, off the coast of Alaska, the first time the U.S. military has seen such activity in the area, Pentagon officials said Wednesday.

The officials said they have been aware in recent days that three Chinese combat ships, a replenishment vessel and an amphibious ship were in the vicinity after observing them moving toward the Aleutian Islands, which are split between U.S. and Russian control.

They said the Chinese ships were still in the area, but declined to specify when the vessels were first spotted or how far they were from the coast of Alaska, where President Barack Obama is winding up a three-day visit.

“This would be a first in the vicinity of the Aleutian Islands,” one defense official said of the Chinese ships. “I don’t think we’d characterize anything they’re doing as threatening.”

Pentagon officials also said there was no information suggesting the Chinese ships had gone through the Bering Strait, a narrow waterway north of the sea that abuts Alaska.

China’s defense ministry couldn’t be reached to comment.

 
The PLAN ships sent into US awters off Alaska IMO,is a counter to the US sending ships and planes into their exclusion zone in the South China Sea. The Observer had an interesting article about what the US response would be in the event of an attack on Alaska or Canada.I dont take it seriously but its an interesting scenario.

http://observer.com/2015/09/will-china-invade-alaska-canada-will-russia/
 
If there's an icebreaker in there it may be going for the NW passage.

Colin P said:
meanwhile out in the Bering sea

http://www.ibloomberg.net/five-chinese-navy-ships-are-operating-in-bering-sea-off-alaska-coast/

Five Chinese navy ships are currently operating in the Bering Sea, off the coast of Alaska, the first time the U.S. military has seen such activity in the area, Pentagon officials said Wednesday.

The officials said they have been aware in recent days that three Chinese combat ships, a replenishment vessel and an amphibious ship were in the vicinity after observing them moving toward the Aleutian Islands, which are split between U.S. and Russian control.

They said the Chinese ships were still in the area, but declined to specify when the vessels were first spotted or how far they were from the coast of Alaska, where President Barack Obama is winding up a three-day visit.

“This would be a first in the vicinity of the Aleutian Islands,” one defense official said of the Chinese ships. “I don’t think we’d characterize anything they’re doing as threatening.”

Pentagon officials also said there was no information suggesting the Chinese ships had gone through the Bering Strait, a narrow waterway north of the sea that abuts Alaska.

China’s defense ministry couldn’t be reached to comment.
 
Now a video is released of a PRC attack on US forces in the Pacific.

http://blogs.cfr.org/davidson/2015/09/03/chinese-animators-envision-a-future-asia-pacific-war-and-blow-up-the-internet/
 
tomahawk6 said:
Now a video is released of a PRC attack on US forces in the Pacific.

http://blogs.cfr.org/davidson/2015/09/03/chinese-animators-envision-a-future-asia-pacific-war-and-blow-up-the-internet/

Does this open the Chinese up to "unintended consequences"?  It has been speculated that the US could move some of its missile arsenal from Nuclear warheads to PGM warheads.  The argument has been that it would be destabilizing because it is impossible to tell if a Ballistic Missile is conventional or nuclear so the "recipient" has to assume that it is nuclear and act accordingly - and only has minutes to do so.

What would happen if the US decided to replace some portion of its IRBM(SLBM) / ICBM fleet with PGM warheads?  (A Poseidon C3 loaded with SDBs for example).
 
Thats an evolution that is bound to happen.Manueverable warheads are a real problem,but laser defensive weapons might be just the counter.Another strategy is to kill the missile prior to detaching its warheads.Third option is a nuclear warhead to take out a swarm of these missiles.
 
tomahawk6 said:
Thats an evolution that is bound to happen.Manueverable warheads are a real problem,but laser defensive weapons might be just the counter.Another strategy is to kill the missile prior to detaching its warheads.Third option is a nuclear warhead to take out a swarm of these missiles.

Mega-Genie?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VZ7FQHTaR4

Genie - The primary weapon of the RCAF Voodoo


 
Here, reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions of the Copyright Act from The Economist, is that newspaper's accurate (in my opinion) analysis of what China's recent military parade was all about:

http://www.economist.com/news/china/21663278-real-purpose-rare-military-display-was-show-who-charge-parades-end
economist_logo.png

Parade’s end
The real purpose of a rare military display was to show who is in charge

Sep 5th 2015 | BEIJING | From the print edition

AFTER weeks of market mayhem, it must have made a nice change for Xi Jinping, China’s president, to be reviewing ranks of smartly-dressed people who move in perfect synchronicity and do exactly what he tells them. Vast military parades may have gone out of fashion elsewhere, but Asian countries still like to strut their stuff. After displays of hardware and prowess in India, Pakistan, Russia and Taiwan this year, China held the most vainglorious march-past yet under clear blue skies (especially seeded for the purpose) in Tiananmen Square on September 3rd.

20150905_cnp001.jpg

Picture from the article

The event marked Victory Day, which was invented as a holiday only in 2014 to mark the end of the People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, as the years leading up to and during the second world war are known in China. It was China’s first large-scale military parade since 2009, the first to celebrate anything other than the Communist Party’s rule and the first involving foreign troops. But Mr Xi (pictured above) did not have to hold it. Such parades had always been reserved for the decennial anniversaries of the founding of the People’s Republic on October 1st 1949. This one came out of sequence, four years early. Why?

The government described the display as an international celebration, befitting the 70th anniversary of an Allied victory. But an online article in the People’s Daily, the party’s mouthpiece, earlier this year made clear what this meant. The parade’s purpose, it said, was to “deter Japan” and “show off China’s military might”. This was promptly toned down to “conveying to the world that China is devoted to safeguarding international order after world war two, rather than challenging it”. China argues that the main threat to the international status quo is the desire of Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister, to rewrite his country’s pacifist constitution. So the polite version is not, in fact, all that different from the blunt one.

Thirty heads of state or government joined Mr Xi on the reviewing stand, including Vladimir Putin (hardly a notable guardian of the international order, but never mind). Their countries form a map of those parts of the world where China’s clout is strong: Central Asia (leaders of four of its five “stans” turned up), parts of South-East Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos); Africa (South Africa, Egypt, Sudan); as well as, increasingly, eastern Europe. The only surprising visitor was South Korea’s Park Geun-hye, fresh from a tense stand-off with the North. She resisted American pressure to turn down the invitation, presumably in the hope of persuading China to exert some moderating influence on its capricious North Korean client.

But no other presidents or prime ministers came from democracies which fought on the same side as China during the war: that is, America and its Western allies. The prospect of watching Chinese soldiers goose-stepping in a square around which, 26 years ago, the army had slaughtered hundreds if not thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators proved too much for Westerners to stomach. Earlier this year the Chinese had toyed with the idea of laying on an accompanying civilian bash, which Europeans and Americans could have attended. But nothing came of that.

Mr Xi is unlikely to have been surprised or disappointed by the West’s absence. Standing with Mr Putin enabled him to show a defiance of the West, which the party likes to portray as bent on keeping China weak. Soon after he assumed power, Mr Xi and fellow leaders visited a museum next to Tiananmen Square to see an exhibition called “The Road to Rejuvenation”. It purports to show how the Chinese people, having been “reduced to a semi-colonial, semi-feudal society since the Opium War of 1840, rose in resistance against humiliation and misery.” On Victory Day last year, the same leaders did much the same thing, this time visiting a museum in Beijing commemorating the war. Its displays aim to show that China’s wartime resistance to Japan was its first victory after the “century of humiliation”.

At the parade, Mr Xi spelled out the contemporary significance of such visits. Rather as America and the Soviet Union had become superpowers because of what they did in the war, the president argued, so China’s wartime role had “re-established China as a major country”.

A huge display of weaponry reinforced the point. Twelve thousand troops marched past, with attack helicopters roaring overhead in a formation spelling out the number 70. China gave the world a first sight of new tanks, fighters and bombers, and of several new missile systems. These included the DF-16 medium-range ballistic missile, two nuclear-capable intercontinental types (the DF-5B and DF-31A) and the so-called “carrier killer”, the DF-21D that can destroy an aircraft-carrier in one blow (see chart). All these are of concern to America.

20150905_CNC973.png


A hefty dose of historical revisionism was also on display, aimed at burnishing the party’s wartime achievements. Chinese historians often complain that the sacrifices of their soldiers and people during the second world war are shamefully neglected. Their complaint is justified: 14m Chinese people perished at the hands of Japanese troops or as a result of famine. But there is a problem. Although Communist forces engaged in guerrilla fighting, the brunt of the battlefield campaign was borne, as Rana Mitter of Oxford University points out, by Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang (the KMT, which now rules Taiwan). China glosses over the KMT’s role.

The parade was also aimed at showing off Mr Xi himself. For the president it was an opportunity, nearly three years after taking over as China’s leader and amid a fierce campaign against corruption in the party and army, to show that he is truly in charge (and not at all anxious about the country’s economy: keeping the air clean for the parade involved stifling swathes of northern China’s industry, see article). The foreign dignitaries were his spear-carriers.

Mr Xi has closer links with the 2.3m-strong armed forces than any recent president. Early in his career he was a personal secretary to the defence minister. Unlike his predecessors, he took over the party’s main instrument for controlling the armed forces, the Central Military Commission (CMC), immediately upon taking office.

Interactive graphic, from the article

He has displayed muscle to his commanders in a way that earlier party leaders rarely dared to do—charging numerous generals with corruption, including the two highest-ranking officers under his predecessor: Xu Caihou (now dead) and Guo Boxiong. Mr Xi is now filling senior ranks with his own protégés. In an intriguing recent example, an order promoting to full general the head of the People’s Armed Police (PAP), a paramilitary force, bore Mr Xi’s signature first. Normally, the prime minister’s name comes first on PAP promotions.

How Mr Xi is viewed by senior officers is hard to judge. Many of them must be grumbling about the erosion of their privileges as a result of his anti-corruption efforts. Mr Xi will want to ensure their support with more than just morale-boosting parades—one reason why he is unlikely to scale down the double-digit increases in military spending in which he and his predecessors have indulged for many years (though, as he announced at the parade, he will continue efforts to trim the ranks—this time by 300,000). But the message he wanted to send with the show was as clear as the skies: China is resurgent and so are the armed forces, of which Mr Xi is the undisputed commander-in-chief.


I agree with this analysis and offer no further comment.
 
E.R. Campbell said:
I think it's important to remember two things:

    1. The old, two million (plus) strong "people's army" was well nigh useless on anything like a modern battlefield. The new, much smaller PLA is much more professional, better equipped, trained, more modern and sophisticated;

    2. The Chinese "People's Armed Police" (1.5 million strong) is, now, since the mid 1980s, responsible for most public safety/security issues ~ tasks for which the PLA was responsible in the 1950s through the 1980s.

Another article explores the reasons behind the cuts:

Diplomat

The Real Reason China Is Cutting 300,000 Troops
The troop reduction announced by Xi Jinping heralds a new round of PLA reforms
.


shannon-tiezzi
By Shannon Tiezzi
September 08, 2015

As The Diplomat reported previously, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced last week that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will reduce its forces by 300,000 troops. Xi made the announcement during a speech just before a massive military parade in Beijing, held to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.

While Xi framed the troop cut as part of the PLA commitment to “carry out the noble mission of upholding world peace,” military analysts agree the move is part of a broader context: the restructuring of the PLA as part of a push to modernize China’s armed forces.

The troop reduction announced on September 3 fits in a long line of cuts and restructurings made since the 1980s. The PLA’s size has been cut four times since then–by one million in 1985, by 500,000 in 1997, by 200,000 in 2003, and now by 300,000.

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“Cutting the number of troops is conducive to pooling resources, speeding up the pace and improving the quality of informatization construction,” Yang said, emphasizing that the reduction of China’s military will not decrease its ability to defend China’s interests. Even after the troop cuts are completed in 2017, China’s military (at 2 million troops) will remain the largest in the world.

Rory Medcalf, who heads the National Security College at Australian National University, pointed out that the move may be just as much about China’s defense budget as anything else. “Personnel are a massive cost in a military budget, and there’s been a lot of growth in military wages in China in recent years, so there are sensible capability reasons to cut personnel numbers without cutting effectiveness,” he told The New York Times. Medcalf noted that the decreased personnel budget could allow more funds to be devoted to continuing to modernize the PLA.

At the end of Yang’s press conference, the spokesperson noted that the troop reduction is just the beginning of a new round of reform in the PLA.

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For example, China’s new military strategy white paper, released this May, called for a greater role for China’s navy. The PLA called for an end to “the traditional mentality that land outweighs sea” – a change that could face opposition from army officers used to enjoying more prestige than their naval and air force counterparts.

Former Chinese military officer Xu Guangyu told the Los Angeles Times that the troop reduction could help pave the way for a rebalancing in China’s military, allowing for China’s air force and navy to be proportionately larger parts of the overall PLA.


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Another set of PLA exercises to intimidate Taiwan:

Reuters

China to hold live-fire drills in Taiwan Strait
Thu Sep 10, 2015 1:02am EDT
BEIJING (Reuters) - The Chinese military will hold three days of live-fire drills in the sensitive Taiwan Strait starting from Friday, the government said in a notice issued to warn shipping away from the area.

China claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own and has never renounced the use of force to bring the democratic island under its rule. Defeated Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan after losing a civil war with the Communists in 1949.

Ties have generally improved under Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou, who has signed a series of landmark trade and economic pacts with China, but deep suspicions remain on either side.

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Another potential export for China's client states: will we see these flying in Zimbabwe and other African nations in a decade?

Shepard Media

Armed Z-19E prepped for export

10th September 2015 - 10:12 by Gordon Arthur in Tianjin


Designated the Z-19E, and based on the Z-19 already in service with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), this attack craft is squarely targeted at the export market. Positioned as a lower-cost alternative to Western and Russian craft, it may appeal to countries with limited budgets.

HAIG, a subsidiary of the Aviation Corporation of China (AVIC), stated, ‘It adopts an anti-crash airframe, bulletproof and anti-crash fuel tanks and seats, and integrated and smaller-sized avionics and fire control system.’

HAIG’s description of the Z-19E continued: ‘It may carry tank-killing missiles, air-to-air missiles, aircraft rockets and a machine gun turret, which are mainly used to attack enemy ground targets such as tanks, armoured vehicles and strong fortifications.’

Indeed, the example displayed in Tianjin was accompanied by a range of generic examples of the aforementioned munitions.

The only weaponry to be specified were NORINCO 57-1AH rockets, which are launched from 18-tube HF25G launchers. 57-1AH rockets have an effective range of 2,000m and maximum range of 6,000m. Of their 4kg overall weight, the warhead weighs 1.13kg.

The Z-19E on display was fitted with a chin-mounted EO turret that appears to emanate from CAMA (Luoyang) Measurements & Controls.

The twin-seat tandem Z-19 is based on the Z-9W armed helicopter, itself developed from the Airbus Helicopters Dauphin. It thus features a fenestron tail and is powered by twin 700kW WZ-8C engines. Chinese pilots of the Z-19 use helmet-mounted sights, but the Z-19E likely does not possess all the features of the Chinese military version.

The Z-19 is a lighter craft than the Z-10 attack helicopter, which is also in PLA service.
Z-19E_-_small.JPG
 
China's anti-graft crusader speaks out: quite ironic that he would speak about legitimacy when corruption (e.g. paying off officials for promotion) is often one of the means by which many in that organization rise through the ranks with claims of "legitimacy supported by the proletariat"  ::).

Shanghaiist

China's top graft-buster breaks precedent by discussing the Communist Party's 'legitimacy'

At a Communist Party meeting held in Beijing this week to discuss "disciplining the party," the head of China's top anti-graft watchdog made comments focusing on the CCP's "legitimacy" that raised more than a few eyebrows.

Politburo Standing Committee member Wang Qishan, leading figure in President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption drive and some say China's second leading man, brought up this most taboo of words while meeting with foreign attendees at the "The Party and World Dialogue 2015" in Beijing on Wednesday. Xinhua later summarized his startling comments for public consumption:

Wang said the legitimacy of the ruling Party lies in history, its popular base and the mandate of the people. He said in the course of building a comfortable life and rejuvenating the nation, the CPC [Communist Party of China] has to enhance its leadership and win the trust and confidence of the people so as to address complex situations and overcome various challenges.

While this paragraph of CCP jargon may not seem all that shocking at first glance, it turns out this marks the first time that the word "legitimacy" has ever appeared in the Party's official disclosure.

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Good catch, SMA ... more on Wang Qishan here; he is too old to be considered for the next leadership generation, but he is, indeed, Xi Jinping's chief "fire fighter."

I'm surprised at anyone, especially someone as close to Xi Jinping, raising, even obliquely, the issue of "legitimacy."

The "legitimacy" of the CCP has rested, since Deng Xiaoping, at least, on the notion that the Party, like the dynasties of old, has a "mandate" conferred, without quite saying as much, by history, its own actions and the "will of the people." The problem which has bedevilled successive leaders is just how one understands (measures) the "will of the people." Clearly, for us in the democratic world, the "will of the people" is measured at periodic, free elections. But many Asian leaders, including some democrats, mistrust Western political forms and norms. They believe, with some merit, we must admit, that the "will of the people" can be and often is shaped by slick advertising campaigns and by buying our votes with our own money.

The CCP has allowed some remarkably free and fair elections: always, as far as I know, in small, generally rural centres, and, generally, only after some maladministration by the (appointed by the CCP) local leadership has produced very poor results, if not a small disaster. The sense seems to me to be that when things have gone from bad to worse the people just might select better, smarter leaders who will get better results. I don't know how well things have turned out.

The other, more popular amongst more moderately senior officials, approach is to gauge the "popular will" by active polling: finding out what issues matter to most people and then finding out, using modern, sophisticated, Western market research (polling) techniques, what courses of action the people favour. Polling, especially good, reliable polling, is very expensive ... but, then, so are elections. The great advantage to active polling is that one needn't release the data if it doesn't conform closely enough to the party's own received wisdom.
 
Here's what Pres. Xi Jinping wants to discuss with Obama at the state visit next week.

To think that Obama gets to meet with Pres. Xi Jinping directly, whereas, if I can recall correctly from PM Harper's state visit to China in Feb. 2012, Harper only met then-Premier Wen Jiabao (who is below Xi), since the two were considered equal rank. And we know how the Chinese are a "stickler" when it comes to rank and protocol.

Another staff person from the time I used to work with DFAIT/DFATD told me the story of the time at this consular conference in Southwest China when the Congolese ambassador was to called up to a stage ahead of the Consul-Generals of the US, Canada, France, Germany etc. , simply because in Chinese eyes, ambassadors outranked Consul-Generals and other diplomats, regardless of each nation's clout and relative importance.

Shanghaiist

This is what Xi Jinping wants to talk about at the White House

In the latest of a string of articles talking up the importance of Xi Jinping's visit to the USA, state media recently published an article detailing six topics that he will be looking to discuss with Barack Obama.

The article, published by Beijing News, begins by rubbishing any accusations that cyber attacks on US servers were launched from the PRC. It expresses dismay over speculations about the "mischief reef" constructions in the South China Sea. Bad mouthing of the Chinese economy has also been deemed unwelcome.

The six topics are as follows:

1. China is no threat to the established international order: Quoting a speech from Xi delivered at this month's General Assembly in Beijing, "The world should work together to maintain international order and the international system has the purposes and principles of the UN Charter as its core. Actively building new international relations in order to capitalise on cooperation is part of the core."

2. China's development will not lead to conflict with other nations: Xi will say that China wishes to offer mutual benefits through cooperation. State media goes on to say that US Secretary of State John Kerry and and Xi agreed earlier in May that the Pacific region is big enough for the two great powers.

3. China won't engage in building its own spheres of influence: Instead, China seeks to build a community of interests and destiny. Xi is quoted as saying, "We live in the same global village, the intersection of history and reality of life, in the same space and time, becoming closer and closer all the time. This is the 'community of destiny'."

4. Initiatives such as the New Silk Road are not an attempt to vie for leadership: Xi will be looking to outline in full his intentions for economic plans such as the Silk Road Economic Belt and the Maritime Silk Road, emphasizing that these are not an attempt to gain influence over neighboring countries

5. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is not an attempt to overturn the existing financial system: Instead, the controversial bank is merely an honest attempt to remove bottlenecks to infrastructure funding in underdeveloped areas of Asia.

6. Construction in the South China Sea is not aimed at any one nation: Building on the islands is instead necessary in order for China to fulfill its international obligations and the US must remain impartial when stepping into disputes in the region.

No doubt the US will have their own take on these issues, particularly with regard to the AIIB and developments in the waters to the south of China. The Obama administration has done everything in its power to discourage its allies from joining the China-led bank and is trying to put a lid on Beijing's ambitions in the South China Sea.
By Daniel Cunningham and Dominic Jackson
 
Could these conciliatory gestures by Xi towards CCP hardliners be an indication that he hasn't fully consolidated power?

Reuters

Four funerals and a wedding: China's Xi mends political bridges
Sat Sep 19, 2015 11:24pm EDT

By Benjamin Kang Lim

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping's attendance at the funeral earlier this year of a one-time propaganda minister was a surprise; Deng Liqun, who died aged 99, was never a top-ranked official and had been a political enemy of Xi's father.

Xi's presence, sources said, was in fact part of a nascent effort to heal wounds across China's ideological divide after his unrelenting crackdown on corruption alienated senior officials from the ruling Communist Party, government and military.

Xi wants to consolidate support ahead of the 19th party congress in 2017, when the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee, the apex of power in China, is reshuffled, said the sources, who have close ties to the leadership.

While Xi is expected to rule until 2023, he needs to get allies on the committee who will back his three-year war on corruption and his plans for reforming China's slowing economy, experts said.



(...SNIPPED)

FATHER'S NEMESIS

That's why Xi was among the mourners at Deng's funeral in Beijing on Feb. 17, where he bowed three times before the body of the ultra-conservative Marxist ideologue, sources said.

Xi had no obligation to go, the sources added, requesting anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to foreign media.

Deng had also been a nemesis of Xi's late father, Xi Zhongxun, a vice premier in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

"Deng Liqun was a leftist and Xi Zhongxun a rightist. They were political enemies since ... the 1950s," one source said.

In China, leftists are opposed to market-oriented reforms and Western-style democracy, while rightists are more liberal-minded. Precisely where President Xi sits is fluid, which is how he wants it, experts say.

"Xi went because he needs leftists in his fight against corruption," the source said.


Experts believe that, in a worst-case scenario, conservatives could try to oust Xi, especially if the economy falters further and unemployment sky-rockets.

The president has walked a tightrope targeting "tigers", or senior figures, in his corruption crackdown.

Among them has been former security tsar Zhou Yongkang, a conservative heavyweight jailed for life in June.

Despite that balancing act and China's plunging stock markets, Xi is sure to display confidence when he holds talks with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington this week and give little ground on issues

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My guess, and that's all it is, is that the Party apparatchiks are confused and frightened. The old line, led by Zhou Enlai, and including Deng Xiaoping, were, largely, honest, frugal and traditional in the Chinese social values. (There were stories, almost all of them based on facts, about the personal honesty of ordinary Chinese in the 1950s and '60s: wallets lost on trains being returned a day later, with every penny still there, etc.) The problem was Mao and his cronies: Mao was, somewhat notoriously, dishonest ~ in many small things ~ and, very unlike, say, Zhou Enlai, was overly fond of comforts and prestige. That rubbed off on the entire CCP and the old, old Chinese malady of official corruption retuned in full force. Post Deng, the Party was buffeted by the conservative forces of Jiang Zemin and the liberal one of Hu Jintao: both tried to reshape elements of the Chinese economy and both turned a blind eye to the deeper social and economic problems caused by rampant corruption.

The Chinese military also lost their way, although Jiang started and Hu continued many organizational and operational reforms; the "old men," the 80 and 90 year olds who still held considerable power in the PLA, from the 1970s onwards, had ceased caring much about the efficiency and effectiveness of the military, they had become capitalists. The PLA owned, still owns, I think, major industrial enterprises ~ one can understand the notion that the PLA might want to own shipyards, weapon factories and aerospace firms but, as late as the 1990s, the PLA, the "old men," also owned toy factories, amongst other things. Mao and Deng Xiaoping had allowed this, neither Jianfg Zemin nor Hu Jintao had made many efforts to clean it up, both preferring to wait for the "old men" to die rather then take action. It went on for generations: who is to blame many, many Party members for thinking it's "normal?"

But it's not "normal." Corruption sucks several, measurable percentage points of GDP out of the economy and lines the pockets of a few with the output of the many. The Chinese, under Deng, Jiang and Hu, did all the easy stuff; they "ate the low hanging fruit" in terms of economic development and growth. Now they need to reform the economy and that means fundamental reforms in the Party. Change may be good, but it is also scary.

I suspect that Xi Jinping, who I see, in my own mind, as a traditionalist, sees himself as a reformer in the mould of Deng Xiaoping: someone who will make a fundamental break with the past and set the country and the Party on a new, more productive and, in the case of the CCP, a more honest course.

My sense is that the "lefties" a) see themselves as the heirs of Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping, and b) are more, personally, honest, while the "new right," the heirs of Jiang Zemin, are more willing to turn a blind eye to corruption if it will help them in their short term goals. I think Xi Jinping aims to cleanse the party of Jiang's old Shanghai Gang, "red meat" capitalists' tolerance of (even fondness for) corruption without losing their entrepreneurial spirit, and to do that he needs, right now, the political support of the "old left."

Is Xi Jinping a communist (as Zhou and Deng, undoubtedly, were in the 1920s and into the 1950s)? No, I think not. Is he a capitalist, like Deng became and Jiang was? No, not that either, in my opinion. I think he sees himself more as Sun Yet Sen ... which doesn't help much if one wants to apply economic labels. But, think back to 1923 (no, even I wasn't alive then) when Dr Sun gave a speech to the Students' Union in Hong Kong University saying that it was a mix of corruption in China and the British notion of "peace, order and good government" that he could see in Hong Kong that made him into a revolutionary. That, I believe, is the notion that drives Xi Jinping; but giving China "peace, order and good government" depends, first, on rooting out corruption.
 
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