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October 21, 2007 (Sunday) － Issue No. 123 |
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Analysis of the 17th CCP National Congress |
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G7
Pressures China to Let Currency Rise |
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Farmers
Participate in Wave of Quitting the Communist Party |
| Boycotts
for Beijing 2008 Possible Beijing appears light-years away from the Olympic Charter, which talks of "the harmonious development of man" and "promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity."....…Full Article |
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Multi-Level Marketing, a Hidden Peril in China Chinese authorities continue, however, to be wary of direct sales on a number of grounds, among them pyramid scheme frauds, strong networking capabilities and loss of social stability......…Full Article |
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In 2002, during Chinese Communist Party's 16th National Congress, Jiang Zemin, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader who initiated the persecution of Falun Gong, stepped down from power, but only on the surface. Five years later, the 17th CCP Congress convened on October 16, 2007, under many watchful eyes. The congress is assembling during a time when the CCP is facing unprecedented disintegration and collapse—27 million people have withdrawn from the CCP and its affiliated organizations, and the numbers continue to grow. What effect will the 17th National Congress have on historical development? How should the CCP and its fate be viewed? There are three types of analyses regarding these questions. 1. The 17th CCP Congress Can't Halt Its Inevitable Demise The congressional assembly that we see today in no way resembles the future of Chinese authorities. Regardless of today's congressional results, the 18th National Congress is unlikely to take place five years from now, as the CCP is rapidly heading toward thorough disintegration and collapse. While claims of the CCP dissolving in a few short years may sound extreme to some, it is not a baseless theory. In fact, the phenomenon of withdrawing from the Party has been regarded as the most basic, peaceful path toward the disintegration of the current Chinese regime. Over 27 million people have already quit the CCP, and there are roughly one million more withdrawing per month. If people continue to withdraw from the Party at the same pace, by 2012 (the next scheduled congressional assembly), over 90 million. 2. Securing Power Can't Change Fate Using the power they held, Jiang's Gang initiated the ruthless persecution on Falun Gong and committed enormous crimes. Because they continue to hide behind the CCP, they have still not been brought to justice. They use the regime to control Chinese society, while fearlessly committing crimes throughout the country. At the recent 17th CCP's Congress, there was talk of key personnel engaged in persecuting Falun Gong—including Zeng Qinghong and Luo Gan—may all be thrown out of power. Jiang, therefore, is taking every measure to strategically insert colleagues. 3. Citizens Will Soon Openly Boycott the CCP's Tyranny In November 2004, after the special editorials Nine Commentaries on Communist Party were published, the world saw an unprecedented trend toward boycotting the CCP. Correspondingly, because of the CCP's extremely brutal rule in mainland China, people there can only boycott the CCP's tyranny in the form of surging undercurrents. These two currents, one underground, another on the surface have coordinated with each other to topple the CCP's evil tyranny. If Hu can muster
the foresight shared by so many throughout the world, and take this
opportunity to dissolve the CCP once and for all, all the members
of Jiang's gang will be captured at once and swiftly brought to justice.
That would be a real "Great Project." Back WASHINGTON—Global finance chiefs sought on Friday to put pressure on China to let its currency rise in value to ease global trade imbalances and also aimed to craft a message to soothe turbulent financial markets. Neither prospect appeared highly promising. The dollar sank to fresh lows and oil prices briefly topped $90 a barrel as the Group of Seven finance ministers and central bankers were preparing to meet. Stock prices plummeted around the globe as investors fretted over slowing economic growth. Citing an anonymous G7 official, Dow Jones news said that a draft of a communique, which will be released in final form on Friday night, explicitly urged Beijing to let its yuan rise more rapidly—a harder line than the G7 took in April. Just before G7 ministers sat down for a meeting at the U.S. Treasury, a senior Chinese central bank official said allowing the yuan to rise faster would have only a limited impact on China's huge trade surplus and could hurt the world economy. "I expect we'll have more pressure from the other market currency countries (on China), especially with the euro being at a relatively high value now," Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told Reuters on Thursday. China has always taken the position—repeated on Monday by President Hu Jintao—that it will move gradually and at its own speed on currency and other economic reforms. On the Mend, Slowly The G7—the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan—are also struggling with the consequences of U.S.-originated credit market turmoil stemming from a crisis in subprime mortgage markets that was exported in the form of widely sold securities based on weak loans. With global growth already waning, soaring oil prices added another layer of worry, prompting the White House to say it wanted them to decline and causing unease abroad as well. "The oil price contains a double risk -- it increases inflation and at the same time slows growth," Europe's Weber said. There were fresh signs on Friday that Europe seemed to be navigating high oil prices and credit market strains relatively well, with Britain reporting rapid third-quarter growth and Germany saying it was suffering no harm from market strains. European businesses lobbied their finance ministers ahead of the G7 to make clear their concern that a rising value of the euro was endangering their exports and potentially the region's growth. That left G7 officials pointing at China to take steps to bring about better balance in the world's economy. That was apparent in a remark by Italy's Finance Minister Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, who told reporters: "Europe is a region that has a strong currency and needs to learn to live with the fact." Regulation an Issue The heightened
IMF role, sought by both the United States and Europe, should give
the IMF a stronger hand in pushing China toward adopting a market-based
value for the yuan.
Back China's foreign exchange reserve has recently reached a record high, exceeding US$1.4 trillion. On October 12, the People's Bank of China released a report. The report stated that by the end of September, China's foreign exchange reserve had reached $1.4336 trillion, an increase of 45.11 percent compared to the same period last year. AFP reported that in the first nine months of 2007, China's foreign trade surplus amounted to $185.7 billion, surpassing last year's $177.5 billion. In the first nine months of 2007, foreign direct investment (FDI) had also increased 10.9 percent compared with the same period last year, reaching $47.2 billion. Economist Cheng Xiaonong living in the United States said, "China's $1.4 trillion of foreign exchange reserves are obviously excessive. It is not only international experts who think this way, but Chinese authorities also agree, despite the fact that the authorities have already taken a series of measures attempting to reduce the foreign exchange reserves. If they could have realized this result three or five years ago and taken steps earlier, of course, the situation would not have deteriorated to this extent. The high foreign exchange reserve is actually a result of the Chinese authorities' long-term implementation of their policy to support increases in foreign exchange reserve. After adhering to such a policy for over 10 years, China's huge and ever-growing foreign exchange reserve is an inevitable outcome, which on the one hand has caused international friction and on the other hand, has led to serious inflation inside China." The AFP report stated that the surge of venture capital has also led to an increase in China's foreign exchange reserve. However, a researcher from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences believes that such hot money only occupies a small portion of the reserve, because China's tight control over capital has hindered a large amount of hot money from pouring in. Cheng Xiaonong commented, "There is a massive amount of money overseas Chinese have invested in China. "Once these speculators discover that there is no more room in speculation in China or they may lose money, they will quickly withdraw. Then China's economy will soon suffer a heavy blow." AFP's report stated that now 70 percent of China's foreign exchange reserve has been invested in U.S. securities, mainly U.S. government bonds. Cheng Xiaonong said that, "The main reason that Western governments remain cautious about large-scale overseas investment by China's state-owned investment company, is that China is a huge dictatorial country, yet all dictatorial countries share one basic trait—their economic means often serve their political purposes." "In order
to maintain and grow the dictatorship's strength, it is very likely
for the Chinese communist regime to use economic means to weaken democratic
countries, and hence indirectly protect itself. Therefore as long
as the Chinese regime does not change its dictatorial system, regardless
of its wealth, it cannot be a trustworthy regime. Then all its various
operations should be monitored with caution." Back As the number of people quitting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) approaches 27 million, farmers from Shandong Province, Henan Province, Shanxi Province, Inner Mongolia and the North Eastern region also decided to join in. The CCP depended on farmers in the civil war to establish its regime. Farmers in regions that the CCP first occupied during the civil war, devoted everything they had to the CCP. However, after seizing power, ironically the CCP began to neglect and discriminate against farmers. After its establishment, the CCP's policies branded farmers as second class citizens. The poorest social class in China is the farmers; they couldn't retire because they had no benefits or pensions. Also, they are the heaviest taxed class. Public funding for social welfare, birth control, roads, and other miscellaneous costs have all been loaded onto the backs of 900 million farmers. A farmer from Anhui Province said in his declaration: "Because I couldn't afford to pay my taxes, they confiscated my crops and my cow. When I attempted to make an appeal for justice, they lied and said that I'd given them those items as a gift. Those with power suppress people like this. Today when I heard about the wave of quitting the CCP, I am very touched and I hereby declare withdrawal from the CCP, its Youth League and its Young Pioneers Team." Yiping from Inner Mongolia said that Shanghai's skyscrapers and Beijing's large theaters do not reflect China's economy. "Being able to send a few satellites up into space does not prove that the common Chinese people can put food on the table or clothes on their backs. Chinese farmers are suffering from extreme poverty as we speak. I hereby withdraw from the Communist Youth League." An anonymous Chinese
man said that, "the CCP promised the farmers land, and so the
farmers fought hard to give them power. After the CCP seized the power,
it distributed the land. However, the land was taken away even before
the first harvest. The CCP also confiscated forests, rivers and mines.
On the surface they said that everything would be equally shared by
the citizens. In reality, it is all privately owned, party-owned,
or strictly speaking, owned by all significant figures of the CCP.
Many Chinese citizens, including many party members, are unemployed
and most have no property at all. I was young and immature when they
persuaded me into joining the party. Now that I've grown and I am
matured, I want to publicly announce my withdrawal from the party
today. From now on, I will not be part of the evil CCP." Cai
Yu from Gansu Province said, "I'm an illiterate farmer, and I
have followed the path of the evil party for over half my life. In
the past I was forced to become one of the Communist Red Guards, and
participate in its evil organizations. Nevertheless, I also believe
in our ancestors' faith in karmic retribution. I've decided to resign
from the evil Communist Youth League, the Young Pioneers, and all
other CCP related organizations. I hope to choose a pure and good
future for myself." Back Illegal arrests, forced labour camps, brainwashing centres, organ harvesting, torture, murder, forced abortions, child labour, no freedom of press, internet blockades, widespread corruption and nepotism. This is Beijing 2007. Beijing appears light-years away from the Olympic Charter, which talks of "the harmonious development of man" and "promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity." Last year Olympic Watch, Reporters Without Borders, International Society for Human Rights, Solidarité Chine and Laogai Research Foundation -- an international coalition of human rights organisations -- wrote a letter to the president of the International Olympic Committee, asking him to "focus on the continuing human rights abuses" in China before Beijing 2008 because they "threaten to damage the Olympic ideals forever." The coalition is painting Beijing 2008 as a "tool for domestic and international political propaganda of the Chinese Communist Party." "In 2008, the international sporting movement must refuse to tolerate one of the world's bloodiest dictatorships," they said in a 2006 statement. When the International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded Beijing the Olympics in 2001 under the obligation of cleaning up their dismal human rights record they also said the IOC would act if human rights commitments by China were not upheld in practice. The international voice calling for a boycott of the 2008 Games is growing louder as events in Sudan and Burma play out. European Union vice-President Edward McMillan-Scott has opened the debate with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the European Parliament. "If China does nothing and the persecution [in Burma] continues, the civilized world must seriously consider shunning China by using the Beijing Olympics to send the clear message that such abuses of human rights are not acceptable. It is the one lever the world can use." In a speech to the US House of Representatives last week Congressman Dana Rohrabacher said, "We are giving the Chinese the ability to hold the Olympics, to cover up, to put a good face on this type of monstrous regime." Paul McCartney, Mia Farrow, and George Clooney have all expressed concern over the inability of communist regime in China to meet basic human rights standards. Former Canadian MP and champion of the Human Rights Torch Relay, the Hon David Kilgour said if the regime expects people to sponsor and attend the Games they have to realise that people all over the world are getting "more and more concerned that this could be a repetition of the Berlin Games in 1936". "Hitler lightened up the persecution of different groups in Germany while the Games were coming up and during the Games - but as soon as the foreigners left town the persecution got even worse. And that, of course, is a worry all of us have for the Falun Gong community and many other groups within China." Former Australian Human Rights Commissioner Dr Sev Ozdowski said if the international community had boycotted the Berlin Olympics in 1936 it was likely the Holocaust could have been averted. Back Multi-Level
Marketing, a Hidden Peril in China Back HONG KONG–Multi-level marketing (MLM) 1 , also know as pyramid schemes ( chuanxiao ), has become prevalent again in China in the past two years 2 . Millions of people, including students and farmers, are involved in this sector, drawing 50 billion yuan (US$6.66 billion) into the scheme. Chinese authorities continue, however, to be wary of direct sales on a number of grounds, among them pyramid scheme frauds, strong networking capabilities and loss of social stability. With such a large and well-organized sales force, MLM has caused panic on the authorities. In July and August of this year, the authorities significantly strengthened the co-operation with related departments in fighting illegal pyramid selling. According to Oriental Daily News in Hong Kong, MLM salespeople, dissatisfied with the authority's bans, often gather a crowd to attack governmental agencies. The public security department of Guangxi Province recently claimed to have cracked down on an MLM case with one billion yuan ($133 million) involved. However, this attracted more than 1,000 MLM proprietors to protest outside the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Regional government building. They wanted to overturn the cases and asked for the release of the 14 arrested MLM sales managers, from whom they could get a return of their "hard-earned money." The authorities deployed hundreds of special police officers to disperse the demonstrators. In the conflict, two people were injured, and hundreds of others were detained for investigation. The authorities are increasingly worried about the massive sums of money and the cult-like devotion among members in these networks. According to China's Ministry of Public Security, since last year public security organs have cracked 1,552 MLM cases and 620 million yuan ($82.62 million) have been seized in connection with these cases. Officials in charge pointed out that MLM programs may present great social risks: a huge number of MLM direct sellers can easily threaten public stability and security; last year alone, 815,000 people were involved with crime. Officials said that farmers, unemployed people, housewives, the elderly and other vulnerable groups are a main sales force in the sector, in which resolved capital has reached as high as 50 billion yuan. MLM has become a major hidden peril to China's economic and social security. Notes: |
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