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July 11, 2011 is the 22nd World Population Day. This year\’s World Population Day will have the theme of \”The World at Seven Billion,\” which was set by the UN.

In October 2011, the global population will reach 7 billion, which is a milestone in human development but also a significant topic facing the entire human race. During the \”July 11 World Population Day\” conference, jointly held by the National Population and Family Planning Commission of China and the People\’s Government of Tianjin, Li Bin, director of the commission, said that It depends on our current decisions whether we will be able to keep living on a healthy and sustainable earth.

[b]Global population will continue to grow[/b]

Currently, there are 3.7 billion people of childbearing age in the world, meaning that the global population will continue to grow in the next several decades. According to statistics, the global population is increasing by 78 million annually, which is equal to the total population of Canada, Australia, Greece and Portugal. Almost all the population increases come from developing countries, and some countries have already not been able to satisfy the needs of their existing population.

Li said that the population increase is mainly from developing countries, where the contradiction between population, economy and resources has become increasingly sharp. Many wealthy and semi-developed countries are facing problems of low fertility and population aging.

Li believes although countries face different population problems and challenges, which they approach with varied policy focuses, one thing is the same: solving the population problem is an important part of the work of governments.

Whether or not the world\’s population will increase another 1 billion and many more billions in the future depends on the policies and funds that people have adopted in aspects such as maternity and child care, family planning, girls\’ education, and expanding job opportunities for women.

Li called on various countries to work together to solve these population and development problems when facing severe challenges brought by climate change, uneven population development and international migration in the context of globalization, internationalization and accelerated informatization.

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DaVinci brand furniture is famous for its high prices in China. One DaVinci single bed can be sold for more than 100,000 yuan and a sofa set can be sold for more than 300,000 yuan. Salesmen say that it is because DaVinci\”is an Italian international super brand and its furniture is produced in Italy. In addition, it claimed its raw materials are high-quality natural materials without pollution.

However, the survey results show that a large amount of the expensive DaVinci furniture is produced in China, not Italy, and the raw materials are not rare wood as they declared, but polymer resinous materials. The survey results also show that the DaVinci furniture that consumers purchased even incuded unqualified products.

The true colors of another \”bogus foreign devil\” were exposed, which aroused a public outcry. How did the China-made DaVinci furniture disguise itself as a foreign product?

According to sources, DaVinci purchased furniture from Dongguan City of south China\’s Guangdong Province and directly carried the furniture to Italy from the Shenzhen port, and then carried them back to Shanghai. As a result, that furniture will have complete import formalities. Some DaVinci furniture in Shanghai even did not leave China but only stay at the bonded zone for some time and returned the market as foreign-made products.

Why did DaVinci Furniture put fake \”foreign-made\” labels on its products? Obviously, its purpose was to reap huge profits. The price of a piece of furniture can rise sharply simply because of a \”Made in Italy\” label. For example, a double bed is priced at around 30,000 yuan at a domestic store, but its price can rise to over 300,000 yuan at an exclusive store of DaVinci Furniture.

There are two questions worth pondering. Why are fake foreign brands still rampant despite frequent crackdowns? What are the causes of this phenomenon?

First, domestic consumers need to develop more mature attitudes toward consumption. The whole DaVinci Furniture scandal revolves around irony and deception, and buyers of the fake foreign furniture are partially responsible for their own losses.

A main reason why there are so many fake foreign brands is that Chinese consumers worship almost everything foreign and believe that foreign brands equal superior quality. Furthermore, some people have bought luxury foreign goods only to show off their wealth. They care more about price tag than product quality. The purpose of DaVinci Furniture putting fake \”foreign-made\” labels on its domestically manufactured products was to reap huge profits by catering to domestic consumers\’ immature attitudes toward consumption.

Second, China\’s domestic brands are not self-confident. Since many Chinese consumers \”worship\” foreign products, a lot of domestic brands have lost their self-confidence. In recent years, a large amount of \”international brand-name products\” of China\’s domestic markets were actually produced in China\’s Guangdong Province or other places. Some Chinese brands actually were quite successful and could have independent intellectual property rights that meet international quality standards. However, they ultimately chose to find a foreign company as their \”papa\” and transformed themselves into \”imitation foreign companies.\” It is really a sad thing of China\’s national industry that the good products made in China have to pretend to be foreign products.

Third, the link of supervision has defects. The \”first exporting and then importing them\” process carefully designed by the DaVinci Furniture were supervised and coordinated by many functional departments.

Did these departments fulfill their duties? An expert said that some related departments and industrial systems are not strict and did not maintain strict standards during the mess of \”imitation foreign products disturbing domestic markets.\” They have given a green light in all the procedures, from registering offshore companies or shell companies to handling the \”first exporting and then importing them\” process and to bringing the products to shopping centers. In this way, many \”imitation foreign products\” have put on \”new imitation clothes\” and are sold at amazingly high prices to cheat consumers. Hopefully, related departments and industrial associations could learn a lesson from the \”DaVinci Incident\” and will improve the legal system and normalize the disorderly foreign-product market of China so that companies like the DaVinci Furniture will no longer be able to do whatever they want.

[i]By He Haiyong from People\’s Daily Overseas Edition, translated by People\’s Daily Online[/i]

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If deprived of the right to know, to participate, to express opinions and to supervise, people will not be interested in participating in public hearings that are not intended to protect their interests.

A retired elderly woman surnamed Hu in Chengdu recently rose to fame as a \”professional attendee of public hearings.\” It turned out that she applied to attend over 40 hearings and was \”luckily\” picked at random for 23 hearings covering more than 20 fields, including tourism, education, and transportation.

Admittedly, a main reason for familiar faces at hearings is that there are too few applicants. For example, a hearing on roadside parking fees had a quota of 11 representatives of local residents, but only seven people applied. A hearing on banning high-polluting cars from the road needed four representatives and five people applied. If it continues like this, familiar faces like Hu will continue to show up at public hearings, and certain public hearing conclusions will not be able to reflect the true will of the people.

Even if people are legally allowed to attend hearings multiple times, there are a few questions for the organizers of such hearings to think about. Can the same person represent the will of the people in all kinds of issues? Can a few frequent attendees really protect the interests of the people? How can public hearings attract a broader range of participants?

Unfortunately, a long period has passed since media reported the \”professional public hearing attendee,\” and no related department has actively responded to it.

The public hearing is an important link for discussing the necessity and feasibility of a price adjustment and also a key link for consumers and businessmen to safeguard their own interests. No matter whether it is the price of water price, parking, phone bills or heating, public hearings on price are closely connected with public interests. In an \”interest-sensitive\” era, the public will definitely not ignore their own rights and interests, and a public hearing ought to attract wide attention and great participation.

Information is asymmetrical; technical terms always produce a lot of obstacles; industrial costs can never be clear; procedures are defective; speeches, which last only a few minutes cannot make a speaker fully express his/her view, the veto power of the consumers cannot been fully respected. A public hearing like that could definitely not be the platform for the public to safeguard their interests. Such a hearing is a \”price-rising meeting\” or even a \”price-rising declaration meeting.\” If the public does not have enough rights to know, participate, speak and supervise, the public hearing will be disconnected with the public interests. And then, how can they be interested in it?

In recent years, the fact that \”the price will rise after every public hearing\” once attracted a lot of attention and a case that the price declined after a public hearing once surprisingly became a focal point. Besides, about 90 percent of the representatives in a water price hearing held in Beijing once voted for raising the price, and the statuses of the representatives in a water price public hearing held in Harbin once were suspected. All these things could reflect the weakened effectiveness of the public hearing system. If the original intention of \”raising the democratic level, scientific level and openness of the government in price setting\” cannot be realized, the credibility of the system will be compromised. Without the foundation of the masses, the public hearing will change from an interest-safeguarding platform into a meaningless empty show.

The fundamental way of putting an end to the emergence of frequent attendees of public hearings is to restore public confidence toward public hearings and expand the foundation of social participation, which certainly needs to further improve the institution.

The government can take the force of the third party, such as an independent, authoritative and credible agency, to supervise the whole course of public hearings to avoid related price departments and monopoly enterprises forming \”benefit alliance.\” The government can require audit departments to completely audit related products before hearings to ensure the fairness and transparency of hearing materials. In addition, the government can also strengthen the construction of consumer organizations and other social organizations to make them more representative of attendees of public hearings and strengthen the right of collective bargaining. The government can even hold online hearings to publish related materials through the Internet and launch general debate to reduce the time and energy cost of attendees of public hearings.

The public hearing is the game of interests and a kind of civil participation. If this form of credibility is damaged by various disputes over interests, the government will lose an important way to safeguard the public interest and the enthusiasm of civil participation, which is the basis of developing the socialist democracy.

[i]By Zhang Tie from People\’s Daily, translated by People\’s Daily Online[/i]

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Two trends are emerging in the current world. One trend is violent multilateralism, and the other is peaceful multilateralism.

After the Cold War, five high-tech local wars broke out, including the Iraq War, Gulf War, Kosovo War and two other wars in Afghanistan and Libya. All the five wars, except the Iraq War, are military operations against or invasion of developing countries carried out by U.S.-led coalition troops. As a result, violent multilateralism came into existence and is gradually becoming a major threat to international peace.

By contrast, peaceful multilateralism advocates the use of multilateral security dialogue and other peaceful means to resolve international disputes as well as multilateral economic, financial, and environmental cooperation at global and regional levels. The world should uphold peaceful multilateralism and oppose violent multilateralism.

In Northeast Asia, violent multilateralism is manifested in the joint military exercises that the United States has held with Japan and South Korea, and peaceful multilateralism is manifested in the six-party talks. Regrettably, violent multilateralism has prevailed over peaceful multilateralism since last year, leaving the Korean Peninsula on the verge of armed conflict. Japan released a new National Defense Program Outline in late 2010, linking the Diaoyu islands issue to its national defense strategy. Furthermore, the United States backed Japan by stating that the Diaoyu islands are subject to Article 5 of U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, in hopes of jointly containing China.

The shadow of \”violent multilateralism\” has begun lingering in the South China Sea since the start of 2011. A major backdrop behind the disputes and frictions between several countries and China in the South China Sea is that following the rise of China, the United States and Japan have not only advanced their alliance but also begun to set up triangle military networks targeting China by means of \”the U.S.-Japan alliance plus one.\”

The strategic objectives in the Asia-Pacific region put forward by the United States and Japan during their \”two-plus-two\” security consultations in June include paying close attention to China\’s maritime activities and strengthening their defense cooperation with South Korea, Australia, India and the ASEAN.

Although Japan currently cannot join the military actions of the United States like NATO because of its pacifist constitution, it has shown an increasingly evident tendency to get involved in the South China Sea issue. One of Japan\’s purposes is to indirectly contain China in terms of the issues relating to the East China Sea and the Diaoyu Islands.

In July, the United States, Japan and Australia held a tentative joint military drill in waters near the South China Sea. The United States is seeking to strategically contain China by utilizing the island and maritime sovereignty disputes between its allies in the Asia-Pacific region and China as well as between China and its neighboring countries, while avoiding a frontal clash with China. Such a backdrop has caused certain countries neighboring China to adopt a tough stance and even make a show of force in issues relating to maritime sovereignty. This has made them objectively agents, vanguards or victims of the United States in its strategic confrontation with China.

Another trend of dealing with the dispute in the South China Sea is \”peaceful multilateralism,\” which was embodied in the \”Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea\” that was jointly issued by China and ASEAN members in 2002.

The declaration used the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence and other universally recognized international laws as fundamental principles of dealing with the inter-state relations. The declaration also required various parties to keep self-control and not to take actions that will make the dispute more complicated and extensive and will have impact on the peace and stability.

China always advocates to properly resolving disputes and differences in the South China Sea with peaceful means through direct bilateral consultations and friendly negotiations with related countries. China is willing to make joint efforts with relevant parties to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea. However, China opposes the involvement of the United States, Japan and other countries in the South China Sea dispute because the United States is not the disputing party of the sovereignty problem in South China Sea, and Japan gave up the occupation in the South China Sea after World War II.

Therefore, both countries do not have the right to be involved in the South China Sea dispute. Intervention by the United States and Japan in the South China Sea issue with military alliance will only complicate the conflict and even seriously damage the regional \”peaceful multilateralism\” process.

[i]By Liu Jiangyong, a special commentator of People\’s Daily and deputy president of the Institute of Contemporary International Relations under the Tsinghua University, and the article is translated by People\’s Daily Online.[/i]

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The Chinese economy is in the process of transforming from the strong rebound after the implementation of the package plan to independent stable growth, and the Chinese economy will not experience a \”hard landing,\” said Wang Yiming, deputy president of the Academy of Macroeconomic Research under the National Development and Reform Committee.

\”The Chinese economy maintained a steady and relatively fast growth in 2011 and the economic operation situation is good in general,\” Wang said. “China\’s investments maintained relatively fast growth, consumption growth showed a slight decline but still remains high, and industrial production continues to maintain relatively fast growth. The effect of implementing the steady monetary policy has been gradually shown.

\”Although the price level is still high, the month-to-month growth has become less pronounced,\” Wang said.

On the whole, Wang said the Chinese economy continues to develop in the expected direction of macroeconomic regulation and control.

\”Meanwhile, we should also clearly see that China\’s economic development is still facing an extremely complex domestic and foreign environment,\” Wang said.

Wang said there are many unstable and uncertain factors. Therefore, macroeconomic regulation and control has become more difficult.

\”We should strengthen the awareness of being vigilant against dangers in times of peace and clearly see favorable conditions and positive factors in various aspects to reaffirm our confidence and make efforts to achieve economic and social development goals throughout the year,\” Wang said.

[b]Slowdown of Chinese economic growth has its rationality[/b]

[i]Economic growth to not sharply slow down[/i]

Although China\’s GDP growth reached nearly 10 percent in the first quarter of 2011, signs of a slowdown in economic growth have indeed appeared in China. The number of new projects in the first few months of 2011 has been reduced significantly and the industrial growth also declined in the recent two months. Do these phenomena show that the Chinese economy will experience decline? Wang made a cause analysis regarding this problem.

First, the total investment growth of new projects in 2011 showed significant decline along with the end of the 4-trillion-yuan investment plan. The pulling function of investments to economic growth has become weak. This is a normal phenomenon of the transformation from policy stimulus to the independent stable growth. Meanwhile, it also required China to accelerate the cultivation of investment enthusiasm toward the subject of market to strengthen the endogenous power of economic growth.

Second, the consumption growth is slowing down under the influence of residents\’ income and the end of some policies designed to stimulate consumption. China should take measures to improve the urban and rural incomes to strengthen urban and rural residents’ willingness to consume.

Third, the growth of developed economies obviously slowed down in 2011. The unemployment rate remains high. The European sovereign debt crisis is spreading, and international commodity prices are fluctuating widely. Inflationary pressures of emerging markets continue to increase, and the unstable and uncertain factors of the global economic recovery have increased, which also have corresponding impact on China\’s exports.

\”A moderate slowdown in economic growth is reasonable. It will help ease inflationary pressure, promote economic restructuring and increase the quality and efficiency of economic growth. We should make full use of the changes in the external environment, accelerate industrial restructuring and economic upgrades, and increase the proportion of high value-added links in an industry value chain so as to promote the transformation of the economic development pattern. Based on current trends, China\’s economic growth will not slow sharply,\” Wang said.
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China\’s National Audit Office recently released local debt audit results that fully reveal the liability situation of various local governments above the county level since 1979, involving a total of nearly 1.9 million in specific debt. This is the most authoritative and comprehensive information on the actual liability situation of China\’s local governments.

The risk of China\’s local debt has been a topic of concern for various parties. As a researcher, my overall judgment is that although China encountered many problematic issues during the process of pursuing a sound and rapid development through reform and opening up and indeed needs to pay more attention to prevent risks and conciliate conflicts in the period of golden development and the period of major challenges, if we consider the situation from the particular perspective of local government debt or public sector debt ratio, we will find that the audit results provide us a basis to form the following basic judgment: the total debt of China\’s public sectors, with debt ratio as a key index, is in the safe range in general.

European Union members stressed in the \”Treaty of Maastricht\” that the debt ratio of public sectors should not exceed 60 percent. Although this security line was proven to have failed under the impact of the global financial crisis, it is still a main reference standard of judging the current China debt risk.

According to audit findings, China\’s total amount of the three kinds of local governmental debts — direct debt that local governments were liable to pay, potential debt that local governments are liable to guarantee and debt that may need local government aid — was 10.7 trillion yuan by the end of 2010. Of them, the latter two, accounting for 37.4 percent, will not completely become actual debts.

Even if they are all actual debts, the total amount of 10.7 trillion yuan only accounted for a little less than 27 percent of China\’s GDP in 2011. If the public departmental debts of China showed on paper, accounting for about 20 percent of the GDP; the financial bonds issued by China\’s policy-based financial institutions, accounting for about 6 percent of the GDP, and others are all added in, the total amount of China\’s public governmental debts will account for between 50 percent and 55 percent of the GDP.

It is still in a safe range where risks can be controlled. In addition, all these previously unknown debts were shown to the public, more departments have offered effective cooperation and strengthened their supervision of the debts to control risks, and therefore, the proportion of the public departmental debts to the GDP will no doubt be reduced in the future.

It should be emphasized that although the audit results have proven that China\’s local government debt burden is still under control, two major problems have been exposed in this process. First, the transparency of local government debt was obviously low in the past. A large amount of \”hidden\” debt was formed in accordance with unwritten rules, which was highly risky. Second, the total debt burden of local governments is still in safe zone, but certain regions are faced with noticeable debt risks.

If the hidden problems in certain regions with high debt ratios and certain high-risk projects erupt, there will be a high social cost, including heavy direct economic losses, serious decline of public trust in government agencies and unnecessary waste of the time and energy of decision-makers. With a full picture of local government debt, China should take targeted measures to improve the fiscal transparency of local governments, create a sound emergency response mechanism and strengthen coordination and risk prevention in order to achieve sustainable development.

Certain overseas news agencies have created sensational and baseless speculation about China\’s local government debt and claimed that China\’s economy would soon collapse. With a full picture of local government debt, China is able to eliminate the possibility of a nationwide debt crisis and to solve regional debt problems through various means with the help of multiple \”firewalls,\” including sufficient bank reserves for bad debts, disposable funds and quickly realizable assets of local governments as well as the rich and diversified economic resources that the central government has accumulated thanks to the country\’s growing comprehensive national strength.

[i]By Jia Kang, the director of the Research Institute for Fiscal Science under the Ministry of Finance, translated by People\’s Daily Online[/i]

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[b]Endogenous growth power remains strong[/b]

\”Judging from the current and future situation, China\’s economic growth remains relatively strong, and the risk of rapid decline in economic growth is relatively small,\” Sheng said, when answering questions of reporters.

Sheng said that first, in regard to investments, as 2011 is the beginning of the 12th Five-Year Plan, the investment enthusiasm in various areas is relatively high. The local investment growth rate stood at more than 28 percent, which is a relatively high figure. The growth rate of private investments stood at nearly 34 percent in the first half of 2011, which is significantly higher than the average growth rate of national fixed assets, indicating that the market investment growth is relatively fast.

Furthermore, the income of urban and rural residents continued to increase in the first half of 2011, which will also increase the consumption strength of residents. Meanwhile, the social security and consumption environment continues to improve, which will also promote consumption.

Although China\’s export growth rate dropped by a relatively wide margin, the 20 percent export growth rate is still not a low figure because the base number of 2010 was relatively high and China\’s trade surplus reached 44.9 billion yuan in the first half of 2011. Therefore, China\’s exports continue to increase steadily. As China is in the acceleration phase of industrialization and urbanization, the power and growth space of the troika are still relatively large. In addition, structural adjustments and the transformation of development patterns in various places, including the acceleration of the pace of industrial upgrading, will also continue to give new vitality and driving force to the economic growth.

\”Economic structural adjustments will bring greater space to allow China\’s economy to get on a healthier development track. The Chinese government should implement certain preferential policies to cultivate strategic emerging industries in order to stimulate business innovation. Some state-owned monopoly-type fields should also be further opened to private capital,\” Guo said.

Lian predicts that China\’s economy will further slightly decline in the second half of 2011. \”In the second half of 2011, China\’s investment will not obviously slow down because the affordable housing construction will be further accelerated, and the level of consumption will slightly increase. In the first half of 2011, the rigid demand of the automotive industry and real estate was restricted by the macroscopic readjustment and control, which will be released if housing and car prices show slight decline in the second half of 2011,\” Lian said.

He also predicts that China\’s GDP growth will reach nearly 10 percent in 2011.

[i]By Ye Xiaonan from People\’s Daily Overseas Edition, translated by People\’s Daily Online.[/i]
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The press barons of the world have been known to make presidents and prime ministers tremble with fear, but now, with revelations of illegal wire-tapping and ethical lapses in the Rupert Murdoch news empire, the tables have turned. The king of tabloid journalism is himself fodder for the kind of humiliating exposure that his hacks excelled at. But a scandal that\’s left the News of the World dead in its wake and a raft of new rules governing interaction of press, police and politicians is not a victory for free press.

Tabloids are not the problem. Though more esteemed members of the press corps may think themselves to be quite different, they play a similar game. After all, there is a certain glee to be had in taking down a \”bad\” guy, all the more fun if the object of attention is haughty, arrogant and acts above the law.

Gotcha!

Journalists interview and investigate, police arrest and interrogate; they work in tandem as social watchdogs to uncover wrongdoing. Going after prostitutes and crooks is one thing, taking down white-collar criminals, the presumed social superiors to the \”blue-collar\” cops and struggling scribes, is a different matter entirely.

It\’s an uphill battle to play \”gotcha\” with the political elite because they embody the very status quo power structure that police are hired to uphold. That\’s where irreverent journalists come in, and that\’s why journalists are sometimes hushed with money and that\’s why the likes of Murdoch\’s minions got away with whatever it was they were doing wrong for so long.

For the tabloid press there\’s the thrill of the chase, followed by the pay shot or eavesdrop that promises a new angle to a news topic. There\’s the photograph surreptitiously snapped, or the phone and mail message hacked, the kind of thing that intelligence agencies get away with because they don\’t share it with the public.

This crude \”gotcha\” impulse can be seen at its naked best in the tabloids, but broadsheets play a similar game, only they dress it up in fancier clothes, calling it investigative journalism, accountability and advocacy. The New York Times, for example, doesn\’t print photographs of naked starlets, and it tends to deal politely with United States\’ allies such as the United Kingdom and Israel, but it takes evident glee in \”exposing\” the ill-considered deeds of those who dare to challenge American hegemony, whether it involve digging up the latest \”dirt\” on Iran, Russia or filing yet another hyped up story about a rival\’s ethnic tensions or pro-American dissent.

Yes, even in the pin-drop silent corridors of power stalked by the stealthy \”Gray Lady\” known as The New York Times, echoes of \”gotcha\” journalism resound, even if her ladyship\’s diction, deportment and dazzling vocabulary serve to sanitize, mesmerize and divert attention from the tabloid spirit bubbling underneath.

Where the tabloid press may try to please its readers, and sell more soapsuds, with a long lens shot of a sun-bathing star, or poke fun at a pompous local politician, The New York Times saves its long shots and low punches for Beijing and other foreign governments. Indeed it is the countries that deviate from the American way (tacitly assumed to be universal) that seem to irritate, annoy and inadvertently puncture the egos of the self-inflated press lords of Manhattan.

Tabloids and broadsheets look superficially different but one need only consider how Murdoch has hitched high and low together in service of his political agenda and family fortune, ranging from The Times, London, to The Sun, from the New York Post to The Wall Street Journal.

The New York Times recently bared its fangs in a case of double leak and double betrayal, printing US State Department cables exposed by WikiLeaks, but without the permission of its chief Julian Assange, who they then went on to castigate and humiliate in numerous formats, the most egregious case being a venomous ambush by the then executive editor, Bill Keller, who inserted snarky asides about Assange\’s body odor and dirty socks.

Presumably the preppy Keller, whose reputation was stained by his role as liberal cheerleader for the bloody war in Iraq, is an obsessive hand-washer with clean feet.

The world abounds with wrongdoing and miscarriages of justice, but at the tut-tutting non-tabloid tabloids such as The Times, those who dare to challenge their smug worldview are put in the crosshairs.

The tabloids may attack hubris with humilition and revel at making the famous infamous but make no pretense about holding the high moral ground.

In contrast, the elite press can skewer national debate in a way that lends credence to unwarranted war.

The gutter press may tar and feather unlucky celebrities, but the elite press can, with frightening \”credibility\”, tar an entire nation with a single brush.

Yes, tabloids are crass and err from excess, but they also tackle taboo topics that the elite press can only sniff at. The aggressive curiosity and invasive inquisitions that animate the worst of the press also inform the best, for all journalists are in the \”gotcha\” business in one way or another.

The author Philip J. Cunningham is a visiting fellow in the East Asia Program, Cornell University, New York.

[i]Source: China Daily [/i]

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The New York Times recently published an article by Eric X. Li with the headline, \”Counterpoint: Debunking myths about China.\” Li debunked five most popular misconceptions about China by citing the findings of Western opinion polls and research institutions as well as comparing China with other countries. At the end of the article, he drew a reasonable conclusion that \”hypotheses that do not stand up to facts and yet still dominate people\’s consciousness are specious and harmful.\”

The New York Times published this article in the context of a changing world.

After the Cold War, certain Western elites were ecstatic about \”the end of an era,\” thinking that the world would be theirs and that they could reshape the world to a Western model. However, after nearly 20 years, it turns out that the current world is not the kind they hoped for, and the Western democracy they propagandized for is not as perfect as they have claimed it to be.

I have attended many international conferences in the United States and Europe in recent years and have made private conversations with many Western elites. Some of them honestly expressed doubts about the democratic systems in their countries. Many problems facing today\’s United States are caused by its democratic system, which features party politics.

An obvious fault of party politics is that the interests of political parties are often put above national interests. For example, both Republicans and Democrats care more about their political interests than the interests of the country and the people, and many American politicians have failed to honor their fine-sounding election commitments. Therefore, doubts about American democracy have started to spread among American elites.

Europe\’s democratic system is different from that of the United States, but all of their political parties and politicians seek the same goal: winning elections. To gain votes, they must please voters, the consequences of which are mounting national debt in some European countries and the looming crises from sovereign debt and the euro.

Each country needs to adapt to globalization through reforms so as to enhance their competitiveness. When I returned to China after serving as a Chinese ambassador in Europe for nine years, I found through comparisons that the Chinese people\’s attitudes toward reforms is considerably different from those of Europeans: Europeans are afraid of reforms, while the Chinese people embrace reforms.

This situation has caused European politicians who advocate reforms to usually lose elections. Whoever seeks to adopt a reform will face large-scale strikes and protests. The limitations in such a democratic system are gradually emerging.

China\’s political system has always been under criticism from Western countries. However, China\’s achievements including its rapid ascent, improved public living standards and three decades of double-digit economic growth are rare in the world.

In April 1997, I went to attend an international seminar in St. Gallen, a border city in Switzerland. In response to some criticism over China during the seminar, a young man from Spain said, \”I view the Chinese government as a good government. Which country in the world has helped 250 million people overcome poverty over the past two decades? Such great progress is unprecedented in the history of mankind.\” It was noteworthy that none of those smooth-talking Westerners stood up to refute him. Facts are facts, and the remarks of the young Spanish man are just facts that others could not refute.

Of course, China will face a lot of severe challenges and problems during its rising process, and we are willing to use the successful experience of any human civilization for reference to cope with the challenges. However, if China copies the Western system, the severe problems that have emerged in other countries not only will re-emerge in China, but also will be much severer in China.

Another inspiration that we got from Li\’s article is that facts and comparisons are more convincing than talks. Facts are facts, and nobody can deny them. When introducing China to the world, using the comparison is a quite effective method. I often use comparisons personally in diplomatic affairs.

The world is experiencing an in-depth change and various voices can co-exist in the world. We must never think that all Western media hold a same opinion. In fact, the entire world is making self-examinations. I have lived in the West for more than 20 years, and I know some Westerners have a prejudice against China, and it is hard for them to get rid of it. But most common people of the West are frank and reasonable. As long as we clear things up based on facts, they will ultimately see a true China.

[i]By Wu Jianmin from People\’s Daily, translated by People\’s Daily Online[/i]

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Top military officials from China and the US met in Beijing Monday, signaling another important step in the bilateral exchanges.

A handshake cannot hide the truth of how these militaries have studied to guard against each other.

Should even a sliver of the worst scenarios imagined actually happen, it would mean calamity for the Asia-Pacific region.

However, how to prevent this from happening is more important for the two militaries, and a key step for major powers in moving from a zero-sum game to win-win politics.

Despite suspicion and alertness, neither could form the determination to coerce the other through force. Peaceful coexistence without shunning problems is the mindset of both societies, a rarity among competing powers in the past.

The \”neither friend nor foe\” situation adopted by the two militaries is seen as fleeting by some. Whispers grow that a showdown is inevitable.

No doubt, the bilateral relationship is subject to many variables. Competition, either in economy or ideology, could evolve into hostility. Conflicts between China and its neighbors and the involvement of the US could turn into a China-US confrontation.

A direct military conflict would instantly disrupt the bilateral relationship. The spy plane collision over the South China Sea in 2001 stopped short of a serious military clash. Ten years ago, China was much weaker than today. The incident was soon forgotten due to the 9/11 attacks. Had the collision happened today, the consequences would be far more difficult to predict.

Public opinion on both sides favor positive military ties. Of course, if they choose conflict, there are numerous excuses. Military ties can be the defining barometer of the Sino-US relationship.

Military officials do not have to fake smiles when they meet. They can guide both the media and public opinion.

The Chinese military can make things better by being more direct, in addition to showing US counterparts around Chinese military facilities. The PLA\’s low-profile tradition unnecessarily compromises the intention it wants to display, and easily clashes with US curiosity.

The Chinese military is changing with the geopolitical landscape. It is also changing through more exchanges with US military officials such as US Admiral Mike Mullen.

[i]Source: Global Times[/i]

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