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Media Report
October 13 , 2017
  • The Washington Post：China's trade with North Korea slumps as nuclear sanctions finally start to bite
    The Washington Post reports: "China's trade with North Korea fell sharply in September as sanctions finally began to bite, data released by the Chinese government on Friday showed. China says it has implemented successive rounds of sanctions agreed by the U.N. Security Council meant to pressure Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear and missile program. China is North Korea's economic lifeline and Beijing's role in the sanctions effort is critical. On Friday, China's General Administration of Customs announced that China's imports from North Korea fell 37.9 percent in September, the seventh successive monthly decline. China's exports to North Korea dropped a more modest 6.7 percent in September, Huang Songping, spokesman for the customs department, told a news conference. Although there is room for considerable skepticism about official Chinese data — and the numbers can swing wildly month to month — there is reason to believe there has been a recent slowdown in trade, experts say."
  • Bloomberg：Great Firewall of China
    Bloomberg reports: "So much for the lofty goals of the internet, breaking down information barriers and fomenting the free flow of ideas across the globe. China's online population of 731 million gets a highly restricted internet, one that doesn't include access to Google, Facebook, YouTube or the New York Times. There's little coverage of the 1989 student protests in Tiananmen Square. Even Winnie the Pooh got temporarily banned. China is able to control such a vast ocean of content through the largest system of censorship in the world, aptly known as the Great Firewall of China. It's a joint effort between government censors and technology and telecommunications companies that are compelled to enforce the state's rules. The stakes go beyond China, which is setting an example that other authoritarian countries can imitate. While strict censorship is nothing new in one-party China, President Xi Jinping has tightened the online crackdown, particularly around the time of politically sensitive events like the death of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo in July. Ahead of the Communist Party Congress in October, China began blocking Facebook Inc.'s WhatsApp messaging service and extended a clampdown on virtual private networks, a commonly used method to circumvent the Great Firewall. Securing China's 'cyber sovereignty,' or protecting the country's internet from undue foreign influence, is one of Xi's avowed goals. Recent moves to restrict online freedoms include measures that all but eliminate the ability to post social media anonymously, making app store owners responsible for how customers use their purchases and ordering online portals to stop news reporting... All this contributes to China having the least online freedom on the planet, according to rights group Freedom House."
  • The New York Times：Xi Jinping and China's New Era of Glory
    The New York Times comments: "Two weeks after taking China's top office in November 2012, Xi Jinping took part in what seemed like a throwaway photo op. He took his top lieutenants to the newly renovated National Museum of China, a vast hall stuffed with relics of China's glorious past: terra-cotta soldiers from Xi'an, glazed statues from the Tang dynasty and rare bronzes from the distant Shang dynasty. But Mr. Xi chose as his backdrop a darker exhibition: 'The Road of Rejuvenation.' It tells the story of how China was laid low by foreign countries in the 19th and 20th centuries but is now on the path back to glory. There, in front of images of China's subjugation, Mr. Xi announced that his dream was to complete this sacred task. This soon became the 'China Dream' and has shaped his rule ever since. With Mr. Xi about to be reappointed to another five-year term in a Communist Party conference that begins on Wednesday, it's worth remembering this visit. Many of Mr. Xi's accomplishments and his likely plans for the future are underpinned by an idealistic view that China's 200-year eclipse is ending now, and it is his mission to lead a rigidly controlled China back to the center of the world stage... China's new role is hard to miss in foreign affairs. For decades, Washington has been urging China to get more involved in the world. Usually this meant asking China to help solve international crises — to become a "stakeholder," in foreign policy jargon. But to many people's surprise, after years of playing a mostly passive role in world affairs, China has taken a forceful approach."
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