Chinese Communist Party leaders have filled meeting halls around China to hear a somber, secretive warning issued by senior leaders. True power could escape them, unless the party destroys seven subversive perils surging through Chinese society, according to The New York Times.
These seven threats were listed in a memo, referred to as “Document No. 9.” The first was “Western constitutional democracy.” Others included promoting “universal values” of human rights, Western-inspired notions of media independence and civic participation, zealously pro-market “neo-liberalism” and “nihilist” criticisms of the party’s past.
These warnings show that Xi Jinping, China’s new top leader, has a confident public face that’s been accompanied by fears that the party is vulnerable to an economic slowdown, public anger about corruption and challenges from liberals impatient for political change, according to The New York Times.
China's economic restructuring and industrial upgrading will be a gold mine for foreign investors in coming years, according to a post from China Daily on The U.S.-China Chamber of Commerce’s website.
“As the United States grapples with persistent economic uncertainty, China finds itself at a difficult but anticipated turning point in its economic development model,” it says. “Its dominant industrial base and market-share of global trade in basic, low-cost manufacturing is weakening.”
Opponents of one-party rule, it says, “have stirred up trouble about disclosing officials’ assets, using the Internet to fight corruption, media controls and other sensitive topics, to provoke discontent with the party and government.”
The warnings were not idle, states The New York Times. Since the message was issued, party-run publications and websites have vehemently denounced constitutionalism and civil society, notions that were not considered off limits in recent years. Officials have intensified efforts to block access to critical views on the Internet. Two prominent rights advocates have been detained in the past few weeks, in what their supporters have called a blow to the “rights defense movement,” which was already beleaguered under Mr. Xi’s predecessor, Hu Jintao.
China has a vested interest in the economic well-being of the United States. As the nation's largest foreign creditor, China is naturally concerned, asserts China Daily. It is attempting to move more quickly to facilitate improved economic and commercial ties with America, and to strengthen its commitment to a strategy of opening its markets to American companies and effectively utilizing foreign investment. Larger American companies clearly see fresh opportunities and are responding to them.
Small and medium-sized American companies, however, must become better attuned to emerging trends in China to take advantage of the world's second largest economy, according to China Daily. The next “gold rush” for American companies will come in areas such as precision, technology-based and high-value-added manufacturing, as well as in education and training, foods and agriculture. American exports to China last year amounted to some $100 billion worth of goods and services, supporting hundreds of thousands of American jobs and boosting the profitability of hundreds of American companies.
