THE ESSENTIAL EIGHT *
1. China’s National People’s Congress annual session | Reuters China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress, opens its annual session on Thursday. Following are highlights from Premier Li Keqiang’s prepared speech to be delivered at the start of the meeting, as well as highlights from reports from the Ministry of Finance and the National Development and Reform Commission.
Related: China lowers 2015 economic growth target to around 7 percent – Xinhua China targeted economic growth of approximately 7 percent in 2015, lower than the goal of around 7.5 percent in 2014, according to a government work report to be delivered by Premier Li Keqiang at the parliament’s annual session Thursday. The growth target for 2015 is also lower than the 7.4-percent economic growth rate registered in 2014, its weakest annual expansion since 1990. “Over the past year, the international and domestic environments faced by China in its development have been complicated and challenging. The road to global economic recovery has been rough, with many ups and downs, and the performance of the major economies has been divergent,” noted the report. “Downward pressure on China’s economy has continued to mount, and we have faced an array of interwoven difficulties and challenges,” it added.
Related: China Sets Wider 2015 Fiscal Deficit in Bid to Cushion Slowdown – Bloomberg Business The government projects a budget shortfall of 1.62 trillion yuan ($258 billion) in 2015, the Ministry of Finance said in a report presented to the National People’s Congress in Beijing today. That amounts to about 2.3 percent of gross domestic product, it estimated.
2. China’s Defense Spending Slows as Xi Turns Graft Push on PLA – Bloomberg Business The defense budget will rise about 10 percent this year, in line with the increase in the general budget, Fu Ying, National People’s Congress spokeswoman, said at a briefing on the NPC meetings that start tomorrow. Last year military spending rose 12.2 percent to 808.2 billion yuan ($128.9 billion). “They are tightening up anti-corruption inside the PLA, so that would probably mean more efficient use of resources,” said Zhang Baohui, director of the center for Asian Pacific studies at Lingnan University in Hong Kong, referring to thePeople’s Liberation Army. “It is too early to tell if spending is tapering off. We’ll need a few more years to detect a trend.”
Related: China 2015 defense budget to grow 10.1 pct, lowest in 5 years – Xinhua According to a budget report released shortly before the country’s top legislature starts its annual session, the government plans to raise defense budget to 886.9 billion yuan (about 144.2 billion U.S. dollars). That would make China the second largest military spender in the world following the U.S., whose defense budget amounted to 600.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2013. Nonetheless, the 10.1-percent rise represented the lowest expansion in China since 2010, when the defense budget was set to grow by 7.5 percent.
Related: 社评：中国公众欢迎军费再增10%左右评论环球网 其实全世界都很清楚中国需要一支更现代化的军队，随着中国经济总量继续上升，外界对此是有充分思想准备的。一些力量对此说三道四，属于习惯性的舆论表现。中国军费直到现在不足GDP总量的2%，而美国的这个数字是3.8%，英国是2.5%。 这个占比显示，中国近年增加军费较快是在“还历史的账”，这决非虚言。中国军费的起点太低了，如今的增加看上去比例挺高，但远未突破量力而行的原则。
3. China Plays Down US Concerns Over Anti-Terror Legislation – NYTimes Ted Moran, the Marcus Wallenberg professor of international business and finance at Georgetown University, said U.S. laws do all of that and more, giving the U.S. government the reach to pursue user data stored in other countries. “There’s all kinds of hypocrisy going on here,” Moran said. // Shouldn’t AP and/or NYT note Moran’s affiliation with Huawei?–Chinese firm paid US intelligence adviser-AP in 2013
Related: China says tech firms have nothing to fear from anti-terror law | Reuters Fu said China hoped foreign companies would continue to “support, participate and continue to walk forward” with China’s reform efforts. The remarks were more measured than a commentary published by the officialXinhua news agency, which said Obama’s warning to China was evidence of “arrogance and hypocrisy”. “With transparent procedures, China’s anti-terrorism campaign will be different from what the United States has done: letting the surveillance authorities run amok and turn counterterrorism into paranoid espionage and peeping on its civilians and allies,” Xinhua said. // Unfortunately for US and European tech firms there does not appear to be any compelling reason yet given to expect China to back down on this…another “new normal”?
Related: China responds to U.S. concern over counterterrorism law – Xinhua U.S.President Barack Obama on Monday said he was concerned that the law would require technology firms to hand over encryption keys, the passcodes that protect data. The formulation of a counterterrorism law is an important step of rule of law and combating terrorism. The content of the draft law is based on real experiences in the fight against terrorism and has taken into account lessons learned by other countries, spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a daily news briefing. “The formulation of the counterterrorism law is China’s internal affair. We hope the United States can calmly and objectively handle it,” she said.
Related: 美国信息霸权可以休矣（望海楼）–观点–人民网 美国为了自身的信息安全而不松懈警戒，有什么理由要求他国不向美国借鉴呢？至于说美国的信息技术与运营商不可能接受中方新规，所以要是中国坚持新规将不可能再同美国做生意，那恐怕过于自信。美国公司接受了本国法律，不正在美国做生意吗？中国的市场还在，中国本土可以替代美国技术和运营商的能力正在茁壮成长，中国不可能离开美国公司就失去了电信和互联网服务。为了维护自己的信息安全而要求自己的相关企业遵守本国法律，却指望它们在中国可以不尊重中国的信息安全，美国恐怕还在使用上世纪的日历。在我国全面推进依法治国的开局之年，我们有必要坚守国家的信息主权。这里不妨奉劝美国：己所不欲，勿施于人。
4. Doomsday: Preparing for China’s Collapse | The National Interest Provocative piece. I think even more important for US policymakers is preparing for Xi Jinping to succeed with his agenda // One of the first research-related steps is to identify the cohesive and centrifugal forces inside China. The CCP used its sixty-six years in power to dismember Chinese civil society and insert itself into any group with the potential to become a political force. Groups that could not be coopted, like Falungong, became pariah and hunted by the regime. Nascent civil-society and activist groups survive in the blind spots of China’s underlapping bureaucratic maze. Chinese political culture beyond the party needs to be understood if Washington wants to claim a “moral stake.”
Related: 社评：西方有人幻想“中国崩溃”上了瘾评论环球网 Global Times does not appreciate Peter Mattis’ piece on planning for a China collpase // 有一些疯癫癫的文章来刺激我们的眼球，倒也未必就是坏事。我们至少知道了，西方真有一群人如此迫不及待地盼着中国“出大事”，国家政权瘫痪，社会四分五裂。这些人除了眼巴巴地等，做自娱自乐的痴梦，很可能还会干出点更具攻击性的行为，伤害我们的国家利益。我们还可从中知道，一旦中国有难，那些天天表达对中国人权关注的西方力量琢磨的大多是如何从中渔利。《国家利益》这篇文章一句未提一旦有极端情况中国人民可能会遭受的苦难，它的出发点是美国在发生“崩溃”后的中国如何实现自己的利益。
5. Feds raid alleged Chinese ‘maternity tourism’ operations in California – LA Times long overdue // You Win USA was one of three operations raided Tuesday by federal agents targeting “maternity tourism” schemes in which pregnant Chinese women travel to the United States, usually on tourist visas, so that their children will be born U.S. citizens. The raids marked the largest federal investigation of its kind aimed at cracking down against the widespread practice of foreign nationals traveling to the U.S. solely to give birth.
6. Translation: Why Chai Jing Got the Chop – China Digital Times (CDT) several propaganda offices, including in Shanghai and Beijing, have ordered websites and media organizations to tamp down the conversation. An essay by Bianweihuizhengwei (编委汇政委, roughly “Editorial Board Gathers Political Commissars”) has circulated online offering an explanation of the official backlash against “Under the Dome.” The author sees a direct connection among the impending National People’s Congress and People’s Consultative Congress (the Two Sessions), the interests of China’s state-owned oil companies (Sinopec and PetroChina), and the suppression of discussion about Chai Jing’s documentary. CDT has translated it in full:
Related: 拿区域经济换蓝天值得吗？腾讯新闻腾讯网 Tencent holds an expert roundtable discussion about economic growth and the environment, in response to “Under the Dome”
7. Code Words, Double Lives – Roads & Kingdoms I was on my way to visit Tom. He was a fu er dai, a second generation rich man. We had met on a gay chat app a few months back. He was 26, and owned a beauty products store, but it didn’t occupy much of his time. Mostly he just spent his family’s money. The problem was, he was gay and his parents were forcing him to get married.
8. Chinese military intelligence chief Xing Yunming held in graft inquiry | South China Morning Post Major General Xing Yunming, the former liaison office head of the People’s Liberation Army’s General Political Department, was taken away by the army’s anti-graft watchdog on February 17. He was in charge of overseas espionage and is better known to the West as the vice-chairman of the government-backed China Association for International Friendly Contact, which used to be the Department of Enemy Work.
You can read the rest of today’s newsletter here.