How Serious are Beijing’s Efforts to Root Out Corruption?

[Valin]

Via Meadia:

6/28/13

 

Earlier today, Lei Zhengfu was sentenced to 13 years in prison. Lei was the Communist Party secretary in the central city of Beibei, and his case began late last year with a video of him cavorting with an 18-year old mistress. It quickly became a national sensation, an emblem of Communist Party corruption. He was later charged with bribery and corruption crimes.

 

His conviction suggests that the Chinese government is getting serious about corruption and extravagance at the highest levels of the Communist Party bureaucracy. Last week, Xi Jinping announced a new year-long effort to clean up the Party, and has sought to portray corruption as one of the most dangerous threats to the success of the Party and the prosperity of the nation.

 

But how serious is he? Is it all just for show? The New York Times report on Leis case is hopeful that Xi is serious, but the reporter skims past a crucial comment from the blogger who first broadcast the sensational images of Lei and his mistress: Lei Zhengfu was not a high-level official.I dont see much hope of the party and government really taking on corruption. Each generation of leaders vows to do that, but the results are plain to see. We dont hold much hope.

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

As long as we're in the neighborhood.....

China Tells Neighbors Resistance Is Futile

6/28/13

 

Chinas Foreign Minister issued a stern warning to neighboring countries today, saying that efforts to resist Chinas territorial claims in the South China Sea are futile and countries that do so are doomed. The threat was timed to coincide with joint naval war games exercises by the US and the Philippines in the South China Sea and an announcement by the Philippine government that it would revitalize an old American naval and air base in Subic Bay, just 124 nautical miles from the contested Scarborough Shoal.

 

If certain claimant countries choose confrontation, that path will be doomed, said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. If such countries try to reinforce their poorly grounded claims through the help of external forces, that will be futile and will eventually prove to be a strategic miscalculation not worth the effort.

 

The Philippines and the United States had a ready reply. A US destroyer joined the Philippine navys flagship for war games that started Thursday close to a flashpoint area of the South China Sea, adding to tensions with China over rival territorial claims, AFP reports.

 

(Snip)

 

 

 

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It is not just the PI

 

The Looming U.S. Return to Cam Ranh Bay

 

Ted Galen Carpenter

June 18, 2012

 

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta was practically salivating during his recent visit to Vietnam at the prospect that the U.S. Navy might gain long-term access to the former U.S. base at Cam Ranh Bay. A security partnership with Vietnam seems to be a prominent aspect of the much-touted U.S. strategic pivot to East Asia. In particular, such a partnership is one component of the Obama administrations clumsy containment policy directed against China.

[Valin]

China Changes Its Tune On The South China Sea?

6/30/13

 

Just two days ago, China’s Foreign Minister was bristling at his neighbors, telling them that their claims on the South China Sea are “futile” and doomed to fail. Now, on the back of an apparently successful meeting with ASEAN nations in Brunei, the minister is singing a very different tune. Businessweek:

 

“China and Asean countries are close neighbors and we are like members of one big family,” China Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters. “We believe that a united, prosperous and dynamic Asean that seeks greater strength through unity is in China’s strategic interest.”

Representatives from the Philippines were not quite as sanguine, saying that the large Chinese naval presence posed significant “threats to efforts to maintain maritime peace and stability in the region.” But with further talks scheduled for September, the Philippines seem to be ultimately taking a wait-and-see approach.

 

(snip)

 

 

 

Prepare for more of this kind of thing from the PRC.