Suggested Readings: February 22-28, 2018

作者：Robert A. Kapp  来源：US-China Perception Monitor

CONSTITUTIONAL REVISION AND ITS IMPLICATIONS

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-02/25/c_136999410.htm Official Xinhua News Agency announcement of the pending amendments to the Chinese Constitution. These have occasioned enormous, instantaneous discussion inside and outside of China.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/xi-jinping-may-be-president-for-life-what-will-happen-to-china Evan Osnos, one of America’s best China writers (The New Yorker) on implications of the week’s biggest news, the impending elimination of the two-term limit on the Chinese presidency.

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1090568.shtml Global Times (English) first editorial on pending Constitutional changes, including elimination of the two-term limit on the Presidency. Closing line: “The constitution amendment is the punch line of legislative framework of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, and an essential constitutional insurance for China to advance.,” but read the whole thing.

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2134939/chinas-military-throws-weight-behind-controversial-move The People’s Liberation Army checks the box on constitutional reforms. Background.

https://jamestown.org/program/party-congress-reshuffle-strengthens-xis-hold-central-military-commission/?mc_cid=3132e01c7f&mc_eid=1e2abdac25 Recent organizational moves affecting the armed forces imply higher degree of Xi Jinping’s personal control.

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1090821.shtml Global Times asserts that the newly-revealed amendments to the Constitution of the PRC, including elimination of the two-term limit on the country’s presidency, are in tune with the requirements of changing times, as Western democracy “ulcerates.”

https://politicsfromtheprovinces.blogspot.com/2018/02/in-china-sky-is-falling-apparently.html An intentionally contrarian view of the constitutional reform controversy, taking mighty swipes at the “commentariat” that is upset with what the end of the two-term presidency means. Form your own judgments.

https://www.ft.com/content/38996858-1af0-11e8-956a-43db76e69936 A somewhat Olympian opinion article by veteran Financial Times commentator Martin Wolf, on the challenge to the Western liberal order manifested by Xi Jinping’s assumption of one-man rule (through elimination of the constitutional term limits on the presidency. (May be paywalled.)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/28/world/asia/xi-jinping-china.html?mtrref=t.co More in the tidal wave of commentary on the elimination of presidential term limits and its broader implications.

http://www.chinafile.com/conversation/xi-wont-go#comment-6036 Chinafile features continually-expanding sets of comments on particular issues. By the time SR readers open this address the set on the term limit elimination is likely to be even longer than it is at the time of this item’s insertion.

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2018/02/27/7-things-you-need-to-know-about-lifting-term-limits-for-xi-jinping/ Jeffrey Bader, NSC Asia chief in the first Obama term, with a well thought out, essentially gloomy, analysis of the implications of ending term limits on the Chinese presidency. Seven points in all, with good graphics and type faces for easy digestion.

SINO-AMERICAN RELATIONS

https://tinyurl.com/y7lb5zbe Liu He, who is about to wind up with the Western media sobriquet “China’s Economy Czar,” heads for D.C. to try to head off some of the widely-advertised Trump Administration punitive actions against China, endlessly said to be just around the corner.

https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/25/apple-is-moving-icloud-encryption-keys-for-chinese-users-to-china/ More on Apple’s move of iCloud data to data center servers inside China. Including encryption keys.

https://www.voanews.com/a/china-reacts-angrily-new-united-states-sanctions-against-north-korea/4269141.html Angry Chinese response to Trump’s newest sanction steps against DPRK.

https://www.ft.com/content/b3bfe924-1854-11e8-9e9c-25c814761640?segmentId=6132a895-e068-7ddc-4cec-a1abfa5c8378 (Paywalled) Another Chinese high-tech acquisition in the U.S. falls through over U.S. regulator objections. More of this ahead, not least because of the opacity of Chinese corporate ownerships and very much because of the asymmetry between U.S. market openness and Chinese market (investment) restrictions in high-tech sectors. The demand for “reciprocity” of treatment is rising fast in the U.S., and China’s restrictive policy choices of the past few years have alienated key elements of the U.S. business community.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/25/us/politics/peter-navarro-trade.html Peter “Death By China” Navarro said to be rising to the surface again in the Trump trade policy cooker. Also useful related article at https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/trump-tilts-toward-hard-liners-ahead-of-key-trade-decisions/2018/02/26/ffe93e46-1b32-11e8-b2d9-08e748f892c0_story.html?utm_term=.47d8a0af0ab1

INTERNAL AFFAIRS

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-03/01/c_137006746_2.htm A foretaste of what lies immediately ahead. A Third Plenum of the Party Central Committee, announced and convened on extremely short notice, issues this Communiqué at its conclusion, foretelling changes to be announced at the National People’s Congress in a few days. An important, though opaque, document.

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2135165/first-term-limits-now-xi-jinping-shake-state-tighten As the National People’s Congress session looms large, hints of significant structural changes in the government of the PRC, coinciding with the constitutional changes now under furious discussion.

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2134592/top-chinese-cabinet-official-yang-jings-sacking-linked The kind of situation that must give China’s “soft power” architects palpitations.

https://macropolo.org/chinese-puzzle-economic-reform-xis-china-meanings-market-liberalization/ A long and complex reflection by Paulson Institute’s Evan Feigenbaum, around the theme, What if ‘Reform’ simply doesn’t mean the same thing to the Chinese that it normally means to people outside of China? Worth the time and effort.

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1088727.shtml An earlier, angry editorial about foreign concerns over the fate of Gui Minhai, removed from a train by security personnel while he was traveling in the company of two Swedish Embassy officials (Gui holds a Swedish passport). Much foreign discussion has ensued over the implications of the use of quotation marks around the word “foreigners” in this editorial: is anyone of Chinese extraction, no matter his/her citizenship, “Chinese” in the eyes of the PRC government, and if so, what does that mean for the lives and safety of such people?

来源时间：2018/3/29   发布时间：2018/3/29

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