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Moving to Mondays
We have been sending this newsletter out at the end of the week, but are going to try switching to Mondays (when our weekly readings come out). Like you didn't have enough going on on Mondays, right? Also, keep your eyes out for next week's newsletter, where we will be announcing an exciting new event series.
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Weekly Readings
This week's readings lack a thematic connection, but deserve attention from American Mandarin Society members. The first is a report from the 4th Plenum, summarizing the meeting for public consumption. The second is a recently-released report from Daniel Rosen, who assesses how far Beijing has progressed in achieving its stated goals for economic reform. Rosen also concludes with a set of policy implications for the United States, and they include some sensible points about the need to be aware of China's policies.
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 Weibo Watch
"Please take my picture... I may be a trafficked child!" On October 16, actor Huang Bo implored the Weibo community to take photos of street children and upload them to the website of Beijing-based non-profit Baobei Huijia(baobeihuijia.com), which reunites missing children with their parents (weibo.com/1263498570/BrPBDzQyH). Huang's effort echoes sociologist Yu Jianrong's Weibo campaign Suishoupai (weibo.com/jiejiuqier), launched in 2011 after a mother wrote to Professor Yu about finding her son after seeing his photo online.
Many of Huang Bo's fans applaud his efforts. His post has been shared over 415,000 times and has received over 20,000 comments. But lots of commenters want to know why they shouldn't report to the police when they see children begging in the streets. Some question the premise of the campaign itself. "If there were no merchants, there'd be no trafficking!" says 王恬心人土土.
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Xi Jinping's speeches
This week, instead of singling out one 成语 or 俗语, we want to bring to your attention Xi's latest speech on the mass line movement. In his speech 在党的群众路线教育实践活动总结大会上的讲话 Xi uses many terms that are useful to know regarding the unhealthy aspects of Chinese bureaucratic culture. While few of you will likely be interested in reading the whole speech, the first page at the above link has some useful paragraphs, such as this one: 二是形式主义、官僚主义、享乐主义和奢靡之风得到有力整治，群众反映强烈的突出问题得到有效解决。在去年6月18日党的群众路线教育实践活动工作会议上，我列举了"四风"问题的种种表现。这次活动就以解决问题开局亮相、以正风肃纪先声夺人、以专项整治寻求突破，对"四风"问题进行大排查、大检修、大扫除，刹住了"四风"蔓延势头。从上到下、各个领域都压缩了会议、精简了文件，减少了评比达标、迎来送往活动，全面清理了超标超配公车、超标办公用房、多占住房，普遍压缩了"三公"经费、停建了楼堂馆所，狠刹了公款送月饼、贺卡、节礼和年货等行为，坚决整治了"会所中的歪风"、培训中心的腐败，坚决整治了"裸官"、"走读"、"吃空饷"、"收红包"及购物卡、参加天价培训、党政领导干部在企业兼职等问题，广泛查处了吃拿卡要、庸懒散拖问题，高高在上、挥霍浪费、脱离群众现象明显扭转，党风、政风和社会风气为之一新。不少党员、干部表示，反"四风"治好了自己的"亚健康"，把自己从不胜其烦的应酬中解脱出来，有更多精力考虑工作、服务群众了。一些同志表示，这次活动教育了干部，也保护和挽救了一批干部。
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 Documentary of the Week
Vice Minister of Finance Zhu Guangyao (朱光耀) spoke in Washington, DC at the Peterson Institute of International Economics on the future of U.S.-China economic relations. With an upcoming Obama-Xi meeting at APEC and two years into an ambitious economic reform agenda, Zhu's talk is a Chinese perspective on where the its economy stands and implications for the United States.
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 Upcoming Event in DC
Join us November 4 at 5:30pm for a lecture (in Chinese) by Dr. Ji-Jen Hwang entitled "Viewing Cyber Strategy from the Perspective of Chinese Strategic Culture." This is bound to be a fascinating talk and discussion so we hope to see you there! RSVP here.
Dr. Ji-Jen Hwang is a visiting fellow with the Freeman Chair in China Studies at CSIS. A native of Taiwan, he holds a Ph.D. in politics from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, as well as a masters in library science & information studies from the University of North Carolina. Before joining CSIS in September 2014, he was an associate professor at the Institute of Strategic Studies at the National Defense University in Taiwan.
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