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In this week's newsletter we focus on food security, Hu Jintao, Guo Wengui's interview with VOA, and our newest podcast episode.
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Weekly Readings
China faces an immense challenge feeding 19% of the world's population on 7% of the world's arable land. The challenge comes, at least in part, from Beijing's view that the international market cannot be relied upon to provide the necessary food. What the Chinese government thinks needs to be done for food security, and the difficulty of actually executing that policy in the face of so many problems and contradictory directives at lower levels raises i
mportant questions about Beijing's ability to manage its internal problems. This week's articles touch on a few of the various facets of China's food security problem and its responses.
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F
or a sense of scale in what the Chinese are considering national/state security issues, read this pseudonymous article on Xi Jinping's comprehensive security concept published for National Security Education Day:
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俗语 in Xi Jinping's Speeches
远见卓识
yuǎnjiànzhuóshí Meaning: foresight and sagacity It has been a quiet week for Xi's speeches, so we had to dig into the archives for this one. On September 29, 2016 Xi gave a speech at a meeting discussing the "Selected Works of Hu Jintao." Xi used this chengyu to praise Hu's expertise as a Marxist political thinker. There are a few other good chengyu in the original (below):
审时度势
(shěnshíduóshì),
呕心沥血
(ǒuxīnlìxuè), and
殚精竭虑
(dān jīng jié lǜ).
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This week's video is the bombshell interview that Guo Wengui gave to Voice of America and was cut off at the end. Guo spoke about the corruption of specific Chinese leaders, who he identified by name. He also claimed to have undertaken special tasks, such as dealing with the Dalai Lama, on behalf of and at the request of the Ministry of State Security. For whatever reasons, the billionaire-turned-exile has made his dispute with Beijing very personal and ve
ry public.
Edited Clip of Highlights (17 minutes)
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NEW AMS PODCAST EPISODE
:
After the Homework Stops: Retaining Mandarin Proficiency Throughout Your Career - Robert Daly
A new AMS podcast episode featuring last week's event with Robert Daly has been published!
If
you have not already subscribed to AMS podcasts, you can do so
here.
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supporting us with a tax-deductible contribution--every bit helps!
The American Mandarin Society is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
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