Digest

Chen Ailian, a 75-year-old dancer, leads a crowd of more than 100 middle-aged people in the Sanlitun area of Beijing on Sept 22 with her professional moves. Dai Bing / for China Daily

PLA vows to root out abuse of power

The People's Liberation Army has geared up its fight against corruption and abuse of power, requesting that officers hand in any houses or cars they are using in violation of regulations.

A leading group responsible for tackling graft and misconduct in the Chinese military has recently exposed a host of irregular occupancies or use of PLA-owned houses and vehicles by officers, and overemployment in large units, PLA Daily reported on Sept 24, citing an instruction issued by the group.

The exposure of the irregularities was intended for military personnel rather than the public, with the aim of warning officers that the anti-graft campaign would not cease until all corruption was rooted out and eliminated, an insider close to the matter said.

The instruction asked disciplinary inspectors to "strictly and aggressively" enforce regulations and discipline in retrieving irregularly occupied houses and irregularly held cars. It also requested that the benefits given to retired senior officers or family members of deceased senior officers be checked and that excessive treatment be abolished, the report added.

Air force holds largest aerial combat drill in its history

The Chinese air force has revealed details of what it called the largest aerial combat drill in its history, which involved 170 elite aviators from 19 air brigades and regiments over an unidentified desert in the north west of the country.

The drill, the fourth to be staged, featured the highest level of Chinese fighter jet pilots, the air force said.

Pilots were faced with one-on-one free combat and dual confrontation exercises, with competitors in each session drawn randomly.

"Compared with previous drills, more than half of the participants this year were new to the event and the first exercise they faced was dual confrontation," said Senior Colonel Yu Hejie, deputy head of the PLA air force's training department.

PLA air force seeks collaboration

The Chinese air force plans to strengthen its communication and cooperation with foreign counterparts, "so we can all stand together to face various challenges and crises, and to contribute more to world peace and common development", its spokesman Colonel Shen Jinke has told PLA Daily.

Shen said air force leaders have reached a consensus with their foreign counterparts that, given the increasingly grim security situation around the globe, challenges and crises must be handled through continuous, effective international cooperation, because no single country is able to deal with the situation alone.

Shen cited the Peace Mission 2014 drill and the Aviadarts-2014 air force competition as examples, adding Chinese pilots honed their skills and enhanced ties with aviators from Russia, Kazakhstan and many other nations through these events.

Guideline will help battle against terrorism

Legal experts have said a new guideline issued to better define what constitutes terrorist activity, should help Chinese authorities combat terrorism.

Setting up terrorist training camps, establishing terrorist cells, using religious extremism to instigate terrorist attacks, carrying out violent or deadly attacks with explosives, as well as designing and distributing terrorist slogans or logos will be treated as criminal acts of organizing or participating in terrorist activities, officials said.

The guideline was published by the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security.

Aimed at helping fight "the diversity of terrorist crimes in recent years, all of which were found to have connections with religious extremism", the guideline added, however, that law enforcement must respect religious beliefs and treat ethnic groups equally.

Jin Gaofeng, an associate professor specializing in criminology at People's Public Security University of China, said: "The guideline has clarified many blurry definitions such as what is organizing or participating in terrorist activities, which is extremely important.

Li seeks to smooth green card application process

A plan to make it easier for foreigners to obtain a Chinese green card is to be considered by the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone as part of trailblazing reform efforts to further open up and attract global talent.

Premier Li Keqiang has asked the zone to come up with a plan to simplify procedures for applications and the issuance of Chinese permanent residency permits for foreigners in the zone.

The zone covers about 28 sq km in suburban Shanghai and acts as a test site for what are considered China's boldest reform measures in decades.

"Complicated procedures for green card applications have impeded the FTZ in attracting global talent. The zone can submit a reform plan to the central government with improvement suggestions for the convenient entry and stay of foreign talent, especially those with outstanding competitiveness," Li told a meeting of corporate leaders in the zone, half of whom were foreigners.

China began issuing permanent residency permits, or green cards, to foreigners in 2003. So far the country has granted about 5,000, or less than 500 annually, while the United States issues about one million a year, according to Wang Huiyao, president of the Center for China and Globalization, a think tank in Beijing.

Shanghai zone's 'negative list' areas to be cut

Premier Li Keqiang has pledged to further cut the list of areas that are off-limits to foreign investment in the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone.

The remark, amid a decline of foreign direct investment into China, was viewed as an effort to ease mounting worries by foreign businesses that China's is closing its door to them.

Li said cutting the list of sites, often referred to as the zone's 'negative list', "reduces government intervention and gives the market more space to stretch its muscles" and suggested more cuts in future.

The list was already cut earlier this year, giving more freedom for investment in financial, education, medicine and cultural sectors, say officials.

(China Daily European Weekly 09/26/2014 page3)