China’s communist party organ selects top 10 news stories of 2012

HONG KONG (Yonhap) — China’s communist party organ People’s Daily said Saturday it has selected the top 10 news stories of 2012, ranking the country’s strengthening of its claim to territorial waters as No. 1 on the list.

The Chinese state-run newspaper said in an editorial that this year’s most important news was that China has increased the management of its waters and islands, including the Diaoyu Islands.

The islands are also claimed by Japan, which calls them Senkaku.

“China has successively completed all legal procedures by clarifying the base line of territorial sea over the Diaoyu Islands and its affiliated islets,” it said.

In a move to safeguard China’s maritime sovereignty, Sansha, a prefecture of China’s Hainan province, was officially established, comprising islands in the South China Sea, the editorial added.

The new city drew strong criticism from the Philippines and Vietnam.

China’s anti-corruption drive, which resulted in the fall of powerful politicians Bo Xilai, Wang Lijun, Liu Zhijun and Li Chuncheng, was No. 2 on the top 10 list.

“The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided on April 10 to initiate an investigation of Bo Xilai over serious disciplinary problems,” People’s Daily said.

“On Sept. 28, the Central Committee Political Bureau decided to expel Bo Xilai from the party and handed him to judicial organs according to law over the alleged crime.”

The launch of the spacecraft Shenzhou 9, the latest effort in China’s ambition to explore space, and the dive record set by China’s manned submersible Jiaolong that went deeper than 7,000 meters in the Pacific Ocean together ranked third on the list.

The expansion of the country’s health care system, which is now claimed to cover 95 percent of China’s 1.3 billion people, ranked fourth, while China’s first aircraft carrier “Liaoning,” which was officially commissioned to the Navy of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in September, and the homegrown J-15 fighter’s takeoff on it was selected as the fifth biggest story of the year.

The reform of the cultural system to boost China’s soft power and the stable growth of the Chinese economy ranked sixth and seventh, respectively.

Chinese political leaders have been stressing China’s need to boost its “soft power” in a bid to remake the country’s international image, which is more inclined toward the “hard power” of politics and the size of its economy.

Meanwhile, in 2012, China’s economic growth lost steam from last year due to the eurozone debt crisis and other global uncertainties.

The gross domestic product grew 7.4 percent on-year in the July-September period, slowing from the 9.1-percent increase during the same period a year earlier.

The world’s No. 2 economy grew 7.6 percent on-year in the second quarter and 8.1 percent in the first quarter.

The appointment of the new top communist party officials was on the list as the eighth biggest news story of the year.

During the National Congress held in November, Xi Jinping was named as China’s new top official who will lead the country for the next 10 years.

The media outlet under government control put the rise in China’s total grain production at No. 9 for a ninth successive year. The new crop of Chinese leaders’ introduction of a new working style calling for the rejection of extravagance and reduction of bureaucracy rounded out the list at No. 10. <The Korea Times/Yonhap>