China Communists on PR drive to boost image
Struggling to gel with people with its poor image as party with intrigue and scandals, China’s ruling Communist Party (CPC), has launched a public relations exercise promising to lift the veil of secrecy on its activities.
Ahead of its 89th anniversary on Thursday, the party has launched a bold measure to dispel the veil of secrecy on its operations and bring about a measure of transparency to the governance, Party’s long standing mouth piece, Peoples Daily reported on Wednesday. The party has lined up 11 spokespersons who would take questions from the media and vast network of 78 million party cadre and answer their queries about the policy and functioning of the party.
“From now on, reporters are expected to shoot their questions at the spokespersons and the information offices of the Party’s major departments,” the report in the daily said on Wednesday. “The spokesperson system is key to making party affairs public, promoting intra-party democracy, improving the party’s governance capability and to cultivating a favourable environment for the development of the CPC and China,” Wang Chen, head of the international communication office under the CPC Central Committee said.
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US A-G visits Kabul amid row on graft
Kabul, June 30: US attorney-general Eric Holder was on Wednesday in Afghanistan to discuss efforts to battle corruption and enforce the rule of law, after billions of dollars in US aid was blocked because of graft concerns.
“Fighting corruption and supporting the rule of law in Afghanistan are top priorities for this administration,” Mr Holder said in a statement issued by the US department of justice announcing his arrival in Kabul.
“We will continue to assist the Afghan government in creating and sustaining the effective criminal justice system to which the Afghan people are entitled.”
His visit, which the department of justice says will include meetings with Afghan and US officials, comes amid increased tension over the Afghan administration’s efforts to tackle widespread corruption. A US newspaper report this week said billions of dollars in international aid money is regularly shipped out of Kabul on scheduled commercial flights, packed into suitcases and some of it even registered with customs.
US Representative Nita Lowey, who sits on the powerful committee in charge of the budget, on Monday blocked aid to Afghanistan and said she would hold hearings into the allegations about the flight of cash. An aide to Ms Lowey said that President Barack Obama’s administration requested $3.9 billion in aid for Afghanistan in the 2011 fiscal year, which starts in October. —AFP
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