2021 Economic Work Review - Zhong Sheng on US & International Rules - Li Shulei: Studying, Implementing Xi Thought is 'Primary Political Task' - Chinese 'Democracy' vs Western Democracy

Here are the stories and pieces that I found noteworthy from Monday, December 20, 2021, edition of the People’s Daily.

Page 1: There’s a long year-end story that talks about 2021 from the point of view of it being the first year of the 14th FYP. The piece basically praises the economic policy choices and direction adopted this year. It says that “General Secretary Xi Jinping has a profound insight into history and reality, takes the overall situation into consideration and plans for the future.” 习近平总书记深刻洞察历史与现实，统揽全局，谋划未来.

I’ll try and summarise some of the key themes that the article touches upon:

• Technological self-reliance and self-improvement

• High-quality development and building a new development pattern

• Reform and Opening up in the form of RCEP and Hainan Free Trade Port Law

• The piece says that “the key to accelerating the construction of a new development pattern lies in the unimpeded economic circulation.” - in this context, the piece talks about the regional development strategies, delegation of power, streamlining administration, and anti-monopoly action. It also talks about supporting R&D and supporting rural consumption, promoting the consumption of NEVs, and accelerating the construction of major engineering projects.

• Adhere to supply-side structural reform as the main line.

• The piece then talks about China’s containment of COVID, its space program achievements and preparation for the Olympics. “The experience of the first year has once again proved that China’s socialist system has an extraordinary capacity for organisation and mobilisation, overall planning and coordination, and implementation. It has the unique advantage of pooling resources to accomplish major tasks, which is the fundamental guarantee for forming a mighty force that can tide over difficulties.” 开局之年的实践再次证明：我国社会主义制度具有非凡的组织动员能力、统筹协调能力、贯彻执行能力，具有集中力量办大事的独特优势，是形成共克时艰磅礴力量的根本保障.

• It says: “China's development is still in an important period of strategic opportunities at present and for some time to come. Most of the opportunities and challenges are unprecedented, and on the whole the opportunities outweigh the challenges.” 开局之年的实践再次证明：当前和今后一个时期，我国发展仍然处于重要战略机遇期，机遇和挑战之大都前所未有，总体上机遇大于挑战.

• The next bit talks about development and security being the two wings of a bird, i.e., they must go hand-in-hand. And when one talks about security, one must talk about overall national security.

• Then there’s a bit about the energy crisis that erupted through autumn. “The gradual withdrawal of traditional energy sources should be based on safe and reliable replacement of new energy sources. At present, coal accounts for about 57 percent of primary energy consumption. Based on the basic national conditions in which coal is the main source of energy, we need to make clean and efficient use of coal, increase the absorption capacity of new energy, and promote the optimal combination of coal and new energy.” 传统能源逐步退出要建立在新能源安全可靠的替代基础上。目前，煤炭占一次能源消费的比重约为57%，要立足以煤为主的基本国情，抓好煤炭清洁高效利用，增加新能源消纳能力，推动煤炭和新能源优化组合. – This example of coal is given in the context of the need for folks to develop systematic thinking when addressing problems.

• Food security is another theme that is covered, as is green development.

Then there’s this really interesting bit below. This sounds like criticism of the regulatory blitz this year. But note that this is not a criticism of the policy direction. It is a criticism of implementation. 

“Looking ahead, the transition from high-speed growth to high-quality development is a period of high risk. This calls for being proactive while also remaining prudent. One cannot convert long-term goals into short-term targets; systemic goals cannot be fragmented; protracted warfare should not be turned into assault warfare, nor should tough battles be turned into battles of attrition.” – 眺望前行的路，从高速增长转向高质量发展是风险易发高发的时期，更需要积极和稳妥辩证统一. 不能把长期目标短期化、系统目标碎片化，不能把持久战打成突击战，也不能把攻坚战打成消耗战.

• The piece then emphasises stability, particularly in terms of macroeconomy, employment, and livelihood issues; but it also says that progress is critical to ensure stability. But the question is what does progress entail? Here the answer given is innovation, coordination, green, open and sharing development.

• The last sections of the piece basically argue that “time and momentum are on our side,” which is what drives confidence. With per capita GDP of $12,000, and three pressures of demand contraction, supply shocks and weakening expectations, can China avoid the middle-income trap? There isn’t really an answer but the piece calls for sustaining with the Party’s leadership, pursuing high quality development, making progress while maintaining stability, and strengthening planning and coordination. 

• Common prosperity gets three mentions through the piece. Towards the end, a paragraph says:

“There is no precedent for many explorations on the new journey. Correctly understand and grasp the ‘strategic objectives and practical approaches to achieve common prosperity’, ‘characteristics and behaviour rules of capital’, ‘primary product supply guarantee’, ‘prevent and defuse major risks’, ‘carbon peak carbon neutrality.’ In the face of many new major theoretical and practical issues, the development consensus has become more cohesive, and the clarion call for progress is loud and clear.” 新征程上的很多探索，没有先例可循。正确认识和把握“实现共同富裕的战略目标和实践途径”“资本的特性和行为规律”“初级产品供给保障”“防范化解重大风险”“碳达峰碳中和”，面对许多新的重大理论和实践问题，发展共识更加凝聚，奋进号角格外嘹亮.

Second, a report (English report) about Li Zhanshu’s comments at a symposium “to study and implement the important thoughts of Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on upholding and improving the people’s congress system.” Li said that it is important to “continue to use Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era to guide the NPC’s work, firmly grasp the supreme political principle of upholding the party's overall leadership, strengthen the ‘four consciousnesses’, strengthen the ‘four self-confidences’ and achieve the ‘two safeguards’.” 要坚持以习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想统揽和指导人大工作，牢牢把握坚持党的全面领导这一最高政治原则，增强“四个意识”、坚定“四个自信”、做到“两个维护”...

He further called for the people’s congresses “to provide strong legal safeguards for advancing the modernisation of China's system and capacity for governance and fully building a modern socialist country.”

Next a report (English report) with data about how SoEs have fared this year. During the January-November period, net profits of central SOEs expanded to 1.75 trillion yuan (about $274.94 billion). Enterprises in the petroleum and petrochemical, iron and steel as well as coal industries saw an apparent increase in their profitability, said the SASAC. R&D intensity (the percentage of revenue that is reinvested in R&D) of the central SOEs went up by 0.1 percentage points from a year earlier to stand at 2.3 percent during the period. In the first three quarters, central SOEs’ investment in the strategic emerging industries reached 726.7 billion yuan, up 6.3 percent year on year, the data shows. By the end of last month, the debt-to-asset ratio of China's central SOEs came in at 65.1 percent.

Finally, a piece about the Xiamen Special Economic Zone. It’s really neat that Xi Jinping is being identified as the “leader, pioneer and builder” of the zone in its initial period. It talks about a speech that Xi delivered in 1986 about opening up in Xiamen and then brings the story forward to Xi’s visit to Fujian in March this year. Anyway, the piece basically doubles down on the policy of reform and opening up.

Page 2: A short report (English report) on assets of financial institutions. China’s financial institutions saw their combined assets increase 8.2 percent year-on-year to 375.68 trillion yuan (about $58.96 trillion) by the end of Q3, while their combined liabilities rose 8 percent from a year earlier to 341.3 trillion yuan, data from the People’s Bank of China showed. Banking institutions, accounting for the lion's share of the financial industry, reported a 7.7-percent rise in total assets, while companies in the securities industry saw their combined assets jump 23.7 percent year-on-year by the end of Q3. The country's insurers reported combined assets of 24.32 trillion yuan, up 8.4 percent year-on-year, the central bank data showed.

Page 3: A Zhong Sheng commentary about the US being the “biggest breaker of international rules.” The piece basically says that since WWII, the US has “repeatedly launched wars in order to maintain its hegemonic selfish interests.” The wars mentioned are:

• The NATO-led bombing of Yugoslavia

• The 2003 Iraq War

• The conflict in Syria

All of these are cited as examples of the US bypassing the UNSC and launching war. The piece further states: “The US has frequently placed domestic law above international law and exercised ‘long-arm jurisdiction’ over other sovereign states, causing serious economic difficulties and even humanitarian crises, which are no less destructive than wars.” 美国还频繁将国内法凌驾于国际法之上，对其他主权国家实施“长臂管辖”，造成相关国家经济面临严重困难，甚至出现人道主义危机，其破坏性不亚于战争.

In this context, the piece criticises US sanctions on Venezuela, Syria, Iran and Cuba, which have led to worsening economic and healthcare situation amid the pandemic. The next paragraph criticises the US for evading accountability for its actions. The example it cites is the passage of the American Service-Members' Protection Act. The article also cites the case of the Trump administration imposing sanctions on Fatou Bensouda for launching an investigation into whether American forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan. 

Just an aside: This is an interesting case. The Biden administration lifted those sanctions in April. Of course, in August, the Taliban took over Afghanistan, which led to a change in the status quo. And now it seems that the nature of the investigation has changed. – PD does not go into any of these details.

Anyway, the last two paragraphs quote from Robert Kagan’s book: “Americans say they want stability in the international system, but they are often the greatest disrupters of stability. They extol the virtues of international laws and institutions but then violate and ignore them with barely a second thought. And there’s a quote from Graham Allison in Foreign Affairs talking about how the unipolar world is now history.

Next, there’s a year-end piece, which talks about China’s pandemic diplomacy.

Page 4: A couple of reports to note. First, Sun Chunlan visited Zhejiang to inspect COVID preparedness in Shaoxing. She talked about strict testing and quarantine efforts, with the aim being to ensure the prevention of imported cases and a domestic rebound. 

Second, a report about the LegCo election in Hong Kong. The piece says that this is the first election in HK after the electoral system was “improved.” Here’s the Guardian’s report on this:

“Only 30%, or 1,350,680 of the 4,472,863 registered voters, cast their ballots for city lawmakers in Sunday’s election, Hong Kong’s top election official, Barnabas Fung, told reporters. The latest results showed almost all of the seats being taken by pro-Beijing and pro-establishment candidates. Some of those candidates cheered on stage at the central vote-counting centre and chanted ‘guaranteed win’. Results were still pending in some seats. The polls, in which 153 candidates competed for 90 seats, were the first to be held since Beijing overhauled the city’s electoral processes earlier this year, reducing the ratio of directly elected seats and introducing a two-tiered candidate-vetting process by national security police and officials to ensure only “patriots” could administer the city. The previous record low for turnout in a legislative election held after the city’s return from British to Chinese rule was 43.6% in 2000.”

Anyway, Xinhua has cherry-picked numbers that look nicer.

“The election, the first since the improvement in the HKSAR’s electoral system, has attracted wide attention. But certain external forces intent on destabilizing China have gone to great lengths to disrupt the city's electoral system, going so far as publicly inciting voters to boycott the election or cast a blank ballot. These efforts to interfere in China’s internal affairs have led nowhere. The LegCo election in Hong Kong has been smooth overall, with the cumulative turnout rate in the Election Committee constituency topping 90 percent early in the afternoon and that of more than ten functional constituencies already reaching over 50 percent.”

Page 5: The third commentary in the whole-process democracy commentary series. This one basically talks about “deliberative democracy,” making the case that in China people participate in democratic consultation. The point being argued is that this process of consultation “leaves no room for politicians to make promises while campaigning and break them all once elected.” This stuff is again taken from the State Council’s paper on democracy.

Page 9: The lead piece on the Theory page is by Li Shulei, who is the vice president of the Central Party School. He writes about the importance of Marxism and the significance of sinicization of Marxism. This all leads to Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, which represents a “new leap” in the sinicization of Marxism. 

He adds: 

“To uphold and consolidate the guiding role of Marxism in the new era, the most important thing is to uphold and consolidate the guiding role of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. The primary requirement for upholding the guiding role of Marxism in the field of ideology is to encourage the entire Party and society to fully implement Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.” 新时代，坚持和巩固马克思主义指导地位，最重要的就是坚持和巩固习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想指导地位；坚持马克思主义在意识形态领域指导地位的根本制度，第一位的要求就是推动全党全社会全面贯彻落实习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想.

“Studying and implementing Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era is the primary political task of the whole Party and the whole country on the new journey. We should pay attention to learning, understanding and doing things well, adhere to studying in a comprehensive and systematic manner, following up in a timely manner, thinking deeply and connecting the study with practice, and effectively unify thoughts and actions with Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. We should deepen our research with emphasis on academic foundation, practice-orientation, international perspective and historical comparison; deeply understand the spiritual essence, rich connotation, core essence and practical requirements of this thought, and deeply understand the feelings for the people, the country and the world that run through it. Leading cadres at all levels of the Party should take the lead in learning, integrate the study of Xi Jinping Thought Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era with the study of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and the theoretical system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, combine it with the study of party history, the history of new China, the history of reform and opening up, and the history of socialist development, and link it with the great cause of adhering to and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era…” 学习贯彻习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想是新征程上全党全国的首要政治任务。要注重学懂弄通做实，坚持全面系统学、及时跟进学、深入思考学、联系实际学，切实把思想和行动统一到习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想上来。要以学术基础、实践导向、国际视野、历史比较为着力点深化研究，深刻理解这一思想的精神实质、丰富内涵、核心要义、实践要求，深刻体悟贯穿其中的人民情怀、家国情怀、天下情怀。党的各级领导干部要带头学习，把学习习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想同学习马克思列宁主义、毛泽东思想、中国特色社会主义理论体系贯通起来，同学习党史、新中国史、改革开放史、社会主义发展史结合起来，同新时代坚持和发展中国特色社会主义伟大事业联系起来，做到学思用贯通、知信行统一，做到真学真懂真信真用。要加强传播手段和话语方式创新，让党的创新理论“飞入寻常百姓家”.

Page 11: A story about a corporate social responsibility forum in Beijing. This talks about “common prosperity” for the disabled. Lu Shiming, vice chairman of the China Disabled Persons’ Federation, spoke at the event.

Also, there’s a piece by Zhang Shuhua and Feng Yue, two researchers from the Research Center for Socialist Democracy at CASS. They write about the comparative advantages of China’s democracy. Doing a brief summary of the piece here.

They argue that while “the replacement of feudal dictatorship by bourgeois democracy (in the West) implied great historical progress, this democracy was based on unequal economic relations and essentially represented the interests of the bourgeoisie.” In contrast, the “essence and core of Chinese democracy is that the people are the masters of the country. The leadership of the Communist Party of China is the fundamental guarantee for the people to be the masters of the country.”

The piece then critiques “Western-style” democracy of essentially being “rule by capital.” The authors criticise competitive elections as being limited by “power games,” “money politics” etc. They argue that in such a system in a capitalist society, “political forces use elections as tools to counter each other, to bargain, and to fool the people.” They state that while periodic free and fair elections are seen as a “corrective mechanism” that protect individual rights and ensure the long-term development interests of the whole society, the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that this isn’t really the case. “At best, it is a game of rotation between parties with similar political views. At the same time, the economic inequality caused by the capitalist system leads to political inequality and social injustice, which are increasingly becoming a cancer that Western society is finding difficult to eradicate. Faced with widening social inequality, political polarisation, bitter political rivalries and ethnic rifts, most Western politicians can do little more than talk.” 效能低下引发社会失序。西式民主名义上将自由、公平的定期选举作为“纠错机制”，宣称既能实现个人权利，又能确保社会整体的长期发展利益。然而，面对日益严重的经济社会危机，面对突如其来的新冠肺炎疫情，西式民主自诩的个人自由和纠错功能被现实一一击破，充其量只是政治主张大同小异的党派间轮替游戏的一环而已。与此同时，资本主义制度导致的经济不平等引发政治不平等和社会不公正，越来越成为西方社会难以根除的毒瘤。面对不断扩大的社会不平等、政治极化、政党恶斗、族群撕裂等问题，多数西方政客除了空谈几乎无计可施.

Then then quote Tony Blair and Francis Fukuyama’s critiques of Western democracy. They also cite the Yellow vest protests in France and the Capitol riots in the US. The next paragraph lashes out the “export” of Western-style democracy, calling it a “global scourge.” 

“Based on monopolistic capital interests, these countries pursue political, economic, military and cultural hegemony. The so-called export of democracy did not bring democracy to any country, but left endless chaos and decay.” 这些国家基于垄断资本利益，追求的是政治、经济、军事和文化等各种霸权。所谓民主输出，没有给任何一个国家带去民主，却留下无尽的混乱与衰败. Despite all these failings, the authors argue, “some countries have not given up their pride and prejudice. They still pretend to be ‘lecturers of democracy’ and point fingers at other countries.”

In contrast, China’s democracy, they argue, has “created one miracle after another.” These achievements have been “made without resorting to colonial plunder, ethnic slavery or wars of aggression.” “China’s democracy has emerged from its cocoon, transcended the hegemonic political logic, navigated various development traps, properly handled the relationship between reform, development and stability in the process of modernisation, inspired confidence among a vast number of developing countries to pursue their independent development paths, and contributed Chinese ideas, Chinese values and Chinese solutions to the development of democratic politics in the world.” 在人类政治文明史上，中国民主破茧而出，超越了霸权政治逻辑，跨越了各种发展陷阱，妥善处理了现代化进程中改革发展稳定的关系，鼓舞了广大发展中国家自主发展的信心，为世界民主政治发展贡献了中国理念、中国价值、中国方案.

“China's democracy has broken away from the ‘Western-style democracy theory’. A true democracy should build social consensus, not cause social fragmentation and conflict; it should maintain social equity and justice, not lead to divisions between the rich and the poor; it should maintain social stability and order, not bring chaos and turmoil.” 中国的民主破除了“唯西式民主论”。真正的民主应凝聚社会共识，而不是造成社会撕裂和冲突；应维护社会公平正义，而不是导致贫富分化不断加剧；应保持社会稳定有序，而不是带来混乱和动荡.

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