Army Discipline Regulations - Doubling Down on HK Changes
There wasn’t really much of significance in today’s edition. I guess there’s a bit of a breather after the Two Sessions. But the following are the pieces that I thought were worth noting from the People’s Daily’s March 15, 2021 edition.
Page 1: A couple of stories to note on the front page today. First, there’s a report (short English version) about the newly revised Work Regulations of the Chinese Communist Party Army Disciplinary Inspection Committee, which will come into force on April 1, 2021. The Regulations, the report says, consist of 7 chapters and 44 articles, covering areas like the “leadership system of the Commission for Discipline Inspection, duties and tasks, discussions and decisions, work systems, discipline and responsibilities.” It then says that
The Regulations insist on putting “the party’s political construction in the first place.” In other words the primary task of the discipline inspection commission is to ensure the “party’s absolute leadership over the military, (and) fully and thoroughly implement the CMC chairman’s responsibility system.”
The next focus for the discipline commission is to be on “anti-corruption struggle.”
One of the critical principle objectives for all this is also to focus on “preparations for war.”
Next, there’s a longish piece about China’s space program’s development during the 13 FYP. Of course, as most such pieces do, it talks about successes without really discussing the challenges and limitations. There’s a sense of up, up and away in such pieces. So the first half of the piece focuses on the Tianwen-1 probe to Mars along with missions such as the manned flight of Shenzhou 11 in 2016, the Tianzhou-1 cargo flight in 2017, and the May 2020 Long March 5B carrier rocket launch, which placed cargo in low-earth orbit. Then the story says that during the 13FYP period, China’s “aerospace science and technology level has achieved leapfrog development. A series of important independent innovations such as large rockets, Beidou navigation, and high-resolution satellites have emerged.” It talks about the rocket program as an example of independent innovation with breakthroughs in core technologies.
Finally, you have the full work report of the NPC Standing Committee, which then occupies all of the second page
Page 3: There’s a report about foreign enterprises in China looking to enjoy the fruits of broader opening that the 14th FYP promises. It says that the plan “proposes to comprehensively improve the level of opening up, promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, continue to deepen the opening of commodity and factor mobility.” And then the story talks about opportunities for entities like Johnson Controls, Lego Group and Decathlon.
Next, there’s a commentary about Chinese diplomacy. It talks about how now the world has seen China’s new development blueprint and that China has “demonstrated its image of democracy, progress, civilization, and openness, and expressed its willingness to work with other countries...” The piece calls the CCP the “soul” of Chinese diplomacy. It generally talks about win-win cooperation and pandemic diplomacy, China’s policies at WTO, BRI, the EU investment deal and global governance reform initiatives. The core argument is: “China's interaction with countries around the world shows that China will provide more development opportunities for the world with a better business environment and a higher level of opening up. The cooperation between China and other countries will usher in a broader prospect.”
Finally, a report on a joint forum held by Tsinghua University and the Brookings Institution and a couple of pieces that have been written by people at Brookings and George Bush Foundation for US-China Relations, which talk about the need for China-US cooperation on the pandemic.
Page 4: A few pieces about the changes in Hong Kong. First, HKMAO spokesperson’s comments pushing back against the G7’s criticism of the election process changes that the NPC announced in HK. The G7’s statement’s covered in my weekly newsletter Eye on China. Next, a report from Hong Kong, with positive views and support for the NPC’s decision. Basically, the piece is intended to convey that everyone in general is supportive of the changes; it’s just the pesky outsiders and those who have been influenced by them who oppose it. The piece begins by saying this: “The patriotic citizens of Hong Kong are excited. The political ecology of Hong Kong is undergoing profound and beneficial changes.”
Here are two chunks from the piece: “Hong Kong’s major political groups, associations, industrial and commercial sectors, education sector and many other groups and related individuals announced on March 11 the establishment of a campaign to ‘Support the National People's Congress to improve the electoral system’. The series of activities held include signatures at the street station and online signatures...The public participated enthusiastically, with nearly 100,000 people participating in the online co-signing within a few hours.”
It then talks about different activities that were carried out by different groups. Then it says: “Various associations and trade unions of Hong Kong's five major disciplinary forces (Police Department, Correctional Services Department, Customs, Immigration Department, Fire Department) respectively issued statements expressing their firm support for improving the electoral system. The four major civil service organizations.. issued a joint statement stating that as the main body of the SAR’s governance power, civil servants firmly support the improvement of the electoral system and must fully cooperate with the relevant amendments.”
Page 8: On the commentary page today, we see the launch of a new series of articles about the challenges and successes of Party workers. This is in the context of the centenary. It basically features individuals and their stories to try and inspire people I guess.