CCP Centenary Propaganda Kicks Off
This is a round-up of the People’s Daily’s January 19, 2021, edition.
Page 1: Lots to note on the front page today. First, there’s a story celebrating China’s GDP crossing the 100-trillion-yuan (15.42 trillion U.S. dollars) mark for the first time. NBS data said that China’s GDP grew at 6.5-percent in the fourth quarter of the year. That put annual year-on-year growth at 2.3 percent. The piece in People’s Daily praises the Chinese, specifically Xi Jinping for this. It says “At critical moments and important junctures, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core maintained strategic determination, accurately judged the situation, carefully planned and deployed, and acted decisively to coordinate epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development.” It then talks about specific developments, such as the RCEP, poverty alleviation, technological development and economic policies adopted in the year.
While China’s economic recovery has been impressive, here’s a note to keep in mind from a WSJ story this week. “Beijing has pulled off a robust economic recovery since early last year, when authorities locked down much of the country to combat the coronavirus epidemic. But the rebound has been unbalanced. It relied heavily on government expenditures and state-sector investments, while private spending remained weak. That is amplifying a trend of declining growth in productivity—or output per worker and unit of capital—in the world’s second-largest economy, according to a new report by the International Monetary Fund. By the measure of average productivity across sectors, a gauge of overall economic efficiency, China’s economy is only 30% as productive as the world’s best-performing economies like the U.S., Japan or Germany, the report shows.”
Next, there was an event in Beijing marking the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the International Liaison Department of the CCP. PSC member Wang Huning spoke at the event. He said that “it is necessary to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, tell the story of the Communist Party of China well, and enhance the international community's recognition...of our party. It is necessary to hold high the banner of building a new type of party relationship, enhance the system, integrity, and coordination of work, strengthen exchanges and cooperation with political parties around the world, and expand the global network of party partnerships.” This tells you that the centenary celebrations and publicity push around these have now well and truly kicked off.
In fact, starting today, PD has launched a new column called ‘A Century of Struggle and a New Journey.’ This one talks about the First Congress held at 76 Xingye Road in Shanghai in July 1921. In this context, it emphasises Xi leading the current PSC to visit the site after the 19th Party Congress in October 2017. It then talks about the “red history” of Shanghai. he red story of Shanghai is also a map of great waves and sand, and a gathering of heroes. Sample this: “The red story of Shanghai is also a map of great waves and sand, and a gathering of heroes. They are brave and fearless and live to death. They have a fire in their minds. No matter how thorny and difficult the road is, they are determined to change the face of China. The history of China’s suffering, resistance, reform, and opening-up are condensed in the streets, lanes, riversides, ships of this city...every river enters the sea, sparks start a prairie fire. The awakening of a generation has awakened a nation; the inheritance of generations has continued the red story into a new script.”
Also on Page 4, a report informs about the Central Propaganda Department launching an event at the National Museum, with Huang Kunming addressing the gathering. He talked about the centenary celebrations being a “major event in the political life of the party and the country.” He then talked about the need to “walk into the depths of history, vividly tell old stories, dig deeper into new stories, fully demonstrate the dreams and pursuits, feelings and responsibilities of the century-old party, and highlight the party's leadership of the people to promote great struggles, great projects, and greatness since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.”
If you are interested in noting what exactly the propaganda themes are going to be, do check out pages 5 and 6. They provide special coverage.
In Beijing, meanwhile, the Party held the 2021 Taiwan conference. Yang Jiechi presided over the conference. But the keynote speech came from PSC member Wang Yang. The story says that “Wang Yang pointed out that the world today is undergoing major changes unseen in a century. The situation across the Taiwan Strait is still grim and complicated. There are new changes in the opportunities and challenges facing Taiwan work. The ‘time’ and ‘trend’ are always on our side.” He then laid out a few “necessary” tasks.
“It is necessary to resolutely curb the separatist forces of ‘Taiwan independence’”
“It is necessary to support Taiwanese businessmen and enterprises to seize opportunities as the country builds a new development pattern, (and) actively participate in the implementation of the ‘14th Five-Year’ plan…”
“It is necessary to break the restrictions and obstructions imposed by the DPP authorities on cross-strait exchanges and cooperation, and continue to improve the institutional arrangements and policy measures that guarantee the well-being of Taiwan compatriots and achieve equal treatment, so that Taiwan compatriots have more sense of gain.”
Page 3: A couple of pieces to note. First, there’s a story about China-Africa cooperation in the civil aviation sector. Here’s something I did not know. The piece says that China has exported self-developed and manufactured civil aircraft to more than 10 African countries. It is also setting up an academy to train “professional aviation talents from African countries.” The story talks about how Chinese investment and support has been critical to the development of airports and aviation-related infrastructure in Africa.
Next, there’s a piece by Don Pramudwinai, Thailand’s Foreign Minister. The piece basically talks up the RCEP and China’s role in the agreement as the biggest economy in the region. Don writes “the signing of RCEP is a victory for multilateralism. It shows that all parties concerned have made firm commitments to a rule-based multilateral trading system that is open, inclusive and beneficial to all, and strengthened people's determination to safeguard the common interests of the global economy.”
Also, here’s what he expects RCEP to do: “By reducing tariffs, reducing trade barriers, and improving market access for goods and services, RCEP will establish an integrated regional market, and business activities in the region will be more free and smooth. RCEP will also formulate standardized rules on intellectual property, e-commerce, government procurement, dispute settlement, etc., to promote fair competition among economies in the region, and increase trade and investment in the region.”
Finally, do note this piece, which offers a compilation of reports and research that point to COVID-19’s presence in other countries at least as early as December 2019.
Page 9: On the Theory page today, we have a long piece on employment policy. It talks about the significance of keeping employment at the center of economic policy. The emphasis is on how the Proposals of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the Fourteenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and Long-Term Goals for 2035 further this objective. The piece says that “strengthening the employment policy, stabilizing and expanding employment is a systematic project and requires full mobilization of all aspects of the force.”
With regard to college graduates, the piece says: “For a period to come, the scale of college graduates in my country will remain high. Efforts should be made to improve demand and create more knowledge-based, technical and innovative jobs suitable for graduates; to optimize supply to enhance the ability of graduates to adapt to the actual needs of the market and enterprises; to focus on special activities to increase Support for unemployed and needy graduates who have left school to help graduates choose jobs better and get jobs faster.” The next two groups prioritised are migrant workers and veterans.
On social security and wage issues, it says that “the employment management and social security systems for maintaining urban and rural workers are gradually improving. However, the wage level of a large number of migrant workers is generally low, and the problems of poor employment stability and weak security still exist.”
Page 11: We finally get some coverage on the mine accident in Qixia in Shandong. A blast in the mine on January 10 trapped 22 miners. 12 of them are apparently alive; there’s no information yet about the others. PD’s report talks about this and about the rescue efforts that are underway. Also, the central bureaucracy is kicking in, given that there are issues about the delayed reporting of this current incident. The report talks about the National Mine Safety Supervision Bureau issuing a notice launching a special inspection of safety issues in mines. The piece says that the bureau will “conduct a comprehensive inspection of non-coal mines, focus on eliminating a number of hidden dangers of major accidents, focus on exposing a number of serious illegal and untrustworthy companies, focus on solving a number of outstanding problems, promote the implementation of main responsibilities of enterprises, eliminate loopholes in regulatory blind spots, and resolutely and effectively prevent and contain major accidents.”