China-Australia Thaw - BRI Science & Technology Forum - China-Vietnam Anti-Corruption Cooperation - 33rd China Journalism Award
Here are the key reports and articles that I found noteworthy from the People's Daily’s edition on Tuesday, November 07, 2023.
Page 1: The front page today is all about Xi Jinping. Let’s begin with a brief story on Xi meeting with (English report) representatives of model units that have applied the Fengqiao Experience for promoting community-level governance. The report says very little, stating that Xi “encouraged them to carry on their work and further develop the Fengqiao model for promoting community-level governance in the new era. He called for efforts to make greater contributions to advancing the Peaceful China Initiative to a higher level.” Cai Qi and Li Xi were in attendance.
After this, there are a bunch of stories of Xi meeting with visiting leaders, attending the China International Import Expo.
First, the report (English report) on Xi’s meeting with Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz says:
Xi said that China views ties “between the two parties and countries from a strategic and overall perspective, adhered to the policy of long-term friendship between China and Cuba, and was willing to continue to deepen political mutual trust and strategic coordination with Cuba and carry out theoretical discussions and experience exchanges on party and state governance…China will continue to firmly support the Cuban people in opposing foreign interference and blockades and safeguarding national sovereignty and dignity.”
Xi talked about working together under BRI and Cuba’s hosting of the G77 meeting. He added that “China is willing to work with Cuba to continue to jointly safeguard the sovereignty, security and development interests of developing countries.”
Marrero praised his hosts, saying that “President Xi’s important thoughts on governance are of great inspiration and reference to Cuba and the world.” He added: “Cuba hopes to further strengthen solidarity and cooperation with China and firmly support each other, Marrero said, adding the country is willing to work with China to jointly build the Belt and Road with high quality, deepen practical cooperation in various fields, strengthen communication and coordination in international and regional affairs, oppose hegemony and bullying, and safeguard international fairness and justice.”
Second, the report (English report) on Xi’s meeting with Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic says:
“China and Serbia are ‘iron friends’ who have stood together through thick and thin, Xi said, underscoring the profound historical foundation, solid public support, extensive common interests and strong impetus for cooperation of their bilateral relations. He said that in recent years, China-Serbia relations had continued to operate at a high level, the connotation of the comprehensive strategic partnership had been increasingly enriched, and practical cooperation had yielded fruitful results. Under the new circumstances, China is willing to work with Serbia to promote the high-quality development of bilateral relations and bring more benefits to the two peoples, Xi noted. He called on the two sides to make joint efforts to build and operate major cooperation projects, promote the early entry into force of the China-Serbia free trade agreement, strengthen cooperation in science and technology innovation, deepen cooperation in education, sports and tourism, expand personnel exchanges, and inherit and carry forward China-Serbia friendship. China supports Serbia in pursuing an independent development path, and stands ready to strengthen multilateral coordination with Serbia and jointly safeguard international fairness and justice, Xi stressed.”
As per Xinhua, Brnabic basically praised China’s policy towards Serbia, along with “President Xi Jinping's strategic vision and outstanding leadership.” She added that “Serbia firmly adheres to the one-China policy and looks forward to continuing mutual support with China.”
Third, the report (English report) on Xi’s meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is very interesting.
Comment: I think the messaging from Xi is a bit of a green light to Chinese officials at different levels to get on with deeper engagement with their Australian counterparts. Reading through Albanese’s press briefing, which I cover below too, it seems that this was one of the big wins, along with easing on trade, that the Australian side is taking away. But there are fundamental challenges that persist, as captured in Xi’s remarks about the need for “vigilance against” and his “opposition to” “attempts to throw the region into chaos” through cliques and bloc formation.
Anyway, Xinhua reports: Xi said that “thanks to the joint efforts of both sides, China and Australia have resumed exchanges in various fields and embarked on the right path of improving relations.”
“Xi said China and Australia are both Asia-Pacific countries and important members of the G20, with no historical grievances or fundamental conflicts of interest, but every reason to be partners of mutual trust and mutual achievement, calling on the two sides to keep to the right direction of bilateral relations amid the profound changes in the world. From the perspective of self-interest, the world is small and crowded, with risks and competition all the time. From the perspective of shared destiny, the world is vast and broad, with opportunities and cooperation everywhere. In the stormy waters of the global crisis, countries are not riding on more than 190 small boats, but instead on a big boat with a common destiny, Xi said. China and Australia should follow the trend of the times, proceed from the common interests of the two countries, pursue a bilateral relationship that features treating each other on an equal footing, seeking common ground while shelving differences and mutually beneficial cooperation, and push forward the China-Australia comprehensive strategic partnership, Xi said. This serves the common interests of the two countries and peoples, meets the common expectations of countries in the region, and helps the international community better respond to the risks and challenges brought about by the changes unseen in a century, Xi said.”
“Xi stressed that at present, the global economy is facing increasingly destabilizing, uncertain, and unpredictable factors, and the economies of all countries are facing considerable challenges. In the face of a complex external environment, the Chinese economy has withstood pressure, stabilized its size, and improved its quality. ‘China's development still has a sound foundation and many favorable conditions. With its steady development, China will bring valuable certainty to the uncertain world economy. China cannot develop in isolation from the world, and the world needs China for its development’.
“Xi said that ‘small yard, high fence,’ ‘decoupling and severing industrial and supply chains,’ or ‘de-risking,’ are essentially protectionism, which runs counter to the laws of the market, the laws of scientific and technological development, and the trend of human society. He said China pursues a win-win strategy of opening up, seeks a new development pattern, and comprehensively promotes building China into a strong country and achieving national rejuvenation through a Chinese path to modernization, which will bring unprecedented opportunities to Australia and other countries. ‘China and Australia should enhance mutual understanding and trust through peaceful coexistence and achieve common development through mutually beneficial cooperation,’ Xi said. He called on both sides to give full play to the potential of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement, expand cooperation in emerging areas such as climate change and green economy, uphold the global and regional free trade system, and provide a sound business environment for the investment and operation of companies. He also said the two governments should support exchanges between their legislatures, political parties, think tanks, youth, and sub-national regions, facilitate cross-border travel and enhance mutual understanding and amity between the two peoples to cement public support for friendship between the two countries.”
“Xi said in the Asia-Pacific region, China does not engage in exclusive cliques, bloc politics, or camp confrontation. Small cliques can neither solve the major challenges facing the world nor adapt to the drastic changes in today's world. He urged vigilance against and opposition to those attempts to throw the region into chaos. ‘China is ready to carry out more trilateral and multilateral cooperation with Australia to support South Pacific countries in enhancing development resilience, addressing climate change and other challenges, and maintaining peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region through openness and inclusiveness,’ the Chinese president said.”
As per Xinhua, Albanese said that:
“Australia and the world have benefited significantly from China's long-term, stable, and sustained development. Albanese said the two sides should respect each other, be equal and benefit each other, stay in communication, enhance understanding and cooperation, and achieve win-win results. He said the Chinese people have the right to development, and he is always optimistic about China's economy. As Australia and China have different political systems, it is normal for differences to occur, but they should not be allowed to define the relationship. Australia and China share extensive common interests, and dialogue and cooperation is the right choice, he said. He said Australia adheres to the one-China policy and stands ready to work with China to promote the steady development of bilateral relations, strengthen economic and trade exchanges, enhance cooperation in clean energy and climate change, and bring more benefits to the two peoples. He expressed a willingness to advance communication with China on regional affairs, including the Pacific Islands Forum.”
The Australian PM’s press briefing after the visit is worth looking at. Reading through the text, he sounds to be extremely guarded, and the meeting doesn’t seem like it produced any significant specific outcomes. Albanese, I think, acknowledges this when he says that it wasn’t a transactional sort of meeting. Also, it appears that some of the most difficult or tricky issues were not necessarily raised.
Speaking about the meeting with Xi, Albanese said:
“That was a very positive meeting following on from our engagement at the G20 in Bali last year. We recognised that was the beginning of discussion between us. And one of goodwill. And it was very much a discussion that could be characterised as just that. One of goodwill, one where we spoke about our common interests going forward and where we can, as I've said, cooperate where we can, but disagree where we must. And both of us certainly agreed that we shouldn't be defined by our differences, recognise that they are there, but also recognise the mutual benefit that we have.”
After sharing bits of the conversation around wine and pandas, Albanese said: “It was very positive, it was constructive. I invited President Xi to Australia at a mutually beneficial time to be agreed on. He invited me back to China at a future time as well. The meeting went for over an hour, which was longer than it was scheduled. And I think that reflects the very positive engagement that occurred.”
In response to specific questions, he said that: “AUKUS didn't come up explicitly. We discussed, though, regional stability. And we discussed the need for, for example, on Taiwan, I reiterated Australia's support for the status quo and the positions that we take in the region. I spoke about, I'd be attending the Pacific Island Forum after this event.”
Also, he said: “one of the things that I raised, again, went back to my Shangri La speech that I gave, where I spoke about guardrails and military-to-military cooperation between the United States and China. That's important. And I'm certainly hopeful that at future summits, if the meeting goes ahead that has been proposed between President Biden and President Xi, that will be one of the positive things that can come out of this.”
Fourth, there’s a report on Xi’s meeting with South African Deputy President Paul Mashatile. Xinhua reports that Xi described the current phase of bilateral ties as a “golden era.”
“‘China stands ready to work with South Africa to continuously enrich the China-South Africa comprehensive strategic partnership and take bilateral relations to a new level’, Xi said. Noting that China supports South Africa in exploring a modernization path suited to its own national conditions, Xi said China is willing to further consolidate the foundation of political mutual trust and upgrade the level of mutually beneficial cooperation with South Africa. Xi also expressed China's willingness to work with South Africa and other African countries to implement China's three initiatives on supporting Africa's industrialization, agricultural modernization and talent development, as well as the eight major steps to support high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, create a number of high-standard, sustainable cooperation projects that benefit people's livelihood, work for a more strategic and sustainable China-Africa cooperation, and promote the building of a high-level China-Africa community with a shared future. Xi called on the two sides to continue to cooperate closely within the BRICS mechanism, strengthen solidarity and cooperation among developing countries, and promote the development of the global governance system in a direction conducive to developing countries.”
As per Xinhua, Mashatile said: “The South African side hopes to strengthen the synergy between its own development strategy and China's Belt and Road Initiative, and continue to deepen pragmatic cooperation in various fields. South Africa highly appreciates China's contribution to safeguarding the interests of developing countries and promoting world peace, and hopes to continue to strengthen cooperation with China in multilateral mechanisms such as BRICS.”
Finally, there’s a report (English report) on the page about Xi’s congratulatory letter to the first Belt and Road conference on Science and Technology Exchange.
Page 3: Some brief reports to note. First, a report on He Lifeng, who leads the work on China-US economic and trade affairs, will visit the US from November 8 to 12.
Second, a consolidated report on Wang Yi meeting John Key, former prime minister of New Zealand, and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong.
Xinhua’s report on the Wang-Wong meeting says:
Wang said “the leaders of the two countries met in Bali, Indonesia, last year, charting the course for the improvement and development of bilateral relations. ‘We have enhanced mutual understanding and taken a step forward to improve our relations every time we have met since then,’ said Wang. He called on the two sides to focus more on the positive aspects, view each other in a rational, friendly, and inclusive way, pursue a proactive, pragmatic and objective policy, handle differences properly, expand cooperation, and ensure a sustained, healthy, and stable development of relations.”
Xinhua’s report on the Wang-Key meeting says:
“Wang said that “mutual respect and mutually beneficial cooperation between China and New Zealand are fully in line with the interests of the country and people of New Zealand, and the sustained and steady development of bilateral relations had also injected stability into the region. China is willing to establish good working relations with the new government of New Zealand, strengthen high-level exchanges, jointly open a new chapter in the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership, and push for new achievements in cooperation, said Wang.”
Third, there’s a report on Ding Xuexiang’s comments at the BRI science and technology forum. Ding said that China is willing to work with countries to “deepen BRI scientific and technological innovation cooperation and promote scientific and technological achievements to benefit the people of all countries.”
He made four points:
“First, jointly build an innovation partnership and strengthen the docking of science and technology development planning and policies. China will promote the institutionalisation of the BRI Science and Technology Exchange Conference and the Science and Technology Innovation Ministers’ Conference, and create a high-end dialogue platform to promote exchanges and mutual learning.
Second, jointly cultivate innovative growth drivers, seize opportunities from the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, expand cooperation space in artificial intelligence, life sciences, green energy, advanced manufacturing and other fields, and promote industrial transformation and upgrading in various countries.
Third, jointly create an open innovation ecology, promote the formation of a good atmosphere of respecting knowledge and creativity, promote the smooth flow of innovative elements such as knowledge, technology and talents, and let the source of innovation fully flow through BRI.
Fourth, jointly improve global science and technology governance, safeguard true multilateralism, promote the formulation of rules based on full participation and consensus building, strengthen intellectual property protection, and oppose knowledge blockade and artificial expansion of the scientific and technological gap.
China will propose international scientific and technological cooperation initiatives at this conference, advocate and practise the concept of international scientific and technological cooperation that is open, fair, just and non-discriminatory, adhere to the principle that ‘science knows no borders and benefits all mankind’, and work together to build a global scientific and technological community.”
一是共同构建创新伙伴关系，加强科技发展规划与政策对接，中方将推动“一带一路”科技交流大会和科技创新部长会议机制化，打造促进交流互鉴的高端对话平台。二是共同培育创新增长动力，把握新一轮科技革命和产业变革机遇，拓展人工智能、生命科学、绿色能源、先进制造等领域合作空间，推动各国产业转型升级。三是共同营造开放创新生态，推动形成尊重知识、尊重创造的良好氛围，促进知识、技术、人才等创新要素顺畅流动，让创新源泉在“一带一路”充分涌流。四是共同完善全球科技治理，维护真正的多边主义，推动在充分参与、凝聚共识的基础上制定规则，加强知识产权保护，反对知识封锁和人为扩大科技鸿沟。中方将在本次大会上提出国际科技合作倡议，倡导并践行开放、公平、公正、非歧视的国际科技合作理念，坚持“科学无国界、惠及全人类”，携手构建全球科技共同体.
Fourth, there’s a report on the US-China Coordination Meeting on Disability. The report says “the two sides stated that they will further expand areas of cooperation, carry out practical cooperation, and enhance the well-being of disabled people and the friendship between the two peoples.”
It adds: “representatives from the two countries conducted in-depth exchanges and interactions around the issues of education, employment and barrier-free environment construction for persons with disabilities. The US delegation will also go to Shandong to inspect disability service agencies, employment projects and barrier-free facilities.” 在专题会议上，两国代表围绕残疾人教育、就业和无障碍环境建设议题进行深入交流与互动。美国代表团还将赴山东考察残疾人服务机构、就业项目和无障碍设施.
If you are interested, here is the US readout.
Some other stories with regard to China-US ties, which are not in the paper today.
China’s Ministry of Commerce said on Monday that “China is strongly dissatisfied with and resolutely opposed to the decision of the U.S. Department of the Treasury to list some Chinese entities as ‘Specially Designated Nationals’ under so-called Russia-related excuses. The move by the U.S. is a typical practice of unilateral sanctions and ‘long-arm jurisdiction’, which undermines the order and rules of international trade as well as the security and stability of the global industrial and supply chains, the spokesperson said. The U.S. side should immediately cease its unreasonable suppression of Chinese companies, the spokesperson said, adding China will resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of its companies.”
The fifth China-U.S. Sister Cities Conference was recently held in Suzhou. MoFA said in response: “China will continue to support and encourage sub-national and people-to-people exchanges with the United States, and also hopes that the United States will work with China to create favorable conditions and the atmosphere for sub-national and people-to-people exchanges and cooperation.” It added: “The Conference is a major event in China-U.S. sub-national and people-to-people exchanges since COVID-19, Wang said, adding the Conference and sideline events attracted about 200 participants, including representatives from over 10 Chinese provinces and cities and nearly 20 county supervisors and city mayors from 22 U.S. states.”
Moving on, there is a report about Li Xi meeting with Tran Cam Tu, a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee and head of the Committee's Inspection Commission. Xinhua reports:
Li said that “China is willing to strengthen high-level exchanges with Vietnam, enhance political mutual trust, continue the traditional friendship, expand practical cooperation and lead bilateral relations to higher quality, deeper levels, and wider areas. China is willing to strengthen coordination with Vietnam on major international and regional issues and firmly safeguard world peace, fairness, and justice, Li added. Li spoke about the CPC's efforts in party governance and combating corruption, adding the CPC is willing to enhance inter-party exchanges with the CPV, promote experience-sharing on the governance of political parties and countries, strengthen exchanges between discipline inspection and supervision departments, and deepen cooperation in anti-corruption multilateral mechanisms and judicial and law enforcement cooperation.”
Page 6: There's a report informing that the All-China Journalists Association (ACJA) on Monday announced the winners of the 33rd China Journalism Award. Xinhua reports:
“This year's China Journalism Award recognized 377 news entries from media outlets across the nation. The award-winning works covered topics including the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Chinese modernization, rural revitalization and issues concerning people's livelihood.”
There were three special prizes for a People’s Daily Ren Zhongping article 十年砥砺奋进 绘写壮美画卷——写在党的二十大胜利召开之际 around the 20th Party Congress in October 2022; a Xinhua piece on the governance of China with Xi as the core since the 18th Party Congress; and a live broadcast of the new PBSC meeting with domestic and foreign guests. As you can see, these were clearly path breaking journalistic efforts.
The entire list of winners is published across three pages in the paper today.
That’s about all that I thought was worth reading in the paper. If you are really interested, do check out this article by Wang Quanchun from the Party History and Documentation Research Institute, discussing Xi Jinping Thought on Culture.
You can also check out a podcast I was on last month discussing Xi’s thought on culture.
Outside the paper, I’d like to share this new PEW report Comparing Views of the U.S. and China in 24 Countries. It’s interesting because this is not a zero-sum assessment of views. I am sharing a couple of charts below.
