Criminal Gangs & Protective Umbrellas, Xi-Rajapaksa Talk, History & China-Arab Data Security Initiative
Here are the stories and pieces that I found noteworthy in the People’s Daily’s print edition for March 30, 2021.
Page 1: Quite a few noteworthy stories on the front page today. First, Xi Jinping met with representatives of those honored for their outstanding work in China's campaign to fight organized and gang-related crimes. Xinhua English has a short story on this. It says that this was a gathering to “celebrate the victory of the campaign.” It adds that this came after a 3-year campaign, which has taken down over 3600 crime groups. PD reports that Guo Shengkun, who heads the Central Political and Legal Committee, delivered a speech at the event. In the PD report, Guo basically gives credit to the “scientific guidance” of Xi Jinping Thought, which helped achieve this success, along with the nature of the Chinese system. “It is necessary to transform General Secretary Xi Jinping’s cordial care into a strong motivation, forge ahead, continue to work hard, normalize the fight against criminals and evil, strive to build a higher level of safe China,” he said.
Next, a couple of conversations between Xi and world leaders. First, he spoke to Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Xinhua English has all the same details as the PD report. They reportedly spoke about major projects like the Colombo Port City and the Hambantota Port and pushing ahead with BRI. Xi promised “as much assistance as its (China’s) capacity allows” for Sri Lanka's fight against COVID-19. He also talked about cooperation in fields like aviation and education.
Then this: “Stressing that China and Sri Lanka are strategic cooperative partners that enjoy sincere mutual assistance and ever-lasting friendship, Xi said China will never forget Sri Lanka's valuable support for the restoration of its lawful seat in the United Nations. China, he added, is willing to make continuous joint efforts with Sri Lanka to firmly support each other on issues concerning their respective core interests, defend their legitimate rights, promote international equity and justice, and safeguard the common interests of developing countries.” The PRC was, of course, among the 11 countries that voted against the latest UNHRC resolution on Sri Lanka’s deteriorating human rights record.
Rajapaksa thanked Xi, and congratulated him on the Party’s 100th anniversary and China’s COVID-19 fight. He then said: Sri Lanka is “willing to collaborate closely with China to firmly support each other’s positions on issues concerning their respective core interests and safeguard their common interests. He added that Sri Lanka hopes to learn from the CPC's experience in governing the country, and especially looks forward to strengthening exchanges and cooperation on poverty alleviation and the rural vitalization strategy.”
Then Xi spoke to Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye. Xi told him that: “China is willing to work with Burundi to enhance political and inter-party communication, deepen exchanges and cooperation between their legislatures, local governments and think tanks, increase sharing of governance experience, and better synergize their development strategies, so as to realize mutually beneficial cooperation and common development at higher levels and lift China-Burundi relations to new heights.”
Ndayishimiye said that “his country firmly supports China's positions on issues concerning its core interests, including Taiwan, Xinjiang and the South China Sea, as well as the adoption by China's National People's Congress of the decision on improving the electoral system of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.”
Next a report about the NPCSC meeting to review the draft proposals to amend Hong Kong’s electoral system. These changes have been cleared today with a unanimous vote.
Finally, there’s more reading material for those who still don’t get Xi Thought. The Propaganda Department has put out a book called “Questions and Answers on the Study of Xi Jinping Thoughts on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.” There’s a PD report on this book. The piece quotes Qu Qingshan, Dean of the Central Party History and Documentation Research Institute, offering high praise. This is being used as teaching material in the ongoing Party history education campaign. I’ll leave you with this endorsement from PD: “Reading a good book is like having a conversation with a wise man, and studying ‘Questions and Answers’ is like taking part in a new-era Party’s innovative theory training class.”
Page 2: There’s only one piece that caught my interest. It discusses the possibility of pushing back the retirement age in China. This is an objective that’s been outlined in the 14th FYP. Jin Weigang, president of the Chinese Academy of Labor and Social Security Sciences of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, weighs in on this in the story. Jin says that there are four drivers for this decision:
the increase in average life expectancy,
the acceleration of the aging population,
the increase in the number of years of education, and
the structure of the labor force
He then talks about how this reform of retirement age is likely to take place. He says that this will be a gradual process, which will begin by pushing things back by a few months to begin with. Consequently, “for younger workers, although the extent of the extension is larger, the time before retirement is also longer. It is a matter of 10 or 20 years.” He also adds that under the principle of “flexible implementation,” delayed retirement will not be “one size fits all” decision.
“Objectively speaking, there are big differences in terms of employment stability and work intensity in different occupational groups, different positions, or in terms of personal physical conditions, family needs and value pursuits, and the resulting demands are different. Delaying retirement reform should fully consider such diversified needs. On the basis of unified implementation, combined with our country’s actual national conditions, cultural traditions, and historical evolution, we will increase flexibility factors, allowing individuals to choose a specific time for early retirement based on their own circumstances and conditions, which fully reflects the flexibility and tolerance of the reform.”
Page 3: First, China and the Arab League have signed (English report) a data security cooperation initiative, after China's Deputy Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu held a video conference with Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab League States Hossam Zaki. The details are sketchy, but you do have a commentary in PD hailing this as a new chapter in global digital governance. The commentary says that the agreement is “conducive to advancing the formulation of international rules in the field of data security, and marks an important step for developing countries to jointly promote global digital governance.” The commentary also says that this agreement builds on China’s September 2020 proposal for a Global Data Security Initiative. Another useful excerpt to keep in mind is this:
“China and Arab countries have been passive recipients of international rules for a long time due to historical reasons. Both sides have realized that they must strive to be important participants in global governance and active makers of international rules. The publication of the China-Arab Data Security Cooperation Initiative is conducive to promoting the building of a peaceful, safe, open, and cooperative cyberspace on the basis of multilateralism, setting an example of developing countries’ participation in global governance, and helping countries around the world to participate in global digital governance.”
Next, China’s Defense Minister Wei Fenghe is in Greece, where he met President Katerina Sakellaropoulou on Monday. Here’s what Xinhua reports Sakellaropoulou said:
“Greece attaches importance to China's position in international affairs, and appreciates China's achievements in economic and social development and its great progress in human rights, said the Greek president. Greece is willing to actively participate in the Belt and Road Initiative and the cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, Sakellaropoulou said. It is hoped that the European Union and China will maintain close communication and jointly promote sustainable development of the world, she said.”
Here’s Wei: “He emphasized that China always upholds the concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind, unswervingly pursues a defensive national defense policy, and strives to work with other countries to build an international security architecture featuring fairness, justice, joint contribution and shared benefits.”
Finally, a week or so ago, there was a new column that started on the page. This is being done by the International Liaison Department. It highlights positive views about the CCP from foreign political parties or politicians. I haven’t really covered this column at all. But for an interested researcher, this is rather useful if you’d like to compile a list of who is included and what they said over time.
Page 4: First, the Party History Study and Education Leading Group held a forum for those in charge of the campaigns in various provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in Beijing on Monday. Propaganda chief Huang Kunming, who also heads the leading group, spoke at the meeting. Here’s an excerpt from the story about what Huang said:
“It is necessary to guide party members and cadres to study the party’s history and the party’s innovative theories in an in-depth and systematic manner, adhere to the original mission of seeking happiness for the people and rejuvenation of the nation, and grasp the red line of advancing the sinicization of Marxism and opening up and developing the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Always hold high the ideological and spiritual banner of Xi Jinping’s thought of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era”
There are a couple of more stories on the page about the history learning and education campaign’s activities in other parts of the country.
Pages 6 & 7: Three pieces on the pages to note. First, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection put out a summary of the national investigation and handling of violations of the spirit of the eight central provisions in February 2021. In Feb, the national discipline inspection and supervision organs at all levels investigated and dealt with a total of 5864 violations of the spirit of the eight central provisions. This led to the punishment of 5631 people. The violations include a range of actions, from indulging in formalism and bureaucratism to not doing work, receiving gifts and hedonism and extravagance.
Second, a report with data from the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, which says that since 2018, prosecutors across the country have approved the arrest of 149,000 criminal suspects involved in gangs and the prosecution of 230,000. Finally, a report about the crackdown on “protective umbrellas,” which essentially refers to local Party leaders supporting and protecting criminal gangs. It says that:
“The underworld and evil forces are often accompanied by ‘protective umbrellas’, which seriously endanger the political ecology and social atmosphere of a party. Since the launch of the special struggle against gangsters and evil, the discipline inspection and supervision agencies at all levels and the political and legal agencies have conscientiously implemented the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important instructions...The special struggle has become a major move to extend the strict governance of the party to the grassroots level in an all-round way. According to statistics from the National Anti-gang Office, as of the end of December 2020, a total of 89,742 crime-related corruption and ‘protective umbrella’ cases have been filed nationwide, and 115,913 people have been handled, including 362 department-level officials and 6,260 department-level officials.”
The piece then gives some specific case examples.
Page 9: On the Theory page today, we have Qu Qingshan writing about the Party’s history. This is a really interesting piece for anyone keen to understand the CCP’s self-perception and narrative. It begins on familiar lines, recounting the Opium Wars and the unequal treaties before heading into the creation of the PRC, the Korean War, reform and opening up and so on. Then Qu talks about the contributions of the CCP to China. He highlights economic development, summarising it as:
“our country has continued to make new progress in educating children, gaining income from work, getting medical care for the sick, providing support for the elderly, housing and support for the weak, so that development results will be more and more equitable. Benefiting all the people, the people's sense of gain, happiness, and security are constantly increasing, and the essential requirements of common prosperity are gradually reflected in real life. The Chinese people have ushered in a great leap from insufficient food and clothing to well-off and prosperous.”
The next aspect he talks about is political and international clout.
“Before the founding of New China, the imperialist countries regarded the Chinese nation as an inferior nation, denounced it as the sick man of East Asia, and arbitrarily bullied and insulted it. The Communist Party of China led the Chinese people in an unyielding struggle for national independence. The War of Resistance Against Japan was the first national liberation struggle in which the Chinese people won a complete victory in modern times. The Communist Party of China played a mainstay role in the war…” That last claim is not factually correct.
He then talks about Hong Kong, Taiwan, Xinjiang and policies regarding ethnic minorities. He argues therefore that “the national self-confidence and pride of the Chinese people are constantly increasing...In the process of leading the people to promote socialist modernization, the Communist Party of China has created a miracle of rapid economic development and a miracle of long-term social stability, and has embarked on a path of Chinese-style modernization.”
Amid all this, Qu says that “At the same time, our party is also doing its utmost to support and help the oppressed nations and peoples of the world in their just cause of national independence and people's liberation. After the founding of New China, my country actively advocated and firmly practiced the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. This principle has been widely recognized by the international community and has become an important criterion for handling international relations.”
Then this: “Since the reform and opening up, my country has held high the banner of peace, development, cooperation, and win-win, adhered to an independent foreign policy of peace, adhered to a mutually beneficial and win-win open strategy, firmly upheld the basic norms of international relations, safeguarded international fairness and justice, and actively promoted the building of global partnerships.”
And this is the current state: “Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, our party has proposed to promote the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind, promote the construction of a new type of international relations, and advocate the joint construction of the Belt and Road…” He talks about China’s UN peacekeeping contribution, loans to developing countries and so on.