Democratic Life Meeting - Two New PLA Generals - Establishing Lancang-Mekong Community with Shared Future
Hi folks,
I hope you’ve had a very Merry Christmas. I usually take a break from the newsletter towards the end of December. This time around, a viral infection resulted in the break starting early. In any case, I thought I’d do an edition today, since there is some worthwhile material to cover from the past few days. This will be the final edition of the year of the newsletter for 2023. Editions will resume in the first week of January now.
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I hope you all have a wonderful and safe New Year.
Warmly,
Manoj
First, on Saturday, it was reported that the Politburo held its annual democratic life meeting on Thursday and Friday. Xinhua describes the purpose of this meeting as “criticism and self-criticism”. The focus was on the theoretical study program on the study and implementation of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. Xinhua has a detailed English report on the meeting.
It says:
“The meeting followed the specific objectives of strengthening cohesion and forging the Party’s soul as the fundamental, tempering personal character and loyalty, promoting development through hard work and fulfilling duties, acting on the Party's purpose to work for the well-being of the people, and establishing a clean and upright work style. Following the important requirements of using learning to strengthen political awareness, increase intellect, rectify conduct, and promote implementation, the meeting was meant to sum up achievements, find out deficiencies and carry out criticism and self-criticism on the work of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, on whether the bureau has taken the lead in being politically conscious, in understanding and implementing Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, in carrying out the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee, in acting on the Party's purpose to work for the well-being of the people, and in fulfilling its duties when it comes to full and rigorous Party self-governance.”
Prior to the meeting, Politburo members “had discussions with leading officials of relevant departments, listened to their opinions and suggestions and thereby prepared speeches.” They then presented reports on how the eight-point decision on conduct has been implemented. They also spoke, “conducting serious self-examination and profound analysis in accordance with the Regulations of the Political Bureau on Strengthening and Upholding the Centralized and Unified Leadership of the CPC Central Committee and the Detailed Rules of the Political Bureau for Enforcing the CPC Central Committee's Eight-Point Decision on Conduct. The meeting’s atmosphere was serious and lively, the discussions were open and frank, and it has achieved the expected results.”
The speeches of Politburo members focussed on 6 aspects:
“First, they have become more conscious and firm in studying and implementing Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.
Second, they have become more conscious and firm in upholding the CPC Central Committee’s authority and centralized, unified leadership.
Third, they have become more conscious and firm in acting on the Party’s purpose to serve the people.
Fourth, they have become more conscious and firm in being pragmatic and ensuring effective implementation of the Thought.
Fifth, they have become more conscious and firm in playing an exemplary role in maintaining integrity and self-discipline, and firmly opposing privilege-seeking mindset and phenomena, keeping themselves clean, upright and corruption-free.
Sixth, they have become more conscious and firm in performing political duties for exercising full and rigorous self-governance of the Party, maintaining constant vigilance and determination in addressing the unique challenges faced by our large Party, and persistently advancing the Party’s self-revolution.”
“Members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee unanimously believe that the practice over the past year has once again verified that the affirmation of Xi Jinping's core position on the CPC Central Committee and in the Party as a whole, and the affirmation of the guiding role of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era have been of decisive significance to our response to various risks and challenges and to advancing Chinese modernization. The whole Party, the entire military, and the people must deeply understand the decisive significance of the Two Affirmations, become more conscious of the need to maintain political integrity, think in big-picture terms, follow the leadership core, and keep in alignment with the central Party leadership, strengthen confidence in the path, theory, system, and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and uphold General Secretary Xi Jinping's core position on the CPC Central Committee and in the Party as a whole, uphold the CPC Central Committee's authority and its centralized, unified leadership, and resolutely implement the policies and work arrangements of the CPC Central Committee.” – (Basically, this is reaffirming the Two Establishments, two safeguards, four self-confidences and four consciousnesses)
“Next year marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and is a critical year for achieving the goals and tasks of the 14th Five-Year Plan. It is imperative to follow the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, fully implement the guiding principles of the 20th CPC National Congress and the Second Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee on all fronts, adhere to the general principle of seeking progress while maintaining stability, and faithfully implement the new development philosophy on all fronts. It is essential to comprehensively deepen reform and opening up, and build greater self-reliance and strength in science and technology. It is also essential to boost economic vitality, prevent and mitigate risks, improve social expectations, consolidate and promote the momentum of economic recovery, and make further progress in building China into a strong country and realizing the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through a path to Chinese modernization.”
Xi then spoke. He made the following points:
“This criticism and self-criticism meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee has produced expected results, achieving the purpose of undergoing a political check-up, sweeping away political dust, and purifying political souls.”
The Politburo “must take the lead in consolidating and expanding the achievements of the (Xi Thought study and implementation) program, establish a long-term mechanism, intensify self-improvement, and play a leading and exemplary role in this regard throughout the entire Party.”
Politburo members “should play an exemplary and leading role in studying and implementing the Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, make a thorough understanding of its scientific system, core essence, and practical requirements, and enhance their political capacity and leadership through improving their ideological and theoretical level. Upholding the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee is concrete rather than abstract, and it must first materialize in firmly upholding the authority of the Party Central Committee, and in action through enhancing the consciousness of the need to maintain political integrity, think in big-picture terms, follow the leadership core, and keep in alignment with the central Party leadership, staying confident in the path, theory, system, and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and upholding Comrade Xi Jinping's core position on the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole and upholding the Central Committee's authority and its centralized, unified leadership.”
Politburo members should “take the lead in implementing democratic centralism, think carefully and express their opinions fully when participating in the Party Central Committee's deliberations on major decisions. They must tell the real situation learned in the work in a timely, objective and comprehensive manner, instead of reporting only what is positive while concealing what is negative. They should attach importance to promoting democracy in the sectors or localities under their charge, and encourage others to express opinions freely. They should be good at summarizing correctly and able to identify the correct opinions that comply with the laws governing things' development and represent the fundamental interests of the people so as to ensure sound decision-making. They should also discover in a timely manner wrong acts that violate democratic centralism, and resolutely rectify them.”
He said that China was facing a “complex international and domestic situation” and added that Politburo members “should have high degree of political acumen that enables them to be sharp-sighted and see what is coming from a small clue. They should be good at analyzing the changes and trends of development of situations from a political perspective and seeing the essence through the phenomenon to grasp the internal rule governing development. They should also be able to accurately identify time and momentum, crisis and opportunity as well as advantages and disadvantages, proactively identify, respond to and steer changes, accurately grasp opportunities, effectively respond to risks, and never act hastily before decisions are made. Whether it is planning major strategies, making major decisions or arranging major tasks, it is imperative to maintain correct political orientation and meet political requirements. When resolving disputes and problems, it is essential to pay attention to preventing and defusing political risks with a sharp sight and quick actions, and identify risks as early as possible, so as to remove all kinds of hidden political dangers in a timely manner. It is imperative to attach great importance to and cut the channels where risks from different sectors could transform so as to prevent non-political risks from becoming political ones.”
Politburo members “should take the lead in adhering to a people-centered development philosophy, pushing ahead with high-quality development, and refraining from pursuing excessive scale, blindly following foreign examples as well as taking reckless actions. They should pay attention to taking concrete measures for solid outcomes, and guard against flashy and impractical approaches and falsification of statistics. They should focus on laying a solid foundation for delivering long-term benefits while opposing short-sighted practices that harm the interest of the people and drain our resources. With high-quality development as the top priority in building China into a modern socialist country in all respects, adherence to high-quality development should serve as a significant component of leading officials' understanding of what it means to perform well. It is imperative to improve the performance assessment methods for promoting high-quality development, and thereby effectively guide and encourage leaderships at all levels to earnestly put into practice the correct understanding of what it means to perform well and follow a correct orientation in conducting their work.”
Politburo members “must inherit and carry forward the Party's fine traditions, find ways to inspire, motivate, and appeal to the people with the Party's goals, mobilize all possible positive factors, unite all available forces, and make it possible for Party members, officials and the masses to be of one mind in pursuing our cause…”
In the last two points, he talked about maintaining close ties with the people and addressing their concerns, along with the need to maintain “personal integrity and self-discipline.” He added: Politburo members “must set strict rules for their family members, relatives, and staff workers around them when it comes to the efforts against corruption.”
Let us now turn to today’s paper. I am covering only the key reports.
Let’s begin with the report of Xi Jinping promoting two military officers to the rank of general. Xinhua reports that the promoted officers are Political Commissar of the Southern Theater Command of the PLA Wang Wenquan, and Commander of the PLA Navy Hu Zhongming. Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of the CMC, announced the order of promotion, which was signed by Xi. He Weidong, another CMC vice chairman, presided over the ceremony. CMC members Liu Zhenli, Miao Hua and Zhang Shengmin were also present.
Next, there’s a report on the NPCSC meeting. A bunch of laws are being reviewed and discussed:
draft revision to the Organic Law of the State Council
draft amendment to the Charity Law
draft food security law
draft amendment to the Criminal Law
draft emergency response management law
draft law on rural collective economic organizations
draft amendment to the Law on Supervision by the Standing Committees of the People's Congresses at All Levels
draft revision to the Frontier Health and Quarantine Law
draft revision to the Mineral Resources Law
The session reviewed a draft decision on improving and strengthening the system of recording and review, a draft decision on authorizing the Macao Special Administrative Region to exercise jurisdiction over relevant land and sea areas southeast of the Gongbei Port in Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province, a draft decision on convening the second session of the 14th NPC. Lawmakers also deliberated an extradition treaty between China and Botswana, and a treaty on judicial assistance in criminal affairs between China and Senegal, among other reports and bills.
If you are interested, please do check out NPC Observer’s website.
Third, there’s a report on Li Qiang’s remarks at the fourth Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Leaders’ Meeting. The report says:
“Li Qiang stated that Lancang-Mekong cooperation is an important initiative jointly launched and promoted by the six Lancang-Mekong countries. In the seven years since its initiation, under the strategic guidance of President Xi Jinping and the leaders of various countries, the six nations have consistently treated each other as equals, sincerely helped each other, and have enjoyed familial closeness, creating a powerful engine for development, establishing a strong shield for common security, tightening emotional bonds of mutual understanding and affection. In particular, China-Cambodia, China-Laos, China-Myanmar, China-Thailand, and China-Vietnam have successively announced the joint construction of a bilateral community with a shared future, further contributing to the positive progress of building a Lancang-Mekong community with shared future and setting an example for constructing a community with a shared future for mankind.” 李强表示，澜湄合作是澜湄六国一道发起和推进的重要事业，启动7年来，在习近主席同各国领导人战略引领下，六国始终平等相待、真诚互助、亲如一家，打造了促进发展的有力引擎，构筑了共同安全的坚强护盾，拉紧了相知相亲的情感纽带，特别是中柬、中老、中缅、中泰、中越先后宣布共建双边命运共同体，进一步助力澜湄国家命运共同体建设取得积极进展，树立了构建人类命运共同体的典范.
Xinhua English summarises the rest well. Li called on the six countries to set an example in building high-quality Belt and Road and implementing the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative.
He then put forward four proposals:
First, he urged deepening integrated development, jointly planning and implementing relevant interconnectivity projects in the Lancang-Mekong region, promoting the upgrading of cooperation projects in cross-border economy, trade, production capacity and agriculture, maintaining the security and stability of industrial and supply chains, and strengthening cooperation in smart manufacturing and big data.
Second, Li called on all sides to promote green cooperation, fully respect the legitimate rights and interests of all countries in rational development and utilization of water resources, and accommodate each other’s concerns, adding that China is ready to explore cooperation with other countries on Lancang-Mekong whole-basin governance and promote cooperation on energy transition and ecological protection.
Third, he said all sides should strengthen security governance, advance common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, and forcefully crack down on crimes such as online gambling and telecom fraud. In this, he mentioned “Safe Lancang-Mekong Action” 平安澜湄行动.
Fourth, Li called for deepening people-to-people exchanges.
A leaders declaration and a five-year action plan were approved at the meeting. The leaders’ declaration and the abstract of the action plan are published on Page 3.
Key excerpts from the declaration:
Faced with profound changes unseen in a century and keeping in mind the future of the people of all countries in the region, we should continuously enhance mutual trust, align national development strategies, deepen practical cooperation, jointly address challenges, and work together to promote peace, stability, and sustainable development in the Lancang-Mekong region, and make greater efforts to build a closer community of a shared future for Lancang-Mekong countries oriented towards peace and prosperity. 面对百年未有之大变局，着眼地区各国人民未来，我们应当不断增进互信，对接国家发展战略，深化务实合作，共同应对挑战，携手促进澜湄地区的和平、稳定与可持续发展，朝着构建更紧密的面向和平与繁荣的澜湄国家命运共同体作出更大努力。
The six countries agreed “to promote the construction of the Lancang-Mekong Economic Development Belt with a people-centred approach, seize the opportunities of a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, and promote economic recovery and regional prosperity and revitalization. The six countries will deepen close cooperation in various fields, work together to promote sustainable economic growth, and accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. 我们重申将合作应对共同挑战，一致同意将以人民为中心推进澜湄流域经济发展带建设，抓住新一轮科技革命和产业变革的机遇，促进经济复苏和区域繁荣振兴。六国将深化各领域密切合作，携手促进经济可持续增长，加快落实2030年可持续发展议程.
They agreed “to adhere to a common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security concept and encourage the strengthening of non-traditional security cooperation on the basis of respecting the sovereignty of all countries. We welcome the relevant work of the Lancang-Mekong Comprehensive Law Enforcement Security Cooperation Center; all countries will cooperate with it on a voluntary basis. Support regular communication between law enforcement and security departments of the six countries.” 我们同意坚持共同、综合、合作、可持续的安全观，在尊重各国主权基础上，鼓励加强非传统安全合作。欢迎澜湄综合执法安全合作中心相关工作，各国在自愿基础上与其开展合作。支持六国执法安全部门定期沟通.
We emphasize the need to work together to further strengthen pragmatic cooperation in law enforcement, strengthen the crackdown on cross-border gambling and fraud, drug trafficking, human trafficking, terrorism, cyber crime, arms smuggling and other criminal activities, and safeguard social stability and people's lives and property safety in the subregion. 我们强调要携手努力，进一步强化执法领域务实合作，加强打击跨境网赌电诈、毒品贩运、贩卖人口、恐怖主义、网络犯罪、武器走私等犯罪活动，维护次区域社会稳定及人民生命和财产安全.
We agree to strengthen exchanges on new energy policies and cooperation in new energy fields, including electric vehicles, photovoltaics, energy conservation and efficiency, low carbon, and sustainable development. 我们同意加强新能源政策交流和新能源领域合作，包括电动汽车、光伏、节能增效、低碳、可持续发展等。
They agreed to explore the collaboration on Smart Customs, Intelligent Borders, and Smart Connectivity.
“We appreciate the practical achievements in Lancang-Mekong water resources cooperation and agree to enhance the framework of Lancang-Mekong water resources cooperation. We highly commend the consensus reached by the six countries on the ‘Five-Year Action Plan for Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation (2023-2027)’ and agree to continue holding regular ministerial meetings and forums on Lancang-Mekong water resources cooperation. We actively promote the exchange and collaboration in comprehensive basin governance, including sustainable development and utilisation of water resources, hydrological information, disaster prevention and reduction, capacity building, and personnel training. 我们赞赏澜湄水资源合作取得诸多务实成果，同意完善澜湄水资源合作框架。高度赞赏六国就《澜湄水资源合作五年行动计划（2023—2027）》达成一致，同意继续定期举办澜湄水资源合作部长级会议和澜湄水资源合作论坛，积极推动水资源可持续开发利用、水文信息、防灾减灾、能力建设、人员培训等全流域治理的交流与合作.
“Mekong countries appreciate China’s continued provision of hydrological data on the Lancang River throughout the year. We support the efforts of the six countries to promote the construction of the Lancang-Mekong water resources cooperation information sharing platform and ensure the smooth operation of the network. We agree to continue to implement the ‘Lancang-Mekong Water Development Plan’ to improve people’s livelihood and well-being in all countries in the basin. 湄公河国家赞赏中国持续提供澜沧江全年水文数据。我们支持六国推动澜湄水资源合作信息共享平台建设及澜湄水资源合作信息共享平台网络平稳运行。同意持续实施“澜湄兴水惠民计划”，增进流域各国民生福祉.
We welcome the consensus reached by the science and technology authorities of the six countries on establishing a meeting mechanism for the Lancang-Mekong Regional Innovation Corridor. This includes holding regular meetings, conducting policy coordination, and discussing topics such as emerging technology trends, collaboration platforms, and projects. We agree to further leverage the role of scientific and technological innovation in Lancang-Mekong Cooperation, deepen scientific and technological innovation cooperation in health, digital economy, green development and other fields, and promote international exchanges of innovation and entrepreneurship. We welcome the signing of the Action Plan (2023-2028) on Promoting Regional Metrology Development and Mutual Recognition by the metrological authorities of the six countries.我们欢迎六国科技主管部门就建立澜湄区域创新走廊会晤机制达成共识，包括定期举行会议、开展政策协调并就新兴技术趋势、合作平台与项目等议题进行商讨。同意进一步发挥科技创新在澜湄合作中的作用，深化卫生健康、数字经济、绿色发展等领域科技创新合作，促进创新创业国际交流。我们欢迎六国计量主管部门签署《关于促进澜湄区域计量发展与互认的行动计划（2023—2028）》.
The document also talks about environmental cooperation, tourism, local government cooperation, cultural heritage protection, radio and television programs, media and sports cooperation, the strengthening of dialogue and cooperation in the field of religion, etc.
With regard to the action plan, it specifically mentions BRI, GDI, GSI and GCI. The practical cooperation domains listed within the plan span three areas— political and security affairs; economics and sustainable development; and people to people exchanges. The political and security cooperation covers meetings between officials, judicial and law-enforcement cooperation, health security, transnational criminal challenges (such as drug trafficking, terrorism, cybercrime, cross-border gambling, telecommunications fraud, and human trafficking), and disaster management and response.