Discipline, Davos & Deep Dive into PLA's 2027 Goals
Below are the stories that I found noteworthy from the People’s Daily’s January 25, 2021, edition
Page 1: The front page is largely focussed on the outcome of the Fifth Plenary Meeting of the 19th CCDI. Xinhua English’s report on this says that the “CCDI, the National Supervisory Commission, and local discipline inspection commissions and supervisory agencies at all levels have faithfully performed their duties in fighting against COVID-19, securing a decisive victory in finishing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects and shaking off poverty while promoting high-quality development of the disciplinary inspection and supervision work.”
It then says that “for 2021, efforts should be made to ensure that officials ‘don't dare to, are unable to and have no desire to commit acts of corruption’.” There’s a set of 8 requirements also outlined in the English report. The PD report offers details on each of these. I’m listing the first few:
Uphold Xi's position as the core of the CPC Central Committee and the whole Party, as well as the authority of the CPC Central Committee and its centralized, unified leadership
Deepen the anti-corruption campaign...investigate corruption cases in which political and economic issues are intertwined
Beef up the fight against deep-rooted practices of formalities for formalities' sake and bureaucratism; curb behaviors related to hedonism and extravagance; supervise the implementation of regulations related to doing business by leading officials' spouses, children, and their children's spouses
It’s only after these that you get “Address corruption and misconduct that occur on the people's doorsteps to promote social fairness and justice as well as safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the people.”
Also the PD report had this bit: “comprehensive and strict governance of the party must first be viewed from a political perspective, and continuously improve political judgment, political insight and political execution, to constantly promote the construction of party style and clean government and the fight against corruption.”
This point is further emphasised in a commentary on the page. It says that “talking about politics with a clear-cut stand is not only a distinctive feature of Marxist political parties, but also a consistent political advantage of our party.”
Then it warns that the Party “must be sober to see that corruption, the party's greatest risk of governing still exists, the stock has not yet cleared the bottom, the increment still occurs. Political and economic issues are intertwined, threatening the political security of the party and the state. Traditional corruption and new types of corruption intertwined, corruption is more hidden and complex.” Finally, it demands that “party members and cadres should build a firm ideological line of defense, always be self-respecting and self-policing, prudent and cautious, and be firm in political conviction and compliance with rules and regulations.”
The other story of note on the page is about the 11 of the miners trapped in a gold mine in Qixia, Shandong, being rescued. These individuals spent two weeks inside. One wishes for their safety and well-being. But that said, it’s not a coincidence that this incident did not feature on the front page over the days, but today it does. In fact, there was brief coverage in the inside pages - once if I am correct through the past week. But today, when you’ve got a positive yarn to spin, it makes it to the front page. There’s more of this on Page 4, including images of the rescue effort.
Page 2: A few stories to note. First, there’s data put out by the State Intellectual Property Office. It notes that 530,000 invention patents were authorized by China in 2020. By the end of the year, the effective number of domestic invention patents reached 2.213 million. It further says that “the review cycle of high-value patents was reduced to 14 months, the average review cycle of invention patents was reduced to 20 months, and the average review cycle of trademark registration applications was shortened to 4 months.”
Next, an interview with Wang Wei, director of the Market Economy Research Institute of the Development Research Center of the State Council. He talks about the significance of expanding domestic demand to the new development strategy of Dual Circulation. He calls it the “core requirement.” Among other steps, here what he thinks needs to be done first to boost consumption:
“We should promote employment, optimize distribution and reduce the burden to stabilize and enhance residents' consumption power. The most fundamental thing to expand consumption is to promote employment and raise income levels...we should improve the vocational and technical education system to achieve fuller and higher quality employment and wider income level; at the same time, we should accelerate the improvement of social security and personal income tax additional deduction policies to further optimize the income distribution structure, expand the middle-income group and improve the ability to pay for consumption.”
Page 3: A story about positive bits of coverage in the foreign press about China’s economic recovery. That’s actually the focus of the page today. The stories and pieces largely focus on China’s external economic engagement and how that’s being appreciated by foreigners. Then there’s an interview with World Economic Forum’s Lee Howell. This is previewing Xi’s speech at the forum. Here’s what the piece quotes Howell as saying:
“‘As the world faces risky challenges, the world is looking to China to play an important role in the economic recovery. Some economists predict that China's contribution to world economic growth will exceed one-third in 2021,’ Howell said, adding that the international community should also pay more attention to China's contribution to building a more resilient and sustainable recovery...Howell said, ‘We look forward to hearing President Xi Jinping’s special message and to China sharing its wisdom and solutions in addressing climate change, participating in the fourth industrial revolution and many other areas’.”
Finally, two reports - first, this one about Morocco providing emergency approval to Sinopharm’s vaccine, and the second, is this one about BYD’s electric vehicles penetrating the South American market. The focus of the report is largely about BYD receiving two new orders from Bogotá for a total of 1,002 electric buses...So far, BYD has received orders for nearly 1,500 busses from Bogotá.
Page 9: There’s a lengthy piece on the PLA on the Theory page today, which I am going to focus on. It talks about the goal of building a modern armed forces by 2027. Here are some excerpts. It says that: “the people’s army must speed up its construction and development, take up the mission and tasks of the new era, and provide strategic support for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”
On the pressing need to modernise, it argues that given the current global scenario, “China will face more adverse external environment, national security uncertainty instability increased. To effectively deal with national security risks and challenges and maintain the important strategic opportunity period for China's development, there is an urgent need to build and use military forces with the goal of building the army for the centenary and speed up the strategic ability to defend national sovereignty, security and development interests.”
There are 4 modernisations that need to be achieved by 2027:
theoretical modernization,
military organizational modernization,
military personnel modernization, and
weaponry modernization.
Here’s more: “Accelerate the transformation of military forces from quantitative scale model and manpower-intensive to quality and effectiveness and technology-intensive, and build a strong and modern army, navy, air force, rocket force, strategic support forces, joint service and security forces and armed police forces. Grow strategic forces, enrich strategic options, and add strategic weight. Accelerate the construction of new combat forces and means, promote the weaponization of new mechanisms and new technologies for actual combat, and significantly increase the proportion of new quality combat forces in new domains.”
On talent cultivation, there’s a few interesting bits. First, “the main focus is on joint combat command, new combat forces, scientific and technological innovation, strategic management and other aspects of talent construction, to promote the overall upgrade of military personnel capabilities and quality…” Then, some talk about balancing between reds and experts: “it is necessary to comprehensively implement the policy of military education in the new era, and cultivate high-quality and professional new-type military personnel with both ability and political integrity.” And finally, this: “cultivate the comparative advantages of military careers, gather talents from all over the world and maximize the gathering of talents and intellectual resources.”
On technology and innovation: “Science and technology has become the core combat power, and the competition in the field of science and technology around subversion and counter-subversion, surprise attack and counter surprise attack, offset and counter offset is very intense. We should adhere to the strategic base of independent innovation, strengthen the strategic planning layout, strengthen the construction of the innovation system, strengthen policy system incentives, and launch the science and technology innovation engine at full speed.”
Page 17: Below are the stories from the international page. Nothing that I found interesting enough to dive into.