FDI Inflow, Xiaomi & Huawei, & Ecological Civilisation
Here are the stories and pieces from the May 14, 2021, People’s Daily edition that I found noteworthy.
Page 1: Let’s begin with a report on FDI inflows into China. For the first four months of this year, the Ministry of Commerce estimates FDI inflows at 397.07 billion yuan (about 61.45 billion U.S. dollars). That figure is a jump of 38.6 percent year on year and 30.1 percent from 2019.
FDI into the service sector was 312.94 billion yuan, up by 46.8%
Inflow into the high-tech industry grew by 29.1%
FDI from BRI countries was up by 62.8%
From ASEAN was up by 65.2%
FDI from the EU was up by 9.2%
This, however, was not the lead story on the page. The lead story, if I can call it that, was about building an ecological civilization. It’s a feature piece drawing from Xi Jinping’s thoughts/comments and then providing examples and details of the plans that are underway.
The story says that since the 18th Party Congress, Xi has put this task “in a prominent position in terms of overall work.” Then “in May 2018, General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered an important speech at the National Ecological Environmental Protection Conference, proposing the principles of promoting the construction of ecological civilization in the new era, and emphasizing the need to accelerate the construction of an ecological civilization system. This conference summarized and expounded Xi Jinping's thoughts on ecological civilization.”
The areas that this concept of ecological civilization covers are:
Pollution prevention and control, which is also viewed as a livelihood issue. This covers water, air and soil pollution.
Taking care of the ecosystem, i.e., restoration of forests, grasslands, fields, lakes, rivers and so on. In this regard, we have a National Master Plan for Major Ecosystem Protection and Restoration Projects (2021-2035) that is being implemented from this year.
Tackling climate change, i.e., including carbon peaking and carbon neutrality into the overall layout of ecological civilization construction
“As of the end of 2020, China’s carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP have been reduced by about 48.4% compared with 2005, exceeding the goal of reducing by 40%-45% by 2020...In 2020, the proportion of coal in total energy consumption fell to 56.8%, and the proportion of clean energy rose to 24.3%.”
Finally, a short report (English version) on a new smart satellite plant in Wuhan. The facility is able to produce 240 small satellites of multiple types-each weighing less than 1 metric ton.
Page 2: First, Vice Premier Sun Chunlan was on hand at the inauguration of the new national administration of disease prevention and control. This is a vice-ministerial level agency managed by the National Health Commission. Xinhua reports that “the administration will steer the development of the disease prevention and control system, the epidemic monitoring and early warning system, and the scientific research system for disease control. It will also be responsible for the supervision and management of public health and the supervision of infectious disease prevention and control.”
PD’s report covers Sun Chunlan’s speech. She basically called for streamlining systems and establishment of institutions at the national, provincial, prefectural and county levels, while strengthening the leadership of the higher-level disease prevention and control agencies over the lower-level ones. She also called for setting up a network of tiered and classified public health emergency response teams. Of course, all of this was said while mentioning Xi’s guidance at least a couple of times.
Next, Guo Shengkun, chief of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs, visited Zhejiang this week. He went to the Nanhu Revolution Memorial Hall in Jiaxing, where he spoke about the importance of the Party history campaign. He traveled to Wenzhou, Huzhou, Jiaxing, and Hangzhou. He also spoke about the Fengqiao experience as part of innovating community-level governance and in the context of dispute resolution at grassroots level.
Page 3: A few stories to note. First, Chen Xi’s address at the Central Party School, which he heads. The report says:
“Chen Xi emphasized that Xi Jinping’s thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era is the ideological banner of the Communist Party of China in the new era and an action guide for realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Leading cadres should make good use of this innovative theory as a basic skill, compulsory course...and integrate it with the study of the basic principles of Marxism, the history of the party, the history of New China, the history of reform and opening up, and the history of socialist development.”
Second, propaganda chief Huang Kunming was in Shanghai, speaking about the history learning campaign. The story basically says that he spoke about learning history and drawing lessons from history as being critical with China being at a “new starting point.” He also reiterated the need to “adhere to the overall leadership of the Party, adhere to the people-centered, fully understand the subjectivity, times and innovation of Chinese modernization, carry forward the spirit of self-reliance and innovation...”
Third, Gao Feng, spokesperson for China’s Commerce Ministry, responded to remarks made by U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai about potentially meeting Vice Premier Liu He “in the near term.” Gao spoke about the need for “dialogue and consultation on the basis of mutual respect and equal treatment” and added that “China's stance on tariff issues is very clear. Imposing additional tariff measures unilaterally is not beneficial to China, the United States or the whole world.” Interestingly, Lingling Wei and Bob Davis report for WSJ that Tai might not really end up meeting Liu He. They report that Liu might be replaced by Hu Chunhua, a younger vice premier who made his mark overseeing the restive Tibet region and running the trade-reliant coastal province of Guangdong but who has little experience in U.S.-China relations. They add that “the deliberation is part of a wider personnel shuffle as China recalibrates its approach to the new U.S. administration.” Note that Liu is soon to hit 70. Hu, meanwhile, is 58; he oversees the commerce ministry; and is a candidate to get into the PSC in 2022.
For Indian readers, Hu was supposed to lead a joint mechanism with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on trade and investment. This was decided after the Mamallapuram informal summit in October 2019. This initiative, of course, has gone nowhere since the announcement.
Anyway, another bit that Gao spoke about was the US Defense Department’s decision to remove Xiaomi from a blacklist banning US investment in the Chinese tech giant. This came two months after Xiaomi won a key victory in a federal lawsuit challenging the listing. The judge then put a halt to the DoD’s actions. Gao said “removing sanctions and restrictions and stopping suppression of Chinese companies will benefit China, the United States, and the world.”
Fourth, while Xiaomi’s gotten a reprieve, the Biden administration has extended Trump’s executive order restricting use of Chinese telecommunications equipment. Hua Chunying was asked about this and she said that:
“the US makes incessant denigration and smearing against Huawei and other Chinese telecommunications companies without providing any solid proof that they constitute security threat to the US and other countries. National security is used as a clumsy excuse by the US to practice ‘state hegemony’ targeting Chinese hi-tech companies. It is a dirty trick of a thief crying ‘stop the thief’. As is known to all, there are revelations every once in a while on the tapping scandals of the US targeting even its allies, such as ‘PRISM’ and ‘Irritant Horn’. That makes the US the true empire of hacking and theft of secrets. It is neither reliable nor trustworthy.”
Fifth, a report that informs us that the State Grid Corporation of China is carrying out a project of installing some 5 million “smart meters” across western and central Saudi Arabia. And lastly, here’s a piece about BRI; it talks about ports, trade, development, and says that this is the way you protect and further human rights.
Page 4: The two historical figures discussed today are Yang Kaihui and Xiang Jingyu. Yang, of course, was Mao Zedong’s first wife. Her father Yang Changji was a mentor to Mao. Yang and Mao had three children together. She joined the Party formally in 1922. In October 1930, she was arrested by the KMT’s He Jian. “The enemy pressed her for Mao Zedong's whereabouts and asked her to publicly renounce her husband.” She refused to do so and was eventually executed in November 1930 at the age of 29.
Xiang Jingyu joined the Xinmin Society in 1919 and was one of the earliest female members of the Party, joining in 1922. The report says that this was after she had traveled to France to study; she also married Cai Hesen there. During her time in the Party, she wrote about women’s liberation and in “1924, Xiang Jingyu splendidly led the strikes of Shanghai Zhabei Silk Factory and Nanyang Tobacco Factory.” She was eventually arrested and executed in 1928.
Page 17: The international page has stories about China-Vanuatu youth dialogue, Iran-Saudi talks, the 20th Asian Science Council meeting, US pipeline hack and so on.