Leveraging the 'Five Olds' - Improving Community Services - Defusing Major Risks - Self-Revolution Tasks - Zhao Lijian on US and Quad
Here are the stories and pieces that I found noteworthy from the Thursday, February 10, 2022, edition of the People’s Daily.
Page 1: Let’s begin with another one of the pieces in the series on shaking hands with the general secretary. This talks about Xi’s October 2018 visit to Qianhai-Shekou Area of Shenzhen. The piece talks about an encounter between Chen Sheng, a young man from Hong Kong, and Xi. Chen says that the conversation with Xi provided encouragement for entrepreneurs.
Chen says that he spoke to Xi about his entrepreneurship at Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Youth DreamWorks 前海深港青年梦工场, the piece informs us. This is an incubator, and the piece talks about the success of this effort. It also talks about Chen’s company, which is Qianhai Xuexue Technology Co., Ltd (前海学学科技有限公司), and its success. It talks about how Chen believes that Hong Kong youth are beneficiaries of reform and opening up, and his career growth. At one point, the piece later has Chen talking about Xi’s comments. This is what he drew from those comments:
“...the General Secretary cares about us young people from Hong Kong and has helped show us the direction of development, so that we can walk more firmly on the road of entrepreneurship.” 对我们香港青年来说，这就是一堂生动的国情课，总书记关心我们香港青年，帮我们指明发展的方向，让我们在创业之路上走得更加坚定.
Next, the full guideline issued by the General Office of the Central Committee and State Council on strengthening the work of the working committee for caring for the next generation in the new era. This talks about bringing together the “five olds 五老,” i.e., old cadres, old soldiers, old experts, old teachers and old model veterans. 老干部、老战士、老专家、老教师、老模范. The document basically talks about the role of the five olds in education, guidance, care, and protection of the youth.
The working principles of the document talks about adhering to the Party’s leadership and enhancing the 4-4-2. It also calls to “adhere to the fundamental task of cultivating people by virtue, strengthen the ideological and political work among the youth, and guide the youth to make the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation as their own responsibility…” 坚持把立德树人作为根本任务，大力加强青少年思想政治工作，引导广大青少年以实现中华民族伟大复兴为己任，努力学习、健康成长、艰苦奋斗...
It adds: “We should give full play to the advantages of the ‘five olds’, promote the spirit of ‘loyalty and dedication, caring for future generations, pragmatism and innovation, and selfless dedication’, respect the ‘five olds’, cherish them, learn from them, and support more senior comrades to do their best and shine on the broad stage of caring for the next generation…坚持发挥“五老”的优势作用，弘扬“忠诚敬业、关爱后代、务实创新、无私奉献”的“五老”精神，尊重“五老”，爱护“五老”，学习“五老”，支持更多老同志在关心下一代的广阔舞台上老有所为、发光发热...
Here are the key tasks outlined in the document:
First, on casting souls and educating people with Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era. 坚持用习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想铸魂育人. The goal is to “lay a solid ideological foundation for young people.” It talks about implementing the guidelines “Strengthening and Improving Ideological and Political Work in the New Era.”
Second, pass on the red gene. This entails encouraging the five olds to go to the youth and “tell the story of the Party, the story of the revolution, the story of the base area, the story of heroes and martyrs; talk about the revolutionary spirit and the value of the times contained in the red story, vigorously carry forward the fine tradition and style of the Party, and educate and guide the youth to deeply learn from the Party’s achievements, hardships, historical experience and understand why the Communist Party of China can, why Marxism works, why socialism with Chinese characteristics is good…” It also talks about furthering history education and ensuring that young people visit museums, memorial halls, and martyrs memorials, and that the five olds work with the youth to carry out various practical education activities such as reading, essay writing, speeches, performances, camps…”
Third, actively guide young people to cultivate and practice socialist core values. In this regard, it talks about grasping the critical period of the formation of youth’s values and comprehensively strengthening youth’s ideological and moral construction. It also talks about organising the ‘five old’ to carry out patriotic theme education activities among the youth, continuously enhance their patriotic consciousness and feelings, firmly establish among them a correct world outlook and outlook on life and values; firmly establish among them Marxist views on the motherland, nationality, culture and history, and firmly cultivate the consciousness of the Chinese nation community.
Fourth, strengthen the rule of law education and protection of rights and interests of young people. One aspect of this is to use the five olds to present and reduce cases of juvenile delinquency and to help juvenile delinquents.
Fifth, this one focuses on addressing practical issues, such as providing emotional care and psychological counselling, working with left-behind children and migrant children, helping with skill development, etc.
Sixth, this talks about cultivating a good social environment for the healthy growth of the youth. This talks about implementation of the family education law, working with Young Pioneers, and maintaining a good online environment, etc. On the last bit it says: “Strengthen the protection of network environment, actively use new media such as Weibo, WeChat and mobile platforms to spread positive energy, guide the youth to use the Internet in a civilised and scientific way, participate in the activities for purifying the cyberspace, ensure the supervision of Internet cafes, and care for the healthy growth of the youth.” 加强网络环境保护，积极运用微博、微信、手机客户端等新媒体传播正能量，引导青少年文明上网、科学上网，参与净化网络空间和网吧义务监督活动，呵护青少年健康成长.
Next, a brief report that tells us that the total number of registered individual industrial and commercial businesses in China grew to 103 million by the end of 2021, accounting for two-thirds of all market entities in the country. A total of 19,701,000 new individual industrial and commercial businesses were established in 2021, up 17.2 percent from the previous year.
The report adds that 90% of these 103 million entities are concentrated in the service industry, mainly in wholesale and retail, accommodation, catering and residential services. On an average, the number of employees of individual industrial and commercial households is 2.68. This implies that these entities have employed some 276 million people.
Page 2: A report about the General Office of the State Council issuing guidelines on the construction of urban environmental infrastructure to support the country's green development. Xinhua English reports:
“The country will establish a comprehensive, efficient, intelligent, green, and safe modern environmental infrastructure system by 2030, said a guideline issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and three other government bodies. By 2025, the sewage disposal capacity aims to increase by 20 million cubic meters per day, and the handling capacity of household garbage to reach 700,000 tonnes per day, the guideline said.”
Second, a report on the State Council’s new plan on improving community services. Xinhua English reports:
“Coordinated efforts will be made to advance community services ranging from child care, education, medical care, elderly care, social welfare, sports and culture, as well as services to boost the sense of convenience and safety among residents, according to the plan. Various types of participants, including social organizations, social workers, volunteers and charity groups have been encouraged to join the efforts, the power of the market will be better leveraged, and the government will play a better role, according to the plan. To more precisely meet public demand, the plan also requires efforts to improve the evaluation mechanism for community services and promote the incentive system driven by reviews from community residents.
Another English report says:
“More quality community-based public services, including preschool education, nursing and medical services, will be available by 2025, according to a plan released by the State Council, China's Cabinet. The plan said that by 2025, 80 percent of communities in rural areas will be equipped with comprehensive service facilities including stores, schools and hospitals, up from 65.7 percent in 2020. All urban communities should have comprehensive service facilities by 2025. It also says 18 community workers should be available for every 10,000 urban residents by 2025, up from 15 in 2020. Nursing services for the elderly, especially those with disabilities and financial problems, have been made a priority in the improvement of community services.”
The PD report informs that there are some 4.338 million community workers and 1.573 million social work professionals in the country. It quotes Fu Wei from the NHC saying that by the end of 2020, there were 970,000 primary medical and health institutions nationwide, basically achieving full coverage of urban and rural grassroots communities. During the plan period, efforts will be intensified to promote the high-quality development of the urban and rural community medical and health service system.
Qiu Ru, from the General Administration of Sports, said that by the end of 2020, the number of sports venues in the country has increased by 89.7% compared with 2017…Li Hong from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism said that at present, more than 570,000 village and community comprehensive cultural service centres have been built across the country, basically achieving full coverage. During the plan period, the government will continue to further promote the construction of cultural centres, libraries, museums, etc.
Page 3: Just one report to note, i.e., this exchange from MoFA’s briefing yesterday. This touches upon the upcoming Quad foreign ministers meeting in Australia.
Q. When asked what the US administration made of the fact that China used a young Uyghur athlete to carry the Olympic torch during the opening ceremony of the Games in Beijing, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that “we can’t allow this to be a distraction from the human rights abuses, the genocide that we’re seeing in parts of China. That is why we did not send a diplomatic delegation”. Do you have any response? Second, according to reports, US Secretary of State Blinken is going to attend the fourth Quad foreign ministers' meeting in Australia. At a press briefing via teleconference, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel J. Kritenbrink said that part of that discussion will relate to the challenges that China poses to democratic values and the international order. Do you have any comment on that?
Zhao Lijian: On your first question, I already briefed you about relevant situation the other day. The selection of the final torchbearer at the opening ceremony is a normal arrangement made by China. The US is in no position to make wanton remarks. Its “genocide” allegation is a lie of the century, which fully exposed its sinister intention of politicizing the Games and maliciously smearing China with Xinjiang-related issues. Its erroneous practice is unpopular and is doomed to fail, which will only lead to its further isolation from the international community. Throughout history, the US committed genocide against Native Americans. It is also plagued by persistent systemic discrimination against ethnic minorities. The Native American population nosedived by 95% from five million at the end of the 15th century to 250,000 at the beginning of the 20th century. What is genocide? What the US has done to the Native Americans was true genocide. The US should reckon with its historical crimes of genocide against Native Americans and take effective measures to reduce racial discrimination against ethnic minorities including Native Americans and people of African and Asian descent. On your second question, I have three points to make.
First, democracy is a common value of humanity, not a monopoly of a few countries. It’s up to the people of a country to decide whether this country is democratic or not. Despite its ruined democratic brand, the US still forces other countries to accept its democratic standards and cobbles together cliques by drawing the ideological line. This is sheer betrayal to democracy.
Second, China presents a boon for the regional order. China pursues peace, development and cooperation and promotes the building of an equitable, open and inclusive security system in the Asia-Pacific Region that does not target any third country. We reject moves to create exclusive cliques and incite bloc confrontation. Like most countries, China recognizes and supports the international system with the UN at its core and the international order based on international law, rather than the so-called “order” unilaterally defined by a single or a handful of countries.
Third, any multilateral mechanism should conform to the overriding trend of peace and development and be conducive to enhancing mutual trust and cooperation between countries. We hope the US and other countries concerned will grasp the trend of the times, adopt a proper mindset and discard the Cold War mentality. They should contribute more to regional peace, stability and prosperity instead of putting a strain on the relations between regional countries.
Page 5: Today we have the fourth in the series on interpreting the major theoretical and practical points highlighted during the CEWC. This one talks about correctly understanding, guarding against and defusing major risks.
“Facing a turbulent international situation, a complex and sensitive surrounding environment, and the arduous tasks of reform, development and stability, only by better coordinating development and security, adhering to the bottom line thinking, enhancing the sense of urgency, improving the ability of prevention and control, and focusing on preventing and defusing major risks can we maintain sustained and healthy economic development and overall social stability. This requires us to correctly understand and grasp the tasks of prevention and resolution of major risks, effectively prevent and deal with potential risks in key areas, better coordinate development and security, keep security as the bottom line of the new development pattern, enhance our viability, competitiveness, development and sustainability amid all kinds of foreseeable and unpredictable storms…” 面对波谲云诡的国际形势、复杂敏感的周边环境、艰巨繁重的改革发展稳定任务，只有更好统筹发展和安全，坚持底线思维，增强忧患意识，提高防控能力，着力防范化解重大风险，才能保持经济持续健康发展和社会大局稳定。这就要求我们正确认识和把握防范化解重大风险，有效防范应对重点领域潜在风险，更好统筹发展和安全，守住新发展格局的安全底线，在各种可以预见和难以预见的惊涛骇浪中增强我们的生存力、竞争力、发展力、持续力，任由国际风云变幻，始终充满朝气生存和发展下去.
The piece identifies the following areas as critical when it comes to preventing and defusing major risks: politics, ideology, economy, science and technology, society, external environment and party building. And to do so effectively, it says that it is necessary to “give full play to the strengths of the Party's leadership and China's socialist system, recognize risks early when they are minor, and strive to avoid major risks or crises.”
The next paragraph adds:
“This requires that we must always maintain high vigilance, not only to guard against ‘black swan’ events, but also to guard against ‘gray rhinos’; We should not only take the lead to prevent risks, but also adopt smart measures to deal with and resolve risks and challenges. It is necessary to not only be well-prepared to fight a battle to guard against and fend off risks, but also seize the strategic initiative and turn dangers into successes and crises into opportunities. We are convinced that with the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with comrade Xi Jinping as the core, the political advantages of China’s socialist system, which enables us to concentrate resources to accomplish major tasks, and the solid material and technological foundation accumulated since the launch of reform and opening up, we can correctly understand and guard against and defuse major risks, and take the initiative…” 这就要求我们必须始终保持高度警惕，既要高度警惕“黑天鹅”事件，也要防范“灰犀牛”事件；既要有防范风险的先手，也要有应对和化解风险挑战的高招；既要打好防范和抵御风险的有准备之战，也要打好化险为夷、转危为机的战略主动战和攻坚战。我们深信，有以习近平同志为核心的党中央坚强领导，有我国社会主义制度集中力量办大事的政治优势，有改革开放以来积累的雄厚物质技术基础，正确认识和把握防范化解重大风险，下好先手棋、打好主动仗，完全有信心、有条件、有能力战胜前进道路上的各种风险考验.
With this context, the next paragraph discusses preventing financial risks with the aim of ensuring overall economic and financial stability. It says that:
“To correctly understand and grasp the prevention and mitigation of major risks, we must lay a solid foundation for financial stability, properly handle the relationship between steady growth and risk prevention, consolidate the momentum of economic recovery, resolve systemic financial risks through high-quality economic development, and prevent secondary financial risks from arising in the process of dealing with risks in other fields. In the next step, we should continue to do a good job in risk disposal, strengthen the construction of financial rule of law, consolidate the responsibilities of local authorities, financial regulators, industry executives and other parties, consolidate the responsibility of enterprises to help themselves, strengthen capacity building, strengthen the construction of financial supervision cadres, and improve the financial risk management mechanism.” 正确认识和把握防范化解重大风险，就要夯实金融稳定的基础，处理好稳增长和防风险的关系，巩固经济恢复向好势头，以经济高质量发展化解系统性金融风险，防止在处置其他领域风险过程中引发次生金融风险。下一步，要继续抓好风险处置工作，加强金融法治建设，压实地方、金融监管、行业主管等各方责任，压实企业自救主体责任，强化能力建设，加强金融监管干部队伍建设，完善金融风险处置机制.
Other Stories:
On the theory page, the lead piece is by Feng Jun from the School of Marxism, Tsinghua University. He writes about the concept of self-revolution. In the new era, Feng’s formula for self-revolution is:
The Party’s political construction is the fundamental construction of the Party…The Party’s self-revolution must be carried out on the premise of ensuring that the entire Party obeys the Central Committee, adheres to the authority of the Party Central Committee and its centralised and unified leadership, and must always firmly implement the party's political line, strictly abide by political discipline and rules, and maintain a high degree of alignment with the central leadership in terms of political position, direction, principles and path. 党的政治建设是党的根本性建设，决定党的建设方向和效果，也决定着自我革命的根本政治方向。党的自我革命必须在保证全党服从中央、坚持党中央权威和集中统一领导的前提下进行，在自我革命的全过程和各环节，都必须始终坚定执行党的政治路线，严格遵守政治纪律和政治规矩，在政治立场、政治方向、政治原则、政治道路上同党中央保持高度一致。
Ideological construction is an important weapon to eliminate all the factors that damage the advanced nature and purity of the Party and all the viruses that erode the healthy body of the party. We should fully implement Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in the new era, arm our minds, guide practice and promote work with the latest theoretical achievements of the Party. Educate the broad masses of Party members and cadres to firmly establish the lofty ideal of communism and the common ideal of socialism with Chinese characteristics, build the foundation of faith, supplement their spiritual calcium and stabilise the rudder of thought. 思想建设是清除一切损害党的先进性和纯洁性的因素、清除一切侵蚀党的健康肌体的病毒的重要思想武器。要全面贯彻习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想，用党的最新理论成果武装头脑、指导实践、推动工作。教育引导广大党员、干部牢固树立共产主义远大理想和中国特色社会主义共同理想，筑牢信仰之基，补足精神之钙，把稳思想之舵。
The next paragraph talks about the eight-point regulation, work style, formalism and bureaucracy and hedonism and extravagance.
The next paragraph focuses on preventing corruption, which the author calls “a major political task the Party must focus on for a long time to come.” Feng adds: “We must never relax our efforts to improve Party conduct, build a clean government and fight corruption.”
The next paragraph talks about strengthening “the political function and organisational cohesion of the party.” This entails guiding the cadres to “consciously maintain a high degree of consistency with the CPC Central Committee in ideological and political actions.” And guiding them to “grasp the historical characteristics of the new great struggle, carry forward the spirit of struggle, grasp the direction of struggle, grasp the initiative of struggle, strengthen the will for struggle, master the law of struggle and enhance the ability to struggle.”
The final point is about institutional and governance mechanisms to ensure strict governance of the Party and to ensure that one dare not, cannot and does not want to be corrupt.