New Rural Development Goals, Lavrov's Visit & EU Sanctions
Here are the stories and pieces that I found noteworthy from the People’s Daily’s March 23, 2021, edition.
Page 1: First, the Party Central Committee has put out Opinions on consolidating the gains of the poverty alleviation campaign and linking that to the rural revitalisation effort. It says:
“The great practice of poverty alleviation has fully demonstrated the great miracle created by our party’s leadership of hundreds of millions of people in adhering to and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics, and fully demonstrated the political advantages of the leadership of the Communist Party of China and my country's socialist system. The great achievement of poverty alleviation has greatly enhanced the cohesion and centripetal force of the entire party and the people of the country, and greatly enhanced the confidence of the road, theory, system, and culture of the entire party and the nation. These achievements are attributed to the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core. General Secretary Xi Jinping personally planned, assumed command, and personally supervised the implementation of the basic strategy of targeted poverty alleviation and poverty alleviation…” It then offers a pat on the back for others, saying that while the central government was responsible for planning, local governments did the implementation.
Then it argues that “getting rid of poverty is not the end, but the starting point for a new life and a new struggle…” And this new struggle requires new tasks, such as:
It calls for a creation of a five year transition period for places that have achieved poverty alleviation. Then, “by 2025, the results of poverty alleviation will be consolidated and expanded, rural revitalization will be fully promoted, the economic vitality and development potential of poverty alleviated areas will be significantly enhanced, the quality, efficiency and competitiveness of rural industries will be further improved, the level of rural infrastructure and basic public services will be further improved, and the ecological environment will continue to improve.”
“By 2035, the economic strength of poverty alleviated areas will be significantly strengthened, rural revitalization will make significant progress, the living standards of rural low-income population will be significantly improved, the urban-rural gap will be further narrowed, and more obvious substantive progress will be made in promoting common prosperity for all people.”
In the transition period, the focus will be on ensuring that relief policies continue. It says: “We will implement well-inclusive policies on education, medical care, housing, drinking water, and other people’s livelihood guarantees, and give appropriate focus based on the actual difficulties of the people who have been lifted out of poverty.”
At the same time, “regular inspections are (to be) carried out for households that are out of poverty, unstable households, marginal households prone to poverty, and households experiencing serious difficulties in basic living due to large expenditures due to illness, disasters, accidents, etc.” The focus in this period is to ensure that the two “no worries” i.e., food and clothing and the “three guarantees” i.e. access to education, medical care and housing, along with access to safe drinking water are met.
Of course, good data is critical to all of this. So there is a call for improving “the big data monitoring platform for preventing poverty, strengthen(ing) the data sharing and docking of relevant departments and units, mak(ing) full use of advanced technology to improve the accuracy of monitoring, and further improve the basic database based on the results of the national poverty alleviation census.” In addition to this, the document calls for strengthening support for rural industry, ensuring employment support, improving infrastructure and connectivity, building better public service facilities, dynamic monitoring of low-income population, focusing on old age and medical insurance support, and so on.
Next, Xi Jinping sent a verbal message to North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, via Song Tao, the chief of the Party’s International Liaison Department. Xinhua English says (same as PD report) that “the messages were delivered by Song Tao, minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, and Ri Ryong Nam, DPRK ambassador to China, during their meeting on Monday in Beijing.”
It adds: “Noting that the world is now undergoing transformations rarely seen in a century, which is overlapped by the once-in-a-century pandemic, while the international and regional situation is witnessing profound changes, Xi said the Chinese side is willing to work with the DPRK side and other related parties to stick to the direction of political settlement of the Korean Peninsula issue and preserve peace and stability on the peninsula, so as to make new and positive contributions to regional peace, stability, development and prosperity.”
Of course, this comes in the aftermath of the Anchorage talks with the US, where Antony Blinken’s statement following the dialogue talked about intersecting interests on North Korea among other areas.
Finally, the China Development High-level Forum hosted by the Development Research Center of the State Council began this week. The story talks about Han Zheng attending the forum. The focus of his comments was on modernisation. He talked about focusing on the new development concept going ahead, talked about climate change and the commitment to green development, and said that economic opening and BRI would continue to remain important. He also said this:
“China will take scientific and technological self-reliance as a strategic support for national development, and will also promote international scientific and technological exchanges and cooperation with more open thinking and measures, and promote scientific and technological achievements to better benefit all mankind.”
Page 3: First, we have a new column which the People’s Daily and the International Liaison Department are putting together. This one’s about foreign political parties’ views of China. It is what you can expect. Positive views from abroad. Second, two pieces on China-Russia ties. The first one is about Sergei Lavrov’s comments ahead of his visit to Guilin. This one is all about their cooperation in terms of the Science and Technology Innovation Year from 2020 to 2021 that they are hosting. Lavrov said that within the framework of the Russia-China Year of Science and Technology Innovation, the two sides held more than 500 events last year, and about 500 events will be held this year. He talked about these events covering areas like robotics and biology. Technology, information technology, artificial intelligence, medicine, history, linguistics, culture and sociology, etc.
The next is about MoFA’s preview of Lavrov’s visit. In it, Hua Chunying backed up Lavrov’s comments on the Untied States and Western countries are pursuing a policy of hegemony. Here’s what Lavrov had said to Chinese media:
“We regard the new era of Russian-Chinese relations, which you have mentioned, primarily in the context of the broader situation on the international stage. It is undergoing a very deep transformation and the strengthening of the new centres of economic growth, financial might and political influence. Regrettably, the objective trend for a rise of a truly multipolar democratic world is being hindered by some Western countries led by the United States, which would like to preserve their domination of the global economy and international politics at all costs and to force their will and their demands on each and all. In response to this, Russia and China are promoting a constructive unification agenda. We want the architecture of international relations to be fair, democratic, capable of ensuring stability and based on broad interaction of states and their integration associations, just as we are doing together with our Chinese friends by promoting integration in Eurasia. China is a truly strategic partner and a like-minded country for us. Our cooperation on the international stage is having a stabilising effect on the global and regional situation. Russia believes that our dialogue with China based on trust and mutual respect should provide an example for other countries, including those that are trying to develop ties with Russia and China on different principles that are not based on equality. This is not acceptable to us or our Chinese friends. We will continue developing our foreign policy constructively and flexibly, showing readiness for compromise but exclusively on the basis of mutual respect and a balance of interests.”
Responding to this, Hua said that his “remarks are right to the point. The more unstable the world is, the more China and Russia need to advance our cooperation. For a long period, the US and the West wantonly interfered in other country's domestic affairs by using democracy and human rights as an excuse. Such moves created troubles in the world and even became the source of instability and war. China and Russia always stand together in close cooperation, firmly rejects hegemony and bullying practice and have become a pillar for world peace and stability.”
On Lavrov’s visit, she said that “The two sides will join hands in building a model of international relations featuring strategic trust, mutually beneficial cooperation, close people-to-people ties, fairness and justice. Together, the two sides can make greater contribution to upholding world peace and stability.”
Lavrov, of course, landed yesterday and met Wang Yi. Upon landing, he said that ties between the two countries are at “the best in their entire history.” Xinhua’s report of the talks so far says that “the two sides briefed each other on the latest developments of their respective relations with the United States, according to a press release issued after the meeting. The two foreign ministers said the international community believes that the United States should reflect on the damage it has done to global peace and development in recent years, halt unilateral bullying, stop meddling in other countries' domestic affairs, and stop forming small circles to seek bloc confrontation, said the press release. It said the two ministers agreed that all countries should follow the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations (UN), uphold true multilateralism, make international relations more democratic, and accept and promote peaceful coexistence and common development of countries with different social systems and development paths.”
They talked about the JCPOA and Afghanistan. On Myanmar, they “voiced the support for all parties in Myanmar to seek a political solution to the current crisis within the constitution and legal framework, avoid further conflict and bloodshed, prevent external forces from taking advantage of the crisis for their own gains, and continue to advance the democratic transition.” Xinhua adds that “the two sides also coordinated positions on a wide range of issues such as UN reform, climate change, Asia-Pacific situation, Syria and Sudan.”
Finally, they are also talking about the establishment of a regional security dialogue platform to converge a new consensus on resolving the security concerns of countries in the region.
Finally, on the page, we have MoFA’s comments about the China-US talks in Anchorage. Hua said that “during the dialogue, the two sides conducted candid, in-depth, long and constructive communication on domestic and foreign policies, China-U.S. relations and major international and regional issues of common concern. The dialogue is timely, helpful and deepens mutual understanding.”
Page 4: Only one report to note. There was a meeting of the National Political and Legal Team Education and Rectification Leading Group. PD says that “the meeting reviewed the work plan of the central supervision group for the education and rectification of the first batch of political and legal teams in the country, and the opinions on the application of the policy of ‘leniency in self-inspection and strict in investigation’ during the national political and legal team education and rectification.”
Guo Shengkun, secretary of the Central Political and Legal Committee, spoke about following Xi Thought and learning Party history, before talking about improving supervision and the accurately grasp the policy of combining leniency and strictness, and apply the policy of ‘leniency in self-inspection and strictness in investigations’.”
Page 11: There’s a piece by Xu Xianming, deputy chairman of the Supervision and Judicial Committee of the NPC. He is basically interpreting Xi’s comments about grasping “critical minority” of leading cadres to ensure governance by rule of law. He says that:
These cadres “at all levels must resolutely implement the major decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee.”
They must “take the lead in respecting the rule of law, understanding and mastering the law, and continuously improving the use of rule of law thinking and methods to deepen reform…”
And they must “refrain from formalism and bureaucratism.”
Page 17: Finally, on the international page, we have MoFA’s statement about the sanctions on EU officials and institutes. In doing so, MoFA criticised the EU’s sanctions, saying that they were “based on nothing but lies and disinformation, disregards and distorts facts, grossly interferes in China's internal affairs, flagrantly breaches international law and basic norms governing international relations, and severely undermines China-EU relations.”
10 individuals, including Adrian Zenz and Member of European Parliament Reinhard Butikofer have been sanctioned. In addition, 4 institutions, the Political and Security Committee of the Council of the European Union, the Subcommittee on Human Rights of the European Parliament, the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Germany, and the Alliance of Democracies Foundation in Denmark, have been sanctioned. The statement says that “the individuals concerned and their families are prohibited from entering the mainland, Hong Kong and Macao of China. They and companies and institutions associated with them are also restricted from doing business with China.”
The Chinese sanctions came after the EU imposed travel bans and asset freezes on Chen Mingguo, director of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau, as well as senior Chinese officials Wang Mingshan and Wang Junzheng. The former head of China's Xinjiang region, Zhu Hailun, was also targeted. The construction company hit with sanctions was the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Public Security Bureau. Later in the day, the US, UK and Canada issued a joint statement.
It said that “Today, we have taken coordinated action on measures, in parallel to measures by the European Union, that send a clear message about the human rights violations and abuses in Xinjiang. We are united in calling for China to end its repressive practices against Uyghur Muslims and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang, and to release those arbitrarily detained.” These too targeted (US Treasury’s note) Wang Junzheng and Chen Mingguo.