Olympics Closing Ceremony - New Plan for Veterans - 10 Clears: Building a Strong Armed Forces - Sri Lankan Politicians on China Ties
Here are the stories and pieces that I found noteworthy from the Monday, February 21, 2022, edition of the People’s Daily.
Page 1: The top story on the page is the closing of the Winter Olympics last night. The sub-header for the story names the PSC + Wang Qishan along with IOC President Thomas Bach attending the ceremony. The story is a straight-forward report about the closing ceremony. Of course, it talks about China’s medals tally. The Chinese team finished third in the golds tally. And it talks about China hosting a “simple, safe and wonderful Winter Olympics.”
Also on the page is the message of congratulations by the Central Committee for China’s athletes. After praising their performance, the message says: “Your excellent performance has further boosted the development of winter sports in China and spurred patriotism from all Chinese descendants around the world, and injected spiritual strength into the whole party and people of all ethnic groups in the new journey of building a socialist modern country in an all-round way.” 你们的出色表现进一步促进了我国冰雪运动发展，进一步激发了海内外中华儿女的爱国热情，为全党全国各族人民在全面建设社会主义现代化国家新征程上凝心聚力、团结奋斗注入了精神力量.
“At present, the whole party and the people of all ethnic groups in China are striding towards the goal of the second century. I hope that you will follow the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, bear in mind the original mission, carry forward the glorious tradition, continuously improve the comprehensive strength of competitive sports in China, improve the ability to win glory for the country, and make new and greater contributions to consolidating and expanding the achievements of ‘driving 300 million people to participate in winter sports’, accelerating the construction of China’s sports power and realising the Chinese dream of great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” 当前，全党全国各族人民正在意气风发向着第二个百年奋斗目标迈进。希望你们以习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想为指引，牢记初心使命，发扬光荣传统，不断提升我国竞技体育综合实力，提高为国争光能力，为巩固和扩大“带动三亿人参与冰雪运动”成果、加快建设中华体育强国，为实现中华民族伟大复兴的中国梦作出新的更大的贡献.
For those interested, there’s an editorial on the Olympics on Page 3. It talks about how the “successful” Games have “injected confidence and strength into the world plagued by the pandemic.”
Finally, a story about a new plan aimed at further bolstering the high-quality development of services and support for retired servicemen during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025) being issued by the General Offices of the State Council, the Central Committee and the CMC.
The Plan puts forward six goals for the work of retired military personnel during the 14th Five-Year Plan period:
give full play to the role of political leadership
comprehensively improve the quality of resettlement and employment
improve the pension and preferential treatment system
vigorously safeguard their legitimate rights and interests,
significantly improve the service guarantee capability
constantly strengthen the atmosphere of reverence and respect
There are 8 key tasks to be carried out:
improve the management system of veterans affairs
strengthen the ideological and political guidance of veterans
deepen the reform of the resettlement system for veterans
comprehensively promote the employment of and entrepreneurship by veterans
actively improve the management level of military retirement services
improve the pension and preferential treatment guarantee system
further promote the praise and commemoration of heroes and martyrs
give full play to the political advantages of double support work
《规划》提出“十四五”时期退役军人工作的六项目标，即政治引领作用充分发挥、安置就业质量全面提高、抚恤优待制度更加健全、合法权益得到有力维护、服务保障能力明显提升、尊崇尊重氛围不断浓厚。《规划》部署了八个方面的重点任务，一是完善退役军人事务管理体系，二是强化退役军人思想政治引领，三是深化退役军人安置制度改革，四是全面促进退役军人就业创业，五是积极提升军休服务管理水平，六是健全抚恤优待保障制度，七是深入推进英雄烈士褒扬纪念，八是充分发挥双拥工作政治优势.
Page 2: Much of the page is dedicated to the eighth in the 10 Clears commentary series. The 8th clear is: “The Party’s goal for military development in the new era is to build the people’s armed forces into world-class forces that obey the Party’s command, that are able to fight and to win, and that maintain excellent conduct.”
The piece says that this is a “major strategic issue” that Xi Jinping has paid close attention to. The piece begins by talking about Xi outlining the goal for the armed forces in March 2013.
This is summarised as: “Obeying to the Party’s command is the soul, winning battles is the core, and good style is the guarantee. The goal of strengthening the army is to achieve the great cause of national rejuvenation, to lay the foundation for the overall situation of strengthening the armed forces and developing them, and to establish the foundation for safe development.” 听党指挥是灵魂，能打胜仗是核心，作风优良是保证。强军目标，谋的是民族复兴伟业，布的是强军兴军大局，立的是安全发展之基.
The article says that as soon as this goal was outlined, it was “recognized and sincerely supported by the whole armed forces.” Then during the third plenary session of the 18th Central Committee, “based on Xi Jinping’s proposal, the CPC Central Committee decided to bring the reform of national defense and the armed forces within the ambit of overall deepening reform. This was the first time in the Party’s history that the content of deepening the reform of national defense and the armed forces was written as a distinct part of the plenary’s Decision. 8个月后，党的十八届三中全会召开。经习主席提议，党中央决定将国防和军队改革纳入全面深化改革的大盘子。深化国防和军队改革的内容单独作为一个部分写进全会《决定》，这在党的历史上还是第一次.
After this, the piece talks about the November 2015 plenary session of the Central Military Commission’s Central Leading Group for Military Reform, which kicked off a bunch of major structural changes in the PLA. Some of the key steps are then listed. After this, the piece talks about the fifth and sixth plenums of the 19th Central Committee. This is followed by talking about the need to ensure the Party’s leadership over the armed forces, which takes us back to the old Gutian Conference and then the 2014 conference.
President Xi Jinping presided over the first political work conference of the entire armed forces in the new century, stressing that ‘adhering to the absolute leadership of the Party over the armed forces is the soul of building a strong armed forces, and casting a firm military spirit is the core task of our political work, which can not be shaken at any time’. The ship weighs a thousand pounds, steering it is one person.” 习主席在这里主持召开新世纪第一次全军政治工作会议，强调“坚持党对军队绝对领导是强军之魂，铸牢军魂是我军政治工作的核心任务，任何时候都不能动摇”。船重千钧，掌舵一人。
The piece then talks about the publication of 关于新形势下军队政治工作若干问题的决定 - Decision on Several Issues Concerning the Political Work of the Armed Forces under the New Circumstances, which was drafted “under the leadership and direction” of Xi Jinping. It adds:
“We should restore and carry forward the glorious tradition and fine style of our party and army, promote political training in the spirit of rectification, comprehensively strengthen party leadership and party building in the army, further promote the party's work style and clean government building and anti-corruption struggle in the army, resolutely investigate and deal with serious cases of violation of discipline and law such as Guo Boxiong, Xu Caihou, Fang Fenghui and Zhang Yang, thoroughly eliminate their pernicious influence, and promote the fundamental improvement of the political ecology of the people's army.” 恢复和发扬我党我军光荣传统和优良作风，以整风精神推进政治整训，全面加强军队党的领导和党的建设，深入推进军队党风廉政建设和反腐败斗争，坚决查处郭伯雄、徐才厚、房峰辉、张阳等严重违纪违法案件并彻底肃清其流毒影响，推动人民军队政治生态根本好转.
“Starting from Gutian, the officers and soldiers across the entire armed forces were ‘tempered’ and ‘purified,’ undergoing comprehensive and profound political education, ideological tempering and spiritual baptism, and adherence to their original mission. Deeply understand the decisive significance of the ‘two establishments’, further strengthen the ‘four consciousnesses’, strengthen the ‘four self-confidences’, achieve the ‘two safeguards’, implement Chairman Responsibility System of of the Central Military Commission, draw wisdom and strength from the history of the Party’s century-long struggle, and maintain alignment in thought, politics and action…”恢复和发扬我党我军光荣传统和优良作风，以整风精神推进政治整训，全面加强军队党的领导和党的建设，深入推进军队党风廉政建设和反腐败斗争，坚决查处郭伯雄、徐才厚、房峰辉、张阳等严重违纪违法案件并彻底肃清其流毒影响，推动人民军队政治生态根本好转。从古田再出发，全军将士在全面深刻的政治教育、思想淬炼、精神洗礼中“淬火”“提纯”，坚守初心使命——深刻认识“两个确立”的决定性意义，进一步增强“四个意识”、坚定“四个自信”、做到“两个维护”，贯彻军委主席负责制，从党的百年奋斗史中汲取智慧和力量，思想上高度自觉、政治上高度自觉、行动上高度自觉. The final bit of the piece talks about combat-readiness and Xi Jinping’s personal directions in that regard.
Page 3: There’s a long report from the ILD’s meeting with Sri Lankan political parties around the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Rubber-Rice Pact and the 65th anniversary of bilateral ties. I am sharing the full report’s translation here, with key Sri Lankan leaders weighing in on the relationship.
PD reports that 700 people attended the meeting, including leaders of about 20 political parties. Among the attendees were Sri Lanka People’s Front party leader and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, as well as other ministers, parliamentarians and representatives of the people. The report adds that “the leaders of Sri Lanka’s political parties spoke highly of China's remarkable achievements in development under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core.”
“Under the strong leadership of the Communist Party of China with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core, China has entered a new era. China has given strong support to Sri Lanka's infrastructure construction and helped Sri Lanka accelerate its economic development.” Mahinda Rajapaksa reviewed the development of bilateral relations at the conference and said that Sri Lanka and China have always maintained friendly relations at every critical moment in history. Sri Lanka has issued commemorative coins to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, which is a symbol of friendship between the two countries. I hope the friendly relations between the two countries will be further deepened in the future.”
‘The political parties and governments of Sri Lanka and China have always maintained friendly exchanges and brotherhood’. G. Weerasinghe Weerasinghe, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka, said that the holding of the celebration meeting reflected the importance of the relations between the two countries, and that the main political parties of Sri Lanka, both in power and in opposition, had attended the meeting. I hope this conference can further enhance Sri Lanka-China relations and deepen Sri Lanka-China friendship.”
Sri Lanka Freedom Party chairman and former president Maithripala Sirisena said that Sri Lanka and China have a long history of medical and health cooperation. After the COVID-19 outbreak, China provided Sri Lanka with a large number of medical supplies. “A friend in need is a friend indeed. Sri Lanka will never forget the support and help that China has been providing.”
Ranil Wickramasinghe, leader of the United National Party and former prime minister, said that Sri Lanka and China have always supported each other’s core interests. Last year, all of Sri Lanka’s major political parties gathered to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. It is hoped that Sri Lanka-China relations will continue to move forward.”
“The Rubber-Rice pact opened the door for friendly exchanges between Sri Lanka and China. It was also a symbol that countries of different sizes can establish friendly relations on an equal footing.” Sajith Premadasa, leader of the United People's Power party, said China has always been a staunch friend of Sri Lanka and thanked China for its support to the Sri Lankan government and people.
“Belt and Road cooperation has benefited countries and regions participating in the initiative. Its achievements will go down in history and give us more confidence in building our country.” Vasudeva Nanayakkara, General Secretory of the Democratic Left Front and Minister of Water Supply, said that China has given firm support to Sri Lanka at its most difficult moments. No country should undermine the friendship between Sri Lanka and China.
Udaya Gammanpila, Minister of Energy and from the Pivithuru Hela Urumaya party, said that since the establishment of diplomatic ties between Sri Lanka and China, China has brought many precious ‘gifts’ to Sri Lanka, such as the Bandaranaike International Conference Building, Colombo Port City, airports, highways and power stations, and many other projects have been built by China. ‘There is an old Sri Lankan saying that a true friend shares your joys and sorrows like a mural that never turns a page. China is a true friend of Sri Lanka’.
Education Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, leader of the Sri Lanka People’s Front, said that in recent years, China has made great progress in various fields, which is admirable. China's development provides opportunities for the world. China has provided very important support to developing countries. ‘We firmly believe that in the new historical period, Sri Lanka-China relations will be closer’.
D. Gunasekera, former general secretary of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka, said the Belt and Road Initiative has far-reaching implications. The implementation of this initiative will help promote the development and progress of all countries. Sri Lanka is among the first countries to announce its support for and participation in the Belt and Road Initiative. ‘We are willing to further deepen the friendship between Sri Lanka and China and promote common development’.