Police Force Flag Anniversary - Employment & Social Security Review - Natural Gas Development Report - Zhong Sheng on US Monkeypox Woes - Jinjiang Experience - Political Consultation
Here are the stories and pieces that I found noteworthy in the Friday, August 26, 2022, edition of the People’s Daily.
Page 1: The lead story on the page is on Xi’s letter to the Fifth China-Africa Media Cooperation Forum. Xinhua reports:
“Xi urged media of both sides to continue upholding the spirit of a friendly China-Africa cooperation, and work to promote people-to-people exchanges, safeguard fairness and justice and advance global development, to better tell stories about China-Africa cooperation in the new era, promulgate common values of all humanity and contribute to building a community with a shared future for mankind.”
The other top story is a feature article marking the second anniversary of Xi Jinping conferring a flag on the Chinese police force.
Xi had then said that “under the new historical conditions, the Chinese people's police should be loyal to the Party, serve the people, enforce the law fairly and strictly, work hard wholeheartedly to enhance the people's sense of gain, happiness and security, and resolutely fulfil the mission entrusted by the Party and the people.” The piece argues that the police has resolutely kept in mind the “requirements of being loyal to the Party, serving the people, just law enforcement and strict discipline, faithfully fulfilled the mission of the new era of defending political security, maintaining social stability and ensuring people's peace, and made important contributions to maintaining the ‘two miracles’ of rapid economic development and long-term social stability. 信仰如山，阔步向前。2020年8月26日，习近平总书记向中国人民警察队伍授旗并致训词。总书记强调：“新的历史条件下，我国人民警察要对党忠诚、服务人民、执法公正、纪律严明，全心全意为增强人民群众获得感、幸福感、安全感而努力工作，坚决完成党和人民赋予的使命任务。”人民警察队伍忠诚践行习近平总书记重要训词精神，牢记对党忠诚、服务人民、执法公正、纪律严明的总要求，忠实履行捍卫政治安全、维护社会安定、保障人民安宁的新时代使命任务，为保持经济快速发展和社会长期稳定“两大奇迹”作出了重要贡献.
It’s interesting to note the kind of cases that are referenced in the piece. For instance, the piece talks about tacking crimes, terrorism, riots and epidemic prevention and control responsibilities; on terrorism, the piece reiterates that there have been no incidents for five years. It talks about addressing biosecurity, network security and economic security, which includes theft of data and secrets
The public security organs and national security organs across the country unswervingly adhere to the absolute leadership of the party, and constantly improve their political judgement, understanding, and execution, to ensure that the people's police force is firm, pure, loyal and reliable in order to reassure the Party. 以党的方向为方向、以党的意志为意志。全国公安机关、国家安全机关毫不动摇地坚持党的绝对领导，不断提高政治判断力、政治领悟力、政治执行力，确保人民警察队伍坚定纯洁、忠诚可靠、让党放心。
The piece talks about the Hundred Days Action that was launched by the MPS. Since it was launched, as of mid-August, more than 21 million police officers have been deployed and some 1.7 million contradictions and disputes have been resolved. The piece also talks about how the police have been following 教科书式执法 - textbook-style law enforcement.
It’s interesting that we see none of the regular slogans on the two safeguards, two establishments or the four self-confidences or four consciousness.
Third, a report talking about the CMC approving the issuance of PLA and PAP non-commissioned officers’ certificates and PLA NCOs retirement certificates, which will be put to use from September 1.
Fourth, a report with Li Keqiang’s comments at a business cooperation forum celebrating the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and the Republic of Korea. Xinhua reports:
“Li underscored the complex and profound changes in the international and regional landscape, and the uncertainties and instabilities of the development of the world economy, but noted that the pursuit of peace, stability, development and prosperity is still the trend of the times. Li said China is ready to work with the ROK to jointly explore the next 30 years, with the aim of securing common development and mutual prosperity. He called on the two sides to uphold good-neighborliness, mutual respect and equal treatment, accommodate each other's core interests and major concerns, and promote healthy and stable development of bilateral relations. The premier called on the two countries to give full play to complementary advantages, uphold mutual benefits and win-win results, deepen cooperation in areas including innovation, entrepreneurship, advanced manufacturing, digital economy, green development and climate change response. Both countries must champion multilateralism, firmly uphold economic globalization, and jointly safeguard the safety of industrial chains and supply chains, he said.”
Li also said that “China’s door of opening up has always been open to the world, and it will only open wider. We are committed to continuing to create a market-oriented and legalised international business environment, so that China has always remain a ‘fertile land’ for companies from all over the world to invest and a ‘highland’ for business development.”
Fifth, a report drawing from the recently published China’s Natural Gas Development Report (2022) (中国天然气发展报告 - 2022). It says that:
In 2021, natural gas consumption accounted for 8.9% of China’s total primary energy consumption, rising 0.5 percentage points year-on-year. The total mileage of the main natural gas pipelines reached 116,000 km.
In terms of consumption structure, industrial use, city use, power generation use, and chemical fertiliser use account for 40%, 32%, 18%, and 10% of the total natural gas consumption, respectively.
In 2021, China’s new proven natural gas reserves were at 1,628.4 billion cubic metres.
This included conventional gas (805.1 billion cubic metres), shale gas (745.4 billion cubic metres) and coalbed methane (77.9 billion cubic metres) respectively. In 2021, the national natural gas production was at 207.6 billion cubic metres, a year-on-year increase of 7.8%.
In 2021, the built-up gas storage capacity nationwide increased by 15.8% year-on-year, doubling over a three-year period.
本报北京8月25日电 （记者丁怡婷）近日发布的《中国天然气发展报告（2022）》显示：2021年，我国天然气消费量占一次能源消费总量比重达8.9%，较上年提升0.5个百分点，主干天然气管道总里程达到11.6万公里。从消费结构看，工业用气、城市燃气、发电用气、化工化肥用气分别占天然气消费总量的40%、32%、18%、10%。 勘探开发持续发力，新增储量产量再创新高。2021年，全国天然气新增探明地质储量16284亿立方米。其中，常规气（含致密气）、页岩气、煤层气新增探明地质储量分别达到8051亿立方米、7454亿立方米和779亿立方米。2021年，全国天然气产量2076亿立方米，同比增长7.8%，连续5年增产超100亿立方米。 基础设施建设加快推进，储气能力快速提升。储气设施开工建设全面提速，2021年全国已建成储气能力同比增长15.8%，3年多时间实现翻番.
Finally, there’s a feature piece on how women have thrived in Xi Jinping’s reign. “hundreds of millions of women have listened to and followed the Party’s words, actively responded to General Secretary Xi Jinping’s call, and strived to become builders of great undertakings, advocates of civilisation and fashion, and strivers who have dared to struggle and pursue their dreams.” 十年来，我国妇女事业高质量发展迈出新步伐，亿万妇女听党话、跟党走，积极响应习近平总书记的号召，争做伟大事业的建设者、文明风尚的倡导者、敢于追梦的奋斗者.
Page 2: There’s a report (English report) on the press conference discussing changes in terms of the improvement of the employment and social security system over the past decade.
Some excerpts:
He pointed out the notable accomplishments that include a stable job market in a country of 1.4 billion people, creating over 13 million new urban jobs annually and keeping the surveyed urban unemployment rate generally lower than the control targets during the past decade.
The employment structure has been continuously optimised. The urban and rural employment pattern has undergone historic changes. In 2014, the proportion of urban employment exceeded that of rural areas for the first time. In 2021, urban employees accounted for 62.7 percent of the total, an increase of 13.8 percentage points from 2012.
The tertiary industry has become the largest generator of employment. The proportion of employees has increased from 36% in 2012 to 48% in 2021.
Chinese people now receive better pay compared to 10 years ago. The salary of urban employees in 2021 doubled from that in 2012.
Over the past ten years, the overall employment level of more than 80 million college graduates has remained stable, the total number of migrant workers has increased to 290 million, a total of 55.01 million unemployed people have been re-employed, and 17.68 million people in need have been assisted in finding employment.
On labour rights, he talked about regulations to ensure the payment of wages for migrant workers and regulations for the protection of female workers.
The total number of skilled labourers in China has increased to more than 200 million, of which more than 60 million are highly skilled.
From 2019 to 2021, more than 83 million person-times of subsidised vocational skills training has been carried out.
As of 2021, there were 59,100 human resources service institutions of various types across the country.
In the past 10 years, the number of people participating in the basic old-age insurance, unemployment insurance and work-related injury insurance has increased from 790 million, 150 million and 190 million in 2012 to 1.04 billion, 230 million and 290 million in June 2022; the number of people participating in old-age insurance alone has increased by 250 million.
The monthly per capita pension of enterprise retirees has increased from 1,686 yuan to 2,987 yuan; the monthly average unemployment insurance has increased from 707 yuan to 1,585 yuan; and the monthly average injury insurance disability allowance has increased from 1,864 yuan to about 4,000 yuan.
By the end of June 2022, the number of social security card holders exceeded 1.36 billion, of which the number of recipients of electronic social security cards exceeded 575 million.
Policies such as the reduction and exemption of social insurance premiums have been rolled out to help enterprises cope with the impact of COVID-19 since 2020. In the first seven months of this year, over 100 billion yuan (about 14.59 billion U.S. dollars) of exemptions were offered to enterprises…Meanwhile, premium payments worth 49.4 billion yuan of old-age insurance, unemployment insurance, and workplace injury insurance were deferred for the hard-hit catering, retail, tourism, civil aviation, highway, waterway and railway transportation industries as well as 17 other sectors impacted by COVID-19 from the end of April to the end of July.
In 2021, the income of the basic endowment insurance fund for enterprise employees was 4.4 trillion yuan, and the fund expenditure was 4.1 trillion yuan.
The central government's subsidy to the basic endowment insurance fund for enterprise employees has continued to increase, reaching about 650 billion yuan this year, with emphasis on the western region and old industrial bases.
The national social security fund has a strategic reserve of more than 2.6 trillion yuan.
Page 3: There’s a Zhong Sheng commentary arguing that the US government is “repeating the mistakes” made in its COVID-19 pandemic response when now dealing with the outbreak of monkeypox.
“Monkeypox virus is not a new virus, and there are mature detection methods and vaccines. Even so, from May 18th, when the first confirmed case of monkeypox was reported in the United States, to August 4th, when the Department of Health and Human Services declared the monkeypox epidemic as a public health emergency, the U.S. government repeatedly missed the best opportunity to prevent and control the epidemic. The American media has covered the government's poor response to the monkeypox epidemic, including insufficient testing capacities, inefficient vaccine distribution, difficulties faced by infected people in seeing a doctor, and lack of communication between the government and the public, all of which has exposed the loopholes and shortcomings of the American medical and health system.” 猴痘病毒并非新型病毒，已有成熟的检测手段和疫苗。即便如此，从5月18日美国本土报告今年首例猴痘确诊病例，到8月4日美国卫生与公众服务部宣布猴痘疫情为公共卫生紧急事件，美国政府一再错失疫情防控最佳时机。美国媒体梳理了政府应对猴痘疫情不力的表现，包括检测能力不足、疫苗分发低效、感染者就诊面临重重困难、政府欠缺与民众的沟通等，无一不暴露出美国医疗卫生体系的漏洞和短板.
The piece then argues that “America's repeated defeats in the fight against epidemics” is a product of a polarised polity. For instance, “according to the American media, the White House told Congress in July that the government might need $7 billion to deal with the monkeypox epidemic. However, due to the distance between the two parties' positions, it is still unclear whether Congress will approve this expenditure, let alone establish an effective epidemic prevention system.” 据美国媒体透露，白宫7月份告知国会，政府应对猴痘疫情可能需要70亿美元资金，但由于两党立场相距甚远，国会何时批准该项支出尚不得而知，更不用说建立有效的流行病防范系统了.
The piece then frames all this in the context of the right to life, saying that this is a basic human right, which the US government has been unable to protect.
“Some American politicians often talk about ‘human rights’, but sit back and watch their own people pay the price with their lives and health because of epidemic diseases. This shows the hypocrisy of American human rights.” 美国一些政客常把“人权”挂在嘴边，却坐视本国民众因疫情付出生命和健康代价，足见美式人权的虚伪. The next paragraph says that the demographics of the monkeypox infections also points to the systemic racial inequality in the US.
Next, there was a handover ceremony of donations (English report) from Chinese enterprises to Pakistan for flood relief and disaster relief, which was held on August 25th in Islamabad. Chinese ambassador Nong Rong was present. The total donation was around 15.5 million Pakistani rupees (about 71,340 U.S. dollars).
Page 4: A report on Huang Kunming’s comments at the China-Africa Media Forum, and then one with comments from Senior Colonel Tan Kefei, a spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense on conscription recruitment for the armed forces. He said that this began on August 15. The focus is on college students, with priority being given to science and engineering college students and skilled personnel required for preparing for war.
Although it is not in PD, during the press briefing, Tan also spoke about the ongoing and future US-India joint military exercises near the China-India border.
The spokesperson made it clear that China has always stressed that military cooperation of relevant countries, especially on exercises and training activities, should not be targeted at any third party, but rather serve to help maintain regional peace and stability. As the spokesperson said, the China-India border issue is a matter between the two countries. Both sides have maintained effective communications at all levels and agreed to properly handle the situation through bilateral dialogues. In light of the relevant agreements signed by China and India in 1993 and 1996, neither side is allowed to conduct military exercise against the other in areas near the Line of Actual Control, Tan stressed. In the end, the spokesperson called out to the Indian side to keep commitment. ‘It is hoped that the Indian side will strictly abide by the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries and the relevant agreements, uphold its commitment to resolving border issues through bilateral channels, and maintain peace and tranquility in the border area with practical actions’.” Quick thought: His reference to the 1993 and 1996 agreements after Beijing’s violations leading to the standoff in Ladakh is quite something.
Page 9: On the theory page, we have a summary of comments from officials and scholars discussing the Jinjiang Experience, which is a key part of Xi’s economic thought. This was part of a seminar organised by the Fujian Provincial Committee and the People’s Daily. The Jinjiang Experience refers to Xi’s summation of his economic policies during his time in Fujian. He visited Jinjiang 7 times in 6 years, the report tells us, and summarised his experience in pursuing “high-quality development.”
The page summarises remarks by:
Zhao Long, Governor of Fujian, who is full of praise for Xi, and reiterates the 4-4-2 and Two Establishments.
Liu Wei, Former President of Renmin University of China
Fang Jiangshan, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of People's Daily
Chen Yao, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Li Hongjie, Vice President of Fujian Academy of Social Sciences
Wang Yiming, from the School of Economics at Xiamen University
Page 10: There is an article by the United Front Works Department on the new Regulations on the Political Consultation Work of the Communist Party of China. This was put out in June. The piece makes four big points:
Political consultation implies consultation under the leadership of the CCP.
“To do a good job in political consultation, we must follow the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, put the Party’s overall leadership into all aspects of the whole process of political consultation, fully, accurately and comprehensively understand and grasp our Party’s theoretical and policy thinking, nature orientation and principled bottom line on political consultation, strengthen the four consciousnesses, strengthen the four self-confidences and achieve the two safeguards, always make overall plans for political consultation keeping in mind the political and overall situation, earnestly implement the various arrangements and work requirements of the Party Central Committee on political consultation work, and ensure that political consultation work always develops in the correct political direction.” 做好政治协商工作，要以习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想为指导，将党的全面领导贯穿于政治协商工作全过程各方面，完整准确全面理解把握我们党关于政治协商的理论政策思想、性质定位、原则底线，增强“四个意识”、坚定“四个自信”、做到“两个维护”，始终从政治和大局高度统筹谋划政治协商工作，切实把党中央关于政治协商工作的各项部署和工作要求落实到位，确保政治协商工作始终沿着正确政治方向发展.
adhere to the centre and serve the overall situation.
persist in focusing on cohesion and enhancing consensus for consultation
Today, we have embarked on a new journey of building a modern socialist country in an all-round way, and we are closer, more confident and capable of realising the goal of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation than at any time in history. But at the same time, the complexity and severity of the contradictions and difficulties we are facing are unprecedented, the tasks of reform, development and stability and the challenges of governance are unprecedented. Under the leadership of our Party, we need to unite all forces that can be united, mobilise all positive factors that can be mobilised, and jointly cope with and overcome difficulties. Practice has proved that the more consensus there is, the deeper the degree of unity and the greater the strength that is formed. Political consultation, as an important way to build and enhance consensus, should play a greater role in the new situation. 今天，我们已经踏上全面建设社会主义现代化国家新征程，比历史上任何时期都更接近、更有信心和能力实现中华民族伟大复兴的目标，但同时，我们所面临的矛盾和困难的复杂性严峻性前所未有，改革发展稳定任务之重、治国理政考验之大前所未有，需要在我们党的领导下，团结一切可以团结的力量、调动一切可以调动的积极因素，共同应对、迎难而上。实践证明，共识越多，团结的程度就越深，形成的力量就越大。政治协商作为凝聚和增进共识的重要方式，在新形势下应该发挥更大作用.
persist in improving the capacity and level of consultation.
To do a good job in political consultation, on the one hand, Party committees at all levels should be urged to do a good job in building their own consultation capacity, enhance their consultation awareness, insist on discussing things more, study the theory, principles and policies of political consultation, and earnestly master the art and methods of political consultation. They should not only stand firm and have a clear-cut stand on matters of principle but also insist on sincere and pragmatic consultation, and encourage and support non-party personages to speak the truth and make critical comments, encourage exchanges and discussions of different opinions, and create a sincere, democratic and harmonious atmosphere for consultation. On the other hand, it is necessary to support and help all democratic parties and people from all walks of life to improve their consultation ability, continue to build more platforms and create better conditions for non-party people, and help them go deep into the grassroots level and do a good job in investigation and research. 做好政治协商工作，一方面，要推动各级党委抓好自身协商能力建设，增强协商意识，坚持有事多商量、遇事多商量、做事多商量，学习政治协商理论方针政策，切实掌握政治协商工作艺术和方法，既在原则问题上立场坚定、旗帜鲜明，又坚持真诚协商、务实协商，以开阔的胸襟、平等的心态、民主的作风，鼓励和支持党外人士讲真话、建诤言，鼓励不同意见交流和讨论，营造肝胆相照、民主和谐的协商氛围。另一方面，要支持帮助各民主党派和各界人士提高协商能力，继续为党外人士搭建更多平台、创造更好条件，帮助他们深入基层深入一线搞好调查研究.