Religious Work Conference - Spirit of Entrepreneurship - Wang Yi's East Asian Diplomacy - Zhong Sheng on US' 'War Addiction' - Zhou Shanshan on 国之大者
Here are the stories and pieces from the December 06, 2021, edition of the People’s Daily that I found noteworthy.
Over the past couple of days the Chinese government released two documents on the subject of democracy. The first was a white paper, China: Democracy that Works; the second was a document called The State of Democracy in the United States.
In addition, there was a religious affairs work conference this week in Beijing. My breakdown of the English readout is below.
PD covered the conference on Sunday. I am doing a breakdown of the PD report below too. Xi offered a positive appraisal of religious work since the 18th Party Congress.
The implementation of the Party’s basic policy on religious work is more comprehensive. The system and mechanism of the Party’s basic policy on religious work has been further improved. The legal system and policy framework for religious work are increasingly sound. Religious figures and believers have increased their awareness of respecting the law, abiding by it and applying it, thereby gradually deepening the sinicisation of religion in China. 贯彻党的宗教工作基本方针更加全面，宗教工作体制机制进一步完善，宗教工作法律体系和政策框架日益健全，宗教界人士和信教群众尊法学法守法用法意识不断增强，推进我国宗教中国化逐步深入.
Xi spoke about the need to “uphold and develop a religious theory of socialism with Chinese characteristics” and “persist in uniting the broad masses of religious believers around the party and the government.” He added that “the essence of the Party’s religious work is mass work. Religious believers and non-religious people share the same fundamental political and economic interests, and both form the mass basis for the Party’s governance. While protecting religious believers’ right to freedom of religious belief and uniting them to the greatest extent possible, we must also be patient and meticulous in our work with them. Religious organizations serve as a bridge and link between the Party and the government to unite religious figures and the broad masses of religious believers. We should provide them with necessary support and assistance in their work and respect and give full play to their role in religious affairs.” 党的宗教工作的本质是群众工作。信教群众和不信教群众在政治上经济上的根本利益是一致的，都是党执政的群众基础。既要保护信教群众宗教信仰自由权利，最大限度团结信教群众，也要耐心细致做信教群众工作。宗教团体是党和政府团结、联系宗教界人士和广大信教群众的桥梁和纽带，要为他们开展工作提供必要的支持和帮助，尊重和发挥他们在宗教内部事务中的作用.
-- Essentially, the approach to religion is not just about coercion but also about cooption.
Xi spoke about the need to “guide and support religions in China to follow the guidance of core socialist values, and enhance religious figures and believers' recognition of the great motherland, the Chinese nation, Chinese culture, the Communist Party of China and socialism with Chinese characteristics.” He added that it is necessary to “promote education in patriotism, collectivism and socialism in religious circles, strengthen education with regard to the history of the Party, the history of the new China, the history of reform and opening up, and the history of the development of socialism in a targeted way.” “We must adhere to an overall approach to national security, uphold the principle of independence and self-management, and coordinate relevant work. We will strengthen the management of religious affairs on the Internet. We should effectively solve prominent problems affecting the healthy inheritance of religions in China.” 习近平强调，要深入推进我国宗教中国化，引导和支持我国宗教以社会主义核心价值观为引领，增进宗教界人士和信教群众对伟大祖国、中华民族、中华文化、中国共产党、中国特色社会主义的认同。要在宗教界开展爱国主义、集体主义、社会主义教育，有针对性地加强党史、新中国史、改革开放史、社会主义发展史教育，引导宗教界人士和信教群众培育和践行社会主义核心价值观，弘扬中华文化。要坚持总体国家安全观，坚持独立自主自办原则，统筹推进相关工作。要加强互联网宗教事务管理。要切实解决影响我国宗教健康传承的突出问题.
The next paragraph stresses on the importance of self-management and usage of laws. This is well covered in the English readout too. The next paragraph talks about:
“training of a team of Party and government officials who are adept at the Marxist view on religion, familiar with religious affairs, and competent to engage in work related to religious believers. Xi also urged fostering a group of religious figures who are politically reliable, have noble characters and religious accomplishments, and can play their role at critical times.”
Li Keqiang and Wang Yang were the other senior leaders who spoke at the conference.
Page 1: The lead story today is about Xi’s speech (English report) at the 2021 Imperial Springs International Forum. He spoke about the importance of multilateralism. The key points he made:
Uphold the international system with the United Nations at its core, the international order underpinned by international law, and the basic norms of international relations based on the purposes and principles of the UN charter, and promote humanity’s common values of peace, development, equity, justice, democracy, and freedom.
Adhere to reform of the global governance system. “It is important that we keep to the overall direction of advancing democracy in international relations, increase the representation and voice of developing countries in international affairs, and steer the global governance system toward greater justice and equity.”
He invited participation in the Global Development Initiative and added that “it is important that we stay committed to development as a priority, advance cooperation on poverty alleviation, COVID response and vaccines, development financing, green transition and connectivity, and usher global development into a new stage of balanced, coordinated and inclusive growth.”
Next, we have a commentary based on the religious work conference. It repeats some of the key points from the readout above. It says that “practice has proved that only those religions that adhere to the direction of Chinese characteristics and realize Chinese characteristics can better adapt to China’s socialist society and play an active role in China's social development and progress.” 实践证明，只有坚持中国化方向的宗教，只有实现了中国化的宗教，才能更好与我国社会主义社会相适应，在我国社会发展进步中发挥积极作用.
It argues that it is “an objective law for the survival and development of all religions” that they adapt to the society that they exist in. In addition, “both local and foreign religions should constantly adapt to China’s social development and enrich the connotation of the times.” “We must have a profound understanding of the fact that core values are the spiritual bonds that a nation relies on -- the common ideological and moral foundation of a country -- and cultural identity is the deepest level of identity. In order to adhere to the direction of sinicisation of religion, we must use socialist core values to guide and infuse all religions in China with Chinese culture, support all religions to explore the content of doctrines and rules that are conducive to social harmony, the progress of the times, health and civilisation, and interpret them in accordance with the requirements of development and progress in contemporary China and Chinese excellent traditional culture.” 宗教与所处社会相适应，是世界各宗教生存发展的客观规律，也是我国宗教健康传承的必然要求。无论本土宗教还是外来宗教，都要不断适应我国社会发展，充实时代内涵。必须深刻认识到，核心价值观是一个民族赖以维系的精神纽带，是一个国家共同的思想道德基础，文化认同是最深层次的认同，坚持我国宗教中国化方向，就要用社会主义核心价值观引领、用中华文化浸润我国各宗教，支持各宗教深入挖掘教义教规中有利于社会和谐、时代进步、健康文明的内容，作出符合当代中国发展进步要求、符合中华优秀传统文化的阐释，使我国各宗教更具中国特色、中国风格、中国气派。
Next, there’s a report with local officials from the United Front and religious affairs work departments discussing Xi’s comments at the religious work conference. Next, there’s the full text of the new five-year action plan on improving the rural living environment. The plan focuses on the toilet revolution, waste management, renovation and beautification of villages, etc.
Page 2: A commentary about promoting entrepreneurship, which is the 46th piece in the spirit series. This is useful to note.
“The profound and complex changes in the development environment both at home and abroad have brought great challenges and raised the requirements for the development of Chinese enterprises. The more challenges we face, the more important it is to promote entrepreneurship, give full play to the role of entrepreneurs, promote better development of enterprises, and build up the basic strength for China’s economic development. To forge ahead on a new journey and make contributions in the new era, entrepreneurs should cultivate a strong sense of patriotism and lead their enterprises to strive for excellence and achieve development with better quality, higher efficiency, stronger competitiveness and greater influence. We should be explorers, organisers and leaders in innovation-driven development. We should have the courage to promote innovation in production organizations, technology and the market. We should attach importance to technological research and development and investment in human capital, effectively mobilise the creativity of employees, and strive to build enterprises into powerful innovation entities. We need to set an example in being honest and law-abiding, and improve the moral standards and civility of society as a whole. We should sincerely return to society, earnestly fulfil our social responsibilities, strive to stabilise employment, and care for employees. We should base ourselves in China but have a global perspective, improve our ability to grasp the trends and characteristics of international market demand, grasp international rules, explore the international market, and guard against risks in the international market, so as to drive enterprises to achieve better development in the opening-up at a higher level. To further stimulate and promote entrepreneurship, we need to protect the legitimate rights and interests of entrepreneurs in accordance with the law, protect property rights and intellectual property rights in accordance with the law, and foster a cordial and clean relationship between government and business so as to create a favourable environment for entrepreneurs.” 奋进新征程、建功新时代，广大企业家要厚植爱国情怀，带领企业奋力拼搏、力争一流，实现质量更好、效益更高、竞争力更强、影响力更大的发展；要做创新发展的探索者、组织者、引领者，勇于推动生产组织创新、技术创新、市场创新，重视技术研发和人力资本投入，有效调动员工创造力，努力把企业打造成为强大的创新主体；要做诚信守法的表率，带动全社会道德素质和文明程度提升；要真诚回报社会、切实履行社会责任，努力稳定就业岗位，关心关爱员工；要立足中国，放眼世界，提高把握国际市场动向和需求特点的能力，提高把握国际规则能力，提高国际市场开拓能力，提高防范国际市场风险能力，带动企业在更高水平的对外开放中实现更好发展。进一步激发和弘扬企业家精神，还要依法保护企业家合法权益，依法保护产权和知识产权，构建亲清政商关系，为企业家干事创业创造良好环境.
Page 3: I am not going to spend energy on the democracy-related propaganda on the page. Rather, I’m focussing on reports related to Wang Yi’s meeting with East Asian counterparts. Just to note, in each of these meetings, there was a pledge of support for the Winter Olympics.
First, Wang met with Indonesia’s Coordinator for Cooperation with China and Coordinating Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan. Xinhua reports:
“Wang said China will continue deepening cooperation with Indonesia in vaccines as well as the drug research and development, and support Chinese enterprises in carrying out technological cooperation to help Indonesia become a regional center of vaccine production. Noting that bilateral trade volume has increased by more than 50 percent year on year in the first 10 months of this year, Wang called on the two sides to strengthen trade and investment cooperation and expand cooperation fields such as new energy and electric vehicles.”
The report ends with this: “The two sides also agreed that democracy should be advanced according to countries' own national conditions, and should be judged based on the satisfaction of their own people, instead of being imposed with Western standards.”
Second, Wang’s meeting with Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn. Xinhua reports:
“Wang said China, as Cambodia's friend and comprehensive strategic partner, will continue to provide vaccine assistance according to Cambodia’s needs and help Cambodia build a vaccine filling factory. China is willing to steadily advance cooperation in major projects such as expressways and airports, promote digital economy cooperation and implement more livelihood projects, Wang said...Both sides also exchanged views on jointly advancing China-ASEAN relations.”
Third, Wang’s meeting with Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah. Xinhua reports that:
“China and Malaysia vowed to continue anti-pandemic cooperation, explore cooperation in research and development of upgraded COVID-19 vaccines and drugs, strengthen cooperation across the chain of vaccine clinical trials, procurement, and production, and deepen cooperation in traditional Chinese medicine. Pledging to promote the co-construction of the Belt and Road, the two sides will step up the preparation of cooperation plans. China is willing to continue to expand imports of high-quality products from Malaysia.”
SCMP’s coverage of these meetings is interesting too.
Countries in Southeast Asia should voice their “joint opposition” to acts that undermine peace, stability and prosperity, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said during a weekend of talks with regional counterparts. Speaking after a meeting with visiting Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah in Anji, Zhejiang province, on Saturday, Wang said cooperation between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) countries was “on the right side of history”. This was in contrast to efforts to “decouple” or provoke a “new cold war”, Wang said, in an apparent reference to the United States. He said China promoted international unity over division, cooperation over confrontation, and stability over conflict, adding that countries should respect each other’s sovereignty and not interfere in others’ internal affairs.
Next, there’s a Zhong Sheng commentary on America’s “war addiction.” This appears to be the first in a series of pieces. The piece says:
“2021 marks the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the Afghanistan war and the 10th anniversary of the outbreak of wars in Libya and Syria. These wars are all related to the indiscriminate use of force and militarism by the US. The US is the biggest promoter of the escalation of conflicts and bears inescapable responsibility for the humanitarian disasters caused by the war. Although the United States always justifies its wars using various excuses, facts have fully proved that the United States is a hegemonic power suffering from ‘war addiction’ and poses the biggest risk to global peace and stability.” 2021年是阿富汗战争爆发20周年，也是利比亚战争、叙利亚战争爆发10周年。这一系列战争都和美国滥用武力、穷兵黩武有关，美国是冲突升级的最大推手，对战争造成的人道主义灾难负有不可推卸的责任。尽管美国总是以种种借口为其对外发动战争进行辩护，但事实充分证明，美国是一个患上“战争成瘾症”的霸权国家，是全球和平稳定的最大风险源.
The next paragraph quotes Paul Atwood and Tom Fowdy being critical of the US’ war record. I guess this should come as a shot in the arm for the latter after his recent woes at CGTN. Anyway, the piece adds:
“The so-called ‘war on terror’ has claimed more than 800,000 lives, displaced more than 38 million people and cost more than $8 trillion, according to Brown University’s ‘Costs of War’ project. The chaos wrought by America’s hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan this summer was shocking. The war, which lasted for 20 years, brought untold suffering to the Afghan people. More than 100,000 civilians were killed and wounded by the guns of the US and its Allies, and more than 10 million people were displaced. The Americans left irresponsibly, but the Afghan people will have to deal with the scars of war for a long time.”美国布朗大学“战争代价”项目数据显示，这些所谓“反恐”战争已经夺去超过80万人的生命，令超过3800万人流离失所，耗费超过8万亿美元。今年夏天，美军仓促撤出阿富汗造成的混乱令世人震惊。这场历时20年的战争，给阿富汗人民带来深重灾难，10多万平民在美军及其盟军的枪炮之下伤亡，1000多万人流离失所。美军最终不负责任地一走了之，阿富汗人民却要长期面对战争造成的创伤.
The next paragraph says that all of this should have provided the US with a “wake-up call,” but rather America has not engaged in any “serious reflection, let alone display the courage to change its ways.” “Pax Americana, Human Rights over Sovereignty, Duty to Intervene, Rules-Based International Order...the US has gone to great lengths to seek ‘legitimacy’ for its acts of war in order to avoid being held accountable by the international community.” “美国治下的和平”“人权高于主权”“干预的责任”“基于规则的国际秩序”……美国在为其战争行径寻找“合法性”方面费尽心机，目的就是要逃避国际社会对其追责. The final paragraph says that the international community must trace the origin of these wars back to the US and hold the US accountable.
Next, we have a report about Chinese experts speaking at the 14th session of the Forum on Minority Issues at the UNHRC. The content is too limited for a summary, but they talked about education, law and the environment, along with pushing back against criticism targeted at China. For instance, one of the persons quoted in the report said that “false conflicts, based on lies and untruths and fabricated for certain political purposes, have gradually become an important factor in today's minority conflicts and deserve our attention and vigilance.”一些建立在谎言与不实基础上、为达到某种政治目的而捏造出来的虚假冲突，已逐渐成为当今少数群体冲突的重要因素，值得引起关注和警惕.
Page 4: Two pieces to note. First, a commentary that begins with the visit of a delegation of mainland athletes to Hong Kong. PD says that the purpose of the visit “is to further enhance people-to-people and cultural exchanges between the mainland and Hong Kong, including sports, and share with Hong Kong compatriots the joy and glory of our great motherland.” Anyway, drawing from this it adds:
“The successful visit of the Olympic athletes from the mainland has once again proved that Hong Kong and the mainland are closely linked by blood. The prosperity of the motherland is not only a source of strength for Hong Kong but also an opportunity for Hong Kong. Over the past year or so, with the implementation of the National Security Law and the law on improving the electoral system in Hong Kong, the principle of ‘patriots governing Hong Kong’ has been firmly implemented, and Hong Kong has seen a new atmosphere and hope of moving from chaos to governance and achieving prosperity…In the process of China’s reform and opening up in the new era, Hong Kong still enjoys a special position and unique advantages and can still play an irreplaceable role… 内地奥运健儿访港交流活动的成功举办再次证明，香港与内地心手相牵、血脉相连，祖国的繁荣昌盛，不仅是香港的底气所在，也是香港的机遇所在。过去一年多来，随着香港国安法和完善选举制度法律的落地执行，“爱国者治港”原则得到坚决落实，香港展现出由乱到治、由治及兴的新气象、新希望.....在新时代国家改革开放进程中，香港仍然具有特殊地位和独特优势，仍然可以发挥不可替代的作用.
Next, a piece bylined 周珊珊 - Zhou Shanshan, talks about keeping 国之大者 - roughly, matters of great significance to the state/country - in mind. Zhou writes that:
“the root of our governance is the leadership of the Communist Party of China and our socialist system. This requires us to constantly improve our political judgment, political understanding and political execution. We must insist on using the spirit of the CPC Central Committee to analyse the situation, unify our understanding and promote our work. We must maintain a high degree of ideological, political, and action unity with the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core. We must constantly stress on politics and be aware of 国之大者. We need to pay close attention to what the CPC Central Committee is concerned about and what it stresses. We need to have a thorough understanding of what are the most important interests of the Party and the country and what are the positions that need to be firmly upheld.” 我们治国理政的本根，就是中国共产党的领导和我国社会主义制度。这就要求我们不断提高政治判断力、政治领悟力、政治执行力，坚持用党中央精神分析形势、统一认识、推动工作，自觉在思想上政治上行动上同以习近平同志为核心的党中央保持高度一致；要求我们自觉讲政治，对“国之大者”要心中有数，关注党中央在关心什么、强调什么，深刻领会什么是党和国家最重要的利益、什么是最需要坚定维护的立场.
Zhou argues that it is important for leading cadres to keep the two overall situations in mind. “Party members must consider their own development orientation from the national and overall perspective when implementing the decision-making arrangements of the Party Central Committee.” The examples given in this regard are the linkages between poverty alleviation and rural revitalisation, ecological protection and economic and social development, and coordinated regional development strategies. The final paragraph talks about the importance of the dialectic relationship between the small and the big.
This is an interesting point that’s made by highlighting Xi’s reported attention to things like sewage facilities, provision of tap water or availability of fish for residents of Wuhan during the lockdown. “General Secretary Xi Jinping always cares about the ‘small’ things related to people’s livelihood when he visits every place.” -- I call this interesting because it demonstrates the understanding that performance legitimacy is not simply about top-line growth but about the little things that matter to people’s daily lives--or at least the importance of the narrative projecting that perception.
Page 6: Today’s long post-6th plenum piece is by Zhang Qingli. He writes about consolidating ethnic unity and cultivating a strong sense of the community of the Chinese nation. The first section of the piece largely deals with history. The second section discusses policies under Xi Jinping. Some of the key points highlighted are:
Xi has pointed out that “the system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the CPC, as a basic political system in China, is a great political creation of the CPC, the Chinese people, the democratic parties and personages without party affiliation. It is a new political party system that has grown out of China’s soil.”
Leveraging the skills and inputs of non-Party intellectuals.
Promoting ethnic unity and progress. “General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that to do a good job in the Party’s ethnic work in the new era, we should accurately grasp and comprehensively implement our Party’s important ideas on strengthening and improving ethnic work, take the enhancement of the consciousness of the Chinese nation as a community as the main line, unswervingly follow the correct path of resolving ethnic problems with Chinese characteristics, build a common spiritual home for the Chinese nation, promote exchanges among all ethnic groups, promote the pace of modernisation in ethnic areas, improve the level of rule of law in ethnic affairs governance, prevent and defuse potential risks in ethnic minority areas, and promote the high-quality development of the Party’s ethnic work in the new era.” 习近平总书记指出，做好新时代党的民族工作，要准确把握和全面贯彻我们党关于加强和改进民族工作的重要思想，以铸牢中华民族共同体意识为主线，坚定不移走中国特色解决民族问题的正确道路，构筑中华民族共有精神家园，促进各民族交往交流交融，推动民族地区加快现代化建设步伐，提升民族事务治理法治化水平，防范化解民族领域风险隐患，推动新时代党的民族工作高质量发展.
Adhere to the Party's basic policy on religious work.
Adherence to the two unswerving when it comes to the public and non-public sectors. “The CPC Central Committee has established a sound policy system for fostering cordial and clean relations between government and business and developing the non-public sector of the economy. It has carried out activities to educate those in the non-public sector about ideals and beliefs, and guided them to strengthen their confidence in development. Under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee, the non-public sector of the economy has flourished. People in the non-public sector have made important contributions to economic and social development by improving their overall quality, improving their business management systems, and enhancing their internal vitality and creativity.” 党中央建立健全构建亲清政商关系、发展非公有制经济的政策体系，开展非公有制经济人士理想信念教育实践活动，引导非公有制经济人士坚定发展信心。在党中央领导下，非公有制经济蓬勃发展，广大非公有制经济人士努力提升自身综合素质，完善企业经营管理制度，增强企业内在活力和创造力，为经济社会发展作出了重要贡献.
He talks about adhering to the one country, two systems model. In this paragraph, Zhang basically backs the policies with regard to Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and overseas Chinese. He specifically calls for adherence to “the basic principle of peaceful reunification and one country, two systems, adherence to the one-China principle and the 92 Consensus, and promoting the peaceful development of cross-strait relations.” 坚持“和平统一、一国两制”的基本方针，坚持一个中国原则和“九二共识”，推动两岸关系和平发展.
In the next section, Zhang argues that going ahead, it is important to:
Adhere to the leadership of the CPC. This entails “guiding people from all walks of life to consciously accept and maintain the leadership of the Communist Party of China.”
“It is the common goal of the Chinese people to build China into a great modern socialist country in all respects and realise the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation…On the new journey, we need to make common goals the political driving force and the direction of our progress, grasp the changes in the principal contradiction facing Chinese society, focus on basing ourselves on the new stage of development, applying the new development philosophy, building a new development pattern, and promoting high-quality development, and give greater priority to gradually realising common prosperity for all...” 全面建成社会主义现代化强国、实现中华民族伟大复兴，是中国人民的共同奋斗目标...新的征程上，需要把共同目标作为政治动力源和前进方向标，把握我国社会主要矛盾变化，聚焦立足新发展阶段、贯彻新发展理念、构建新发展格局、推动高质量发展，把逐步实现全体人民共同富裕摆在更加重要的位置，团结和联合不同党派、不同民族、不同宗教、不同阶层的各方面成员，在共同目标下统一思想、统一意志、统一步调，向着第二个百年奋斗目标奋勇前进...
To unite Chinese people at home and abroad, we must correctly handle the relationship between consistency and diversity. Consistency is the consistency of common ideological and political foundation, and diversity is the reflection of diverse interests and ideas. To correctly handle the relationship between consistency and diversity, the key is to insist on seeking common ground while reserving differences and gathering common ground to eliminate differences. On the new journey, we need to constantly consolidate the common ideological and political foundation, including consolidating the existing consensus and promoting the formation of new consensus, which is the foundation and prerequisite. 把海内外中华儿女团结起来，必须正确处理一致性和多样性的关系。一致性是共同思想政治基础的一致，多样性是利益多元、思想多样的反映。正确处理一致性和多样性关系，关键是坚持求同存异、聚同化异。新的征程上，需要不断巩固共同思想政治基础，包括巩固已有共识、推动形成新的共识，这是基础和前提.
The next paragraph talks about doing a good job in ideological and political work; arming people with the Party’s innovative theory; building confidence in terms of “why Marxism works” and “why socialism with Chinese characteristics is good”; and strengthening the four self-confidences.
Strengthen institutional mechanisms for United Front work.
The final section talks about giving full play to the unique advantages and functions of the CPPCC in uniting all forces that can be united.
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On the theory page, the lead piece is by Zhang Wenxian on Xi Jinping thought on rule of law.