Xi & the Party School - How Xi's Two Sessions Engagements Shape Policy - 2522 Framework for Digital Development - COVID Victory Celebration - Zhong Sheng: USG a 'Lie-Manufacturing Machine'
Here are the key reports and articles that I found noteworthy from the People’s Daily’s edition on Tuesday, February, 28, 2023.
Page 1: The lead story on the page is a feature marking the 90th anniversary of the Central Party School. Of course, this is also a moment to talk about Xi Jinping and his leadership, his oratory and his knowledge.
The first part of the article basically tells us that on December 11, 2015, the first national party schools work conference in the new era was held. Xi had then talked about the role of these institutions as the “main channels for the Party to educate and train party members and leading cadres.” It informs that Xi has paid personal attention to the work of Party schools and establishing the fundamental principles for their work in the new era.
"The great importance attached to the work of party schools stems from General Secretary Xi Jinping’s profound understanding of the functions of party schools. The General Secretary made a series of important expositions and instructions on the work of the party school, which provided us with fundamental guidelines," said Xie Chuntao, deputy director of the Central Party School in charge of daily work. “According to the requirements of the General Secretary, the Central Party School focuses on strengthening theoretical education, party spirit education and capacity building for leading cadres.” “对党校工作的高度重视，源于习近平总书记对党校功能的深刻理解。总书记对党校工作作出一系列重要论述和指示批示，为我们提供了根本遵循。”中央党校（国家行政学院）分管日常工作的副校（院）长谢春涛说，“中央党校按照总书记的要求，重点加强对领导干部的理论教育、党性教育和能力培训.”
The following parts of the article talk about Xi’s engagement with the party schools system. He, of course, had served as the president of the Central Party School from 2007 to 2013. The piece tells us that he attended activities during that period on 58 occasions. The piece makes the case that despite leaving office at the school, Xi has remained personally engaged in its development. The final bit talks about the importance of the school focusing on “major theoretical and practical issues” and essentially doing in-depth research and interpretation of Xi’s thought, which is 21st Century Marxism, building a discourse system, etc.
Next, there’s a piece arguing that Xi Jinping cares for the people as the People’s Leader. This is done through 8 stories demonstrating that Xi’s instructions at various meetings during the Two Sessions over the past five years have been understood and implemented “with a high sense of political responsibility.”
These are useful stories to note. I’ll summarise two of them.
First, there’s a story about Yuan Yuyu, chairman of Guangzhou Maipu Regenerative Medicine Technology Co., Ltd. He met with Xi during the Two Sessions in 2018, during Xi’s engagement with the Guangdong delegation. Yuan’s primary concern was around innovation and China relying on imports for high-end implanted medical devices. The piece says that after this engagement with the Guangzhou delegation, Xi highlighted the importance of innovation-driven development. Yuan then talked about the need for policies and regulations to be considered from the perspective of the entire industrial development chain and to ensure the implementation of the dominant position of enterprises in the scientific and technological innovation system.
The story argues that this led to agencies like the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State Administration of Taxation, and the State Administration for Market Regulation formulating guidelines, and government funds were mobilised towards innovation and addressing challenges of enterprises.
Some data shared in the story is: In 2022 alone, there were 1,419 innovative activities integrating large enterprises and SMEs. Large enterprises issued 14,000 demands for innovation, shared 12,000 innovation resources, and 2,718 technical difficulties were resolved. This stimulated 52,000 SMEs and start-ups. The National Emerging Industry Guidance Fund has participated in 501 initiatives, driving fundraising of 288.54 billion yuan, supporting a total of 7978 innovative and start-up, driving social investment of 159.869 billion yuan. 仅2022年大中小企业融通创新活动数量就达1419个，大企业发布创新需求1.4万个，共享创新资源1.2万个，攻克技术难点2718个，带动中小企业和创业团队数量5.2万个。重视发挥国家新兴产业创业投资引导基金的作用，截至2022年底，引导基金共决策参股501只创业投资基金，带动募资2885.4亿元，累计支持7978家创新创业企业，带动社会投资15986.9亿元.
The second story is about Xi’s engagement with the delegation from Gansu at the NPC on March 7, 2019. The representative of the Baoan ethnic group, one of the smallest ethnic minorities in China, is quoted as saying that Xi’s comments “pointed out the direction for us to fight against poverty.” The individual, Dong Caiyun, says that he proposed the building of road networks in his region. After the meeting, he made a formal proposal, which was taken up by the relevant ministries. This then led to work beginning on the Linxia-Dahejia Expressway in Gansu in 2019. This is a bit over 50 km and the work is likely to be done by October this year.
I guess you get the drift by now — “The people’s leader lives up to the people’s expectations and the people love their leader.”
Next on the page is a report on the new guideline for the overall layout of China’s digital development. Xinhua English reports:
“Building a digital China is important for the advancement of Chinese modernisation in the digital era, and provides solid support for the development of new advantages in the country’s competitiveness, according to the plan, which was jointly released by the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council. According to the plan, important progress will be made in the construction of a digital China by 2025, with effective interconnectivity in digital infrastructure, a significantly improved digital economy, and major breakthroughs achieved in digital technology innovation. By 2035, China will be at the global forefront in terms of digital development, and its digital progress in the economic, political, cultural, social and ecological fields will be more coordinated and sufficient.”
The report in PD says that:
There is an overall framework of 2522 that digital development shall follow. This refers to:
Building the ‘two foundations’ of digital infrastructure and data resource system
Promoting the ‘five-in-one’ integration of digital technology with economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological civilisation construction
Strengthening the two capabilities of digital technology innovation system and digital security barrier
Optimising the ‘two environments’ of digital development at home and abroad
《规划》明确，数字中国建设按照“2522”的整体框架进行布局，即夯实数字基础设施和数据资源体系“两大基础”，推进数字技术与经济、政治、文化、社会、生态文明建设“五位一体”深度融合，强化数字技术创新体系和数字安全屏障“两大能力”，优化数字化发展国内国际“两个环境”.
The subsequent paragraphs deal with each of these points. First, the document talks about the collaborative construction of 5G networks and Gigabit optical networks, deployment and application of IPv6, development of mobile IoT, and application of Beidou. It discusses the importance of computing infrastructure, the need for efficient complementarity and collaborative linkage of computing power between the east and the west, and building data centres, supercomputing centres, intelligent computing centres and edge data centres. It also calls to improve the digitalisation and intelligent transformation of traditional infrastructure. 《规划》指出，要夯实数字中国建设基础。一是打通数字基础设施大动脉。加快5G网络与千兆光网协同建设，深入推进IPv6规模部署和应用，推进移动物联网全面发展，大力推进北斗规模应用。系统优化算力基础设施布局，促进东西部算力高效互补和协同联动，引导通用数据中心、超算中心、智能计算中心、边缘数据中心等合理梯次布局。整体提升应用基础设施水平，加强传统基础设施数字化、智能化改造.
It also calls to establish a national data management system and mechanism, and improve data management institutions at all levels. Promote the convergence and utilisation of public data, and build national data resource banks in important fields such as public health, science and technology, and education. Release the value potential of commercial data, accelerate the establishment of data property rights system, carry out research on data asset valuation, and establish a distribution mechanism for data elements to participate in according to value contribution. 二是畅通数据资源大循环。构建国家数据管理体制机制，健全各级数据统筹管理机构。推动公共数据汇聚利用，建设公共卫生、科技、教育等重要领域国家数据资源库。释放商业数据价值潜能，加快建立数据产权制度，开展数据资产计价研究，建立数据要素按价值贡献参与分配机制.
The next paragraph talks about economic and social development. In this, it makes the following five points:
First, strengthen and expand the digital economy. Cultivate and grow the core industries of the digital economy, study and formulate measures to promote the high-quality development of digital industries, and create internationally competitive digital industry clusters. Promote the deep integration of digital technology and the real economy, and accelerate the application of digital technology innovation in key areas such as agriculture, industry, finance, education, healthcare, transportation and energy. Support the development and growth of digital enterprises, improve the mechanism of integration and innovation of small, medium and large enterprises, play the role of "green light" investment case guidance, and promote the standardised and healthy development of platform enterprises. 一是做强做优做大数字经济。培育壮大数字经济核心产业，研究制定推动数字产业高质量发展的措施，打造具有国际竞争力的数字产业集群。推动数字技术和实体经济深度融合，在农业、工业、金融、教育、医疗、交通、能源等重点领域，加快数字技术创新应用。支持数字企业发展壮大，健全大中小企业融通创新工作机制，发挥“绿灯”投资案例引导作用，推动平台企业规范健康发展.
Second, develop efficient and collaborative digital government.
Third, cultivate a confident and prosperous digital culture. Vigorously develop network culture, strengthen the supply of high-quality network cultural products, guide all kinds of platforms and the majority of Internet users to create and produce positive and healthy, progress-oriented network cultural products. Promote the development of cultural digitalisation, deeply implement the national cultural digitalisation strategy, build a national cultural data system, and form a Chinese cultural database. Enhance the capacity of digital cultural services, create several comprehensive digital cultural display platforms, and accelerate the development of new cultural enterprises, cultural industries and cultural consumption patterns.三是打造自信繁荣的数字文化。大力发展网络文化，加强优质网络文化产品供给，引导各类平台和广大网民创作生产积极健康、向上向善的网络文化产品。推进文化数字化发展，深入实施国家文化数字化战略，建设国家文化大数据体系，形成中华文化数据库。提升数字文化服务能力，打造若干综合性数字文化展示平台，加快发展新型文化企业、文化业态、文化消费模式.
Fourth, build an inclusive and convenient digital society. Promote the popularisation of digital public services, vigorously implement the national education digitalisation strategic action, improve the national smart education platform, develop digital health, and standardise the development of Internet diagnosis and treatment and Internet hospitals. Promote the precision of digital social governance, implement digital rural development actions in depth, and digitally empower rural industrial development, rural construction and rural governance…” 四是构建普惠便捷的数字社会。促进数字公共服务普惠化，大力实施国家教育数字化战略行动，完善国家智慧教育平台，发展数字健康，规范互联网诊疗和互联网医院发展。推进数字社会治理精准化，深入实施数字乡村发展行动，以数字化赋能乡村产业发展、乡村建设和乡村治理。普及数字生活智能化，打造智慧便民生活圈、新型数字消费业态、面向未来的智能化沉浸式服务体验。
Fifth, build a green and intelligent digital ecological civilisation.
The next paragraph deals with capabilities. It first calls for building a “self-reliant digital technology innovation system.” This entails support for enterprises, improving the new national system for tackling key core technologies under the conditions of socialist market economy, deeper integration between industry, universities and research led by enterprises, strengthening the protection of IPR, etc. The second point is about building “a credible and controllable digital security barrier.” Under this, the document calls to “effectively safeguard cyber security and improve the cyber security laws, regulations and policy system,” among other things.
The next paragraph details the point of optimising the two environments. In this, it calls for “the construction of a fair and standardised digital governance ecology,” building a technical standards system that promotes the digital transformation of industries, and “purifying” the cyberspace to build a clean network ecology. In terms of the external environment, the document demands “building an open and win-win pattern of international cooperation in the digital field.”
“Make overall plans for international cooperation in the digital field, establish an international exchange and cooperation system in the digital field with multi-level collaboration, multi-platform support and multi-agent participation, build a high-quality ‘Digital Silk Road’, and actively develop Silk Road E-commerce. Expand the space for international cooperation in the digital field, actively participate in the cooperation platforms in the digital field under multilateral frameworks such as the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G20, APEC, BRICS and SCO, build a new platform for open cooperation in the digital field with high quality, and actively participate in the construction of relevant international rules such as cross-border data flow.” 二是构建开放共赢的数字领域国际合作格局。统筹谋划数字领域国际合作，建立多层面协同、多平台支撑、多主体参与的数字领域国际交流合作体系，高质量共建“数字丝绸之路”，积极发展“丝路电商”。拓展数字领域国际合作空间，积极参与联合国、世界贸易组织、二十国集团、亚太经合组织、金砖国家、上合组织等多边框架下的数字领域合作平台，高质量搭建数字领域开放合作新平台，积极参与数据跨境流动等相关国际规则构建。
Finally, there’s a long feature on the page celebrating the “extraordinary” pandemic containment journey that China has undergone and the “hard-won results” of that effort. Of course, this praises Xi’s “strong sense of historical responsibility” and the “strategic determination” with which he led. And it praises the Party for adhering to the “supremacy of the people and life” or putting “people first.”
Some excerpts:
“For more than three years, my country’s COVID-19 death rate has remained at the lowest level in the world, and it has achieved a major and decisive victory in the prevention and control of the epidemic, creating a miracle in the history of human civilisation that a country with a large population successfully emerged from the pandemic.” 3年多来，我国新冠死亡率保持在全球最低水平，取得疫情防控重大决定性胜利，创造了人类文明史上人口大国成功走出疫情大流行的奇迹.
“Practice has proved that the Party Central Committee’s major assessment of the epidemic situation, major decision-making on prevention and control work and major adjustment of prevention and control strategies are completely correct; the measures are powerful, the masses have appreciated/acknowledged them and the results are tremendous.” 实践证明，党中央对疫情形势的重大判断、对防控工作的重大决策、对防控策略的重大调整是完全正确的，措施是有力的，群众是认可的，成效是巨大的。
Later the article says:
Looking back over the past three years, we have overcome unprecedented difficulties and challenges. China’s answer to the pandemic was not easy to come by and should be cherished. This major decisive victory has fully demonstrated the decisive significance of the Two Establishments and demonstrated the strong leadership of the Communist Party of China and the remarkable advantages of China's socialist system. Over the past three years, General Secretary Xi Jinping has presided over many meetings of the PBSC and the Political Bureau, and given several important instructions, which pointed out the way forward and provided fundamental guideline for coordinating epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development, and provided fundamental political guarantee for calmly coping with various major risks and challenges. Stabilising the economy, promoting development, fighting poverty, building a well-off, controlling outbreaks, resisting disasters, coping with situations and crises, the great practice of the new era fully proves that the fundamental reason that China has been able to overcome one risk and challenge after another, promote the overall improvement of the quality and efficiency of economic development, and continue to create and maintain the two miracles of rapid economic development and long-term social stability lies in having General Secretary Xi Jinping as the core of the Party Central Committee and the core of the whole Party at the helm, steering the ship, and in having the scientific guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. The Two Establishments are decisive factors in promoting the historic achievements and changes in the cause of the Party and the country, and are the greatest certainty, confidence, and guarantee for overcoming all difficulties and obstacles and dealing with all uncertainties.” 回望3年多来的同心抗疫，我们战胜了前所未有的困难和挑战。中国抗疫答卷，得来殊为不易，值得倍加珍惜。——这场重大决定性胜利，充分展现了“两个确立”的决定性意义，展现了中国共产党坚强领导和我国社会主义制度的显著优势。3年多来，习近平总书记多次主持召开中共中央政治局常委会会议和中共中央政治局会议，多次作出重要指示批示，为统筹疫情防控和经济社会发展指明了前进方向、提供了根本遵循，为沉着应对各种重大风险挑战提供了根本政治保证。稳经济、促发展，战贫困、建小康，控疫情、抗大灾，应变局、化危机，新时代的伟大实践充分证明，我国之所以能克服一个又一个风险挑战，推动经济发展质量和效益全面提升，续写经济快速发展和社会长期稳定两大奇迹，最根本在于有总书记作为党中央的核心、全党的核心掌舵领航，在于有习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想科学指引。“两个确立”是推动党和国家事业取得历史性成就、发生历史性变革的决定性因素，是战胜一切艰难险阻、应对一切不确定性的最大确定性、最大底气、最大保证。
Page 2: There’s a report on Sun Chunlan’s comments on promoting TCM. Xinhua reports: “With efforts in improving the TCM service system and innovation capabilities and fostering TCM professionals over recent years, China has seen more than 98 percent of its community health service centers and township medical facilities capable of providing TCM services, Sun said. The unique advantages of TCM have stood the test of COVID-19 epidemic and its safety and efficacy have been recognized by the World Health Organization, Sun said. Noting that the COVID-19 epidemic is not over, and that people still face challenges of many diseases, Sun stressed the importance of staying confident in TCM, further efforts for capacity building of special departments in TCM hospitals, cultivation of TCM professionals, and research of TCM technology.”
Page 3: Today, we have the second commentary in the series on the global significance of Chinese-style modernisation. This one says that given China’s size, its modernisation will be “an unprecedented event in the history of human development, and it will have far-reaching impact.”
The piece says that the goal for China is to double its middle-income population to exceed 800 million in the next 15 years, and this means a bigger market and more opportunities. The piece also makes the point that China’s modernisation must follow its own unique path, given its peculiar national conditions. It adds:
“There is neither a single modernisation model in the world, nor a universal modernisation standard. To realise modernisation, the key is to find a development path that conforms to the national conditions and the law of human social development. China's successful promotion and expansion of Chinese-style modernisation fully proves that all countries can completely embark on the path of modernisation in line with their own national conditions. Some developing countries, when exploring their own modernisation paths, have copied the Western model wholesale and fallen into economic stagnation and social and political turmoil. Today, the Chinese experience of ‘starting from one’s national conditions’ is being taken seriously by an increasing number of countries, providing an important reference point for developing countries to independently explore their own modernisation paths and advance modernisation construction.” 世界上既不存在定于一尊的现代化模式，也不存在放之四海而皆准的现代化标准。实现现代化，关键是找到符合国情、符合人类社会发展规律的发展道路。中国成功推进和拓展中国式现代化，充分证明各国完全可以走出符合本国国情的现代化道路。一些发展中国家在探索本国的现代化道路时，曾经全盘照搬西方模式，陷入经济停滞、社会政治动荡的困境。今天，“从国情出发”的中国经验正为越来越多国家所重视，为广大发展中国家独立自主探索适合自己的现代化道路、推进现代化建设提供重要借鉴.
Next, there’s a report on Foreign Minister Qin Gang’s remarks at the 52nd session of the UN Human Rights Council. Xinhua has the story:
“Qin said that a country should adhere to the path of human rights development that suits its national conditions. All parties should comprehensively promote and protect all kinds of human rights, uphold international fairness and justice, and adhere to dialogue and cooperation, said Qin. China's human rights cause has made historic achievements as the country followed a path that conforms to the trend of the times and suits its national conditions, Qin said, stressing that China will unswervingly follow this path. Qin said China firmly opposes attempts to use Xinjiang and Tibet-related issues to smear China's image and contain its development. China will unswervingly, comprehensively and accurately implement the ‘one country, two systems’ principle, resolutely safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests, and maintain Hong Kong's prosperity and stability, Qin said. The foreign minister also called on all countries to urge Japan to dispose of nuclear-contaminated water in an open, transparent, scientific and safe manner.”
Finally, there’s a Zhong Sheng commentary lashing out at the US for “creating and spreading lies” and “slandering” countries. It says that the US government “has long been spreading false information and weaving a dark web of rumours to manipulate public opinion, demonise other countries and maintain American hegemony; it has become an outright ‘lie-manufacturing machine’.” 事实上，美国政府长期散布虚假信息、编织谣言暗网，以达到操纵舆论、妖魔化他国、维护美式霸权的目的，已经沦为彻头彻尾的“谎言制造机”.
“In recent years, in order to maintain hegemony, the US has frequently launched ‘public opinion wars’ and ‘cognitive wars’ and used disinformation as a tool to contain and suppress other countries. From planning a colour revolutions around the world, to using national security as an excuse to curb and suppress other countries' enterprises, and then to weaving lies involving Xinjiang, such as genocide and forced labor, the US has repeatedly tried to disguise subversion and infiltration as ‘promoting democracy’, embellish extortion as ‘safeguarding fairness’ and package the trampling on life as ‘protecting human rights’, demonstrating its approach of hegemony and bullying.” 近年来，为了维护霸权，美国频频对外发动“舆论战”“认知战”，把虚假信息作为遏制打压他国的工具。从在全球各地策划“颜色革命”，到以国家安全为借口遏制打压他国企业，再到编织“种族灭绝”“强迫劳动”等涉疆“世纪谎言”，美国一次又一次企图靠炮制谎言，把颠覆渗透粉饰成“推进民主”，把强取豪夺美化为“维护公平”，把践踏生命包装成“保护人权”，尽显霸权霸道霸凌的面目.
It adds that using disinformation to frame other countries in cyberspace has become a ‘weapon of the new Cold War’ for the United States. It adds that according to a report by the Centre for Responsible Technology of the Australia Institute, in 2020, some 5,752 Twitter accounts, many of which were bots, were engaged in COVID-19 related rumour mongering in a coordinated manner. It says that these accounts were linked to the US.
Comment: It’s useful to actually look at what the report that’s being cited says, because linking this Twitter activity to the US government like the Zhong Sheng article is doing lacks evidence. Here’s Guardian’s coverage of the report from 2020.
“Misinformation about the origins of Covid-19 is far more likely to be spread by pro-Trump, QAnon or Republican bots on Twitter than any other source, according to a study commissioned by the Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology. In late March, when the coronavirus pandemic was taking hold in the US and across much of the rest of the world, two researchers at Queensland University of Technology, Timothy Graham and Axel Bruns, analysed 2.6m tweets related to coronavirus, and 25.5m retweets of those tweets, over the course of 10 days. They filtered out legitimate accounts from those accounts most likely to be bots, which can be identified when they retweet identical coronavirus-related content within one second of each other. Through this methodology, the researchers found 5,752 accounts retweeted coronavirus-related material in a coordinated way 6,559 times. The researchers identified 10 prominent bot-like networks that were attempting to push political agendas, separate from those bot networks pushing commercial sites by hitching on to trending topics like coronavirus. The researchers found a coordinated effort to promote the conspiracy theory that Covid-19 was a bioweapon engineered by China.”
Anyway, back to the Zhong Sheng piece. It next cites the Graphika and Stanford Internet Observatory’s Cyber Policy Centre’s report “Unheard Voice: Evaluating five years of pro-Western covert influence operations.” This is a much stronger argument made about influence operations.
It says that the report revealed that the accounts used in Covert Influence Operations often impersonate news media or use false identities, and repeatedly spread news materials with low credibility in a ‘coordinated manner’, and slandered and attacked the countries concerned in at least seven languages, including Russian, Arabic and Urdu. 美国斯坦福大学网络观察室和社交网络分析公司格拉菲卡共同发布题为《听不到的声音——五年来亲西方的隐蔽影响力行动评估》的研究报告披露，“隐秘影响行动”使用的账号经常冒充新闻媒体或者使用虚假身份，“协调一致”反复传播可信度低的新闻材料，以俄语、阿拉伯语和乌尔都语等至少7种语言有针对性地对有关国家进行诋毁和攻击.
Let me cite from the Executive Summary of the actual report.
“In July and August 2022, Twitter and Meta removed two overlapping sets of accounts for violating their platforms’ terms of service. Twitter said the accounts fell foul of its policies on “platform manipulation and spam,” while Meta said the assets on its platforms engaged in “coordinated inauthentic behavior.” After taking down the assets, both platforms provided portions of the activity to Graphika and the Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO) for further analysis. Our joint investigation found an interconnected web of accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and five other social media platforms that used deceptive tactics to promote pro-Western narratives in the Middle East and Central Asia. The platforms’ datasets appear to cover a series of covert campaigns over a period of almost five years rather than one homogeneous operation. These campaigns consistently advanced narratives promoting the interests of the United States and its allies while opposing countries including Russia, China, and Iran. The accounts heavily criticized Russia in particular for the deaths of innocent civilians and other atrocities its soldiers committed in pursuit of the Kremlin’s “imperial ambitions” following its invasion of Ukraine in February this year. To promote this and other narratives, the accounts sometimes shared news articles from U.S. government-funded media outlets, such as Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, and links to websites sponsored by the U.S. military. A portion of the activity also promoted anti-extremism messaging. As with previous disclosures, Twitter and Meta did not share the technical details of their investigations. Additionally, neither company has publicly attributed the activity to any entity or organization: Twitter listed the activity’s “presumptive countries of origin” as the U.S. and Great Britain, while Meta said the “country of origin” was the U.S. The findings in this report are based on our own open-source investigation and analysis of the two datasets shared by the platforms.”
“We believe this activity represents the most extensive case of covert pro-Western IO on social media to be reviewed and analyzed by open-source researchers to date. With few exceptions, the study of modern IO has overwhelmingly focused on activity linked to authoritarian regimes in countries such as Russia, China, and Iran, with recent growth in research on the integral role played by private entities. This report illustrates the wider range of actors engaged in active operations to influence online audiences.”
Anyway, the Zhong Sheng article ends by offering USG advice to stop spreading lies because it is hurting its own credibility.
Page 17: On the international page, there’s a report on homelessness in the US.
Also, there’s a report from the Korean central bank.
The report says: “It is expected that China's economic growth rate this year will increase by 2 percentage points compared with last year, which is expected to boost South Korea’s economic growth rate this year by 0.3 percentage points.” It adds:
“The report pointed out that the recovery of China’s economy will help promote South Korea's exports to China, and it is expected that exports of chemical products, smartphones, semiconductors and other products to China will increase. In addition, since March, Chinese tourists visiting South Korea are expected to increase, and South Korea’s service industry will be boosted.”