Xi Stresses Combat Preparedness - China in 'Critical Period' of Economic Recovery - Shanghai AI Conference - China-Japan Ties at 'New Crucial Juncture' - Education & Graduate Employment
Here are the key reports and articles that I found noteworthy from the People’s Daily's edition on Friday, July 7, 2023. My apologies for missing out on the past two days’ editions, owing to other official commitments.
Page 1: The lead story on the page is about Xi Jinping’s inspection of the headquarters of the PLA Eastern Theater Command in Jiangsu Province. Xi “fully affirmed the significant contributions the command has made since its founding in safeguarding China's territorial sovereignty, maritime rights and interests as well as national unity.”
The report adds:
Xi said that the world has entered a new period of turbulence and transformation and China’s security situation is facing rising instability and uncertainty. It is necessary to keep in mind the mission and task at all times, adhere to the problem orientation, enhance the planning of war and combat, strengthen the command system for joint operations, and step up training under real combat conditions to raise the forces' capabilities to fight and win. It is necessary to continue to think about and handle military issues from a political perspective, have the courage to struggle and be good at struggle, and resolutely safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests. It is necessary to comprehensively strengthen Party building, do a good job in studying and implementing the thematic education campaign on the Thought of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for the new era and the educational activities around ‘learning the thought of strengthening the armed forces and making contributions to strengthen the cause of the armed forces’, persevere in rectifying discipline and fighting corruption, do a solid job in laying the foundation at the grassroots level, improve the ability Party committees of theatre commands to be more capable of leading combat readiness, thereby fully fulfilling tasks entrusted by the Party and the people. 习近平强调，当前，世界进入新的动荡变革期，我国安全形势不稳定性不确定性增大. 要时刻牢记使命任务，坚持问题导向，增强忧患意识，全力以赴履行好战区主战职能。要深化战争和作战筹划，建强战区联合作战指挥体系，大抓实战化军事训练，加快提高打赢能力。要坚持从政治高度思考和处理军事问题，敢于斗争、善于斗争，坚决捍卫国家主权、安全、发展利益。要全面加强党的建设，抓好学习贯彻新时代中国特色社会主义思想主题教育和“学习强军思想、建功强军事业”教育实践活动，持之以恒正风肃纪反腐，扎实做好抓基层打基础工作，提高战区党委领导备战打仗能力，把党和人民赋予的各项任务完成好.
Xi’s visit to Jiangsu is continuing; I’ll cover this as the paper does.
Next, there are two brief reports on letters by Xi. The first is a congratulatory letter to Julius Maada Bio on his reelection as president of Sierra Leone. Xinhua reports:
“In his message, Xi said that China and Sierra Leone enjoy a long history of friendship. In recent years, the two countries have continuously enhanced political mutual trust, achieved fruitful results in practical cooperation and coordinated closely in international affairs, he added. Xi said he attaches great importance to the development of China-Sierra Leone relations and stands ready to work with President Bio to support each other and work in solidarity and coordination to promote the continuous development of the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between China and Sierra Leone to better benefit their people.”
The second is about Xi’s congratulatory letter to an event commemorating the 70th anniversary of the ‘Icebreaking Mission’ in China-UK trade. Xinhua reports:
“Xi pointed out that 70 years ago, British entrepreneurs represented by Jack Perry, keenly seeing the bright future of New China and the huge potential of China-UK cooperation, broke the ice of ideology with courage, and took the lead in opening up the channel of China-UK trade exchanges…The multiple challenges in today's world are intertwined and economic globalization is facing countercurrents, Xi said, expressing the hope that people of vision from all walks of life in China and Britain will carry on the pioneering spirit of openness and cooperation, work hard to break new ground for win-win cooperation, promote the building of an open world economy, and make greater contributions to promoting China-UK friendship and cooperation.”
Vice President Han Zheng attended the event marking this anniversary. The report doesn’t mention anything particularly noteworthy.
Next, there’s a report on Premier Li Qiang presiding over an expert symposium on China’s economic situation. The report says that experts and scholars such as Liu Shangxi, Luo Zhiheng, Tian Xuan, Huang Xianhai, Yuan Haixia, Qin Hailin, Lu Ming, and Zhao Wei delivered speeches at the meeting.
They argued that “since the beginning of this year, faced with a complex and severe external environment, China’s economy has shown sustained recovery and improvement, demonstrating tremendous development resilience. Despite facing numerous difficulties and challenges, there are also many favourable conditions and positive factors that have accumulated, which should lend confidence in the prospects of China’s economic development. They also put forward suggestions and recommendations for addressing the issues in economic operation.”
After listening to them Li “pointed out that since the beginning of this year, under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core, China's economy has shown a positive trend of recovery and improvement. It achieved a good start in the first quarter and has continued the recovery trend in the second quarter. At the same time, it is necessary to recognize that the complex global political and economic situation has continued to influence and impact China's development. In order to analyse the current economic situation, we should look at it comprehensively, dialectically, and from a long-term perspective, considering both general and particular aspects, both growth rate along with structure and driving force, both domestic and international factors, and both the current situation and long-term trends. The fundamental outlook for China's long-term economic development has not changed. As long as we maintain strategic determination and enhance confidence in development, we have the conditions to promote sustained and healthy economic development.” 在认真听取专家学者们发言后，李强指出，今年以来，在以习近平同志为核心的党中央坚强领导下，我国经济呈现回升向好态势，一季度实现良好开局，二季度延续恢复态势。同时也要看到，世界政治经济形势错综复杂，对我国发展带来诸多影响。对当前经济形势，要全面、辩证、长远地分析研判，既看一般性也看特殊性，既看增速也看结构和动能，既看国内也看世界，既看当下态势也看长远趋势。我国经济长期向好的基本面没有变，只要保持战略定力、增强发展信心，完全有条件推动经济持续健康发展.
Li added that “at present, China is in the critical period of economic recovery and industrial upgrading; structural problems and cyclical contradictions are intertwined with each other. To achieve a sustained overall improvement in economic operation and make new breakthroughs in promoting high-quality development, we must adhere to the general tone of striving for progress while maintaining stability, implement the new development concept completely, accurately and comprehensively, speed up the construction of a new development pattern, and strive to promote effective improvement in quality and reasonable growth in quantity of the economy. It is necessary to implement a combination of policies to ensure steady growth, stable employment and prevention of risks, and promptly introduce and implement targeted, integrated and well-coordinated policies and measures. It is necessary to focus on grasping the ‘window period’ for transformation, focus on high-quality development as the primary task, focus on building a modern industrial system, building a unified large market across the country, and coordinating regional development, and make greater efforts to change the growth model, adjust the structure, and increase growth momentum. It is necessary to establish and improve regular communication and exchange mechanisms between the government and various enterprises, including private and foreign-funded ones, in order to improve the scientific decision-making process through enhanced interactions, deeply understand the new situation and new problems, improve policy measures in time, and further boost confidence and stabilise expectations.” 李强指出，当前，我国正处在经济恢复和产业升级的关键期，结构性问题、周期性矛盾交织叠加。实现经济运行持续整体好转、推动高质量发展取得新突破，必须坚持稳中求进工作总基调，完整、准确、全面贯彻新发展理念，加快构建新发展格局，努力推动经济实现质的有效提升和量的合理增长。要注重打好政策的“组合拳”，围绕稳增长、稳就业、防风险等，及时出台、抓紧实施一批针对性、组合性、协同性强的政策措施。要注重把握转型的“窗口期”，围绕高质量发展这一首要任务，聚焦现代化产业体系建设、全国统一大市场建设、区域协调发展等，在转方式、调结构、增动能上下更大功夫。要通过增强工作的互动性来增强决策的科学性，建立健全政府与民营企业、外资企业等各类企业的常态化沟通交流机制，深入了解新情况新问题，及时改进政策举措，进一步提振信心、稳定预期.
The report ends with Li calling on these experts and scholars to leverage their professional wisdom and strengths to contribute constructive suggestions and recommendations.
Finally, there’s a piece on the advancement of the AI industry in Shanghai. It says that from July 6 to 8th, Shanghai hosted the 2023 World Artificial Intelligence Conference. It informs that the number of artificial intelligence enterprises above designated size has increased from 183 in 2018 to 348 in 2022, and the output value has also increased from 134 billion yuan to 382.1 billion yuan. It also informs that as a pilot area of artificial intelligence innovation and application, there are more than 600 key artificial intelligence enterprises in Pudong New Area, with an output value exceeding 120 billion yuan.
Xinhua’s report on the conference informs that “China’s AI industry is in the midst of a development boom, with the scale of the core industry at 500 billion yuan (about 69.4 billion U.S. dollars) and the number of AI enterprises exceeding 4,300, Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology Xu Xiaolan said at the event's opening ceremony.” The report adds that the number of 5G stations now exceeds 2.8 million; also “more than 2,500 digital and intelligent workshops and factories have been built across the country, which has helped shorten the research and development cycle by 20.7 percent and improve production efficiency by 34.8 percent.”
Some other developments from Global Times’ report:
There are more than 400 exhibitors and over 50 outstanding startups at the event
More than 30 cutting-edge products debuted for the first time.
NetEase Youdao unveiled an interactive English language learning chatbot
Meituan launched the 4.0 version of its unmanned aircraft system
Enflame, Vastai Technologies and Hexaflake unveiled their cutting-edge AI chips
Page 2: There’s a report on Wang Yi meeting with Yohei Kono, president of the Japanese Association for the Promotion of International Trade. Wang says that China-Japan ties are “at a new crucial juncture.”
“Wang said that there is a saying in China that calls for upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground. For China-Japan relations, upholding fundamental principles means adhering to the principles set out in the four political documents between China and Japan, consolidating the political foundation for the sound development of bilateral relations, taking history as a mirror, looking into the future, and sticking to the path of peaceful development…To break new ground is to build bilateral relations that meet the requirements of the new era based on fundamental principles, remain undisturbed by external distractions, implement the political consensus that China and Japan are cooperative partners rather than threats to each other, and jointly safeguard the hard-won peace and stability in Asia, he said. Wang expressed the hope that Kono and the JAPIT will strengthen confidence in cooperation, oppose ‘decoupling economies or severing supply chains,’ and make new contributions to the improvement and development of China-Japan relations.”
The report says that Kono told Wang that the “business community does not agree with the politicization of economic issues and ‘decoupling and breaking chains’ is not in the interests of any party.”
The Global Times’ report on this meeting adds:
“There has been a series of negative movements from Japan regarding the Taiwan question in recent years, Wang stressed. Some people even advocated that ‘a Taiwan emergency is a Japanese emergency,’ which is absurd and dangerous, and all sectors in Japan should be highly alert, he warned.”
“Kono led a delegation to China for a visit from Monday, the first in four years, with the entourage consisting of more than 80 members including Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki and representatives of Japanese companies, which experts noted represented the Japanese business community's wish to maintain and strengthen economic and trade ties with China. However, there have been some worrying factors in the current Japanese government's China policy, as a series of negative diplomatic, military and economic moves by Japan have given China reasons to be concerned about possible regressions in the section. Experts said that it is utterly unwise for Japan to blindly follow the heels of the US and ruin the normal economic relations with China. Earlier in June, the latest trilateral meeting of senior security advisors from the US, Japan and South Korea showed an alarming trend of interfering with China's domestic affairs and inciting confrontations with small cliques by hyping ‘China threat’ theory on the South China Sea and the Taiwan question, analysts said.”
Also earlier this week was the China-Japan-ROK trilateral forum, where Wang offered this below, which sheds light on what grand ideas like GCI mask.
“In a video shared by Chinese state media, Wang told Japanese and South Korean guests attending a trilateral forum in the eastern coastal city of Qingdao that most Americans and Europeans can’t tell China, Japan and South Korea apart. ‘No matter how blonde you dye your hair, how sharp you shape your nose, you can never become a European or American, you can never become a Westerner,’ Wang said. ‘We must know where our roots lie.’ Wang called for Japan and South Korea to work together with China to ‘prosper together, revitalize East Asia, revitalize Asia and benefit the world’.”
A brief report (English report) confirming that Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare will pay an official visit to China from July 9 to 15. Another brief report informing that Shohrat Zakir, Vice Chairman of the NPCSC, attending the Fifth Symposium for Parliamentarians from Developing Countries in Beijing. Attendees from the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Cambodia, Guyana, Honduras, Kiribati, Laos, the Maldives, Nigeria, South Africa, Suriname and Thailand are at the meeting.
Page 3: There’s a report discussing comments by Huai Jinpeng, Minister of Education. He said that the ministry has started the compilation of the planning outline for building a strong education country.
The report informs that:
“At present, the number of people receiving higher education in China has reached 240 million. This has contributed to major changes in the quality structure of China’s labor force. At the same time, colleges and universities have produced a number of high-level scientific and technological achievements and made important contributions in original innovation and key core technology research. The Ministry of Education has launched the pilot strategic project of comprehensive reform of higher education as one of this year's major projects. Wu Yan, Vice Minister at the Ministry of Education, said that the main tasks are focused on ‘two trial initiatives.’ The first is to take the lead in comprehensively improving the quality of talent cultivation and nurturing outstanding innovative talents through autonomous education. The second is to take the lead in improving the ‘fitness’ of talents for serving national and regional economic and social development.” 建设教育强国，龙头是高等教育。当前，我国接受高等教育人口达到2.4亿人，助力我国劳动力素质结构发生重大变化。同时，高校产出一批高水平科技成果，在原始创新、关键核心技术攻关等方面作出重要贡献。教育部把实施高等教育综合改革试点战略工程，作为今年的重大工程之一推出。教育部副部长吴岩介绍，主要任务是“两个先行先试”，一是在全面提高人才自主培养质量、培养拔尖创新人才方面先行先试，二是在提高服务国家和区域经济社会发展能力和水平的“适配度”上先行先试.
Under these two trials, there will be three focussed steps:
encourage pilot universities to continue exerting their strengths, thereby creating new advantages that lead development
work on addressing shortcomings and focus on integrated breakthroughs in key areas that pose challenges
carry out forward-looking research on disruptive technologies in the next 10-15 years, seize the opportunity and lead the development in the original innovation of scientific sources and the R&D of major foundational technologies, as well as focus on the training of top-notch innovative talents.
吴岩表示，在“两个先行先试”中，要着力做好“三板”。一是拉长长板，推动试点高校在已经有比较优势的领域持续发力，打造引领发展的新优势；二是补齐短板，聚焦“卡脖子”领域集成攻关，推动实现突围破局；三是锻造新板，面向未来10—15年的颠覆性技术开展前瞻性研究，在科学源头的原始创新和重大根技术研发方面，及拔尖创新人才培养方面抢占先机、引领发展.
On graduate employment, Deng Chuanhuai, director of the department of policies and regulations at the Ministry of Education, said that six lines of efforts are being undertaken:
efforts to expand employment opportunities
efforts to speed up the recruitment processes (including in govt institutions, SoEs, etc.)
efforts to do a good job of policy publicity and implementation
efforts to optimize guidance services
efforts to do a good job in targeted assistance
efforts to do a good job in providing continuous support services for graduates after they leave schools
邓传淮说，促进行动可概括为“六个着力”：着力拓展就业岗位、着力加快招录进程、着力做好政策宣传落实、着力优化指导服务、着力做好重点帮扶、着力做好离校“不断线”服务.
SCMP’s report on this press briefing adds that:
“China will allocate more resources on developing talent in areas such as international communications, organisation and the law, Education Minister Huai Jinpeng said on Thursday. The purpose of the strategy is to produce more people who can serve the national agenda, Huai told a press conference, adding that efforts must be made to guide the students in loyalty to the Communist Party. “We will work hard on nurturing high-quality human resources in the fields of archaeology, intangible cultural heritage, foreign-related law, international organisations and international communication,” Huai said.”
“He also said investment in both advanced basic sciences and high-level applied technologies has increased, since one of the key challenges China is facing is in technology. The education ministry has established 288 teaching bases in 77 universities and has trained over 30,000 students in basic sciences to create a talent pipeline network, according to Huai. It is also planning to build 18 new engineering and medical schools, as well as 12 schools for future technologies and 50 for modern industries, according to Huai. Additionally, the world’s largest vocational training system is producing about 10 million skilled workers each year.”
Page 4: There are some reports around the flooding in different parts of the country. For instance, there’s a report on the rescue and disaster relief work in Wanzhou, Chongqing. This is standard operating procedure for Party-state media during natural disasters or crises; highlight the promptness and effectiveness of the response, focus on the bravery of the responders and showcase the gratitude of the community. In other words, emphasise positivity rather than discuss challenges or points of failure.
Likewise, there’s a report (English report) on comments by vice premier Zhang Guoqing during a meeting on flood prevention and disaster relief work at the national command headquarters for emergencies on Thursday. Xinhua reports:
Wang said that “the critical flood prevention period is approaching and extreme weather is occurring frequently. He urged efforts to enhance cross-department collaboration, intensify monitoring and emergency warning measures in key areas, handle disaster relief work well in regions such as Chongqing, and ensure a safe flood season. Work must be done to ensure the safety of large rivers and respond to the flooding of smaller rivers, he said, noting that small and medium-sized reservoirs, hydropower stations and tailing ponds should be reinforced.”
He added that it is necessary to strengthen the prevention of urban waterlogging and implement protection measures for low-lying waterlogging points and underground spaces to ensure urban operation.
Another report (English report) informs that the Ministry of Water Resources has initiated the level IV emergency response to flooding in Jiangsu, Anhui, Hubei, Chongqing and Guizhou. The report adds: “With downpours forecast to hit parts of southwest China, areas between the Yellow River and the Huaihe River, northeast China, Hubei Province, Shaanxi Province and other regions between Thursday and Sunday, water levels will likely surpass the warning levels in some rivers in the affected areas, according to the ministry.”
Finally, a report informing that the Party’s Organisation Department has allocated 128 million yuan for Chongqing, Sichuan and other 16 provinces, regions and municipalities to deal with floods.
Next, there’s a report informing that the Beidou satellite system has served more than 200 countries and regions to date. It adds that China successfully launched 30 BDS-3 satellites in two and a half years, completing BDS-3 six months ahead of schedule. The report describes BDS-3 as a major “infrastructure that provides public services to the world.” It adds that the system has adhered to the path of independent innovation and development in the construction process, systematically broken through more than 100 core technologies in the field of satellite navigation, and newly developed more than 100 kinds of aerospace-grade components. Its core components are 100% autonomous and controllable. Significantly, this has significantly ensured the leap-forward development for China in aerospace, electronics and other fields. 北斗三号系统作为面向全球提供公共服务的重大时空基础设施，建设过程中始终坚持走自主创新发展道路，成体系突破卫星导航领域百余项关键技术，新研百余种宇航级器部件，核心器部件100%自主可控，显著带动我国航天、电子等领域跨越发展。
Other Stories:
Joint Naval Drills with Russia: Two Russian warships, Russian Navy corvettes RFS Sovershennyy (333) and RFS Gromkiy (335), arrived at the Shanghai port on Wednesday for their first friendly visit, the seventh by Russia's naval ships to Shanghai. The warships will conduct a series of drills with their Chinese counterparts, the flagship news paper of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) reported on Thursday. The Russian naval ships will stay in Shanghai until July 11. During the seven-day stay, Chinese and Russian naval officers and soldiers will pay visits to the warships of the two navies to conduct exchanges on professional technologies, and will also hold activities such as friendly basketball games, said the PLA Daily's report. After the visit, the two Russian warships will conduct a series of exercises with Chinese vessels, including formation movement, communication and maritime search and rescue, according to the PLA Daily.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is in Beijing; her meetings are expected today. Meanwhile NYT reports that John Kerry plans to visit China next week to restart climate negotiations.
Earlier this week, Beijing imposed export controls on two strategic raw materials, gallium and germanium, which are critical to the global chipmaking industry. Beijing says that it informed the US and EU about the decision in advance, using “export control dialogue channels.” The new rules on the export of these products will take effect from August 1. WSJ’s report on this says “Industrial experts say China’s move—viewed as retaliation against U.S. export restrictions aimed at curbing Beijing’s high-technology industries—is unlikely to immediately hit global output of semiconductors and other products, in part because Beijing would be hurting its own technology industry if it implemented the controls too strictly. But it has sounded an alarm for countries that stand to be hit. South Korea’s government held an emergency meeting on Tuesday to assess the potential consequences of China’s export restrictions on the two minerals, gallium and germanium, and pledged to do more to diversify its sourcing of materials critical to major industries like semiconductors. Japan’s government also said Tuesday that it is studying the impact of the restrictions. Both countries boast large semiconductor industries that would be exposed to a shortage of the two minerals.”
China gets a new central bank chief as economy struggles for lift-off
China to end Ant Group’s regulatory revamp with fine of at least $1.1 billion, Reuters reports
Nikkei Asia reports that “NATO and Japan have concluded negotiations over a new cooperation document and are preparing to announce the pillars at the Vilnius Summit next week…The Individually Tailored Partnership Program (ITPP) consists of 16 cooperation areas with three strategic goals: to strengthen dialogue, enhance interoperability and bolster resilience, according to European and Japanese sources. One of the cooperation areas is for NATO forces and Japan's Self-Defense Forces to improve capability development and interoperability. The document will say that Japan and NATO will ‘effectively cooperate in the area of capability and interoperability development, as well as standardization.’ These measures are aimed at creating a common understanding of each other's assets and expanding the scope of joint drills. If Japan can adopt many of NATO's standards for its defense equipment, this could lead to maintenance and repairs at each other's shipyards and aircraft hangars. NATO itself faces challenges related to interoperability among its own members, however, such as technological disparities between forces, doctrinal differences and resource gaps. NATO has also concluded an ITPP with Australia and is formulating them with South Korea and New Zealand, although it is not clear if the latter two documents will be ready by the summit to be held next Tuesday and Wednesday.”