Xi, the People's Leader - Guidelines on Legal Education & Research - Global Significance of Chinese-style Modernisation - Lukashenko to Visit China - PBOC's Quarterly Report
Here are the key reports and articles that I found noteworthy from the People’s Daily’s edition on Monday, February, 27, 2023.
Page 1: The second plenary session of the 20th Central Committee began on Sunday. But that’s not the story on the front page today. We’ll learn about the outcomes once the session ends tomorrow. But for today, the top story on the front page is about the people being the priority for governance in China. The big point being made in the article is that the CCP is the party of the people, and that “the country belongs to the people.”
“On September 5, 2014, at the meeting celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the National People's Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: ‘The name of our country and the names of our state organs at all levels are all titled “people”. This is our basic positioning of China’s socialist regime’. If you win the hearts of the people, you will win the historical initiative, and you will be able to firmly grasp the future and destiny of China.” 2014年9月5日，庆祝全国人民代表大会成立六十周年大会上，习近平总书记指出：“我们国家的名称，我们各级国家机关的名称，都冠以‘人民’的称号，这是我们对中国社会主义政权的基本定位。”赢得了民心，就赢得了历史的主动，就能牢牢掌握中国的前途和命运.
There are two big takeaways from the piece. First, there’s a lot of praise for Xi Jinping, his leadership, and how deeply concerned he is when it comes to the needs and well-being of the people.
So, for instance, he took the “heaviest oath” to tackle poverty, launching the “largest and most powerful anti-poverty battle in human history.” 摆脱贫困，是习近平总书记最深的牵挂。他把对人民最浓的情，化为最重的誓言、最硬的举措，打响人类历史上规模最大、力度最强的反贫困之战，创造近1亿人脱贫的伟大奇迹.
We get the story of Xi Jinping’s time in Liangjiahe; as a 15-year-old sleeping on the floor and dealing with insects. And how he shed “blood and sweat for seven years” — finally, crying the day he left, the first time that people saw him cry. One of the big lessons he learned there was “love the people as much as you love your own parents.” 1969年初，年仅15岁的习近平来到陕北梁家河插队，住窑洞、睡土炕、忍虫咬，同乡亲们一起开荒、种地、放羊、铡草、挑粪、拉煤……心中为念农桑苦，耳里如闻饥冻声。正是在这里，他立下从政初心——“让乡亲们饱餐一顿肉”。离开梁家河的那天早上，院子里早早挤满送行的乡亲。大伙儿看到七年来流血流汗、再苦再累也“男儿有泪不轻弹”的近平，第一次“下泪”……临行前，他把母亲缝制的绣有“娘的心”字样的针线包留给村里伙伴，更把自己的心留在人民之中。“像爱自己的父母那样爱老百姓”，习近平在自述文章中写道，“作为一个人民公仆，陕北高原是我的根，因为这里培养出了我不变的信念：要为人民做实事！无论我走到哪里，永远是黄土地的儿子.”
Then we get stories of Xi’s time in Fujian, Zhejiang and Shanghai, until in 2012, he declares that “the people's yearning for a better life is our goal.” There’s more of this, including Xi’s comments about being selfless. We also get this bit about Xi’s election as an NPC delegate from Jiangsu last year, which led to the delegates standing up and delivering “thunderous applause.” “The people’s leader lives up to the people’s expectations and the people love their leader.” 人民领袖不负人民，亿万人民爱戴领袖!
Second, there’s an emphasis on the importance of public/popular legitimacy for continued CCP rule. This comes through stories of delivery of outcomes, dealing with corruption and emphasis on goals like common prosperity. None of it is surprising or new; but one should not forget that the Party does a lot of things to sustain this legitimacy beyond just the use of force.
The other leading article is the full guideline on strengthening legal education and legal theory research. The working principles state:
Adhere to and strengthen overall Party leadership, and ensure that legal education and legal theory research always advances in the correct political direction.
Adhere to the centre and serve the overall situation, and plan and promote legal education and legal theory research in the overall work of the Party and the country.
Adhere to the moral cultivation—moral and legal education, and strive to cultivate more legal talents with firm ideals and beliefs, strong patriotic feelings, and solid legal foundation.
Adhere to the law of development of legal disciplines and the law of talent growth, and classify the construction and management of law schools.
Adhere to the combination of Marxist theory of rule of law with the concrete reality of China and the excellent traditional Chinese legal culture, sum up the practice of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics, draw on the beneficial achievements of experiences around the world, and promote the high-quality development of legal education and legal theory research. 工作原则。坚持和加强党的全面领导，确保法学教育和法学理论研究始终沿着正确政治方向前进。坚持围绕中心、服务大局，把法学教育和法学理论研究放在党和国家工作大局中谋划和推进。坚持立德树人、德法兼修，努力培养造就更多具有坚定理想信念、强烈家国情怀、扎实法学根底的法治人才。坚持遵循法学学科发展规律和人才成长规律，分类建设和管理法学院校。坚持把马克思主义法治理论同中国具体实际相结合、同中华优秀传统法律文化相结合，总结中国特色社会主义法治实践规律，汲取世界法治文明有益成果，推动法学教育和法学理论研究高质量发展.
The main objectives are that by 2025, the regional layout of law schools and the layout of disciplines and specialties will be more balanced, the legal education management guidance system will be more perfect, the quality of personnel training will be steadily improved, the shortcomings of talents in key fields will be addressed faster, the field of legal theory research will be continuously expanded and the research capacity will be continuously improved, research on basic theories and applied countermeasures will be thriving, and the research on socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics will be further innovated and developed. 到2025年，法学院校区域布局与学科专业布局更加均衡，法学教育管理指导体制更加完善，人才培养质量稳步提升，重点领域人才短板加快补齐，法学理论研究领域不断拓展、研究能力持续提高，基础理论研究和应用对策研究更加繁荣，中国特色社会主义法治理论研究进一步创新发展。Likewise, there are broad 2035 goals.
Second two of the document deals with the “correct political direction”. In this, there are three parts:
First, uphold Xi Jinping Thought on Rule of Law and place it in the position of command when it comes to legal education and legal theory research, educate and guide teachers and students of law schools and legal theory workers to be firm believers, active disseminators, and models practitioners of Xi Jinping Thought on Rule of Law. 深入学习贯彻习近平法治思想，坚持用习近平法治思想全方位占领法学教育和法学理论研究阵地，教育引导广大法学院校师生和法学理论工作者做习近平法治思想的坚定信仰者、积极传播者、模范实践者.
Second, adhere to and strengthen Party leadership. In this, the document says: unswervingly follow the path of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics, adhere to the organic unity of the Party's leadership, the people being the masters of the country, and governing the country according to law, and guide the teachers, students and legal theorists in law colleges to take a clear-cut stand and firm stand on matters of principle and right and wrong, and resolutely oppose and resist erroneous Western views such as ‘constitutionalism’, ‘separation of powers’ and ‘independence of the judiciary.” 坚定不移走中国特色社会主义法治道路，坚持党的领导、人民当家作主、依法治国有机统一，引导广大法学院校师生和法学理论工作者在原则问题和大是大非面前旗帜鲜明、立场坚定，坚决反对和抵制西方“宪政”、“三权鼎立”、“司法独立”等错误观点. Also, focus on cultivating builders and successors of the cause of socialist rule of law.
Third, strengthen ideological and political construction. In this, it says that “educate and guide law teachers and theory workers to improve their political acumen and discrimination, strictly abide by political discipline and rules, and place political standards and requirements throughout legal education and legal theory research. Conduct ideological and political work through the whole process of legal education and teaching, strengthen the education of ideals and beliefs and core socialist values, strengthen the education of patriotism, collectivism and socialism, further promote the ideological and political construction of legal courses, organically integrate ideological and political education into curriculum setting, classroom teaching, textbook construction, teaching staff development, theoretical research and other aspects of talent training, and educate and guide teachers and students to be loyal advocates, conscientious followers and firm defenders of socialist rule of law.” 把讲政治作为根本要求，教育引导广大法学教师和理论工作者提高政治敏锐性和政治鉴别力，严守政治纪律和政治规矩，把政治标准和政治要求贯穿法学教育和法学理论研究工作始终。把思想政治工作贯穿法学教育教学全过程，加强理想信念教育和社会主义核心价值观教育，强化爱国主义、集体主义、社会主义教育，深入推进法学专业课程思政建设，将思想政治教育有机融入课程设置、课堂教学、教材建设、师资队伍建设、理论研究等人才培养各环节，教育引导广大师生做社会主义法治的忠实崇尚者、自觉遵守者、坚定捍卫者.
I am not doing a breakdown of the rest of the document. But some key points:
On legal education: “Based on the reality of China, we should promote the basic disciplines such as jurisprudence and legal history, as well as update the connotation of disciplines such as constitutional law and administrative law, criminal law, civil and commercial law, litigation law, economic law, environmental and resource protection law, international law and military law, so as to better integrate into the practice of governing the country according to law. To meet the new requirements of the rule of law, we will strengthen the construction of disciplines such as legislation, cultural law, educational law, national security law and interregional law, and accelerate the development of emerging disciplines such as social governance law, science and technology law, digital law, climate law and marine law.” 立足中国实际，推进法理学、法律史等基础学科以及宪法学与行政法学、刑法学、民商法学、诉讼法学、经济法学、环境与资源保护法学、国际法学、军事法学等更新学科内涵，更好融入全面依法治国实践。适应法治建设新要求，加强立法学、文化法学、教育法学、国家安全法学、区际法学等学科建设，加快发展社会治理法学、科技法学、数字法学、气候法学、海洋法学等新兴学科. It also talks about the importance of “the cultivation of foreign-related rule of law talents who are proficient in international law and national law. On textbooks, it emphasises the need to follow collections of Xi’s writings and political standards as being the key for legal teachers.
On legal theory research: The document calls for earnestly strengthening research on legal theory rooted in Chinese culture, based on China's national conditions and solving the China problem, summarise and refine the subjective, original and distinctive features of the concepts, viewpoint and theory of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics and build China’s independent legal knowledge system without being a ‘porter’ of Western theories.紧紧围绕新时代全面依法治国实践，切实加强扎根中国文化、立足中国国情、解决中国问题的法学理论研究，总结提炼中国特色社会主义法治具有主体性、原创性、标识性的概念、观点、理论，把论文写在祖国的大地上，不做西方理论的“搬运工”，构建中国自主的法学知识体系. The document talks about learning from foreign experiences, while building on “China’s excellent traditional legal culture.” “Strengthen the guiding role of the National Social Science Fund and ministerial-level legal research projects, and promote the modernisation of the Marxist theory of the rule of law. Build a number of national key legal basic theory research bases, increase support for legal basic theoretical research, research and explore the mechanism for social forces to support legal basic theoretical research.强化国家社科基金和部级法学类科研项目导向作用，推进马克思主义法治理论中国化时代化。建设一批国家重点法学基础理论研究基地，加大对法学基础理论研究扶持力度，研究探索社会力量支持法学基础理论研究机制。 Strengthen research on the rule of law guarantee for major national development strategies, strengthen research on the rule of law practice in key areas such as national security, scientific and technological innovation, public health, biosafety, ecological civilisation, risk prevention and major-country diplomacy, and strengthen research on the provision of legal institutions in new technologies, new forms of business and new applications. Building a high-end think tank on the rule of law, with distinctive features, institutional innovation and leading development, is urgently needed by the country. Build and make good use of the national research base of foreign-related rule of law. 发展，加强对国家重大发展战略法治保障研究，加强国家安全、科技创新、公共卫生、生物安全、生态文明、防范风险、大国外交等重点领域法治实践研究，加强新技术新业态新应用领域法律制度供给研究。建设国家亟需、特色鲜明、制度创新、引领发展的法治高端智库。建好用好国家级涉外法治研究基地.
On exchanges and foreign engagement: Strengthen foreign exchanges, conduct bilateral and multilateral cooperative research, co-host academic forums, and carry out exchanges with visiting scholars. Strengthen legal and academic exchanges and cooperation with BRI countries. “Strengthen the external publicity of China’s excellent legal research results, promote experts and scholars to speak out to the outside world, innovate foreign discourse expression methods, and enhance the international communication capabilities of the socialist legal theory system and discourse system with Chinese characteristics.” 加强我国优秀法学研究成果对外宣传，推动专家学者对外发声，创新对外话语表达方式，提升中国特色社会主义法学理论体系和话语体系的国际传播能力. Also, “tell the story of China’s rule of law, and enhance the international influence and discourse power of the socialist rule of law system and rule of law theory with Chinese characteristics.” 认真总结我国法治体系建设和法治实践经验，阐发中华优秀传统法律文化，讲好中国法治故事，提升中国特色社会主义法治体系和法治理论的国际影响力和话语权.
Third, there’s a report on Li Keqiang meeting renowned mathematician Shing-Tung Yau on Friday. Xinhua reports:
“During their meeting, Li said that innovation and development of science and technology require fundamental support from basic science, the foundation of which is mathematics. Therefore, the latter can be dubbed the crown of natural science. Li called for respecting the laws of science and strengthening research on basic science. He encouraged researchers to stay devoted and focused and to give full play to their imagination and creativity. Li stressed respecting talents and creating an environment where their skills are displayed, and strengthening international exchanges and cooperation to contribute to the progress of human civilisation.”
Fourth, there’s a report on data from the Transport Ministry, which was released on Thursday. The data discusses overall sector development in the past five years and the blueprint for the next five years. There are English reports on this too.
From 2018 to 2022, a total of more than 17 trillion yuan has been invested in fixed assets in the transport system. By the end of 2022, the total length of the country's comprehensive transport network exceeded 6 million km. The operating mileage of the railway network reached 155,000 km, of which high-speed railways accounted for 42,000 km. The country had a total of 5.35 million km of highways by the end of 2022, of which expressways represented 177,000 km. There were 2,751 10,000-tonne-class or above berths and 254 certified civil airports throughout the country by the end of last year. China-Europe freight trains now reach more than 200 cities across 25 countries in Europe.
Finally, there’s a report on a ceremony to celebrate Lei Feng and his spirit in Fushun City, Liaoning. The report says that there are some 250,000 Lei Feng volunteers in the city.
Page 3: The foreign affairs related stories are covered on the page. First, Xia Baolong met with Russia’s Boris Titov in China. The talks focussed on cooperation in the fields of mechanical engineering, construction, transport and finance. This was part of the meeting of the China-Russia Friendship Committee for Peace and Development Committee.
Second, a report with useful information about China’s agricultural cooperation engagement abroad. This covers joint development of hybrid wheat varieties with Pakistan. It talks about the Kenya-China Joint Laboratory for Crop Molecular Biology, based in Egerton University. In 2019, it became one of the first Belt and Road joint laboratories approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China. And it covers maize and wheat germplasm exchanges with Mexico.
Third, there’s a new series that has started today. This focuses on the global significance of Chinese-style modernisation. The piece argues that this “provides a brand-new modernisation model for the world and gives more countries the confidence to independently explore their own modernisation paths.”
The piece adds: “French President Emmanuel Macron said that the development model of Chinese-style modernisation is admirable. Increasingly, international public opinion believes that Chinese-style modernisation is the latest development of the world’s modernisation theory and will create a new modernisation history.” 法国总统马克龙表示，中国式现代化发展模式令人钦佩。越来越多国际舆论认为，中国式现代化是对世界现代化理论的最新发展，将创造新的现代化历史.
In just a few decades, China has completed a journey of industrialisation that took Western developed countries hundreds of years. In doing so, China has created a miracle of rapid economic development and long-term social stability, and opened up broad prospects for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. This is an important reason for the strong attraction of Chinese-style modernisation.” 中国用几十年时间走完西方发达国家几百年走过的工业化历程，创造了经济快速发展和社会长期稳定的奇迹，为中华民族伟大复兴开辟了广阔前景，这是中国式现代化具有强大吸引力的重要原因.
Comment: As much as people reading outside China would think that this is meant for an external audience, this is also key to the domestic debate. Let’s not forget that there is intense politics around the direction of economic policies in China. For the past 45-odd years, the Party’s effort has been to try and avoid extreme swings and keep development going. So such stuff is an intervention towards that effort too.
Next, there’s a report on Guo Yezhou, vice minister in the International Department of the Communist Party of China, leading a delegation to Norway. He met with senior government functionaries there. It would be interesting to note what was on the agenda. But PD has little information. It would be useful to hear from Norwegian media on this. What was discussed?
A couple of other reports to note. These are not in PD today. First, Qin Gang spoke to his Belarusian counterpart, Sergei Aleinik. Xinhua reports:
“Qin noted that bilateral relations realized a historic leap as Chinese President Xi Jinping and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko jointly announced the elevation of China-Belarus relations to an all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership during a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Samarkand last September. China is ready to work with Belarus to implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, maintain high-level exchanges, take the head-of-state diplomacy as the strategic guidance, deepen political mutual trust and push for more fruitful cooperation, Qin said. China will continue to support Belarus in its efforts to safeguard national stability and development, and oppose external interference in Belarus's internal affairs and illegal unilateral sanctions against the country, he said. For his part, Aleinik said Belarus always takes its relations with China as a diplomatic priority, firmly adheres to the one-China principle, and firmly supports China on issues concerning its core interests.”
On Ukraine, Qin said: “China always stands on the side of peace, supports efforts in promoting talks for peace, and calls on relevant parties to stay rational and exercise restraint, avoid escalation and expansion of the crisis, resume negotiations at an early date, respect each other, accommodate each other's legitimate concerns and build a balanced, effective and sustainable European security architecture.”
Second, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko will be visiting China from February 28.
Page 4: A report informing that in January, there were 6,925 cases of violations of the 8-point regulation. These involved 9,912 people. Among them, 7,593 people were given disciplinary and administrative punishments.
Out of the total cases, there were 2,809 cases of formalism and bureaucracy and 4,116 cases of hedonism and extravagance.
Page 8: There’s a report on the PBOC’s quarterly monetary policy implementation report. There is nothing significantly different or new there. Some of the key points:
It says that In 2022, new RMB loans were at 21.31 trillion yuan, an increase of 1.36 trillion yuan year-on-year; at the end of the year, RMB loans, broad money supply (M2), and TSF stock increased by 11.1%, 11.8% and 9.6% year-on-year respectively. At the end of the year, the balance of inclusive small and micro loans and medium and long-term loans to the manufacturing industry increased by 23.8% and 36.7%, respectively. The cost of corporate financing and personal consumption credit decreased steadily. The weighted average interest rate of corporate loans for the whole year was 4.17%, down by 0.34 percentage points year-on-year. The average interest rate of new personal housing loans in December was 4.26%, down by 1.37 percentage points from last December. The RMB exchange rate fluctuated in both directions and remained basically stable at a reasonable and balanced level. At the end of the year, the central parity rate of RMB against the US dollar was 6.9646 yuan. 货币信贷合理增长，2022年新增人民币贷款21.31万亿元，同比多增1.36万亿元；年末人民币贷款、广义货币（M2）、社会融资规模存量同比分别增长11.1%、11.8%和9.6%。信贷结构持续优化，年末普惠小微贷款和制造业中长期贷款余额同比分别增长23.8%和36.7%。企业融资和个人消费信贷成本稳中有降，全年企业贷款加权平均利率为4.17%，同比下降0.34个百分点，12月新发放个人住房贷款利率平均为4.26%，较上年12月下降1.37个百分点。人民币汇率双向浮动，在合理均衡水平上保持基本稳定，年末人民币对美元汇率中间价为6.9646元.
It adds that going forward, the PBOC will proceed keeping in mind the overall strategic situation, improve social and psychological expectations and boost development confidence. It will organically combine the implementation of the strategy of expanding domestic demand with deepening supply side structural reform, increase macro-policy control, build a modern central banking system, give full play to the effectiveness of monetary and credit policies, focus on stabilising growth, employment and prices, and promote financial support for the real economy to achieve quality development. 报告提出，下一阶段，人民银行将从战略全局出发，从改善社会心理预期、提振发展信心入手，坚持系统观念，做到“六个更好统筹”，把实施扩大内需战略同深化供给侧结构性改革有机结合，加大宏观政策调控力度，建设现代中央银行制度，充分发挥货币信贷政策效能，重点做好稳增长、稳就业、稳物价工作，推动金融支持实体经济实现质的有效提升和量的合理增长，为全面建设社会主义现代化国家开好局、起好步.
The report talks about the need for a “prudent monetary policy”, which requires “precision and strength”. “It is necessary to do a good job in cross-cycle adjustment, not only focusing on supporting the expansion of domestic demand and providing stronger support for the real economy but also taking into account the short-term and long-term, economic growth and price stability, internal balance and external balance, and to persist in in not engaging in a flood-like stimulus, while stabilising and providing sustainable support for the real economy.” 稳健的货币政策要精准有力。要搞好跨周期调节，既着力支持扩大内需，为实体经济提供更有力支持，又兼顾短期和长期、经济增长和物价稳定、内部均衡和外部均衡，坚持不搞“大水漫灌”，稳固对实体经济的可持续支持力度.
In this context, it calls to “maintain reasonable and sufficient liquidity, maintain effective growth of total credit, keep the growth rate of money supply and social financing scale basically matching the nominal economic growth rate.” A key objective of the policy is to sustain employment. 保持流动性合理充裕，保持信贷总量有效增长，保持货币供应量和社会融资规模增速同名义经济增速基本匹配，助力实现促消费、扩投资、带就业的综合效应。
The report also calls to “strengthen financial services in areas such as inclusive finance, technological innovation, and green development.”
Page 15: The lead report on the international page is about how environmental racism in the US is hurting minority groups. There's a report on a blast in Balochistan and the meeting of the G20 finance ministers in Bengaluru, India.