Xi's Diplomacy, Zhao Kezhi on Defending 'the Core', Rekindling the Lei Feng Spirit, & the CCP Rule as 'Historical Inevitability'
Here are the stories and pieces from the People’s Daily’s May 25, 2021, edition that I found noteworthy.
Page 1: There’s a fair amount of Xi Jinping on the front page today. First, Xi spoke to Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc. Xinhua English reports that Xi underscored that “the traditional friendship of ‘camaraderie and brotherhood’ is the common treasure of the two parties and countries and that good-neighborliness is the big picture of the development of relations between the two parties and countries.”
He wants both sides to “view and grasp the relations between the two parties and countries from a strategic and long-term perspective.” He then said that he appreciates the new leadership in Vietnam giving “top priority” to ties with China.
This is an interesting paragraph. There seems to be a blurring of language used at home and with regard to foreign relations: “He added that China is willing to work with Vietnam to stay true to the original aspiration of their traditional friendship, bear in mind the ideals and historical missions shared by the two sides, and continuously make their comprehensive strategic cooperation more relevant in the new era, so as to inject new impetus into the development of relations between the two parties and countries as well as their socialist causes.”
Xi then spoke about pandemic-related cooperation, inter-party cooperation, economic ties, people-to-people exchanges, etc.
Here’s what Xinhua says Phuc said: “He said that under the strong leadership of the CPC with Xi at the core, China has overcome the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, and achieved victory in the three major battles of fighting the pandemic, restoring the economy and reducing poverty, and that the life of the Chinese people has never been as happy as it is today. The Vietnamese side sincerely congratulates China on its successful great transformation from standing up to growing rich, and to becoming stronger, he said, adding that his country believes and wishes that China will accomplish even greater achievements on its journey towards the second centenary goal. Noting that Vietnam and China are brothers and close neighbors, he said the Vietnamese side always supports the socialist China in growing stronger, firmly pursues an independent foreign policy, and will continue to staunchly promote its friendship with China.”
Next, Xi’s chat with (English version) Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Xi said that “the two countries firmly support each other on issues involving their respective core interests and major concerns, and have greatly consolidated their strategic mutual trust and resolutely defended international equity and justice.” Interesting language this. Perhaps, a sense of confidence in China’s diplomacy on the nuclear issue, particularly since the US put itself in a difficult spot withdrawing from the JCPOA and now being engaged in talks in Vienna again under Biden. Xi also added that “China supports Iran’s reasonable demands” concerning the JCPOA and nuclear issue. Nice turn of phrase this too; a timely reminder against maximalist positions, particularly given that we are going to see elections in Iran next month.
Xi also said that “China will continue to firmly support Iran in safeguarding national sovereignty and dignity, and is willing to provide as much assistance as possible for Iran's fight against the pandemic and help the Iranian people prevail over the virus.” He also spoke about China’s diplomacy with regard to the Palestinian issue.
Rouhani said that Iran was “genuinely grateful” for China’s pandemic support. Pledged support to the one-China policy and to work on Belt and Road cooperation. He also appreciated Beijing’s policies with regard to the JCPOA and Palestine and committed to working together to “oppose unilateralism and hegemonism.”
From here, we move to today’s column on Xi’s red footprints. Today, we are in Shaanxi, a land where “countless revolutionaries fought for the independence of the nation and the liberation of the people, writing moving, epic hymns.” The piece talks about Xi’s visit to the region in February 2015. It begins with Xi going to Liangjiahe village, where he spent his formative years and a place that’s become a tourist hotspot because of the mythology surrounding Xi there. The PD piece tells us that Xi brought “New Year goods that he bought at his own expense.” Later in the day, he presided over a symposium on poverty alleviation and getting rich in the old Shaan-Gan-Ning revolutionary base areas at Yan’an Cadre College of China. At the meeting, he called for more support for development in the old revolutionary base areas. The rest of the story talks about agricultural and economic development in the region since Xi’s visit, and this is smartly blended with the language of redness and the Party’s original intention.
We then come to Xi’s 2020 visit to the region. The aspect picked from this is focus on pollution, soil erosion, maintenance of farmland and forest, etc. The piece gives data about improvements on all these fronts and then says this:
“‘Returning farmland to forest has brought about profound changes in the mindset and production and lifestyle of the masses, and a large number of rural laborers have moved to secondary and tertiary industries and towns.’ Cao Dongye introduced that Yan 'an has successfully established a national forest city and a national garden city, with 16 villages named national green villages and 45 villages named provincial beautiful and livable demonstration villages.”
The reason I’ve highlighted the above paragraph is to show how the piece emphasizes that the idea of ecological conservation under Xi is not just an end in itself, but is also economically beneficial. This aims to build a consciousness. Also, it sets standards for grassroots cadre and committees to meet, making it difficult to use GDP and incomes as arguments to slow down on environmental targets.
Next PSC member Wang Yang spoke about consolidating the achievements of poverty alleviation and fully implementing the rural vitalization strategy. PD says that “more than 100 national, provincial, municipal, and county-level CPPCC members participated” in the event physically while there were many other experts and grassroots cadres participating online. The strategy to ensure that the gains from poverty alleviation campaign are not lost rest upon:
Developing rural industries; expanding their scale and improving quality
Focusing on public services and utilities
Talent cultivation and promotion of entrepreneurship
Better east-west coordination, mechanisation of agriculture and transfer of technology
Hu Chunhua said that along with all this it is important to maintain current support systems. He said that it was important to “establish and improve a long-term mechanism to consolidate and expand poverty alleviation and difficulties tackling's achievements, implement the ‘four noes:’ maintain the overall stability of major assistance policies, strengthen monitoring and assistance to prevent returning to poverty, and do a good job in follow-up assistance for employment, industry and relocation.”
Page 2: Zhao Kezhi, Minister of Public Security, was visiting Guangxi recently. The piece basically talks about him emphasising the need for public security organs to deepen study of Party history. He also talks about the utility of this to “continuously improve political judgment, political insight, and political execution.”
He adds:
“We should persist in studying history and enhancing trust, educate and guide the police to strengthen their faith in Marxism and communism, their faith in socialism with Chinese characteristics and their confidence in realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and resolutely be loyal to, support, follow and defend the core, and be determined to be the builders and defenders of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.” 要坚持学史增信，教育引导广大民警增强对马克思主义、共产主义的信仰，对中国特色社会主义的信念，对实现中华民族伟大复兴的信心，坚决做到忠诚核心、拥护核心、跟随核心、捍卫核心，矢志不渝做中国特色社会主义事业建设者捍卫者.
Page 3: First, some useful data on Chinese investments in Germany. PD says that the German Federal Foreign Trade and Investment Agency recently released the ‘Report on Foreign Enterprises’ Investment in Germany in 2020.’ According to the report, in 2020, there were a total of 1,684 greenfield investments and brownfield investments in Germany during the year, down 9% year-on-year. But there were some 170 Chinese investment projects in Germany, an increase of about 10% year-on-year. PD adds that “Chinese enterprises’ investment projects mainly focus on industries such as machinery manufacturing and equipment, consumer goods and food, electronics and semiconductors, and their business scope mainly covers sales and market support, manufacturing and R&D, retail and commercial services.”
This is also a useful datapoint:
“Earlier, the latest edition of the annual business confidence survey report released by the German Chamber of Commerce in China showed that there are currently about 5,200 German companies in China, and China is one of the top three markets for sales, profits and investments of many German companies. The report pointed out that 72% of German-owned enterprises in China plan to increase investment in China.”
There are lots of reports about Chinese propaganda events and activities on the page. For instance, there’s a seminar held on China’s centenary and development in Seoul, with the Chinese ambassador, former diplomats and academics and analysts attending. There’s another about the Chinese foreign ministry arranging lectures and exhibitions for Arab politicians, 18 diplomats from 14 Arab embassies in China and Arab League representative offices. The focus is on China’s rise, its diplomacy, and its policies in the Middle East. The piece says that these diplomats will “also visit and communicate in Shanghai, Jiaxing, Zhejiang and other places, and learn about the latest developments in Xinjiang through video connections.”
Next we have MoFA’s comments (English version) on the Israel-Palestine issue. Zhao Lijian said that “The members of the Security Council reiterated the importance of achieving a comprehensive peace based on the vision of a region where two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace with secure and recognized borders. China will continue to play its constructive role at the Security Council to promote the early resumption of peace talks between Palestine and Israel and to help realize a comprehensive, just and durable settlement of the Palestinian question at an early date.”
Then we have comments about Taiwan’s role at the WHO. PD says that the 74th World Health Assembly has “decided to explicitly reject the so-called proposal of ‘inviting Taiwan to participate in the WHO Assembly as an observer’...This fully demonstrates that the one-China principle is the aspiration and general trend of the international community.” The piece then says that:
“the DPP authorities insisted on instigating their so-called ‘states with diplomatic relations’ to make Taiwan-related proposals. Some countries explicitly and secretly supported the instigation and contributed to the flames. This is an act that goes against the trend of history and has been unanimously opposed by countries upholding a just stand.” Very curious who all fall in the “some countries” category here. Anyway, the rest of it underscores the point that Beijing will continue the policy of blocking Taiwan’s participation on grounds that it sees it as a recognition of the pro-independence position.
Page 4: There is a brief obituary and MoFA’s comments about Yuan Longping, China’s father of hybrid rice.
Page 6: Two historical figures talked about today are Dong Cunrui and Liu Hulan. Dong’s life story is rather straightforward. At the age of 13, he protected the district party secretary from being captured by the Japanese. This earned him the tag of “little anti-Japanese hero.” He then joined the Eighth Route Army in July 1945. He died fighting the KMT in 1948 blowing himself up in order to target a KMT bunker. He was posthumously awarded three Bravery Medals and one Mao Zedong Medal.
Liu Hulan, meanwhile, has a story full of intrigue. At the age of 14 in 1946, she joined the CCP. This is where the interesting bit comes:
“In October 1946, the Kuomintang army invaded Wenshui County. In order to preserve the revolutionary forces, the county party committee decided that most comrades would move up the mountain, leaving some comrades to persist in the struggle. She volunteered to stay on the grounds that she was young and familiar with the environment, and the party organization agreed to her request. Together with the comrades who stayed behind, she conveyed the Party’s instructions to the party organizations in the villages, organized the masses to bury the grain, and cooperated with the Armed Forces to suppress the reactionary village chief.” 为保存革命力量，县委决定大部分同志转移上山，留下部分同志坚持斗争。她以自己年纪小、熟悉环境为由，主动要求留下来，党组织同意了她的请求。她和留下来的同志一起向各村党组织传达党的指示，组织群众掩埋粮食，并配合武工队镇压了反动村长.
She was eventually arrested in January 1947 and executed. Mao had apparently honored her later, writing “生的伟大，死的光荣” - “Great in life, glorious in death.”
Also on the page, we have a piece referencing Lei Feng. It talks about Lei Feng's “comrade-in-arms” Qiao Anshan’s family living in Fushun - Lei’s birthplace - keeping his “spirit” alive by passing it down from generation to generation and working to popularise it.
Finally, a short piece about an exhibition in Beijing. It’s co-sponsored by China Association for Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Engineering, National Defense Science and Technology Industry Bureau and National Museum. The theme is about self-reliance and scientists working under the Party’s leadership. It emphasises ideas like “the spirit of ‘two bombs and one satellite’, the spirit of moving westward, the spirit of manned spaceflight, the spirit of resisting epidemic diseases and the spirit of exploring the moon…”
Page 13: The theory page today has three pieces which talk about the rule of the CCP, essentially making the point that “the leadership of the party is not self-proclaimed, but a choice of history and the people. The three articles in this edition elaborate on history and how the people chose the Communist Party of China.”
So one of them makes this argument:
“Since the founding of New China, especially since the reform and opening up, our party has led the people to create miracles of rapid economic development and long-term social stability that are rare in the world. This fully shows that only the Communist Party of China can lead the Chinese nation to a great rejuvenation. Without the Communist Party of China, there would be no socialist China, no socialism with Chinese characteristics, and no great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. This is the choice made by history and the people, and it is also a conclusion drawn by history and the people.”
And this:
“The reason why history and the people's choice is correct and inevitable is because the Chinese Communist Party has always adhered to its original mission. The century-long history of our party is a history of fulfilling the party’s original mission, a history of the party and the people connecting, breathing together, and sharing a common destiny. The Communist Party of China not only writes the interests of the people on its own banner, but also embodies it in various aspects such as the formulation of its line, principles and policies and the code of conduct of party members.”
In saying all of this, the piece also tells us that what else works for the Party is that it has “lofty ideals and convictions and scientific theoretical guidance.” In addition, “the strength of the party comes from the organization and strict discipline...”
In another piece, Yang Rongjun, from the School of Marxism, East China University of Political Science and Law, argues that there is a certain “historical inevitability” to the Party’s rule, which derives from its “purity” and “advanced nature.” These refer to the Party’s pursuit of sinicized Marxism and pursuit of ideological power in that sense. Next, he talks about the need to keep “a clear-cut stand for politics and ensuring the unity and centralization of the party” which have been the “key to the party's ability to become a century-old party.” Lastly, he talks about the Party’s ability to learn from experience and adapt, along with maintaining the sense of “struggle.”