Xi's Talent Agenda - Martyrs & Heroes - Prosperity Journey White Paper - Defending Anti-Monopoly Policies - 'Cross-Strait Situation Remains Grim'
Here are the stories and pieces from the September 29, 2021, edition of the People’s Daily that I found noteworthy.
Page 1: For two days we had pieces about talent-related policy under Xi, and the quest to ensure that “winged-steeds” carry forward China in the new era. Today, the lead story on the page is about the central conference on talent-related work, which was held on Monday and Tuesday. Xinhua English has a good, detailed report on this.
It tells us that for Xi, talent policy is important to support the goals of basically realizing socialist modernization by 2035 and building a great modern socialist China in all respects by 2050. PD informs that Xi said that since the 18th Party Congress, human resource talent has been deemed as a “strategic resource.”
He added that “China now has a large number of well-trained professionals who play an increasingly prominent role in the country's development.” But on the road to national rejuvenation, the report has Xi saying that “high-level science and technology is the key to self-reliance. Competition in overall national strength is, in the final analysis, a competition for qualified personnel. Talent is an important index to measure the comprehensive national strength of a country. The development of a country depends on talented people and the rejuvenation of the nation depends on talented people. We must be more mindful of potential dangers, pay more attention to the independent training of human resources, and speed up the establishment of competitive advantages in human resources.” 实现我们的奋斗目标, 高水平科技自立自强是关键. 综合国力竞争说到底是人才竞争. 人才是衡量一个国家综合国力的重要指标. 国家发展靠人才, 民族振兴靠人才. 我们必须增强忧患意识, 更加重视人才自主培养, 加快建立人才资源竞争优势.
Xi then listed eight principles regarding talent policy:
Upholding the CPC’s overall leadership over human resources work;
Making human resources the priority (strategic position) in the country’s development;
Focusing on world-level cutting-edge technologies, the main economic fields, the country’s critical needs, and the people’s health;
Promoting the comprehensive fostering of people with talent;
Deepening institutional reform related to talent development;
Assembling the best minds and drawing fully on their expertise;
Creating a favorable environment in which people with talent are easily identified, well valued and respected, and fully display their talent;
Promoting the spirit of scientists
This was followed by an outlining of goals, one of which is to build China into the world’s major talent center and innovation hub. This requires top-level design and strategic planning.
By 2025, China will have substantially increased its total R&D spending, attracted more top scientists, boasted a large number of scientists and technologists in strategically important and core technological fields, top-level sci-tech leaders and innovation teams.
By 2030, China will be significantly more attractive to global talent, boast some frontrunners in main sci-tech fields and pioneers in emerging frontier and interdisciplinary areas.
By 2035, the country will have competitive advantages in talent competition in many areas, and its strategic sci-tech strength and high-caliber talent teams will be among the strongest in the world.
Other key points made:
He spoke about building high-caliber talent hubs in Beijing, Shanghai and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area
He said that scientists should be given more power to decide on technological routes, and more funding and resources should be placed at their disposal
He called for speeding up the establishment of a talent evaluation system based on innovation value, capability and contribution
He called for cultivating strategic scientists; identifying scientists who have profound scientific literacy and have long been at the forefront of scientific research, have broad vision, forward-looking judgment, interdisciplinary understanding, and have strong organizational and leadership skills…
He emphasised the role of national laboratories, national research institutions and said that the Party needs to cultivate a large contingent of young scientists and engineers; train a large number of outstanding engineers, and strive to build a team of engineers who “love the Party and are patriotic, dedicated to their work, have outstanding technological innovation capabilities, and are good at solving complex problems.”
He spoke about the role of universities, particularly “Double First-Class” (namely world-class universities and first-class disciplines), wants to also nurture philosophers, social scientists and artists, and wants to have a system of evaluation that tolerates failures and encourages leading sci-tech professionals to take on new tasks and responsibilities. He also spoke about boosting entrepreneurship and rewarding knowledge and expertise.
The next paragraph emphasises fostering patriotism and the sense of responsibility among talented people, optimizing the commendation and reward system, and fostering a culture of respecting talent.
He then called on all Party organs and government departments to act accordingly, adding that “We need to increase investment in talent development and improve the efficiency of talent investment.”
The entire PSC was present for this conference. Li Keqiang and Wang Huning also spoke during the meetings, with both of them basically calling for understanding, studying and implementing Xi’s vision In addition, leaders from Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Ministry of Education, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation and Tsinghua University made speeches.
On Page 3, we have a commentary around these comments by Xi.
Next, we have a report about Wang Yang speaking (English report) at a reception held in the Great Hall of the People to mark the National Day. Interesting set of comments here. Wang talked about this being an important year, with the Party celebrating its centenary.
He added:
“As long as we unswervingly uphold the leadership of the Party, follow the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, firmly rely on the people, and strengthen the great unity of the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation, no difficulties or obstacles can stop the Chinese nation from marching towards great rejuvenation.”
He then spoke about HK, Macao and Taiwan. For HK and Macao, he talked about one country, two systems but added the caveat of the need to resolutely implement the principle of ‘patriots administering’ both regions. He also promised support in exercising law-based governance in the SARs.
On Taiwan, he stressed efforts to uphold the one-China principle and the 1992 Consensus, called for “resolutely smashing any attempt to seek ‘Taiwan independence’, and opposing interference by any external forces. “The cross-Strait situation remains grim at present, but the times and trends are always on the side of the forces advocating national reunification, and the initiative to resolve the Taiwan question remains in the hands of the mainland.” he added. 当前台海形势依然严峻，但时和势始终在主张国家统一的力量这一边，解决台湾问题的主导权主动权始终掌握在祖国大陆这一边.
He also termed overseas Chinese nationals, returned Chinese, and their relatives an important force for national rejuvenation.
Then we have a report telling us that the NPC Standing Committee will meet from Oct. 19 to 23. Lawmakers will review a bunch of draft laws. What caught my attention from the agenda were laws on family education promotion, land border, anti-telecom fraud, and the anti-monopoly law. But there’s a lot more on the agenda.
Finally, tomorrow is Martyrs’ Day in China - something that was established in 2014; so Xi will be at Tiananmen for a ceremony.
Page 2: The entire page and some of the next page is dedicated to one piece. Ostensibly, this is about martyrs and heroes over the decades and in present times. But there’s really just one hero in the piece and that’s Xi Jinping. The piece is written from the point of view of the heroes that Xi has talked about over the years. And the General Secretary gets mentioned by name 51 times.
Anyway, the piece begins talking about these “heroic sons and daughters” to say:
“They are like stars, lanterns and clusters of fire, shining brightly in the sky and on earth, promoting the development and growth of the Chinese nation and illuminating its glorious future of great rejuvenation.
Never forget
The Republic is red and this color cannot be diluted. The blood of countless martyrs has stained our flag; it is absolutely impossible to not work to build the Republic they yearned for, struggled for, and sacrificed for.”
他们犹如一颗颗星、一盏盏灯、一簇簇火，光耀天空、烛照大地，推动中华民族不断发展壮大, 照亮中华民族伟大复兴的光辉前程。永志不忘 “共和国是红色的，不能淡化这个颜色。无数的先烈鲜血染红了我们的旗帜，我们不建设好他们所盼望向往、为之奋斗、为之牺牲的共和国, 是绝对不行的.”
From here, the piece talks about Xi’s November 2012 visit to the Road to Rejuvenation exhibition and that sends us into flashback mode. Anyway, I am not covering the details of all the people mentioned. But some of the qualities that the piece references are loyalty, conviction of ideals, selfless struggle, innovation and quest to reach scientific heights; perseverance and not backing down from challenges; shouldering responsibilities, etc.
This is old but it is worth noting that during Xi’s visit to Jiangxi in 2019, he had referenced Fang Zhimin and the famous quote attributed to him: “the enemy can cut off our heads, but they can never weaken our faith.”
Page 3: We have a commentary and a report on the page that is based on the release of the “China’s Epic Journey from Poverty to Prosperity” white paper from yesterday. I think this is a useful document in that it offers key data points compiled in one place with regard to innovation, infrastructure etc. I am summarising the paper below; it subsumes the material covered in the commentary and the report.
The paper says that achieving moderate prosperity is a “glorious achievement for the Chinese nation,” “remarkable achievement for the Chinese people,” “commendable achievement for the CPC” and “a major contribution China has made to the world.” The paper talks about the period from 1949 to 1948 as having laid the “institutional and material foundations for building a moderately prosperous society.” It then talks about Deng Xioping laying the groundwork for xiaokang, which “he defined as per capita GNP of US$800.” We then quickly go through all the Party Congresses, starting from the 12th to come to present times.
The next section of the paper is useful. There are some key data points there:
China’s GDP soared from RMB67.9 billion in 1952 to RMB101.6 trillion in 2020. As the world’s second largest economy, it accounts for over 17 percent of the global total. With per capita GDP rising from less than US$100 in 1952 to over US$10,000 in 2020, China has achieved a historic transformation from a low-income country to an upper-middle-income country.
In 2020, China spent RMB2.4 trillion on R&D; ratio of R&D to GDP reached 2.4 percent. A total of 1,345,000 utility patent applications were filed with domestic agencies and 441,000 were granted. In addition, 69,000 international patent applications were submitted through the Patent Cooperation Treaty.
By the end of 2020, China had established 533 key national labs, 350 national engineering research centers (also known as national engineering labs), 1,636 national enterprise technology centers, 212 mass entrepreneurship and innovation bases, 1,287 national technology enterprise incubators, and 2,251 makerspaces approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology.
Science and technology have also raised the capacity of governance by a substantial margin. The application of digital technology is fast expanding in government, the countryside and society at large, in forms such as smart cities and internet-based government services. A grid-based social management network and smart governance are gradually penetrating daily life.
In 1952, the shares of added value from the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors in China’s GDP were 50.5 percent, 20.8 percent, and 28.7 percent. In 2020, the figures were 7.7 percent, 37.8 percent and 54.5 percent.
The integration of industrialization and IT application has expanded in depth and extent. “Made in China” is being replaced by “smart manufacturing in China”. Industrial and supply chains have been further modernized. Strategic emerging industries represented by the new generation of information technology, biotechnology, high-end equipment, and green technology are growing fast, serving as a key engine for high-quality development.
China is able to support around 20 percent of the world’s population and 17 percent of the global economy with only 6.6 percent of the planet’s freshwater. -- Huge challenge this will be going ahead too.
China has 241 civil airports; 161,000 km-long expressway network; the world’s highest liner shipping connectivity index, with eight of the world’s top 10 ports based on cargo throughput, and seven based on container throughput; urban rail transit with high and medium passenger capacities is close to 6,700 km; 960,000 5G base stations, and 365 million 5G terminal connections; broadband penetration at 96 percent, mobile broadband use at 108 percent, and over 1 billion Internet users.
The next section is about political rights and socialist democracy. This is followed by the cultural sector. I thought this was interesting in what it deems as desirable. It says:
“The people should have sufficient food and other daily needs, but they should also conduct themselves with dignity and a strong sense of morality...The development of a great socialist culture has reshaped China’s national psyche. Chinese people now have richer cultural activities and greater inner strength, and they have changed their outlook in profound and positive ways.”
Also:
“Popular support for the CPC, socialist system, and reform and opening up is running high; love of the country and ethnic unity resonate deeply with the people. The public has more confidence in the path, theory, system and culture of Chinese socialism. The core socialist values and the spirit of patriotism, reform, innovation and hard work are taking root among the people. Qualities of a mature citizenry prevail, including openness, inclusiveness, rationality, dignity, and the desire to excel.”
And this:
“At the end of 2020, China had 60,000 enterprises of designated size in the cultural industry, whose revenues for the year approached RMB9.9 trillion...The added value of the cultural and related industries reached RMB4.5 trillion in 2020, accounting for 4.4 percent of GDP.”
The next section is about people’s well-being. This includes incomes, employment, health, education, housing, environment, policy related to population aging, and a sense of security. Lots of data in there, but I’d like to highlight the Peaceful China initiative.
“Crime prevention and control is stronger, and measures extending to the ‘last kilometer’ have given the public a greater sense of security and satisfaction. An intensified campaign has curbed organized crime, and the ‘protective umbrellas’ that shelter them. The public welcomes a safe and stable environment backed by the authority of the rule of law. Dispute prevention and problem solving at community level has significantly improved, with an approach under which trivial matters are handled at village level, major problems are settled at township level, and all disputes are addressed locally before they are passed up to the higher authorities. The open and IT-based system has been constantly improved, with grid-based management providing better service to the public and giving rise to a new style of community-level governance. Social governance in urban areas has also made steady progress.”
The next part of the paper begins with talking about the poverty alleviation campaign, support for rural development, support for special groups, i.e., women, children and elderly in poor areas, rural revitalization, etc. On the poverty alleviation campaign, it says that targeted efforts have been made in six areas:
• identifying the poor accurately;
• arranging targeted programs;
• utilizing capital efficiently;
• taking measures targeting individual households;
• dispatching officials based on conditions in individual villages;
• achieving the set goals.
Five measures for poverty eradication have also been taken:
• boosting the economy to provide more job opportunities;
• relocating poor people from inhospitable areas;
• compensating for economic disadvantage associated with reducing environmental damage;
• improving education in poor areas;
• providing subsistence allowances for those unable to escape from poverty through their own efforts.
The rural development bit is followed by details on urban and city development and regional development strategy. Again, lots of data here to summarise.
The next chapter of the paper is forward looking. It says:
“The CPC continuously expands its understanding of such questions as what constitutes a moderately prosperous society, and how we can achieve it. Through the resulting judgments – that neither poverty nor slow development is socialism, that achieving common prosperity is an essential requirement of socialism, and that the Party will promote well-rounded human development and common prosperity – it has gained a deeper understanding of the essence of socialism, and achieved a clearer picture of the goal of a moderately prosperous society. Meanwhile, its understanding of the attributes of a socialist society has expanded from ‘prosperous, strong and democratic’, to also include ‘culturally advanced, and ‘harmonious’, and then ‘beautiful’, providing a more comprehensive grasp of what is necessary to create a moderately prosperous society. It has shifted its focus from economic growth to economic development, from comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development to innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development, and from high-speed growth to high-quality development.”
And then:
“Since its 18th National Congress, the CPC has addressed itself to solving the problems that concern the people most and affect their vital interests. Special attention is being directed to removing obstacles hampering fairness, justice, and common prosperity. The CPC has also worked to address shortcomings in achieving all-round moderate prosperity. A series of pioneering measures have been rolled out, such as preventing the disorderly expansion of capital, and ensuring fairness and justice in every judicial case. Determined that housing is for living in, not for speculation, the CPC has taken clear steps to keep the housing market under control. To ease the pressure on students, a ‘double reduction’ policy has been implemented to reduce homework and after-school tutoring.” -- I guess, if one is looking at a grand connecting narrative with regard to recent policy initiatives, this is the one that the Party is providing us.
When it comes to reform, since the 18th Party Congress, the paper tells us that “the CPC has shown great political courage, enacting more than 2,400 measures to remove deep-rooted obstacles, and promoting further reform...through exploration by trial and error and top-level design, China stays focused on solving problems and achieving goals, and expands all-round reform on the back of successful pilot programs.”
On opening up, it says that “in the new era, China is furthering its opening up on a larger scale, in more fields, and to a deeper level. It has opened its doors wider to the world through a series of measures, including high-quality cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, key platforms such as the China International Import Expo, pilot free trade zones, and optimizing the business environment.” It also underscores that in the process of reform and opening up, the Four Cardinal Principles have also been upheld. This chapter ends by saying:
“Without CPC leadership, there would be no moderate prosperity. The Party shares the people’s aspirations, works hard together with them, and acts as their guide. Under the leadership of the CPC, the Chinese people can look forward to a better and happier life.”
The paper ends with a list of goals to be achieved by 2035.
Page 7: On the page today is the start of a new column series, focussing on “Strengthening Anti-monopoly Supervision and Promoting Fair Competition.” This is an interesting piece. It begins with comments from Chen Zhipeng, identified as a partner in a newly established Internet company in Beijing. Chen talks about how the market structurally inhibits the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises, whose innovations tend to get copied quickly.
Quick thought: Such a shrewd narrative trope being used here to defend government policies; who can argue against the little guy facing structural disadvantages and the big guy playing unfair?
Anyway, Chen says: “I have no regrets about being weeded out by the market, but I am unwilling to be crushed by unfair competition. Since last year, the regulatory authorities have investigated and dealt with a series of cases, creating a fair and competitive market environment for our small and medium-sized startups.” 陈志鹏感慨：“被市场淘汰无怨无悔，但被不正当竞争行为碾压就很不甘心。去年以来，监管部门查处一系列案件，为我们中小创业公司营造了公平竞争的市场环境.”
The piece says that over the course of the past 40 years, the nature of market competition in China has “undergone profound changes, and the risks of monopoly and competition disorder have become increasingly prominent.” But that Xi wants to address these issues to foster a “unified, open, and orderly competitive market system”
“Since 2018, market regulators have focused on key areas of livelihood development such as platform economy, medicine and health care, public utilities, and construction materials, investigating and dealing with 341 cases of monopoly, 36,000 cases of unfair competition, 118,000 cases of illegal pricing and charging, and 1,833 cases of concentration by business operators.” 2018年以来, 市场监管部门聚焦平台经济、医药保健、公用事业、建筑材料等民生发展重点领域，查处各类垄断案件341件、不正当竞争案件3.6万件、价格收费违法案件11.8万件、审结经营者集中案件1833件.
It also talks about how regulators have investigated and punished the monopoly behavior of ‘picking one from two’ of leading platform enterprises, prohibited the merger of the two leading enterprises in the field of video game streaming according to law, barred exclusive copyright in the field of online music according to law, and have severely investigated and punished the illegal activities such as dumping products at prices below cost and price frauds in terms of e-commerce. These actions, the piece says, have received a good response from society.
The next part of the piece talks about the policy measures adopted in these regards. And then to the best of my understanding, we are told:
“All regions and departments have fully implemented the fair competition review system. Up to now, 857,000 documents related to new policies and measures have been reviewed, and 4,100 violations of standards have been found or corrected. A total of 1.89 million specific policies and measures were reviewed, and nearly 30,000 that hindered a unified national market and fair competition were revised or abolished.” 各地区各部门全面落实公平竞争审查制度，截至目前，审查新出台政策措施文件85.7万件，发现和纠正违反审查标准的4100件；清理存量政策措施189万件，修订废止妨碍全国统一市场和公平竞争的近3万件.
Anyway, towards the end, we are told that other mature economies of the West are also trying to deal with issues of monopolies, and I guess one should be viewing what the Chinese government is doing to reign in the “disorderly growth” and “barbaric expansion” of capital from that prism too. The piece then says that this effort does not imply a shift in the “two unwaverings;” instead, this is about creating a space in which all types of market players are treated equally” are strictly regulated through a “fair and civilized law enforcement” and that there is “fair, efficient and orderly market competition.” 国家市场监督管理总局相关负责人介绍，我国市场监管部门一直坚持规范和发展并重，坚持“两个毫不动摇”，坚持对各类市场主体一视同仁、平等对待，坚持严格规范公正文明执法，维护公平高效有序的市场竞争格局.
Next, a report about the launch of the National Integrity and Prosperity Promotion Month - 诚信兴商宣传月. At the launch, a documenting of top 10 cases of businesses prospering while being honest and maintaining integrity was done. The piece says that various departments will carry out activities to jointly spread positive energy and create a social environment that fosters integrity and trust. This is the seventh year of this activity.
Finally, we had the finals of the National Party History Knowledge Competition, with the team from Shaanxi winning. The team was named 圣地荣光队 - the Sacred Land Glory Team.
