Tracking People’s Daily — August 18, 2020

Page 1: The top story is about Xi’s letter (short English version) to congratulate the 13th National Committee of the All-China Youth Federation on the opening of the 27th National Student Federation. He called on them to “embark on a new journey toward the second centenary goal of fully building a modern socialist country.” The PD story has reproduced the letter and added details about the meeting. Wang Huning and Chen Xi were among the senior leaders attending the meeting, with Chen reading out Xi’s letter. Vice Premier Sun Chunlan also attended and delivered a speech.

Next a piece marking the 40th anniversary of Shenzhen’s opening up, along with the first anniversary of the city being selected as a “pilot demonstration area of socialism with Chinese characteristics.” The goals set out are here in a Xinhua report from last year:

• By 2025, Shenzhen will become one of the leading cities in the world in terms of economic strength and quality of development. Its research and development input, industrial innovation capacity, and the quality of its public services and ecological environment will be first-rate in the world, according to the document.
• By 2035, Shenzhen will become a national model of high-quality development, as well as a hub of innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity with international influence.
• By mid-21st century, the city will become one of the top cosmopolis in the world and a global pacesetter with outstanding competitiveness, innovative capacity and influence, said the document.

The PD piece is really long offering details of high-tech development in Shenzhen, along with being essentially a promotional tool for the city. There’s information in there about education, even kindergartens, water pollution, ease of doing business, judicial reform, talent support, etc.

Next up, a meeting of the State Council (Xinhua English version is quite detailed). There’s some interesting data here. Li Keqiang spoke about the special transfer payment mechanism, designed to channel this year’s increased fiscal funds straight to prefecture and county-level governments and directly benefit businesses and people. It says that “by early August, among the two trillion yuan of increased fiscal funds, 300 billion yuan had, in large measure, been used for tax and fee cuts; and out of the 1.7 trillion yuan under the special transfer payment framework, apart from the reserved fund of a set proportion raised from the special treasury bonds for COVID-19 control, 97.8 percent of the funds had been distributed to prefecture and county-level governments.”

He added: “The next step is to guide the cities and counties to expedite the use of the funds that have been issued to market players and people’s livelihoods, and take necessary measures to supervise rectification and reform for those with slow distribution and idle funds. Second, we must dynamically track the allocation, appropriation, and use of funds, and establish a special treasury reconciliation mechanism for direct funds to ensure clear accounts, clear flows, and consistent accounts. Third, we must be strict in financial discipline, and deal with false reports, false claims, interception and embezzlement.”

Page 3: A few stories to note:

• First, a report based on multiple different data points to show that globally there’s a positive appraisal of China’s tech and innovation development.
• Next, positive foreign media coverage of China’s economic growth.
• Third, Cambodia-China FTA talks have formally ended. The piece today talking about Cambodia-China economic cooperation is written by Cambodia’s Minister of Commerce. He says that “Cambodia has always regarded China as a model for economic construction.”

This is followed by a story (English version)of Wang Yi greeting the returning Chinese delegation that was employed at the Houston consulate. He told them that the consulate’s closure “shows that the anti-China forces in the United States are unscrupulously undermining Sino-US relations and deliberately blocking China’s development. But this is going against the trend of history, and it will never succeed!” What the Xinhua English story of this didn’t contain, but PD did, was that “Qi Yu, Secretary of the Party Committee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, also announced on behalf of the Party Committee that the Consulate General in Houston was awarded the third-class collective merit.” Finally, a report based on MoFA spokesperson’s remarks (English version) about Donald Trump signing an EO for ByteDance to divest its interest in TikTok’s operations in the United States within 90 days. Zhao Lijian said:

“in its operations in the US, TikTok’s middle and senior management personnel, including the chief executive officer, are all Americans. Its servers are in the US, data centers in the US and Singapore, and teams all localized. The company hired 1,500 American employees and promised to create 10,000 jobs. Its audit policy and source code are open to the public. It is fair to say that TikTok has done almost everything the US side demands. However, it still cannot escape from certain US individuals’ disguised and coercive robbery out of selfish political gains. Some US politicians are attempting to strangle TikTok with one baseless excuse after another.”

Page 5: Starting today, PD is launching a series of commentaries on “The Communist Party of China and the Chinese People on the Great Journey.” This is because they believe that the only way to understand China is to understand the CCP. Today’s piece essentially talks about CCP performance legitimacy. “The advancement of reform and opening up has allowed China to surpass hundreds of Western countries in more than 40 years…Facts are irrefutable that it is precisely with the strong leadership core of the Chinese Communist Party that the freedom and happiness of the Chinese people continue to reach new heights.”

And then this: “Unlike ordinary political parties in the sense of Western politics, the Communist Party of China, as a long-term ruling party, is not an electoral mobilization force that only becomes active every few years. The Communist Party of China must not only satisfy the people’s immediate and local interests, but also consider the people’s long-term and overall interests. This requires real struggle, real ability, and a big picture.”

Page 7: Today’s piece on the Chinese system focuses on foreign policy. This displays such a warped sense of self, if Beijing genuinely believes any of this. Here are few excerpts:

“The world today is in a period of major development, major changes and major adjustments. Peace and development are still the themes of the times. However, the world faces outstanding instability and uncertainty. Military encounters occur from time to time, financial turmoil is not over, terrorist attacks one after another, the refugees problem is getting worse and the risks of the gray rhino” are pervasive, and the black swan incident is unpreventable.”

So what does one do? “Develop a framework for major-country relations, build a regional community of shared future, strengthen solidarity and cooperation with the vast number of developing countries, and strive to blaze a new path for state-to-state exchanges.”

To do so, China needs to “promote the construction of a new type of international relations…Whether it is to maintain peace and stability or promote common development, the principles of democracy must be fully implemented, and mutual respect, fairness, justice, and win-win cooperation must be the basic criteria for handling relations between nations.” And this requires Beijing to “oppose hegemony.”

“In recent years, certain countries have fabricated excuses including “new interventionism”, under the banner of democracy, human rights, and freedom, in some countries, they have carried out “color revolutions”, and even resorted to force and fights to bully the weak…Facts have repeatedly proved that hegemony cannot solve the problem fundamentally, but will only lead to new and greater contradictions. My country opposes all forms of hegemonism and power politics, opposes the use of force or threats of force at every turn, and advocates the settlement of international disputes and hotspots and difficult issues through dialogue and negotiation and peaceful means, and will always be a staunch force for maintaining world peace.” Of course, just look at the LAC!

And then this: “The Chinese nation does not have the genes to invade others, and will never dominate or expand. China’s peaceful development will not only pose no threat to anyone, but will also bring good news to the world.” I repeat, of course, just look at the LAC! The next aspect in the piece is about economic cooperation, and China’s role in global supply chains, essentially pitching China as a partner in helping other states develop too. BRI becomes part of this propaganda effort.

The third aspect is global governance reform. The author argues that “the international balance of power changes and global challenges are increasing, the existing global governance system is somewhat inadequate, and it is difficult to deal with and solve the problems it faces.”

It adds: “As China moves closer to the center of the world stage, my country’s international discourse power and influence have also “increased.” In the past, China was “small” and nobody listened to it. Now it’s different. China has become a “big guy”. Everyone wants to hear what China says about things in the world. The international community expects to see a Chinese plan to eliminate the global governance deficit. As a responsible major country, China will actively participate in the reform and construction of the global governance system, lead the evolution of the world pattern, and lead the development of human civilization.”

The piece then talks about economic governance reform, tackling climate change and maintaining the centrality of the UN.

Page 9: A piece by the Party Committee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy through the third volume of Xi’s governance of China books. A lot of it is repetitive about the nature of major country diplomacy, meetings and events. The piece then talks about tensions with the US, and adds:

“We resolutely carry out diplomatic warfare, legal warfare, and public opinion warfare to counter US bullying practices in the fields of economy, trade, science and technology, refute slander and false claims, and counter interference in China’s internal affairs.” Other aspects include ensuring that countries adhere to the one-China principle, management of HK, Xinjiang, Tibet and South China Sea code of conduct, and proper handling of “border disputes between China and India.”

Three big diplomatic tasks based around specific events over the next three years — the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, the convening of the 20th National Congress of the Party, and the Beijing Winter Olympics.

More focus areas: “Further do a good job in external work under the new situation, join hands with the international community to fight the epidemic, improve the global partnership layout, promote high-quality joint construction of the “Belt and Road”, actively participate in the reform and improvement of the global governance system, and firmly safeguard national sovereignty, security, and development interests. Tell the stories of China, the Communist Party of China, and socialism with Chinese characteristics to create a favorable external environment for domestic development.”

Page 17: On the international page today, the lead story is about the Iranian nuclear issue. It starts with Putin’s call for a P5 meeting on the issue. This comes after the UNSC rejected a draft resolution proposed by the United States to extend the arms embargo on Iran. Next, Qin Hong, distinguished researcher of the China Institute of International Studies, writes about the US. Qin writes that the US has struggled over the past decade, with multiple social and political fissures coming to the fore.

He summarises: “The reason why the United States has come to the point where it is today is that the design and operation of the US political and economic system has gone wrong, which is the inevitable result of short-sighted pursuit of profit…The current United States has a desire for change but lacks the will to change. Short-sightedness, profit-seeking, impetuousness and conceit still prevail in the United States. Avoiding contradictions and introducing internal disasters from outside has become the most important policy option for the United States. Some people even took the opportunity to portray China as a major opponent or even an enemy, opening the door for their own personal gain.”

He adds: “Can you really make the United States better and make the United States great again when you are sick and others take medicine? The answer is obviously no…The United States must see clearly that the most important opponent of the United States is itself. It is a serious strategic misjudgment to make China an opponent.”

Finally, a report on the continuing work along the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway amid the pandemic.