Tracking People’s Daily — August 31, 2020

Page 1: Over the weekend, Xi Jinping delivered an important speech on Tibet. I’d covered that in my weekly newsletter on Sunday. Monday’s PD focuses on Tibet on the front page. First, there is a commentary that basically indicates that the Party is doubling down on its policies in Tibet.

“Today, the living standards of the Tibetan people have improved in an all-round way, all poverty-stricken counties have been lifted out of poverty, the infrastructure has been accelerated, and the ecological security barrier has been further strengthened, presenting a vigorous and prosperous scene. Practice has fully proved that the Party Central Committee’s policies on Tibet work are completely correct, and that Tibet’s sustained, stable and rapid development is an important contribution to the overall work of the party and the country.”

“We must adhere to the strategic thinking that governing the country requires strengthening border control and stabilising Tibet. Reunification and strengthening of national unity are the focus and focus of Tibet’s work.”

The commentary is accompanied by a report that carries reactions by cadre to Xi’s speech.

Page 2 & 3: The page carries Li Keqiang’s July 23, 2020 speech on clean government. He essentially focuses on the economic tasks that are important, along with the significance of improving efficiency and tackling corruption, including political corruption. One commentary on page 3, i.e., this one on the “containment strategy.” Basically, the argument is that some US politicians are pursuing a containment strategy, and, in turn, this is harming the US. Rather, the US and China should be partners.

Page 4: A couple of pieces on this page. First, Huang Kunming visited Inner Mongolia. On the visit, he said that the Party “must put economic propaganda in a more prominent position, focus on implementing new development concepts, promoting high-quality development, and building a new development pattern, and vigorously publicize the Party Central Committee’s major decision-making and deployment on the overall planning of epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development.” Next, there’s a story commemorating the Korean war. It’ll be interesting to keep a check on the propaganda around this. Today’s story talks about the reflections of Chinese veteran Xie Changping, who is also the former librarian of the Memorial Hall to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, which is in Dandong.

Page 6: One interesting story about the supervision system covering the legal field. The piece talks about a video conference on August 26, which discussed “how to speed up the construction of a new type of restriction and supervision system.” The piece says: “in the future, local political and legal agencies will promote the in-depth integration of supervisory work and technology application, effectively transform technological advantages into supervisory efficiency, and more effectively build a dense technology ‘restriction and supervision network’.”

Page 9: One piece that I found interesting. This one is from a PKU professor, talking about the comparative advantages of the Chinese system. The professor writes: “In the new era, we need to make greater efforts to build comparative politics with Chinese characteristics, Chinese style, and Chinese style, and deepen the theoretical understanding of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics in the comparative study of political systems.” Here’s more: “At present, the great superiority of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics in poverty alleviation and the fight against the novel coronavirus epidemic has helped us build a comparative politics with Chinese characteristics…and further deepen the research on the socialist system with Chinese characteristics. Provides favorable development opportunities, abundant research materials and a good research environment.”

And then this: “To construct comparative politics with Chinese characteristics, we must adhere to our own path of academic innovation and take root in China’s reality. In the process of adhering to and developing the socialist democratic political system with Chinese characteristics, we must thoroughly analyze and inspect the political system and political operation phenomena, and then draw our own in conclusion.”

Page 16: Here’s what was covered on the international page: