Tracking People’s Daily — July 16, 2020

Page 1: The lead story on the front page draws from Xi Jinping’s Qiushi article. The article is basically a compilation of quotes from Xi’s speeches over the years, put together to give a view of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, to which CCP leadership is essential.

Here are some quotes, which inform about the thought process.

“Socialism with Chinese characteristics has many characteristics and characteristics, but the most essential characteristic is to adhere to the leadership of the Communist Party of China.”

“In today’s China, there is no greater political power or other power than the Chinese Communist Party. Party, government, military and civilian studies, the East, West, South, North, and Central, the party is leading everything; it is the highest political leadership.”

On rule of law and the Constitution: “We speak of governing the country and governing in accordance with the Constitution, not to deny and abandon the leadership of the party, but to emphasize that the party leads the people to formulate the constitution and laws, the party leads the people to implement the constitution and laws, and the party itself must act within the scope of the constitution and laws. Our Constitution reflects the achievements of the party in leading the people in revolution, construction, and reform in the form of fundamental laws, and reflects the party’s leading position formed in history and people’s choice.”

On Fragmentation: “If there is a situation of fragmentation in China, not only will the goals we have determined not be achieved, but they will also have disastrous consequences. The more than 100 years of history after modern China and before the founding of New China have fully proved this point.”

On international status: “It is a great blessing for China, the Chinese people, and the Chinese nation to have China in power. As long as we have a deep understanding of modern Chinese history, modern Chinese history, and Chinese revolutionary history, it is not difficult to find that without the leadership of the Communist Party of China, our country and our nation cannot achieve today’s achievements, nor can we have such an international today. Status.”

On party cadre: This “is a major principle that determines the future and destiny of the party and the country, the entire party and the whole country must maintain a high degree of ideological consciousness, political consciousness, and action consciousness, and they must not be shaken at all.”

The other key story is about the Wednesday State Council meeting. This Xinhua English version has part of the details on entrepreneurship.

For entrepreneurs: “Special funds will be earmarked from central budgetary investment for the development of the entrepreneurship and innovation demonstration centers. Idle factory buildings and under-used land will be brought into full play as part of greater support for key entrepreneurial and innovation projects. Government-invested incubators will provide a portion of their venues free of charge to college graduates and rural migrant workers. One-off subsidies may be granted to first-time entrepreneurs returning or moving to the countryside, who have kept their business start-ups in regular operation no less than a year.”

But there’s more in the PD story, which is in this Xinhua story. It notes that “the meeting pointed out that out of the 3.75 trillion yuan new local government special bonds approved by the National People’s Congress, so far 2.24 trillion yuan worth of bonds had been issued, with expenditure being 1.9 trillion yuan.” Also, “local authorities should accelerate the issuance and utilization of special bonds to boost the construction of new infrastructure, fresh urbanization initiatives, and major projects, as well as public health facilities, the meeting said, adding that the funds can be used to aid disaster relief work if needed. Bond funds are strictly prohibited from replacing outstanding debt or image projects that waste both human and financial resources, the meeting stressed.”

Page 2: Two pieces to note:

• First, the outbreak situation in Beijing, where there have been no new cases for 9 days, and now the focus is on looking at legislative changes that incorporate the lessons from the management of the outbreak.
• Next, we have a new company set up to support green development. Xinhua’s English report has the details. It says: “A company focused on raising funds for green development projects nationwide was put into operation in Shanghai on Wednesday, with a total registered capital of 88.5 billion yuan (about 12.66 billion U.S. dollars). The National Green Development Fund Co., Ltd. was jointly launched by the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and Shanghai Municipality. The funds raised by the company will be directed to investment fields such as pollution control, ecological restoration, afforestation of national land, conservation of energy and resources, green transportation and clean energy.”

Page 3: Lots on this page to cover:

First, a story about the Cauchari solar power farm in Argentina, which China Power Construction Corporation and Shanghai Electric Power Construction are constructing. The piece essentially talks about how the project has created 1500 jobs, provided opportunities for locals who live in an area with “backward infrastructure,” how this was a technically complex exercise, which involved use of new technologies, and so on. This, of course, comes under BRI.

Next up, Wang Yi’s meeting with French president’s diplomatic counselor Emmanuel Bonne. Xinhua English has the story. What’s really interesting is that according to these stories, the Chinese side isn’t really committing to anything even rhetorically. But Bonne apparently said: “the French side is willing to provide an open and non-discriminatory environment for Chinese enterprises.”

The rest of the page is about Trump signing the Hong Kong Autonomy Act and the EO. China summoned US ambassador Terry Branstad after this, with Vice FM Zheng Zeguang urging him to “correct the mistake.” People’s Daily says, Zheng told Branstad that “the so-called Hong Kong Autonomy Act and executive orders fabricated by the United States are not concerned with the ‘democracy’ and ‘freedom’ of the people of Hong Kong, but are trying to obstruct and contain China’s development.” He added: “the US side has recently taken unscrupulous acts that interfered with China’s internal affairs and harmed China’s interests on issues involving Xinjiang, Tibet, and the South China Sea, and further exposed the essence of naked hegemonism.”

• MoFA’s statement: “The US side’s attempts to obstruct the implementation of Hong Kong’s national security law will never succeed. In order to safeguard its own legitimate interests, China will make the necessary response and impose sanctions on relevant US personnel and entities.”
• HKMAO’s statement: “It is a gross interference in China’s internal affairs. It is also a wanton trampling on basic principles of international law and international relations, which fully exposes its use of Hong Kong to conduct inland China. Infiltrate and subvert activities to curb the true intentions of China’s development. Any so-called “sanctions” by the US side cannot shake the Chinese government’s firm determination to safeguard national sovereignty, security, development interests, and Hong Kong’s long-term prosperity and stability.”
• HK Liaison Office: “The statement also pointed out that the United States has been profitable in Hong Kong for many years. The so-called economic sanctions will not have a substantial impact on Hong Kong, but will only seriously damage its own interests.”
• HK Government: The spokesperson went on about “double standards” accusing Washington of a political agenda, and even saying that they’ll study whether they can approach the WTO.

Finally a commentary on the page on Hong Kong. It says: “There is no problem of China violating ‘international obligations’ (referring to the Sino-British Joint Declaration). The US openly concocted the so-called Hong Kong Autonomy Act and clamored for sanctions against China, which is typical of hegemonic thinking and gangster logic.”

Page 4: This is all about the floods with one story criticising the primaries in HK. The flood stories are essentially these:

• Things still remain difficult in large parts of the country. And the Ministry of Emergency Management and the Ministry of Finance have allocated a total of 1.755 billion yuan in central subsidy funds to deal with the floods.
• A story from Anhui, where the focus is on how CCP members are taking the lead in dealing with the floods.
• A rather poetic story juxtaposing flood control and relief work with students taking their exams. It actually talks about how boats were arranged for students.

Page 9: A commentary written by Lu Shaoyang from Beijing Xi Jinping Research Center for Socialist Thought with Chinese Characteristics in the New Era. It focuses on China’s pandemic narrative building efforts. The piece begins with: “Under the background of overall promotion of epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development, telling a good story of China’s anti-epidemic can focus on topics, elements, and platforms…”

On agenda setting: “To tell a good story about China’s anti-epidemic disease, we must first solve the problem of what and how to tell. How to turn “what we want to say” into “what the audience wants to hear” and integrate “what the audience wants to hear” into “we want to speak”? To achieve this goal, it is very important to actively set the agenda. If the agenda is set well, it will evoke emotional resonance in the world of public opinion. Telling a good story about China’s anti-epidemic needs us to carefully plan on the issue setting, and carefully set up issues with clear views, strong directivity, and easy dissemination.”

On storytelling: “To tell a good story about China’s anti-epidemic, you need to speak with facts and data. Only by reasoning facts can we win people’s hearts and win recognition. Impress people with vivid images. We need to tell vivid individual stories on the basis of carefully studying the psychological characteristics and acceptance habits of foreign audiences… To tell a good story about China’s anti-epidemic, you need to speak with facts and data. Only by reasoning facts can we win people’s hearts and win recognition. Impress people with vivid images. We need to tell vivid individual stories on the basis of carefully studying the psychological characteristics and acceptance habits of foreign audiences.”

New media usage: We “need to work hard on the construction of the communication platform, make full use of the advantages of new media communication, accelerate the pace of digital, networked, and mobile transformation, actively build a new content communication platform, make full use of new technologies and new applications to innovate media communication methods, and promote the advantages of traditional media. The extension of the Internet and mobile Internet, innovating communication vehicles and channels, and creating a flagship media with strong international influence.”

Page 11 & 17: There’s a story on page 11 about employment for armed forces veterans. This is an important political issue. Basically it says that The Ministry of Veterans Affairs, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, China Banking Regulatory Commission, China Securities Regulatory Commission, and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce have jointly launched a new Initiative to Promote the Employment of Veterans. They basically want “state-owned enterprises, financial institutions and private enterprises (to) actively fulfill their social responsibilities, increase support, cooperate with the retired military affairs department, and devote a certain number of positions to preferentially employ qualified self-employed retired military personnel.” No details on the quota figures, however.

Page 17 focuses on international stories. The lead story is about how the pandemic has brought to fore social and economic divisions in the US. The page also covers the rescinding of the new rules for international students in the US, which had led to so much controversy. A story on France’s 100 billion euros post-Covid recovery plan. And finally, one on the conflict in Yemen; it focuses on the recent spike in fighting and the humanitarian crisis.