Tracking People’s Daily — July 7, 2020

Page 1: The lead story is about the 9th Ministerial Conference of the China-Arab Cooperation Forum, and Xi Jinping’s message to the forum. Xinhua’s English piece covers all the details. This is a positive relationship from Beijing’s perspective. The more substantive part of what the forum entailed is on Page 3, highlighting that three outcome documents, a joint statement regarding the pandemic, the “Amman Declaration,” and the “Forum’s Action Implementation Plan for 2020 to 2022,” were signed. Here’s Xinhua English’s coverage of the forum, which is much more detailed:

“China is willing to continue to work with Arab countries to offer more anti-epidemic supplies, share experiences, and send medical teams, hold China-Arab health-cooperation forums as soon as possible, work on vaccine research and development, and also support the key role of the World Health Organization (WHO), said Wang. He called on the two sides to oppose politicizing and labeling practices regarding COVID-19, and oppose racial prejudice and ideological bias. Wang called on the two sides to firmly support each other, and to safeguard fairness and justice. China firmly supports Arab countries in safeguarding their political security and social stability, and in choosing a path of independent development, he added. China will continue to resolutely stand with the Palestinian people and Arab people, said Wang, hailing Arab countries’ support of China’s legitimate propositions on Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Taiwan, and other domestic affairs.”

And this:

“They agreed to work with China to implement a plan outlining China-Arab relations in the next two years, accelerate Belt and Road cooperation, and deepen cooperation in trade, investment, energy, technology, tourism, and culture to achieve common development. Noting that both sides uphold the basic norms of international relations, such as multilateralism and non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs, they said the Arab countries firmly support China in safeguarding sovereignty and territorial integrity. They also firmly uphold the one-China principle, support China’s legitimate position and propositions regarding Hong Kong and Xinjiang affairs, and oppose interference in China’s domestic affairs.”

Another interesting story is about this letter by Xi Jinping responding to a letter sent by the Butuka Academy of Papua New Guinea. I say interesting not for the content but for the fact that it represents China’s growing diplomatic outreach across the Pacific. One more to note on the page is this, where the NDRC says that it has allocated 45.66 billion yuan (about $6.46 billion) to boost the capacity for the prevention, control and treatment of diseases. The funds will focus on regions hit hard by the epidemic and fields in urgent need or facing shortage.

Page 2: Massive effort underway to get the Gaokao done safely. A review of efforts in Beijing and inspections in Hubei.

Page 3: For the third time since tensions began at the LAC, the People’s Daily has covered the issue today. The piece is about Wang Yi and Ajit Doval’s conversation. It’s the statement put out by the foreign ministry after the talks yesterday. An opinion piece by the Deputy Secretary General of ASEAN, Cambodia’s Kung Phoak. This is unsurprisingly very favorable. He basically reiterates Beijing’s official timeline of events in January, praising the Chinese leadership to no end. Also a piece by China’s ambassador to Namibia Zhang Yiming, framing it in the context of China-Africa friendship.

Page 4: There are a few stories here. The lead story on the page is about the flooding in Anhui Province. Things are really not good. The emergency response was raised to level II on Tuesday. Second, Chinese mainland experts lend their support to the Hong Kong natsec law.

Third, the first meeting of the national security committee of Hong Kong. The English coverage is as exhaustive as PD’s. “National Security Adviser Luo Huining, who was appointed by the Central People’s Government, also sat in on the meeting. Luo is also director of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong SAR. The government’s online statement did not specify the meeting’s agenda. According to Article 14 of the National Security Law for Hong Kong, the committee will analyze and assess developments in relation to safeguarding national security in the Hong Kong SAR while formulating policies and enforcement mechanisms and advancing the legal system to safeguard national security.”

The interesting bit is that this report doesn’t cover the outcomes of the meeting, which inform of the troublesome nature of the law. Here are the implementation rules that have been approved. I’ve done excerpts of the rules below, except for details on penalties

• For investigation of an offence endangering national security, a police officer may apply to a magistrate for a warrant to enter and search a place for evidence. Under exceptional circumstances (for instance, in urgent situations), a police officer not below the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police may authorise his officers to enter the relevant place to search for evidence without a warrant.
• the rules authorise police officers to apply to a magistrate for a warrant to require a person who is suspected to have committed offences endangering national security to surrender his travel document, and to restrict that person from leaving Hong Kong, lest some of the persons involved in the case abscond overseas.
• If the Secretary for Security has reasonable grounds to suspect that any property is property related to an offence endangering national security, he may, by notice in writing, direct that a person must not deal with the property…Anyone who knows or suspects that any property is property related to an offence endangering national security is obliged to make a disclosure to the Police Force as soon as is reasonably practicable, and must not disclose to another person any information which is likely to prejudice any investigation…Furthermore, the Secretary for Justice may also make an application to the court for confiscating the proceeds arising from an offence endangering national security and ordering the amount due be paid within a fixed period.
• If the Commissioner of Police has reasonable grounds to suspect that an electronic message published on an electronic platform is likely to constitute an offence endangering national security or is likely to cause the occurrence of an offence endangering national security, he may, with the approval of the Secretary for Security, authorise a designated police officer to request the relevant message publisher(s), platform service provider(s), hosting service provider(s) and/or network service provider(s) to remove the message; restrict or cease access by any person to the message; or restrict or cease access by any person to the platform or its relevant part(s)...Relevant officers may also apply to the magistrate for a warrant under specific circumstances to authorise police officers to request the relevant service provider to provide the identification record or decryption assistance as the case requires.
• Requiring Foreign and Taiwan Political Organisations and Agents to Provide Information on Activities Concerning Hong Kong.
• To effectively prevent and detect offences endangering national security and protect the confidentiality of information related to national security, all applications for interception of communications and covert surveillance operations must be approved by the Chief Executive.

A commentary on the economy, basically projecting greater confidence than what the data actually reveals. Here’s an excerpt:

“In May, China’s main economic indicators continued to improve, and economic performance continued to recover. Under the background of the epidemic of overseas epidemics and the severe contraction of world trade, such achievements are really commendable…The impact of the epidemic is a ‘stress test,’ which can not only test China’s economic development, development capabilities, and development level, but also demonstrate the stability and deep advantages of the Chinese economy. The basic trend of China’s economic stability and improvement over the long term has not changed. The basic characteristics of its potential, its resilience, its room for maneuver, and its many policy tools have not changed. The baptism of wind and rain shows the strong confidence and confidence of China’s economic development.”

Page 17: It’s interesting that the lead story on the international page is about education, given the chaos in the US with international students. It’s a report without much controversy, but arguing that countries need to expand investment in distance education, strengthen international cooperation, and expand technology applications to build a stronger and more flexible global education system. Another piece on China-Japan-South Korea cooperation on better management of air traffic. Finally, a story that criticises the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, using research by the Peterson Institute for International Economics to say: “Research by the US think tank Peterson Institute for International Economics shows that the new rules may lead to increased production costs, decreased competitiveness, and reduced investment and employment opportunities in the North American automotive industry. Christopher Wilson, deputy director of the Mexican Institute of the Wilson Center, believes that the relevant restrictions are a retrogression in North American regional economic integration.”