Tracking People’s Daily — September 22, 2020

Page 1: First, Xi Jinping’s speech (full English text) at the 75th anniversary of the UN. He basically talked up the UN and said that it remains significant in today’s world. It was a short speech that hit the key talking points, from criticising unilateralism, Cold War mentality, and hegemonism to talking up multilateralism, win-win partnerships and the need to respect international commitments. All this is fine rhetorically, but the issue is whether Beijing has also been practicing what it preaches.

So Xi said that “the world now stands at a new historical starting point. Let us renew our firm commitment to multilateralism, work to promote a community with a shared future for mankind, and rally behind the banner of the UN to pursue greater unity and progress.” His proposals to this effect were as follows:

• “No country has the right to dominate global affairs, control the destiny of others, or keep advantages in development all to itself. Even less should one be allowed to do whatever it likes and be the hegemon, bully or boss of the world. Unilateralism is a dead end. All need to follow the approach of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits.” He then added that “representation and voice of developing countries be increased.”
• “Relations among countries and coordination of their interests must only be based on rules and institutions; they must not be lorded over by those who wave a strong fist at others. Big countries should lead by example in advocating and upholding the international rule of law and in honoring their commitments.” (Great advice, but will China take this when it comes to SCS)
• “Cold War mentality, ideological lines or zero-sum game are no solution to a country’s own problem, still less an answer to mankind’s common challenges. What we need to do is to replace conflict with dialogue, coercion with consultation and zero-sum with win-win.”
• Finally, he spoke vaguely about the UN needing to address tangible problems. Smart line here: “There must be a cure, not just a therapy.”

Xinhua also has a report about “overseas experts” hailing Xi’s speech. In PD, a summary of the speech was followed by a long piece, attempting to showcase China as an upholder of multilateralism and responsible global power. The piece marks the 5th anniversary of Xi’s speech at the 70th anniversary of the UN. This is when he’d spoken about the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind. Some really interesting bits here, in terms of how narratives are constructed.

• First, there’s coverage of articles published in foreign press, which present the Chinese Party-state perspective. And then these are replayed in domestic media to showcase global appeal.
• The story says that Kyrgyzstan President Jeenbekov read one of Xi’s Governance of China books and mentioned this to Xi in a call recently, telling him that the epidemic once again highlights the practice of what you proposed, i.e., the urgency, reality and timeliness of the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind.
• Then this: “According to Pakistani President Arif Alvi, the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind deeply interprets the true meaning of cooperation, peace and development, and reflects the universal aspirations of the people of the world. Former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said that the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind points to ‘a common human ideal that creates a happy life for all’.”
• The piece then talks about new forms of multilateral engagement with Arab states, Latin America, through BRICS, the G20, China’s contribution to the UN, the proposal of a new data security initiative and so on as: “This is the demeanor of a great country that sets an example.”
• Then the piece talks about “the courage of a big country that goes against the wind” in terms of opening of the economy, revising negative lists, cutting tariffs and signing investment deals. It says: “China bravely opened up its sails, unswervingly expanded its opening up, and actively promoted the construction of an open world economy.” Of course, please ask countries trying to address trade deficits or the EU after its recent summit.

There’s more of such stuff on Page 3 in a really long piece, if you’d like to read it. Also on Page 3 is a piece about China’s UN peacekeeping operations. If you read the White Paper on this last week, then this has little new to say.

Next a report (English version) about the State Council issuing a master plan for three new pilot free trade zones (FTZs) in Beijing, Hunan and Anhui. In Beijing and Anhui, the focus is on innovation, with commercialisation of technology and the development of the real economy being the key focus of the Anhui FTZ. In Hunan, the focus is on building a world-class, high-end manufacturing cluster, an international investment and trade corridor, and a leading area for China and Africa trade cooperation. Also, there’s a plan to expand the Zhejiang FTZ to “focus on building a new type of international trade center, an international shipping and logistics hub, and the construction of a commodity resource allocation base centered on oil and gas.”

Page 4: A few of Zhao Kezhi’s visits to Gansu and Qinghai, where he talked about Tibet. This paragraph is really interesting. Zhao said that “It is necessary to fully understand the severity and complexity of the struggle against separatism, resolutely overcome blindly optimistic thinking and relaxed mood, earnestly make ideological and work preparations to deal with acute and complex struggles, and resolutely guard against and resolve major risks and challenges. We must seek long-term strategies and take multiple actions to consolidate the foundation. We must pay close attention to the key tasks of fighting against separatism and maintaining stability, strengthen intelligence analysis and judgment, improve handling plans, strengthen the construction of emergency response forces, and strengthen the management of religious affairs in accordance with the law. , Continuously improve the ability to prevent and respond to risks and challenges, and always firmly grasp the initiative in the fight against separatism.”

Page 9: On the theory page, there’s a review piece looking at China’s economic achievements during the 13th 5-year-plan. There’s some really useful data points in this, but nothing not heard before. I’m highlighting the piece because you’ll hear about these data points much more in the weeks and months to come heading into the next plenary session where the 14th 5-year-plan should be unveiled.

Page 16: A report saying that Beijing will build the world’s first networked cloud-controlled high-level autonomous driving demonstration zone. It says that “by 2022, the five systems of smart roads, smart cars, real-time clouds, reliable networks, and accurate maps will be completed, and the key aspects of technology and management of connected cloud-controlled autonomous driving will be opened up to form a city-level platform.”

Page 17: A long piece on the Iran issue at the UNSC. The piece takes off from Mike Pompeo’s September 19th statement, announcing sanctions on Iran. The statement says that the US “expects all UN Member States to fully comply with their obligations to implement these measures. In addition to the arms embargo, this includes restrictions such as the ban on Iran engaging in enrichment and reprocessing-related activities, the prohibition on ballistic missile testing and development by Iran, and sanctions on the transfer of nuclear- and missile-related technologies to Iran, among others. If UN Member States fail to fulfill their obligations to implement these sanctions, the United States is prepared to use our domestic authorities to impose consequences for those failures and ensure that Iran does not reap the benefits of UN-prohibited activity.”

In response, China said that the US has withdrawn from the agreement; “therefore, it is illegitimate for the United States to demand the Security Council invoke the snapback mechanism.” The PD story adds that “the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement on the 20th and emphasized that Russia will continue to maintain and ensure the implementation of the Iran nuclear agreement, and the UN Security Council Resolution 2231 will not change…(Josep Borrell) issued a statement saying that the United States should no longer be regarded as a participant in the agreement and has no right to initiate a ‘quick restoration of sanctions’ mechanism.”