Tracking People’s Daily — September 9, 2020

Page 1: Two stories on the front page today — both about yesterday’s ceremony commemorating the fight against COVID-19. The first one is about Xi quoting words from the “frontlines,” stirring emotions. Here’s an excerpt: “At the conference, many people sighed with emotion, and some wiped their tears from time to time.”

One should read this piece. I cannot summarise it. The way in which Xi is treated here is worth noting. For instance, this: “the voice of General Secretary Xi Jinping is deep and powerful.” Or this: “In the applause, Zhang Dingyu, who was praised by name, stopped writing the record excitedly. Just now, when the medal was awarded, he walked across the red carpet under the warm gaze of the general secretary…During the fight against the epidemic, he moved at the same pace to the ward again and again…”

The other story is a report about the day’s proceedings and excerpts from Xi’s speech. I’d recommend Xinhua’s English versions (here’s another) for this.

Page 2 has Xi Jinping’s full speech. Let me break down the key aspects of his speech. Xi said:

• That the Party had led the battle against Covid, “withstood an arduous historical test, and made great efforts to achieve major strategic results in the fight against the novel coronavirus epidemic.”
• Xi thanked a host of groups of individuals, other parties in China, and international friends for the role they all played.
• He reiterated the official timeline. “It took more than a month to initially curb the spread of the epidemic, around two months to control the daily new cases in the local area to within single digits, and around 3 months to obtain decisive results in the defense of Wuhan and Hubei.”
• “The Party Central Committee insisted on putting the safety of people’s life first…We established a central leadership group for epidemic response, dispatched a central steering group, and established a joint prevention and control mechanism for the State Council. We put forward the prevention and control requirements for early detection, early reporting, early isolation, and early treatment…We went all out to treat patients, never to miss an infected person, never to give up on any patient, and adhered to the integration of traditional Chinese and Western medicine. All costs have been borne by the state, which maximized the cure rate and reduced the mortality rate.”
• He talked about the building of the Huoshenshan and Leishenshan hospitals, the whole-of-society effort that was carried out, the role of medical personnels. “With the sincerity of the people and respect for life, the medical staff raced against the clock and fought continuously. They were under extreme physical and psychological pressure. Many people’s cheeks were strangled by masks…Many people’s hands turned white due to prolonged soaking in sweat. Some comrades even died in the line of duty. The vast number of medical staff used flesh and blood to build the Great Wall of Steel to stop the virus…”
• He then talked about resumption of work after the virus had been contained. “We stepped up efforts to respond to macroeconomic policies, did a solid job of “six stabilities”, fully implemented the “six guarantees”, formulated a series of policies to help enterprises, and issued a number of policies to strengthen employment priority, promote investment and consumption, stabilize foreign trade and foreign investment, and stabilize Industrial chain supply chain and other measures to promote the development of new business formats, promote the orderly recovery of transportation, catering, supermarkets, cultural tourism and other industries, implement a package of policies to support the development of Hubei, and resume school and class in batches.”
• The next chunk of the speech is about engagement with the international community. Xi gave some details that have also been shared previously, adding that “We actively fulfilled our international obligations in an open, transparent, and responsible manner. We proactively reported the epidemic information to the World Health Organization, relevant countries and regional organizations as soon as possible, and released the novel coronavirus gene sequence and other information as soon as possible.”

He then said: “The fight against the novel coronavirus epidemic has achieved major strategic results, fully demonstrating the significant advantages of the leadership of the Communist Party of China and my country’s socialist system, fully demonstrating the great strength of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation, fully demonstrating the profound heritage of Chinese civilization, and fully demonstrating China’s being conscious of its responsibility as a major country; it has greatly enhanced the self-confidence, pride, cohesion, and centripetal force of the entire party and the people of all ethnic groups, and will surely inspire us to overcome obstacles and advance courageously on the new era and new journey.”

The next section of the speech highlights a few key ideas and is full of rhetorical flourishes. So Xi speaks about:

• “The supremacy of life, which embodies the profound benevolence tradition of the Chinese people and the people-centered value pursuit of the Chinese Communists.”
• “The whole nation is united, which embodies the unity and mighty power of the Chinese people as one heart, sharing weal and woe.”
• “The anti-epidemic warriors on all fronts are not afraid of danger, see death as home, are ready to face difficulties, rush to the critical moment, go on mission with their lives, and take great care of all living beings. Among them, there are hospital directors who left their hope of life to others and missed treatment, husbands who could never honor their wedding promises to their wives, and mothers who sacrificed their young children in the treatment post…”
• Respect for science, which embodies the Chinese people’s practical character of seeking truth, being pragmatic, pioneering and innovative.
• A common destiny, which embodies the moral responsibility of the Chinese people to help each other and love peace…adhering to the concept of One World, One Family…”

“The great anti-epidemic spirit is in line with the long-standing characteristics and cultural genes of the Chinese nation. It is the inheritance and development of patriotism, collectivism, and socialist spirit. It is a vivid interpretation of the Chinese spirit and enriches the national spirit and the spirit of the times. We must vigorously promote the great anti-epidemic spirit in the whole society and transform it into a powerful force for comprehensively building a modern socialist country and realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”

In the next chunk of the speech, Xi draws inferences from the fight against the epidemic.

• “Both history and reality tell us that as long as we unswervingly persist in and strengthen the party’s overall leadership, continuously enhance the party’s political leadership, ideological leadership, mass organization power, and social appeal, and always maintain the flesh and blood ties between the party and the people, we It will definitely be able to form a strong synergy and calmly deal with various complex situations and risk challenges.”
• “Both history and reality tell us that as long as we closely rely on the people, do everything for the people, and fully stimulate the people’s indomitable will and perseverance, we will surely be able to unite the overwhelming majority of the people closely and continue to create a new Chinese nation.”
• The great practice of the fight against the epidemic has once again proved that the significant advantages of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics are the fundamental guarantee for resisting risks and challenges and improving the effectiveness of national governance…This fight against the epidemic has effectively demonstrated my country’s national system and governance… and the superiority of the system.”
• “Both history and reality tell us that as long as we continue to liberate and develop social productive forces, continue to enhance economic strength, scientific and technological strength, and comprehensive national power, we will continue to enrich the sense of gain, happiness and security of the people, and continue to uphold and develop Chinese characteristics. The material foundation for socialism and the realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation has become increasingly solid, and we will surely be able to make the socialist ship with Chinese characteristics ride the wind and waves and travel steadily.”
• “History and reality tell us that as long as we continue to cultivate and practice the core socialist values, and always inherit and promote the excellent traditional Chinese culture, we will be able to build the spiritual home of the people of all ethnic groups across the country, and build a solidarity and indomitable progress among the Chinese people.”
• “Unity and cooperation are the right way in the world. Any practice that is selfish, blames others, reverses right and wrong, and confuses black and white will not only cause harm to the country and its people, but also to the people of the world. Both history and reality tell us that as long as the international community upholds the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind, adheres to multilateralism, and follows the path of solidarity and cooperation, people from all over the world will be able to work together to tackle various global issues and build a better home”

The final bit of the speech is about the agenda going ahead:

• He says that the goal ahead is to “construct a new development pattern, coordinate the domestic and international situations, handle the two major issues of development and security, promote the modernization of the national governance system and governance capabilities, and continue to create a new situation in the development of the party and the country.”
• “At present, the epidemic is still spreading around the world, and the risk of sporadic cases and local outbreaks in the country still exists. To win the fight against the epidemic requires continuous efforts…”
• “We must do a good job in the “six stability” work, fully implement the “six guarantees” task, and ensure the completion of the decisive victory in building a well-off society in all respects and the decisive battle against poverty.”
• “We must uphold the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind and work with the international community to cope with increasingly severe global challenges.”
• “We must adhere to the bottom line thinking, increase the awareness of danger, and effectively prevent and resolve various risks along the way…opportunities and challenges coexist, this is the eternal dialectic law.”

Page 3: The formal statement on commending people and collectives for the COVID-19 fight. The formal decision by the Party’s Central Committee on commending party members. Positive comments from people about Xi’s speech. There’s also more reports on this on Page 6. Page 9 to 13 have the full list of 1499 people who have been commended. The list of 500 collectives starts on Page 13 and goes to page 14; then there’s the list of CCP cadres on pages 14 and 15.

Page 4: A few stories to note. First, Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe met with Indonesian Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto. According to Chinese media, the Indonesia side said that it is “willing to strengthen pragmatic cooperation with the Chinese side in such areas as exchange of missions, joint training, and equipment and technology, so as to promote continuous new development in the relations between the two militaries.” Next, a short report on China’s new global data security initiative. Announcing this, Wang Yi said that “global digital governance should follow the three principles of upholding multilateralism, taking into account security and development, and adhering to fairness and justice.”

PD says that the main content of the initiative includes: (Here’s Wang’s original remarks)

• actively maintaining the openness, security and stability of the global supply chain;
• opposing the use of information technology to damage other countries’ critical infrastructure or stealing important data;
• taking measures to prevent the use of information technology to infringe on personal information, and opposing the abuse of information technology to target other countries
• Companies are required to respect local laws and countries must not force domestic companies to store overseas data within the country;
• States must not directly access overseas data from companies or individuals without permission from other countries;
• Companies must not install backdoors in products and services.

WSJ’s report on this says that “the Chinese initiative comes about a month after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the Clean Network program, which would exclude Chinese telecommunications firms, apps, cloud providers and undersea cables from internet infrastructure used by the U.S. and other countries.”

It adds: “The initiative doesn’t mention the U.S. or its Clean Network program. Mr. Wang nonetheless made it clear in his announcement that the move comes in response to the White House effort. ‘Bent on unilateral acts, a certain country keeps making groundless accusations against others in the name of ‘clean’ network and used security as a pretext to prey on enterprises of other countries who have a competitive edge,’ Mr. Wang said, according to the transcript. ‘Such blatant acts of bullying must be opposed and rejected’.”

Finally, a commentary on Sino-US ties. This one pushes back against the argument that it was because of the US that China developed. It says “Some U.S. politicians have no shame in trying to tamper with history, fabricating the absurd thesis that ‘the essence of China’s reform and opening up is that the United States helped China,’ reflecting an extremely unhealthy mentality…It must be pointed out that there has never been a savior in the world, and the development of any country is fundamentally dependent on itself. As a large country with a population of 1.4 billion, China is even less likely to rely on the charity and gifts of other countries to develop.” To be fair, the piece also adds: “Openness brings progress, and closure will inevitably lag behind. China’s development cannot be separated from the world, and the world’s prosperity also needs China.”