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“Xi Jinping Thoughts” A Required Course in Shanghai Elementary and Secondary Schools

On August 3, the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission issued the “Shanghai Elementary and Secondary School Curriculum Plan for the 2021 School Year.” The Plan specifies that the elementary school version of “Xi Jinping’s Thoughts on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era” will be taught in the first semester of the 3rd and the 5th grades. The middle school version will be taught in the third semester of junior high school; and the high school version will be taught in the first semester of senior high school. The course is mandatory. Each course is to be taught for one hour per week.

The notice emphasized that the city’s primary and secondary schools should not use the original or modified version of foreign teaching materials without getting approval from the city’s educational authorities. At the same time, the notice requires that the “revolutionary culture and the socialist culture” be incorporated into the whole process of primary and secondary education.

Source: Central News Agency, August 7, 2021
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202108070070.aspx

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

CCP’s Central Propaganda Department Launches Campaign against Fake News

The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) is China’s government agency in charge of news media and all publication platforms. On August 3, SAPPRFT published an article reporting that the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) Central Propaganda Department recently held a teleconference on launching a special campaign against news extortion and fake news. The special campaign includes a focus on cracking down on news agencies and their personnel who use “illegal news activities,  online communication platforms, public accounts that use illegal news activities, and social organizations and individuals who use illegal news activities.”

Ten CCP and government agencies, including the Central Propaganda Department, the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, the State Administration of Taxation, the State Administration of Market Supervision, SAPPRFT, and the All-China Journalists Association jointly organized he campaign.

Political scientist Chen Daoyin told Radio Free Asia (RFA) that the campaign is related to the upcoming politically sensitive period before the 20th CCP National Congress next year. “The Politburo believes that the current domestic and international situation is complicated and severe, and that the economy has yet recovered and become balanced. In addition, this is a sensitive period before the 20th National Congress. It is the CCP’s usual practice to eliminate all the noises and ensure that only the voice of the Party is heard, so as to achieve unity of thought and the authority of the Party.”

Source: Central News Agency, August 5, 2021
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202108050263.aspx

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Chinese Think Tank Report Finds Fault with U.S. Covid-19 Response

On August 9, three Chinese think tanks published a report titled, “‘America Ranked First’?! The Truth about America’s fight against COVID-19.” The three think tanks were The Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China, and the Taihe Institute and Intellisia Institute – in Beijing.

The report was developed into five chapters as follows: “For partisan competitions, not for people’s lives,” “Anti-science and against common-sense measures,” “System failures result in the pandemic being difficult to control,” “The pandemic exacerbated the social gap,” and “The Willful destruction of global resistance to the pandemic.”

The report criticized the U.S. response in several areas, including political infighting, monetary policy, hatred against Asians, “allowing” the spread of the virus, and the “creation” of international conflicts.

The portion ‘America Ranked First’ refers to Bloomberg’s June 28 report. “The U.S.’s Stunning Turnaround in the Pandemic,” which claimed that the U.S. has surged to No. 1. in Bloomberg’s Covid Resilience Ranking.

The report concluded, that “the U.S. well deserves to be called the world’s No.1 anti-pandemic failure, the world’s No. 1 country of political blaming, the world’s No. 1 country of virus spreading, the world’s No. 1 country of political division, the world’s No. 1 country of abusive currency issuance, the world’s No. 1 country of turmoil during the pandemic period, the world’s No. 1 country of disinformation, and the world’s No. 1 country of origin for tracing terrorism.”

Source: China Central Television, August 9, 2021
http://m.news.cctv.com/2021/08/09/ARTIsfOioJpzCdUoxLzKie9V210809.shtml

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Waves of Emigration One Year after Implementation of Hong Kong’s National Security Law

A year after the implementation of the Hong Kong’s National Security Law, the region has faced waves of departures of Hong Kong residents. In the first five months of this year, the Hong Kong police received 15,707 applications for a “Certificate of No Criminal Record,” a necessary document for many Western countries’ immigration processing. Ming Pao cited the Education Bureau statistics that, as of October of last year, primary and secondary schools lost about 15,400 students within a year.

A parent told Voice of America that the contents of elementary school textbooks carry ideologies from mainland China, focusing on China’s achievements without mentioning any issues such as the “2008 Chinese milk scandal.” She and her husband no longer wanted their son to receive one-way and untrue information about China.

“Hong Kong is not a good place for study, because the academic freedom is now gone,” said 16-year-old Michael, a leader of the local student organization.

As for the “age gap” in Hong Kong’s population after a large number of primary and secondary school students born and raised in Hong Kong emigrated to foreign countries, Michael estimates that they will soon be replaced by the influx of new immigrants of mainland Chinese at a rate of 150 per day. Hong Kong will gradually become one of China’s ordinary Chinese cities.

Source: Voice of America, July 31, 2021
https://www.voachinese.com/a/hong-kong-schools-suffering-student-exodus-due-to-emigration-under-nsl-20210731/5986115.html

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

China Launches Campaign against Cyber Industry

On Monday July 26, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) announced that it will launch a six-month special campaign against the country’s Internet industry. The campaign focuses on “threats to data security and violations of user rights.” MIIT’s action is seen as part of a larger purge of high-tech companies and a police action against so-called “misuse” of personal information. The MIIT had launched a similar campaign in November 2019, targeting applications (apps) that violate users’ rights. By June 11 of this year, a total of 117 apps had been put under examination. The Chinese government is intensifying enforcement actions against tech giants in the areas of anti-monopoly, data security, and financial compliance. Tech giants have almost total control of China’s entertainment, retail and other industries.

Source: Voice of America, July 26, 2021
https://www.voachinese.com/a/China-launches-6-month-campaign-to-clean-up-apps-20210726/5979646.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Controversies around Chinese Gymnast’s Pick of “Anti-Japanese Music” at Tokyo Olympics

On Sunday July 25, in a qualifying match, Chinese women’s gymnastics player Tang Xijing, chose Jiu Er, the end credits song of the Chinese TV series Red Sorghum as the background music for the competition.

The TV series Red Sorghum, starring the Chinese actress Zhou Xun, is adapted from the novel by Nobel Prize winner Mo Yan. Set in Shandong Province during China’s war against Japan between 1937 and 1945, it tells the story of a man and a woman who ended up being killed by the Japanese for participating in the resistance movement.

For many Chinese people, Jiu Er is a familiar melody that reminds them of the TV series and stories of flighting against the Japanese invasion. In addition, Tang also chose a Chinese patriotic song Me and My Motherland for the competition.

Chinese netizens overwhelmingly expressed support for Tang’s pick of this anti-Japanese song for the Tokyo Olympics.

Some posted, “I want to cry when I hear this song; we are strong.”

“The main business is to win. The side business is to take revenge.”

“Not only will the national anthem be played on Japanese soil, but also anti-Japanese songs will be on the game field.”

“(The pick of Jiu Er) is to protest Japan’s provocations in its history of invasion and on its meddling in the Taiwan Strait.”

“When the motherland is strong, you can go to the home of the people who bullied you and hit them in the face.”

“Win win win, we’ve won in spirit.”

However, a few netizens pointed out that it is unethical and against the spirit of the Olympics to play an anti-host song on the host’s home turf. On Twitter, some Japanese netizens expressed their “discomfort” and said that Tang’s action was “deliberately insulting to Japan” and “disrespectful to Japan”.

Source: Lianhe Zaobao, July 27, 2021
http://www.czaobao.com/shiju/20210727/97286.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Potential Loopholes in Health Code Management in Nanjing

The city of Nanjing in eastern China has virtually been sealed off and residents advised to stay indoors after 31 new Covid-19 cases were reported on Tuesday, pushing the total number of coronavirus infections up to a claimed total of 112 in the ongoing outbreak. The Local government has used a color-based health code systems to control people’s movements and curb the spread of the coronavirus.

People with yellow health code are required to be isolated for 14 days and do three Covid-19 tests within a week. If the test results are negative, the health code will be switched to a green color and restrictive measures will be lifted.

On July 24, a pregnant woman accidentally discovered that her health code had turned yellow for no apparent reason. As a result, she was unable to have a maternity checkup or visit a doctor. The topic was then widely discussed on social media platforms.

Many people in Nanjing expressed on social media that they had never approached the vicinity of Nanjing Lukou International Airport, where the outbreak occurred, but their health codes changed from green to yellow overnight. The codes of students at Southeast University in downtown Nanjing also turned yellow, although many of them had not stepped outside the campus for quite some time. At the same time, some people reported that within a few days, their health code changed from green to yellow and then from yellow to green.

In addition to the unexplained color changes, the personnel management of those with the yellow code also has problems. Many yellow-coded personnel said they were not notified of isolation or Covid-19 testing.

Source: Central News Agency, July 28, 2021
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202107280247.aspx

Briefings | | |   Social Stability