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China to Strengthen Military Training for High School Students

China’s Ministry of Education and the office of National Defense Mobilization under the Central Military Commission of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) released a “Syllabus for the Military Training of High School Students.” It will be implemented on August 1, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CCP. The syllabus specifies that the military training curriculum for Chinese high school students should not be less than 56 class hours or 7 days in total.

According to the official website of the Ministry of Education, the preamble of the syllabus, which was released nationwide on March 26 and only announced on April 13, emphasizes that the syllabus was developed in order to implement fully “the Party’s education policy,” implement “the fundamental requirements of the goal of strengthening the military,” comprehensively regulate the organization and implementation of military training for high school students, and “strengthen the building of national defense reserve forces.”

The syllabus emphasizes that the organization of student military training is a “mandatory educational activity” in high schools, and is an important measure that will implement comprehensively the “Party’s education policy,” the “strategic military policy for the new era and the overall national security concept.” It will also strengthen national defense education, the building of the national defense reserve force and the quality of education for young students.

The syllabus specifies that the military training for Chinese high school students consists of two parts: “basic military knowledge” and “basic military skills.” The teaching time ranges from 7 to 14 days, with a total of no less than 7 days and 56 class hours (one “class hour” means one class period including the class break).

Among them, “basic military knowledge” includes 24 class hours, of which 12 hours are compulsory training and 12 are of optional training. “Basic military skills” has 88 class hours, including 44 hours of compulsory training and 44 of optional training.

This syllabus strictly orders that all types of high schools should not reduce the content of military training and the required hours. Schools are also encouraged to offer courses on military knowledge and skills training to broaden the content of military training.

Source: Central News Agency, April 13, 2021
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202104130343.aspx

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

China Launches Hotline for People to Report Unapproved Discussions of CCP History

China’s cyber regulator recently set up platforms for people to report “distortions of the history of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), attacks on CCP leaders and the denigration of heroes and martyrs.” It quotes the CCP’s General Secretary Xi Jinping who once emphasized the need to “clearly oppose historical nihilism.”

In the modern Chinese Communist’s discourse, “historical nihilism” is a term that refers to the criticism of the socialist system or the leadership of the CCP. Xi Jinping once said that the key of “historical nihilism” is to deny fundamentally the leading position of Marxism and the historical inevitability of China’s socialist path, and to deny the leadership of the CCP.

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the nation’s top cyber regulator, recently circulated an article on its WeChat public account. “Some people with ulterior motives, under the banner of so-called ‘reflecting on history’ and ‘recovering the truth,’ have been spreading false remarks of historical nihilism by taking things out of context and making things up out of nothing.” The article said, “They maliciously distort, denigrate and deny the history of the party, the state and the military, in an attempt to confuse people.”

CAC’s report center opened a channel for reporting “harmful information related to historical nihilism” on its official website, its smartphone apps and its telephone hotline. Accepted contents include: distorting the history of the CCP and China, attacking the CCP leadership and its ideology and policies, denigrating heroes and martyrs, and denying the traditional Chinese culture, revolutionary culture and advanced socialist culture.

Xi Jinping attaches much importance to the education of CCP history. In one meeting in 2013, he mentioned that one reason behind the collapse of the Soviet Union was the denial of the Soviet Union, the denial of the history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the denial of Lenin and Stalin, and historical nihilism. In another meeting in February this year, he said, “One must clearly oppose historical nihilism, strengthen ideological guidance and theoretical analysis and clarify the ambiguous knowledge and one-sided understanding of some major issues of the party’s history.”

Source: Central News Agency, April 11, 2021
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202104110163.aspx

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

CCP Has Westerners Promote the Party, including an Oscar-winning Director

As the centennial of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), propaganda activities in film, television and pop culture are in full swing, the authorities are also bringing in Westerners to “tell the China story.” The Shanghai Municipal Government and the Xinmin Evening News cooperated to produce a series of videos entitled “100 Years of the Great Party – Foreigners Tell the Stories.”

The series interviews 100 foreigners from all over the world, including artists, scholars, scientists, entrepreneurs, and sports stars, who share their feelings about Shanghai. The film was set to be shown for 100 days starting from April 8th.

The first episode featured Malcolm Clarke, an English film maker who received two Academy Awards for Best Documentary. In 2020, Clarke and his team were allowed to stay in the city of Wuhan to shoot a documentary about the outbreak of Covid-19.

Zhou Huilin, the propaganda chief of the CCP’s Shanghai Municipal Committee, said she hoped that the foreign media would “continue to adhere to an objective and impartial stance” in their reporting, so that the international community could understand the CCP, China and Shanghai.

Source: Central News Agency, April 9, 2021
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202104090171.aspx

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

China Shuts Down Social Media Accounts on Military Affairs

On March 22, China’s popular military Internet forum “Super Base Camp (超级大本营)” made a sudden announcement that it would permanently close four discussion boards, including the navy, air force, army, and aerospace and new concept weapons, starting from the early hours on March 23.

Afterwards, military public WeChat accounts, such as “Sina Military Affairs (新浪军事)” and “Military Sub-Dimension (军武次位面)” had also been shut down for “violations.” The victims also include Tencent’s own military channel the WeChat account “Military Lecture Hall (讲武堂).”

Some people pointed out that military fans often publish photographs of new military aircraft or warships under construction. As many of the suspended military forums are involved in discussions of weaponry, the recent move was likely to prevent leaks of secrets.

Overseas media observed and reported that some Chinese netizens commented that those social media sites or accounts often “create patriotic rumors” to incite people’s nationalistic emotions, resulting in the “Wolf Warrior sentiment.”

Zhuang Rongwen, deputy head of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Central Propaganda Department and Director of the Cyberspace Administration of China, said at a January meeting in the year of the CCP’s 100th anniversary, that it is of special importance to maintain the order of network communication and ensure that the network space is full of “positive energy.” He demanded that cyberspace place “adherence to the correct political direction, public opinion guidance and value orientation” in the first place. Zhuang also called for an increase in the penalties for illegal accounts and their platforms.

By late January and early February, many self online publishers and public account operators had already received a notice that mentioned specifically that, if an account “does not have the relevant qualifications, it is recommended that it not publish, comment on and interpret information related to political, economic, military, or diplomatic fields and major emergencies, to avoid violating relevant laws and regulations, causing inconvenience to subsequent operations.”

Source: Central News Agency, April 8, 2021
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202104080369.aspx

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

To Celebrate the CCP’s Centenary, All Chinese Cinemas Ordered to Play at Least Two “Red” Movies a Week

To celebrate the centenary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the state Film Administration issued a “Notice on the commencement of the exhibition and screening of outstanding films to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party.” The Notice required that, from April to December, all cinemas across the country show at least two “red movies” every week, promoting the CCP.

The CCP’s mouthpiece media People’s Daily Online reported that the notice requires that two movie theater alliances – The People’s Cinema and The Nationwide Alliance of Arthouse Cinemas – are tasked with no less than 5 “Red Movies” per week. The notice asked that, nationwide, urban and rural communities and school campuses conduct movie screening activities having the theme of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the CCP. CCP members and officials are to be organized to watch some “key films on CCP history” together.

Source: Central News Agency, April 7, 2021
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202104070079.aspx

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

On Eve of Qingming, Wuhan Ran out of Chrysanthemum

This year, the Qingming Festival fell on Sunday April 4. It is an important date in the traditional Chinese lunar New Year calendar as that is when millions travel to tend to the graves of their ancestors and family members, offering flowers and burning incense.

Xiaoxiang Morning News, an influential local newspaper in Hunan province, reported that 320,000 people packed the mausoleums and grave yards in Wuhan city on the eve of the Qingming Festival. The report also said that in order to buy a bunch of chrysanthemum, a traditional funeral flower, Wuhanese came out early in the morning and waited in long lines, even though there was a short of supply and the price was high. With too many people buying the flower, Wuhan ran out of chrysanthemum. When a Chinese writer Yan Xiaoyi shared the story on her social media account, someone reported her and her account was banned.

According to official figures, as of April 16 last year, the number of deaths from the Corona virus in China was 3,869; Wuhan accounted for nearly two-thirds of the total number of infections and more than three-quarters of the deaths.

The Civil Affairs Office of the Hubei province government released the information that, in the first quarter of last year, more than 150,000 seniors in the province suddenly disappeared from the list of benefit recipients. The authorities refused to offer an explanation, and forbade the media or individuals from collecting statistics on funeral related information.

Source: Radio Free Asia, April 5, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/tomb-04052021042615.html

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Chinese Official Media Highlight 20th Anniversary of Hainan Island Incident

China’s official media have recently publicized and commemorated the death of People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) pilot Wang Wei, who was killed 20 years ago in a collision between the United States Navy EP-3E ARIES II signals intelligence aircraft and a PLAN J-8II interceptor fighter jet. Against the backdrop of the tense confrontation between the two countries, the move is seen as a tactic to rally anti-American sentiment.

On April 1, 2001, the EP-3 was operating about 70 miles (110 km) away from the PRC island province of Hainan, and about 100 miles (160 km) away from the Chinese military installation in the Paracel Islands, when it was intercepted by two J-8 fighters. A collision between the EP-3 and one of the J-8s caused the PRC pilot to go missing (later presumed dead), and the EP-3 was forced to make an emergency landing on Hainan. The J-8 pilot, Lt. Cdr. Wang Wei, was posthumously honored in China as a “Guardian of Territorial Airspace and Waters.” His widow received a personal letter of condolence from President George W. Bush.

An official account on WeChat posted an article titled “April 1, the Most Complicated Day for Chinese People.” The article listed a number of incidents that occurred on April 1, the first of which was Wang Wei’s death in service. The article extrapolated from the incident and emphasized that the event has prodded Chinese to work harder and prepare for a comeback. Twenty years later, China is no longer the same China. It also criticized the United States for acting unilaterally, imposing sanctions at will, and for pointing and poking fingers. “The world is scared when the U.S. gets mad.”

On March 31, the Communist Party’s mouthpiece China Global Television Network (CGTN) and Xinhua News Agency also covered the news in high profile. The reports emphasized that Wang was killed because the U.S. military violated China’s territorial airspace. In addition, news media with a military background such as PLA Daily, 81.cn, have also carried articles in memory of Wang.

With no apparent easing of tension between China and the United States, Chinese netizens have paid considerable attention to this incident. Many have left comments criticizing the U.S. for being hegemonic and using its fists to force people into compliance. Some netizens also said, “Today’s China is no longer the China of 20 years ago that would only take orders from the United States,” and “China’s military strength has gradually caught up with that of the United States.”

Source: Central News Agency, April 1, 2021
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202104010137.aspx

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

CCP Installed a Committee in Alibaba’s Beijing Headquarters

According to a recent report in Chinese media, Alibaba has recently established a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) committee at its headquarters in Beijing. Previously, the company only had a CCP committee at its Hangzhou headquarters. After the implementation of the “dual headquarters” in Beijing and Hangzhou in 2016, the company only had a CCP branch, instead of a CCP committee in Beijing, where CCP members accounted for more than 30 percent of its employees. The establishment of the CCP committee at its Beijing Headquarters has elevated the CCP’s organizational footprint in China’s largest e-commerce company.

1.585 million, or more than 40 percent of private enterprises in China have internal CCP organizations.

Hu Jia, a Chinese social activist, told Voice of America that, since coming to power in 2012, Xi Jinping has built up CCP organizations within the state sector. Against the current backdrop of the severe international situation, the CCP wishes to extend its tight grip over private enterprises. “The most valuable ones are those of the unicorn type, which have new technologies and the capacity to innovate in the Internet economy. Such enterprises are capably of wealth creation and societal control, and can also participate in the international economic and technological competition and even confrontation. The CCP would like to have more power over these entities.”

The expansion of CCP committees in Alibaba is also seen by public opinion as a sign that the CCP is short of money and technology and wants to use private enterprises to “feed” state-owned enterprises. Sang Pu, a commentator, told the American media Sound of Hope that the party actually controls and manipulates private enterprises in mainland China. The reason why the CCP is strengthening the Party’s leadership is that it is short of money and needs to take further action against these tech giants.

The Constitution of the CCP and China’s Corporate Law allow the establishment of CCP organizations in private enterprises. As part of its United Front Work, the CCP proposed to “establish a modern private enterprise system with Chinese characteristics” and emphasized that the party should have three privileges in private enterprises: human resources, surveillance and audit, and the leadership over trade unions.

“To be successful under the CCP’s rule, private companies must have official support and maintain some kind of intimacy with the government. From the perspective of private enterprises, they have their own considerations. If you don’t have a CCP committee, and if you don’t give sufficient convenience for CCP members to conduct party activities, you will always have the feeling that big brother is watching you, and that your wealth and business are often in an unstable and insecure state. That is because officials can control you by any means, such as tax inspections, firefighting, public health and other channels.” Hu Jia said that Chinese private enterprises somehow have to show loyalty in order to have the opportunity to survive and thrive.

Source: Voice of America, April 2, 2021
https://www.voachinese.com/a/CCP-within-Alibaba-20210402/5838104.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics