All posts by NNL - 158. page

As a commentary on February 2, Hong Kong Phoenix published some quotes from the book Huangpuping: Where Should China’s Reform Head? The book’s author is Zhou Ruijin. Zhou wrote a series of commentaries on continuing the opening up and reform in order to promote Deng Xiaoping’s reform in the 1990s. He used the pen name "Huangpuping" (皇甫平). "Huangpuping" in Chinese is a homonym for "commentary from Shanghai." He was later promoted to Deputy Chief Editor of People’s Daily.

The Phoenix article criticized the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) propaganda work. "There are now some (bad) signs in our ideology work. We need to watch out for being "right" [too liberal], but most importantly, we should prevent being "left" [too rigid in Communist ideology]."

"We suggest ‘no debate’ in the field of ideology." "Protecting netizens’ rights to freedom of expression will, for sure, help our next round of development."

"Some cadres in the Party’s propaganda management department manage media as if they are managing a timetable for trains. They implant the administrative management approach into media management, directly intervening in the form and process of news reporting."

"During society’s transformation period, it is normal that there are different opinions and discussions in the field of ideology. We can only guide them, but not suppress them. Citizen’s freedom of speech, as defined by the Constitution, should be protected. The era of uniformity in media reporting is gone."

Source: Phoenix Online, February 2, 2016
http://i.ifeng.com/news/sharenews.f?aid=105897369&url_type=39&object_type=webpage&pos=1&fresh=1

China Disciplinary Inspection Supervision Newspaper published an article that had the purpose of pressuring the Party Secretaries of ministries and provinces to truly implement Xi Jinping’s policies. It asked the disciplinary inspection teams that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Commission on Disciplinary Inspection (CCDI) sent to each ministry and province to check the implementation and hold the Party secretary (the number one person in the organization) responsible.

"The common problem that disciplinary inspection teams found was that there was a big gap between the Party organs’ understanding/action and the Party Central Committee’s requirements or the spirit of the General Secretary’s (Xi Jinping’s) speeches. Our Party treats the high-ranking officials as politicians. For those Party organizations that report directly to the Party Central Committee, quite a few of their number one persons are Party Central Committee members or Alternate Party Central Committee members. They attended all Central Committee’s important meetings and listened to the General Secretary’s speeches. When they went back to their organizations, they simply read the materials to their people and made a claim that they would support them. However, they took no concrete action at all …"

"(The inspection teams) should focus on the Party Secretaries to see if they have fully implemented the spirit of the General Secretary’s speeches."

Source: China Disciplinary Inspection Supervision Newspaper Online, January 25, 2016
http://csr.mos.gov.cn/content/2016-01/25/content_26321.htm

Xiake_Island is an account that People’s Daily (Overseas Edition) uses for microblogging. It recently published an article commenting on the official report of the Sixth Plenary Session of the 18th Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) Central Commission on Disciplinary Inspection (CCDI). The commentary was titled, "Who Was the ‘Significant Potential Political Danger in the Party’ That the CCDI Eliminated?"

The article emphasized that the report made a statement that the CCDI had never used before, "The investigation of Zhou Yongkang and Ling Jihua ‘has eliminated a significant potential political danger in the Party.’ … It is very rare to link a ‘significant potential political danger’ to individuals. … The reason it made this statement is that Xi Jinping said that (this group) ‘had political ambitions; out of their personal interests or the interests of a small group, they initiated a political conspiracy and conducted actions that damaged and separated the Party.’"

The article also said that, compared to the reports from previous years and Xi Jinping’s early speeches, one could tell that Xi felt there had been a significant status change in the anti-corruption campaign. It changed from what had previously been described as "severe and complicated" to the current situation of "an overwhelming form of suppression (of corrupt officials) is taking shape." Still, the anti-corruption campaign is "long-term," "tough," and "always ongoing."

"What is the ‘overwhelming form of suppression’? In Xiake_island‘s view, the balance between the two forces that support and resist anti-corruption has changed. The resisting force has been or is being eliminated, or at least does not have much power to fight back anymore. The anti-corruption move is no longer reversible."

Source: People’s Daily (Overseas Edition) Online, January 15, 2016
http://opinion.haiwainet.cn/n/2016/0115/c456317-29553991.html

China has established a new procedure. Before assuming office, each official will go through the process of taking an oath of allegiance to uphold the Constitution. The 70-Chinese letter oath states that the official is to "be loyal to the Constitution," "be loyal to the country," and "be loyal to the people." It does not mention being "loyal to the (Communist) Party."

On January 13, at the Supreme People’s Court, more than ten new judges took this oath for their first time.

According to the "Decision of the National People’s Congress on the Implementation of Taking an Oath (of allegiance) to the Constitutional System," starting January 1 of this year, all government employees, including those who work at the People’s Congress, the government, the People’s Court, and the People’s Procuratorate, will take this standard oath.

The oath, when translated into English, states:
"I pledge: (I will) be loyal to the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, safeguard the Constitution’s authority, perform obligations as required by law, be loyal to the country, be loyal to the people, be committed to my duty, be honest on my job, accept the people’s supervision, and work hard to build a socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, and harmonious."

Source: VOA Chinese, January 14, 2016
http://www.voachinese.com/content/voa-news-chinese-judges-vow-to-constitution-20160113/3143616.html

Recently, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) Central Commission on Discipline Inspection (CCDI) published a collection of Xi Jinping’s speeches on disciplinary issues. In addition to corruption, Xi also heavily criticized those officials who violated political rules.

Starting on January 9 and for four days in a row, the CCDI website published one article per day, each having one of Xi’s quotes in them. This might hint that Xi will expand the anti-corruption campaign to include a political violation campaign.

The following are the titles of these articles:

"Some People Have Come to an Unscrupulous, Reckless Point" – January 9.
"In Politics There Are Some Things One Should Absolutely Never Do; Otherwise, One Must Pay for it." – January 10.
"Some Cadres Put Themselves above the (Party) Organization: I Am the Biggest One in the World" – January 11.
"There Should Not Be All Kinds of Political Interest Groups within the Party" – January 12.

Source: CCDI website, January 9 – January 12, 2016
http://www.ccdi.gov.cn/yw/201601/t20160108_72292.html
http://www.ccdi.gov.cn/yw/201601/t20160108_72293.html
http://www.ccdi.gov.cn/yw/201601/t20160108_72294.html
http://www.ccdi.gov.cn/yw/201601/t20160112_72582.html

On January 5, Caixin published an interview that Global People Magazine had conducted of the scholar, Yu Keping (俞可平). Yu is a former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official and theorist.

On the question of what Western theories can be applied in China, Yu replied, "First, (China) has treated certain common values that human beings share, such as democracy, liberty, equality, the rule of law, and good governance, as unique Western factors and has rejected them. Actually, it is normal for these universal values to have some different characteristics in different countries. … But it should not be because the West has accepted them first that we then do not want democracy, liberty, or the rule of law. We already have deep lessons to learn on this issue."

Yu served as the Deputy Director of the Central Compilation and Translation Bureau that focuses on ideology and theory research. He resigned from that post to become a political science professor at Beijing University. Caixin introduced Yu as a "famous scholar and political scientist" and mentioned that his article "Democracy Is a Good Thing" had resulted in a lot of discussion in China.

Source: Caixin, January 5, 2015
http://opinion.caixin.com/2016-01-05/100896025.html