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Getting Veterans to Local Leadership Positions

Pei Jinjia (裴金佳), who is the Communist Party Secretary and the Minister of Veterans Affairs, published an article in People’s Daily that stressed how to get veterans into the local government’s leadership positions.

Pei said that veterans in general are politically loyal to the CCP, broad-minded, and dare to take responsibilities. He asked that the policy be implemented to allow the the “Veteran Party Secretary” practice of letting veterans serve the party secretary at the grassroot level offices.

Source: People’s Daily, February 2, 2023
http://cpc.people.com.cn/n1/2023/0202/c448544-32616175.html

People’s Lives: Organ Harvesting Happened in China 30 Years Ago

Mr. Guo Zhigen (郭志艮), a resident at Qingtao City, Shandong Province, told the Epoch Times that he has heard about an organ harvesting case that happened 30 years ago.

In April 1991, Mr. Guo stayed in the Hospital Affiliated with Qingdao University in Qingdao to treat his aplastic anemia. One summer afternoon, on his way to the bathroom, he heard someone crying when passing the nephrology department (hematology and nephrology departments were in the same area at that time). He asked the patient what happened and was told that the patient was going to receive a kidney transplant the next day and was worried about the result since he signed a document to relieve the hospital from accountability. The patient looked like an official under 40-years-old.

The patient’s family member also told Mr. Guo that the police had a “body confiscation team.” Police had already matched both the blood of the person to be executed and the recipient. On the day of execution, the police would ask the dead person’s family members for all sorts of documents to prove their relationship to the dead. As long as there was a document they didn’t bring with them, the police would then refuse to acknowledge their connection to the dead and they then declare the dead person’s body as unclaimed. The “body confiscation team” could then take it to sell to hospitals.”

According to Mr. Guo, the hospital performed two liver transplants on the next day. The operation for the patient he met went well, but the other patient died on the operating table. Qingdao’s newspaper reported that the kidney transplant was successful.

According to published information, the hospital affiliated with Qingdao University was among the first group of hospitals in China to do kidney transplants. It did the first kidney transplant in 1982.

Source: Epoch Times, January 31, 2023
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/23/1/31/n13919567.htm

Government and Leadership: China Plans to Delay the Retirement Starting Age to 65

China’s current retirement rule is that a male’s retirement starts at age 60 and a female starts at age 50 (female cadres start at 55). However, an internet posting, quoted a report by the CITIC Group, formerly the China International Trust Investment Corporation, saying that Beijing is planning to delay the retirement starting age. The government might announce the new plan this year, start implementation in 2025, and by 2055, reach the goal of males and females both retiring at age of 65.

A lack of workers due to the aging population is a reason for the authorities to consider delaying the retirement starting age. However, the big reason is that the government does not have enough money to pay for the retirement pensions.

Source: jrj.com, February 3, 2023
https://m.jrj.com.cn/madapter/finance/2023/02/03190037316790.shtml

Hospital’s Death Certificate Needs State Council’s Approval If the Cause Is COVID

Since December, China has suffered a massive number of COVID infections and a large number of deaths. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) hides the infection count and especially the death tolls. Epoch Times obtained an official document from the Guangxi Autonomous Region Epidemic Prevention and Control Command Center (document number SJSX223577) issued on December 25, 2022. The document stated that any death caused by COVID must be approved by the central government.

The document said that the State Council’s Joint Prevention and Joint Control System required that, for any death of a COVID patient or patient who had both other diseases and COVID, the death report must first be discussed at the hospital or the medical institute within 24 hours. Then it needs to pass the city’s (COVID) expert group’s review and get its approval. Then it needs to be submitted to the Autonomous Region’s Health Committee’s designated email account, and then following the procedure it is to be reported to the State Council’s Join Prevention and Join Control System’s Medical Treatment Team. Once the State Council’s team approves the cause, the corresponding medical institute can submit it as a COVID case to the Epidemic Direct Report Network. Death cases without the “state’s approval” cannot be submitted to the Epidemic Direct Report Network as a COVID case.

The document also stressed keeping the process confidential and not to disclose the city’s (COVID) expert group’s opinion. Cases with severe COVID infections or deaths, “due to the information’s sensitive nature, must be handled by designated personnel, and must be submitted to the designated email account. WeChat or QQ (social media tools that are more likely to be leaked to the public) are strictly prohibited.”

Source: Epoch Times, February 1, 2023
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/23/2/1/n13919948.htm

Saudi Arabia Used China’s Laser Weapon to Shoot Down Drones

In March 2022, Saudi Arabia shot down 13 drones using the China-made “Silent Hunter” (寂静狩猎者) laser weapon system. This might be the laser weapon’s first showing in real war.

Currently many countries lack effective ways to deal with invasive drones. The traditional ariel defense weapon (e.g. an air-defense missile) is too expensive to use to shoot at a drone and also a drone might be too small for a large-sized air-defense radar system to find.

The advantages of China’s Silent Hunter system are:

  1. It has a low cost. The cost of one shot is less than $1.
  2. It is powerful. Its standard output is 30K watts and its maximum distance is 4,000 meters. It can penetrate 5 layers of a 2 millimeter thick steel plate at a distance of 800 meters and a 5 millimeter steel tank at a distance of 1,000 meters.
  3. It has a high mobility.
  4. It has a high degree of automation.  It automatically captures and locks on the target, it can strike multiple targets at the same time, can switch to a new target and complete aiming in six seconds, and it can hit its targets at an extremely high hit rate.

Source: Phoenix, February 4, 2023
https://news.ifeng.com/c/8N8VrBhtl1w

Chinese Students Do Not Want to Go Back to China after Graduation

China has about 1 million students studying outside of China. Many have expressed that they will think twice about whether to go back to China after graduation. One major reason is the communist regime’s three-year enforcement of the “Zero-COVID” policy that they understand is not for the interest of the people but for politics. Quite a number of these Chinese students had gathered in the campus or in front of Chinese Embassy or Consulate to appeal or support their fellow people in China. (Editor’s Note: The Chinese students studying abroad used to be a group loyal to Beijing in the past, but the spread of COVID has changed many of them).

Another reason for their not wanting to return is the dismal economic situation in China.

Source: Liberty Times, January 29, 2023
https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/world/breakingnews/4195240

Chinese Sovereign Wealth Fund Owns More than 250 U.K. Properties

The Guardian reported that the China Investment Corporation (CIC), Sovereign Wealth Fund that manages China’s foreign exchange reserves, owns more than 250 properties across the United Kingdom.

CIC has more than 970 billion pounds (US $1.2 trillion) of assets. Via its offshore entities, it bought those properties in Britain, including distribution centers that are key to the flow of food and goods in multiple regions including the south-west and south-east of England and the Midlands.

Land Registry records suggest that CIC has spent at least 580 million pounds on UK properties, although the true figure is likely to be significantly higher because some records are incomplete.

Source: The Guardian, January 27, 2023
https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jan/27/china-owns-vast-offshore-network-uk-real-estate-records-reveal

Economy: Local Governments Have No Money

The real estate industry in China is facing a severe problem. People are not buying and as a result, builders do not want to acquire new land from the government for development either. As a result, the local government’s income has dropped dramatically.

An Internet article listed many numbers to show that, in 2022, many local governments were severely short of money.

The article said that, according to data from the Ministry of Finance, from 2017 to 2021, the proceeds from the land use rights concessions was a significant portion (above 30 percent) of the total local government’s revenue. It had reached 8.4 trillion yuan in 2020 (43.59 percent of their total revenue), 8.7 trillion yuan in 2021 and the percent was 41.81. The local governments depend heavily on land sales.

The article then said that in 2022 the land use rights concessions brought in only 3.4 trillion yuan, a 31 percent drop from the previous years’ amount (Editor’s notes: The number does not match. China.com said the land use rights concessions in 2022 were 6.7 trillion yuan, a 23.3 percent drop from the previous year).

The article then discussed the percent completed of planned land use rights transferred in 2022. Among 22 cities, only four cities completed 100 percent or above. Beijing completed only 36 percent. Changchun City in Jilin Province and Chongqing City only completed 16 percent. They couldn’t complete the goal because builders did not want to take on land.

Changchun City sold only 3 pieces of land in 2022, bringing in 780 million yuan in total. In 2021, the city’s public spending budget was 44 billion yuan and revenue from land use rights concessions was 68 billion yuan. The lack of land sales in 2022 left the city facing a big hole in its public spending.

Sources:
1. 51.ca, January 19, 2023
https://info.51.ca/articles/1178169
2. China.com, January 30, 2023
http://house.china.com.cn/2129918.htm#:~:text=%E5%B9%B4%E4%B8%8B%E9%99%8D23.3%25-,%E8%B4%A2%E6%94%BF%E9%83%A8%EF%BC%9A2022%E5%B9%B4%E5%9B%BD%E6%9C%89%E5%9C%9F%E5%9C%B0%E4%BD%BF%E7%94%A8%E6%9D%83%E5%87%BA%E8%AE%A9%E6%94%B6%E5%85%A5,%E6%AF%94%E4%B8%8A%E5%B9%B4%E4%B8%8B%E9%99%8D23.3%25&text=%E8%B4%A2%E6%94%BF%E9%83%A8%E6%95%B0%E6%8D%AE%E6%98%BE%E7%A4%BA%EF%BC%8C2022,%E6%AF%94%E4%B8%8A%E5%B9%B4%E4%B8%8B%E9%99%8D20.6%25%E3%80%82