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COVID Diary Writer Removed from Presidium of the Chinese Writers’ Association

Fang Fang, the author of the “Fang Fang’s Diary” that recorded the epidemic during the outbreak in Wuhan City, has been missing from the list of the presidium of a recent nationwide congress of the Chinese Writers’ Association (CWA).

Fang, born in Wuhan, is a member of CWA and was once on its national committee, the association’s governing body. CWA is a government affiliated organization that the Chinese Communist Party uses to control Chinese writers.

After the outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan from late 2019 to early 2020, Fang wrote daily from January 25 to March 25, 2020, detailing her observations and personal reflections during the city’s closure. The diary was once an important source of information about the development of the epidemic in Wuhan, as it was closer to the truth than the official media reports.

During the publication of her diary, public and private pressure were already mounting against her. In April of 2020, after the announcement that her diary would be published overseas, she immediately became the target of nationwide criticism from pro-Beijing forces.

In an interview with foreign media, Fang did not back down in the face of pressure. She said that she had been ostracized by the Chinese authorities and the literary community, and that her literary career had changed forever. This was the first time she had encountered such a situation since she started her literary career in 1982. Fang believed that this shows that “far-left nationalism” is deeply rooted in China, especially in the minds of government officials.

In addition to Fang Fang, another famous Chinese writer Zhang Kangkang, who once supported Fang during the incident, was also excluded from the list of the presidium of CWA.

Source: Central News Agency, December 16, 2021
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202112160295.aspx

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

RFI Chinese: Chinese Company Will Build a Thousand Schools in Iraq

Radio France Internationale (RFI) Chinese Edition recently reported that, according to officials from the Iraqi Ministry of Construction and Housing, Iraq needs to build a total of 8,000 schools “to fill the gap in the education field.” Iraq’s payment method will be petroleum products. Not long ago, with the Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Kazimi as a witness, Iraq signed 15 agreements with two Chinese companies. China Power Construction Group will build 679 schools, and Sinotech will build 321 schools. These school construction projects are part of the cooperation framework agreement between the governments of China and Iraq. The first batch of school buildings will start soon and will be delivered in one year. It will take two years to complete the construction of all 1,000 schools. This is the number of schools built in the first stage. Around 3,000 schools are expected to be built in the second stage, and 4,000 schools will be built in the final stage. There are 40 million people in Iraq. Of those, nearly 3.2 million school-age children are out of school. Iraq is a country with extremely rich energy reserves, but after decades of the war and corruption that has plagued the country, its infrastructure is declining.

Source: RFI Chinese, December 19, 2021
https://rfi.my/80uM

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

People’s Daily: The Central Economic Work Conference Took Place in Beijing

People’s Daily recently reported that The Central Economic Work Conference was held in Beijing from December 8th to 10th. Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and the rest of the members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CCP Central Committee, attended the conference. The conference focused on summarizing the economic work in 2021, analyzing the current economic situation, and planning the economic work for 2022. The conference identified that the Chinese economy is facing the triple pressures of shrinking demand, supply shocks, and weakening expectations. The conference also recognized that, with the impact of the pandemic, the external environment has become more complex, severe and uncertain. The Party leadership asked for the people to adhere to the general tone of seeking progress while maintaining stability. The conference demanded that next year’s economic work should be steady and focus on stability. All regions should take responsibility for stabilizing the macro economy, and all branches of the government should actively introduce policies conducive to economic stability. The official report of the conference used the word “stability” 25 times. The conference also laid out seven key policies: First, macroeconomic policies must be stable and effective; second, micro-economic policies must continue to stimulate the vitality of the market; third, structural policy should focus on smoothing the national economic cycle; fourth, science and technology policies must be firmly implemented; fifth, the reform and open-up policy must activate the growth momentum; sixth, regional policies should enhance the balance and coordination of development plans; lastly, social policies must hold the bottom line of people’s livelihood.

Source: People’s Daily, December 11, 2021
http://cpc.people.com.cn/n1/2021/1211/c64094-32305295.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Government/Politics

The 2020 Chinese Population Growth Fell to a 59-Year Low

Well-known Chinese news site Sohu (NASDAQ: SOHU) recently reported that, according to the China Statistical Yearbook 2021, just released by the National Bureau of Statistics, compared with 2019, the country’s 2020 population increased by 2.04 million. Under the influence of multiple factors such as Covid-19 and the reduction of women of childbearing age, the number of births in 2020 hit a record low for recent years. Based on the data of the National Bureau of Statistics, on the net population increase over the years since 1949, analysts found that the net population growth in 2020 was the lowest since 1962. From 1962 to year the 2000, China’s annual net population growth was always above ten million. Since 2016, even when the comprehensive two-child policy was implemented, Chinese population’s net increase declined every year. Based on current data and research, there is a lack of impetus to increase the total population. It is getting harder and harder, and the number of births is quickly decreasing. The trend is getting closer and closer to the edge of the intersection of births and deaths. People are the primary force of social development. Population is a key variable that affects sustainable economic growth. If the fertility rate is too low, the scale drops too fast, and the young population is shrinking, the aging problem will become very prominent, weakening the vitality of the economy, and increasing the burden on the whole society.

Source: Sohu, December 14, 2021
https://www.sohu.com/a/507990793_115479

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Hong Kong Democracy Movement Leaders Were Sentenced to Jail

China News recently reported that eight people, including Jimmy Lai, the founder of the newspaper Apple Daily, and former members of the Hong Kong Legislative Council Li Cheuk-yan and Wu Chi-wai, were sentenced to from four to fourteen months of jail time. They were sentenced because, last year, they participated in and incited others to participate in an illegal assembly. According to BBC Chinese, the judge stated that last year’s June 4th rally had not been approved due to Covid-19, but the defendants ignored the risk of virus transmission and called on citizens to gather in Victoria Park. Ultimately, there was no large-scale transmission resulting from that gathering. Jimmy Lai submitted a personal letter of explanation. He reiterated that he did not participate in the June 4th Victoria Park rally last year. He only held a candle in front of reporters to remind everyone to remember that there was a group of young men and women in Tiananmen Square 31 years ago who sacrificed their lives for truth and justice. He also said that if he had been guilty of mourning the June Fourth Movement, he would be happy to be punished and share the responsibility of seeking truth and justice for the souls of the dead.

Sources:
(1) China News, December 13, 2021
http://www.chinanews.com.cn/ga/2021/12-13/9628861.shtml
(2) BBC Chinese, December 13, 2021
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-59635861

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

State Media Urges Communist Party Members to Have Three Children

The state media, China Report, published an editorial on November 23, 2021, urging Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members to have three children. The original article was removed the next day, and major Chinese media followed suit. Screenshots, however, have gone viral on social media. 

According to the China Report editorial, CCP members have a personal obligation to help tackle the country’s plunging fertility rate by having three children.

Each CCP member is required to “align his thoughts and actions and those of his family with the major decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee, and proactively and consciously take action to implement the three-child policy.”

“No Party member should use any excuse, objective or personal, not to marry or have children, nor can they use any excuse to have only one or two children,” said China Report. “Every Party member must bear the responsibility to implement the three-child policy for China’s population growth. Every Party member must also fulfill his obligation to grow China’s population.”

To the extent that some Party members can no longer have children due to age, health, and other reasons, the editorial urges them to “actively educate, guide, and encourage their family members or those around them to implement, actively and consciously, the three-child policy.” “You must never ignore or allow your family or people around you not to marry or have children, and you must never ignore or allow your family or people around you to give birth to only one or two children using this or that excuse.”

China Report is a state-owned media under the China Foreign Languages Publishing Administration, also known as the China International Publishing Group (CIPG).   

Source: China Report, November 23, 2021
Screenshot at https://news.creaders.net/china/2021/12/10/2428749.html
Full text at http://huaitu.cn/news/68886.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Deutsche Welle: China Suddenly Became a “Democratic” Country

For several weeks, China has been trying to inform the world and its people, “We are a democratic country.” The background in the strategic change is the direct competition between Beijing and the United States. Chinese state media and propaganda agencies have spared no effort to declare through all possible channels, “China is a democratic country and superior to the West.”

Earlier this month, China invited foreigners to participate in an online “high-end dialogue” that competed with the American Democracy Summit. Among the participants were representatives from dictatorial countries such as Syria and Cuba, as well as so-called experts, including some international scholars who teach at Chinese universities. Not surprisingly, they also concluded that Chinese democracy is superior to Western democracy.

Roland Boer, a professor at the Institute of Marxism at Dalian University of Technology, is one of them. He said at the dialogue meeting, “Socialist democracy is a more honest and superior form of democracy. It is encouraging to see that China is about to win back democracy for socialism in the world. … Socialism is certainly more democratic than capitalism.”

Source: Deutsche Welle, December 15, 2021
https://www.dw.com/zh/中国突然成了民主国家/a-60130940

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Some Provinces in China Cut Government Employees Salaries

Some Chinese netizens posted on the Internet that, starting in December, civil servants in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, and Fujian Provinces received notices of pay cuts of about twenty to thirty percent. Scholars believe that this phenomenon reflects the severity of China’s economic challenge, since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) puts the “officials (government employees)” in a much higher class than the normal citizens.

Some examples shared on the Internet include: the annual salary of a police station chief in Shanghai dropped from 350,000 yuan (US$ 55,000) to less than 200,000 yuan, and the salary of a civil servant was reduced from 240,000 yuan to 150,000 yuan. Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province announced cuts in staff positions as well as salaries without giving out reasons. Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai cut the performance bonus for civil servants, causing people’s annual income dropped from 300,000 yuan to 200,000 yuan, and in some cases, from 200,000 yuan to 150,000 yuan. Certain areas in Guangdong Province have stopped distributing civil servants’ subsidies for two months and teachers’ subsidies for one month.

According to Henan Business Daily, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection responded to an inquiry by saying that civil servants who drive taxis or deliver food after work are not considered disciplinary offences. Some netizens view this as the authorities allowing or encouraging ordinary civil servants to take part-time jobs in other industries after work.

Source: Radio Free Asia, December 9, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/jingmao/ql2-12092021054023.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Government/Politics