China’s Central Talent Work Conference was held in Beijing last week. At the meeting, Xi Jinping proposed that China should thoroughly implement the strategy of strengthening the country with talent in the new era. China should “train, introduce, and make good use of” talent in an all-round way, and accelerate the construction of an important talent center and innovation highland in the world. In addition, he also encouraged talent to be patriotic and expressed the need to insist on the (Communist) Party” managing the talent.”
Xi Jinping also mentioned that, by 2025, the construction of the main force of technological innovation will make important progress, the level of gathering of top scientists will be significantly improved, and there will be many with strategic scientific and technological talent in key core technology fields. By 2030, he hopes that there will be a group of leaders and pioneers in major technological fields and emerging frontiers. By 2035, he hopes that China’s strategic scientific and technological strength and high-level talent team will be among the best in the world.
In March this year, China issued the “Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People’s Republic of China and Long-Term Goals for 2035.” The outline mentions the need to promote the optimization and upgrading of manufacturing industries and the strengthening of the country’s strategic scientific and technological capabilities. The outline reads: “Develop and implement strategic scientific plans and scientific engineering in basic core areas related to national security and overall development. Aiming at artificial intelligence, quantum information, integrated circuits, life and health, brain science, biological breeding, and aerospace technology, deep earth and deep ocean, and other frontier fields, implement a series of forward-looking and strategic national major scientific and technological projects.”
After the U.S. government’s review, the term “Thousand Talents Program” has now disappeared from the Chinese Internet, but the recruitment of talent continues to exist in many different forms. In 2019, the long-term innovative talent projects, short-term innovative talent projects, entrepreneurial talent projects, young talent projects, and overseas high-level talent projects under the “Thousand Talents Plan” were unified into the high-end foreign expert introduction program that the Ministry of Science and Technology of China initiated. This year, the Ministry of Science and Technology of China launched the 2021 national foreign expert project application work and the China University of Mining and Technology and other institutions of higher learning have also issued notices that they will start the application of the 2021 national foreign expert project.
Source: Voice of America, October 6, 2021
https://www.voachinese.com/a/Xi-calls-for-building-worlds-talent-center-for-future-development-20211006/6257788.html
Briefings - 190. page
Fu Zhenghua, Recently Taken Down, Was against Xi Jinping
Fu Zhenghua is a key official in the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) law enforcement system. From 2013 to 2018, he served as the Deputy Minister of Public Security . In 2015. He became the head of the “610 Office” (an organization that the CCP set up to persecute Falun Gong) He was the Minister of Justice from 2018 to 2020. Afterward, he was moved to a semi-retired post in the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
On October 2, 2021, the CCP’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced that it was investigating Fu for “serious violations of discipline and national laws.”
Epoch Times reported two cases in which Fu was against Xi:
The first case was the handling of the death of Lei Yang. Lei Yang was a Chinese environmentalist who died while in police custody in Changping District, Beijing. An independent autopsy confirmed that his death resulted from police brutality. The police said Lei was soliciting a prostitute in a convenience store and thus they arrested him. Lei’s family rejected the accusation.
When the case was reported, the general public overwhelmingly demanded that the police officers who abused their power be punished. Xi Jinping even gave an order, requesting to “address the case fairly and with justice.” However, over 4,000 Beijing police officers wrote a joint letter to Xi, to protest the arrest of their “comrades” and threatened to quit. Xi was furious for the threat and ordered an investigation. It turned out that Fu was behind the letter. Xi was afraid that if those police officers quit, the gangsters in Beijing might then be out of control, so, in the end, he yielded. The government let those police officers go.
The second case was reported by a wealthy businessman, Xu Chongyang from Wuhan, Hubei Province. He wrote an 18,000-word letter on how the officials stole his assets worth over 100 million yuan (US $16 million). His letter also revealed that Fu was involved in Zhou Yongkang and Bo Xilai’s anti-Xi work.
In Xu’s account, the Beijing police officers said to him during an interrogation, “You mailed a letter to Xi Jinping’s cousin, to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to Hu Jintao, and to Xi Jinping. Do you know, Hu Jintao is just a fool? If our boss Fu gave us an order, we could kill him right away. Xi Jinping’s cousin was also under our monitoring.” (Editor’s Note: Hu Jintao was the General Secretary of the CCP at that time, but he did not have full power. Former CCP head Jiang Zemin, though retired, held more power via his followers including Zhou Yongkang and Bo Xilai.)
During the same interrogation, a staff member pointed to another person, “See him? He is the younger brother of Fu Zhenghua. Don’t say we monitor you, we even dare to monitor Wang Qishan and Xi Jinping. We asked you to stop (Xi’s) car but you didn’t do it. We want to announce to the outside world that it was Xi who ordered us to arrest you and to kill you. (We will) ruin him!”
Source: Epoch Times, October 2, 2021
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/21/10/2/n13276888.htm
China to Increase Investment in Research and Development Significantly by 2025
At the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Talent Work Conference held in Beijing on September 27 and 28, 2021, Xi Jinping said that China’s competition for national power is a competition for talent. The top echelons of the CCP leadership attended the conference.
Xi said that China is currently embarking on a new journey to a modern socialist country in which high-level technological self-reliance is the key. “Competition for comprehensive national power is, in the final analysis, a competition for talent.” Xi laid out a timetable for China to become a leading world power in science and technology within two decades, with world-class talent.
By 2025, China’s investment in research and development should have increased substantially, with major progress made in building up top-notch scientists for scientific and technological innovation.
By 2030, China should have established a talent system that can adapt to the needs of high-quality development. The system should have significantly improved the ability to train and attract innovative world-class talent.
By 2035, China should have attained a competitive advantage in the competition for talent in various fields and should rank among the leading countries in the world for its strategic and technological strength, with an army of top-notch talent.
On October 2, 2021, People’s Daily issued an editorial promoting Xi’s remarks on the importance of recruiting, training, and using talent to build up national power.
Sources:
1. The People’s Government of China, September 28, 2021
http://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2021-09/28/content_5639868.htm
2. People’s Daily, October 2, 2021
Experts: Severe Power Shortages to Occur Frequently in the Coming Five Years
State media China News Weekly (中国新闻周刊) quoted experts who expect that, against the backdrop of “carbon peak” and “carbon neutral” targets, it is expected that a larger scale and more severe power shortages will occur frequently during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021 to 2025).
The recent blackouts in China have affected more than 10 provinces, among which the Northeastern provinces have had to “pull the plug” and cut residential power usage completely.
Between 2016 and 2020, China cut its coal production capacity of over 1 billion tons. Yuan Jiahai, a professor at North China Electric Power University, pointed out the fact that the country’s annual coal production was between 5 and 3.75 billion tons, respectively before and after the cut in capacity.
Since last year, the coal-producing province of Inner Mongolia has been affected by the coal business-related anti-corruption campaign. A large volume of coal production capacity has been reduced due to factors such as an increased measure of safety supervision of coal mining, environmental protection, and the criminalization of the overcapacity of production.
On the demand side, since 2017, China’s coal consumption has rebounded back to an annual level of 4 billion tons, while the advanced coal production capacity released in these two years is about 200 million to 300 million tons per annum. There is a gap between total coal supply and demand.
According to Feng Yongsheng, a scholar at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, against the backdrop of the “carbon peak,” and the “carbon neutral” target, because the generation of renewable energy is random, volatile and intermittent, a high proportion of new energy in the power system will lead to a growing gap between the peak and base power load, or the difference in the electric generation between high demand and minimum level required. Feng expected that during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021 to 2025) period, there will be frequent occurrences of large scale and sever power shortages in China.
Source: Central News Agency, October 4, 2021
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202110040256.aspx
Real Estate Company Huaxia Xingfu Offered Debt Restructure Plan
China’s real estate companies are fighting for their survival. While the world’s focus was on how the Evergrande Group (恒大集团) will resolve its debt problem, another real estate company, Huaxia Xingfu (华夏幸福), became the first company to offer a debt restructuring plan.
Huaxia Xingfu has debts valued at 219 billion yuan (US$34 billion). On September 30, it held a conference with financial institute debt holders. After the meeting, it announced a plan to pay off or defer its debts. The announcement included the following:
- Sell high-quality assets to recoup about 75 billion yuan in cash (Editor’s note: This action is not a direct debt payment; all the items below are.)
- Sell assets, which will deal with associated debts of 50 billion yuan.
- Extend or settle high-priority financial debts of about 35.2 billion yuan.
- Pay back debts of 57 billion yuan with cash.
- Set up a trust with the company’s own property holdings to offset 22 billion yuan.
- For the remaining 55 billion yuan in debt, the company will extend, reduce interest rates, and gradually settle them through subsequent business development.
Though Huaxia Xingfu claimed that it will not run away from any debt, a senior debt restructure expert believes that the loss to the debt holders will be inevitable and the loss could be huge.
For the first item, he estimated that Huaxia Xingfu may have to sell assets worth 150 to 250 billion yuan to get back 75 billion cash (court auctions usually result in sales at 30 to 50 percent of the original values). Huaxia Xingfu will use its properties for the second item and the debt holders may recover 50 to 70 percent of their money. The third item might refer to loans not secured by properties, which on average will result in a recovery rate of 10 to 30 percent. The debt holder may get 10 to 20 percent back from the fourth item. The fifth item may have a 60 to 80 percent loan recovery. The recovery rate on the last item, the sixth, may be just 5 to 10 percent.
Source: Sina, October 1, 2021
https://finance.sina.com.cn/tech/2021-10-01/doc-iktzqtyt9175683.shtmlto
Huawei to Recruit More Foreign Talent for Research
Ren Zhengfei, the founder of the Chinese telecommunications equipment giant Huawei, proposed that the company would hire more foreign talent and turn its U.S. R&D centers into “recruitment agencies.” He also stated that Huawei’s R&D centers in other countries should also step up talent recruitment.
Huawei made an announcement on September 28, 2021. It stated that Ren made the above remarks on August 12, 2021, at a Huawei meeting on how to recruit foreign talent.
At that meeting, Ren pointed out that Huawei is at a critical stage of strategic survival and development. It must be more active in acquiring the best talent in the world. In addition to recruiting the top talent in China, it must increase the recruitment of overseas Chinese students. More importantly, Huawei should step up its efforts to hire foreign talent and increase the budget for Huawei’s overseas R&D centers.
He expressed that the United States imposes restrictions on some Master’s and Ph.D. student visa applications. Chinese students returning from studying in the United States will gradually decrease in the future. Therefore, Huawei must find ways to attract talent from other countries who are studying and working in Europe and the United States.
Ren asked that Huawei’s overseas R&D centers take responsibility and carry out the mission of recruiting talent. “It is necessary to turn the North American R&D centers into talent recruitment agencies.” Ren emphasized that all overseas R&D centers must do the same in order to build a global talent network for Huawei.
Ren said, “We need to recruit some ‘high noses’ [foreigners] that know how to use ‘foreign guns and cannons.’ It may take three to five years to move gradually from the approach of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) army [against Japan in World War II] to an internationalized approach. In particular, we must attract outstanding talent from other countries who have studied or worked in the United States and Europe to work in China.”
Ren further stated that overseas R&D centers are primarily for research, not product development and that Huawei should encourage those currently engaged in product development to work in China for some time.
Ren believed that it is necessary to support some outstanding Ph.D. candidates to join Huawei in China and do post-Doctoral studies in coordination with Chinese universities.
Source: Huawei, September 28, 2021
http://xinsheng.huawei.com/cn/index.php?app=forum&mod=Detail&act=index&id=6466593
Anti-American Movie Entertains during Chinese National Day Holiday
The Chinese melodrama Chosin Reservoir, which is based on a battle during the Korean War, hit the box office bringing in revenue of over 2 billion yuan (US$0.3 billion) within five days of its release amid the Chinese government’s propaganda and heightened anti-American sentiment.
It has been a tradition of the Chinese film industry to release “patriotic” blockbusters during the National Day holiday period. Since 2019, the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China, it has become standard to release three films at once for the holiday. Chosin Reservoir was the most eye-catching of the three this year. It depicts the battle in November of 1950 during the Korean War, where the Chinese army suffered heavy casualties due to the assault of the U.S.-led United Nations forces and the cold weather.
The three-hour war drama, costing up to 1.3 billion yuan (US$0.2 billion), with a total staff of over 12,000 people, was shot over a period of 180 days. Schools and workplaces organized students and employees to see the movie. Stories of emotional viewers have flooded China’s social media. Many audience members said they walked out of the theater with tears in their eyes.
There were critical reviews of the film, but they were soon taken down from the Internet.
Source: Central News Agency, October 5, 2021
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202110050150.aspx
Beijing Orders Inspections of 25 Financial Institutions
On September 26, 2021, the CCP Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) announced that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will conduct political inspections of 25 financial institutions.
Zhao Leji, a CCP politburo standing committee member and head of the CCDI, stressed, during a conference ahead of the inspections, that it will be a thorough disciplinary inspection of the 25 financial institutions. He said that the inspections are to ensure political supervision and serve as a means of “tightening the rule of the Party.” The inspections will be conducted from a political perspective. He called for in-depth reviews to uncover any political deviations by CCP organizations at these financial institutions.
The 25 financial institutions include state-owned banks, stock exchanges, regulatory commissions, insurance companies, asset management companies, and other financial institutions that invest in private companies. The complete list follows: People’s Bank of China, China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, China Securities Regulatory Commission, the Administration of Foreign Exchange, China Investment Corporation, China Development Bank, the Export-Import Bank of China, the Agricultural Development Bank of China, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the Agricultural Bank of China, the Bank of China, China Construction Bank, the Bank of Communications, CITIC Group, the Everbright Group, the People’s Insurance Group of China, China Life Insurance, China Taiping Insurance Group, China Export and Credit Insurance Corporation, the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, China Huarong, China Great Wall Asset Management, China Orient Asset Management, and China Cinda Asset Management.
Last month, on August 17, 2021, Xi Jinping presided over the tenth meeting of the CCP Central Finance and Economics Committee and emphasized that it is necessary to coordinate the prevention and resolution of significant financial risks, punish financial corruption, and prevent and control financial risks.
Recently, the CCP investigated and disciplined several CCP officials from financial institutions at the central level, including the China Development Bank, the Agricultural Development Bank of China, and the Bank of Communications.
It is noted that China’s financial system has traditionally been controlled by the CCP “princelings,” the second generation of the CCP’s top families. This includes former president Jiang Zemin and his faction.
This inspection is the eighth round of inspections and the largest financial inspection since Xi Jinping took office as the CCP General Secretary of the 18th National Congress. The previous seven rounds of inspections occurred in February 2018, October 2018, April 2019, September 2019, May 2020, October 2020, and May 2021.
Sources:
CCP Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, September 26, 2021
https://www.ccdi.gov.cn/toutiao/202109/t20210926_251273.html,
https://www.ccdi.gov.cn/toutiao/202109/t20210926_251271.html