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Government/Politics - 46. page
Xi Jinping’s Red Lines for Art and Literature
Recently, Xi Jinping drew some red lines for the art and literature in China. In addition to “spreading contemporary Chinese values and telling China’s stories well,” he instructed that art and literature should not take the “vulgar” route, and “cannot be tainted with the stink of money and be the slaves of the market.”
On Tuesday December 14, Xi, as well as other Politburo Standing Committee members, spoke at the congresses of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles (CFLAC) and the China Writers Association (CWA), where he gave the above instructions to the delegates.
CFLAC is an umbrella organization composed of nationwide associations of writers and artists in various fields. Although CFLAC claims it is a non-governmental organization whose mission “is to unite and serve writers and artists, to train literary and art talents, and to promote the development and prosperity of literature and the arts,” It is under the direct leadership of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Propaganda Department. With a national, provincial, and city-level hierarchical organization structure, CFLAC aims to control millions of Chinese writers and artists so that their work toes the Party line. CWA is a subordinate organization of CFLAC.
At the congress, Xi expressed the hope that “the vast number of artists, remember their mission … and make new and greater contributions for the comprehensive construction of a modernized socialist country and the realization of the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”
Peng Liyuan, Xi’s wife and Vice President of CFLAC, was also sitting on the podium alongside other Politburo Standing Committee members.
Xi drew some red lines for art and literature work. “Literature and art should be popular, but should never be vulgar; be lifelike, but not promote unhealthy culture; be innovative, but not engage in strange and ridiculous things; it should be rewarding, but not be tainted with the stink of money or be the slaves of the market.”
Source: People’s Daily, December 15, 2021
http://politics.people.com.cn/n1/2021/1215/c1024-32308066.html
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
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
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
Taiwan: The CCP Interfered with a Taiwan Referendum
On December 18, Taiwan held four referendums. The Kuomintang, the opposition party, proposed all four of them to challenge the current administration’s decision. The voting result, though close between yes and no, rejected all proposals.
The Information Operations Research Group (IORG), a Taipei-based research group focusing on the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) information manipulation and influence over Taiwan, found that the CCP conducted a heavy information war on one of the referendum topics: whether to ban imports of pork containing the leanness-enhancing additive ractopamine.
Researchers pointed out that the CCP took on the ractopamine pork issue to ruin the Taiwan-U.S. relationship. The Taiwan government approved the pork imports last year, to remove a block for a free trade deal with the U.S. where ractopamine is widely used.
The IORG report found that from April to November this year, there were eight main hot discussions on the referendums and all of them could be traced back to the CCP. Among them, seven were about the ractopamine pork. On April 10, Beijing’s media started spreading a rumor that “the U.S. gets money from Taiwan by selling ractopamine pork and weapons.” In May, when COVID cases increased in Taiwan, the CCP’s media said, “Even after buying the U.S. ractopamine pork and weapons, Taiwan still cannot get COVID vaccine from the U.S.” After the U.S. announced that it would donate 750,000 doses of vaccine to Taiwan, the CCP changed its story line to, “Because Taiwan bought the American ractopamine pork and weapons, it should get the American vaccines.”
Other CCP information manipulation on ractopamine pork included spreading incorrect or fake news without scientific backing. Some examples follow: “Hong Kong detected Taiwan pork with ractopamine severely exceeding the standard.” “Taiwan soldiers ate the American ractopamine pork,” “Over 160 countries banned ractopamine pork,” “Following netizen’s words, China’s media called the ractopamine pork ‘drugs.’”
Related postings on Chinascope:
- Taiwan: Voice of China Commented on Far Eastern Group’s Statement of “Anti-Taiwan Independence”
- Taiwan: CCP Imposed Hefty Fines Because a Company Supported the DPP in Taiwan
Source: VOA, December 16, 2021
https://www.voachinese.com/a/report-shows-CCP-initiated-pork-discussion-to-stir-up-Taiwan-anti-US-sentiment-20211216/6355619.html
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
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