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The CCP Held a High-Profile National Religious Work Conference
From December 3rd to 4th, the National Conference on Religious Work was held in Beijing. Xi Jinping gave a key speech at the meeting. Many key officials of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) attended the meeting, including all Politburo Standing Committee members, Politburo members, Secretaries of the CCP Central Secretariat, officials of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, State Council members, the President of the Supreme People’s Court, the President of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, top officials from the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, top CCP provincial officials in charge religious work, city party heads from key cities in each province, top officials at the CCP Central Departments, the state’s ministries, and the Central Military Commission organs.
Xi Jinping stressed the party’s leadership over religions and the need to develop a group of CCP officials who are experts on Marxist theories and capable of doing religious control work.
Source: China Government Site, December 4, 2021
http://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2021-12/04/content_5655877.htm
China’s Ministry of Finance Supported Zhejiang Province’s Common Prosperity Moves
This summer, Xi Jinping introduced the concept of “Common Prosperity.” The Chinese media have since hotly discussed the “Third Distribution.” It would involve distributing wealth from the rich to the poor via donations from the rich. In China, this could be a donation the authorities enforced- instead of a voluntary donation. Zhejiang Provincial Party Secretary Yuan Jiajun led the provincial leaders to donate a day’s worth of wages on September 3, to echo the call for the “Third Distribution.”
Xinhua reported that, recently, the Ministry of Finance published “The Implementation Plan to Support Zhejiang Province as a Provincial Example to Explore, Innovate, and Develop Fiscal Policies to Promote Common Prosperity.” This plan is the first plan to use fiscal policies to promote common prosperity. The plan fully intends to leverage the fiscal policies and the “Second Distribution” (via taxation) function; to adjust and influence the “First Distribution” and the “Third Distribution.”
Source: Xinhua, December 1, 2021
http://www.news.cn/fortune/2021-12/01/c_1128118905.htm
CCP Official on Social Stability and the “Fengqiao Experience”
Guo Shengkun, secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission 0f the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), published an article in the official People’s Daily on December 2, stressing the “Fengqiao Experience” and “grid-based” administration, as well as combat against the infiltration of subversive and destructive activities by hostile forces.
The article proposed to focus on the outstanding issues affecting national security and social stability, and on improving the ability to prevent and resolve major risks and hazards.
It called for “strictly preventing and combating the subversive and destructive activities of hostile forces, carrying out in-depth anti-terrorist and anti-secession battles, and effectively building an iron wall to maintain national security.”
Guo also emphasized the “Fengqiao Experience” to maximize the prevention of social conflicts, reduce confrontation and promote stability.
The “Fengqiao experience” was a Mao-era practice from the 1960’s. It involved mobilizing the masses in order to “strengthen the dictatorship over class enemies.” It was named after Fengqiao Township, a part of the city of Zhuji in Zhejiang province.
Gao vowed to strengthen the grassroots work, deepen the “grid-based” administration, and strive to nip risks in the bud. The Chinese government has divided local communities into a grid pattern, with each grid made up of from dozens up to hundreds of households. A designated person called the “grid administrator” leads the administration process.
Recently in Beijing, the city government has been organizing a number of community surveillance groups. They include the “Chaoyang Masses” (朝阳群众), the “Haiding Internet Users” (海淀网友), and the “Xicheng Aunties” (西城大妈). These groups have been used to implement the “Fengqiao experience” as part of the CCP’s practice of battling social instability.
Source: People’s Daily, December 2, 2021
http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2021-12/02/nw.D110000renmrb_20211202_1-06.htm
Beijing Appointed National Security Advisers for Macau
On December 3, according to China’s official Xinhua News Agency, China’s central government decided to establish a national security affairs advisor and three national security technical advisors to be on a Committee for Safeguarding the National Security of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR). Beijing actually made this decision on November 30 in its reply to the Chief Executive of Macau.
The reply also said that the head of the Liaison Office of the Central Government in the Macau SAR in Beijing will take the position of national security advisor and that staff members in the Liaison Office will fill the positions of technical advisors. The Liaison Office works as Beijing’s representative in Macau.
The national security affairs adviser will be in charge of “supervising, guiding, coordinating, and supporting the Macao SAR in the function of safeguarding national security.” The duties of the national security technical adviser shall include “assisting the national security affairs adviser” and advising on matters pertaining to the duties and functions of the office of the Committee for Safeguarding the National Security of the Macao SAR.
In addition, the reply mentioned that the national security affairs adviser shall sit in on meetings of the Committee, and the national security technical advisers shall sit in on meetings of the office of the Committee.
The Hong Kong National Security Law that passed last year also provided for the establishment of a “Committee for Safeguarding National Security.” The Chief Executive would chair the Committee. His duties would include analyzing and assessing the situation of the HKSAR’s national security, planning relevant work, formulating policies, promoting the development of legal systems and implementation mechanisms, and coordinating major operations. The Committee in Hong Kong also has a national security advisor that Beijing appointed. The advisor would attend its meetings and provide advice on related matters.
Source: Xinhua, December 3, 2021
http://www.news.cn/gangao/2021-12/03/c_1128126706.htm
China Released a White Paper called, “China: a Democracy That Works”
The United States will hold its first Summit for Democracy on December 9 and 10. It invited 110 countries, citizen groups, and individuals to attend. Taiwan was invited – not President Tsai Ing-wen, but Hsiao Mei-chin, Taiwan’s Representative to the U.S. and Councilor Tang Feng will attend. China and Russia were not invited.
On December 4, China’s State Council Information Office released a White Paper “China: Democracy That Works” and held a press conference.
The White Paper called China’s development a “whole process people’s democracy.” “China’s development of this whole-process people’s democracy not only has complete systematic procedures, but also has complete participation. … It makes each part and each aspect of the country’s political life and social life reflect the people’s will and to listen to the people’s voice. It effectively prevents the phenomena of making empty promises (to please voters) at the time of election, but without any follow up after the election.” (Note: the last sentence was a criticism of the Western style of democracy.)
Xi Jinping first brought up the term “whole process democracy” when he visited Shanghai on November 2, 2019. It seemed that Xi was trying to define “China’s democracy,” which had been criticized as a “hollow slogan.”
China’s White Paper also stressed the diversity of democracy – “There are multiple ways to implement democracy and it can’t be seen as one-size-fits-all.” “Assessing the political systems of other countries against a single yardstick and forcing other countries to copy a single country’s political structure and democracy model are in themselves undemocratic. It does not have people’s support and is doomed to fail.”
Foreign reporters asked whether “China and the U.S. are in a fight for the discourse power of democracy” since China published this democracy White Paper right before the U.S. Summit for Democracy.
Xu Lin, Deputy Minister of the Chinese Communist Party’s Propaganda Department and Director of the State Council’s Information Office responded by blaming the U.S. for imposing its standard for democracy on other countries and creating a mess in its own domestic management while still pointing fingers at other countries.
Source: BBC, December 4, 2021
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-59532643
Central Propaganda Department: Chinese Media Have the Responsibility and Obligation to Break the Hegemony of Western Media Discourse
In the opening speech at the China Internet Media Forum held in Guangzhou on Nov. 25, 2021, Shen Haixiong, the deputy minister of the Central Propaganda Department and director and editor-in-chief of China Central Radio and Television, stated that Chinese media have the responsibility and obligation to strive to increase their authority and influence in the international public opinion field and to break the long-standing “discourse hegemony” of Western media.
Shen Haixiong said that the Chinese media must promote the formation of an objective, fair, positive and healthy global public opinion ecology, and no longer allow political self-interest, racial discrimination, and ideological prejudice to dominate public opinion and mislead people.
Shen gave two examples of how to control the direction of public opinion.
Shen said that in response to Bloomberg’s false “global anti-(Sars-2) epidemic ranking” this year, China Central Radio and Television used its advantages to organize three rounds of overseas “polls of global netizen’s opinions on fighting the epidemic,” and released a series of influential reports and commentaries regarding the “tracing (of the viral origin) to the United States.”
Shen also said that in recent reports on the situation in Afghanistan, CCTV headquarters seized the exclusive rights, guaranteed the first release, controlled the discourse rights and defined the narratives. It also sent back a large number of exclusive videos of global news and became the main information source of global media. “The headquarters of CGTN microphone was the only media microphone on the stage of the Taliban’s first press conference after the withdrawal of the U.S. military. It continued to disclose the truth about the indiscriminate killings of innocents by the U.S. military, and delivered objective and true first-hand information to the world. It completely shattered the embarrassment that Chinese media could only transmit other media’s reports in international emergencies in the past.”
Source: Zhaobao, November 26, 2021
http://www.kzaobao.com/shiju/20211126/105228.html
Xi Jinping: The International Situation Is Advantageous to China; There Are Still Important Opportunities to Build the “Belt and Road” Jointly
According to Xinhua News, on November 19, Xi Jinping attended the 3rd Symposium on “Belt and Road” Construction in Beijing and delivered a speech. He said that, on the whole, the theme of the era of peace and development has not changed and the general direction of economic globalization has not changed. “The international situation for strategic development is advantageous to the mainland.” The joint construction of the “Belt and Road” still faces important opportunities. At the same time, the international environment for joint construction of the “Belt and Road” is becoming increasingly complex.
Source: China Times, November 25, 2021
https://www.chinatimes.com/cn/realtimenews/20211125004733-260409?chdtv