Government/Politics – Page 50

Civil Service Employee – the Most Competitive Position in China

On October 22, China’s 2022 National Civil Service Examination registration was closed. Preliminary statistics suggest that the number of applicants this year has increased by more than 200,000 compared to last year. Many jobs are highly competitive. For example, a position at the Tibet Post Office Administration attracted applications from 15,000 people.

It is expected that the unemployment number in China will continue to rise this year due to COVID 19, government policies to curb after-school tutoring programs and the over-heated housing market. Even though there are more open positions this year, the number of applicants has also surged.

Registration for the national exam for Civil Service applicants began on October 15. By 4:00 pm on October 16, the central agencies and the subsidiaries had received 778,000 applications, 200,000 more than last year. The job pool includes 312,000 positions from 75 departments and 23 direct agencies.

Source: Central News Agency, October 24, 2021
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202110240029.aspx

Briefings | | October 25, 2021 | Government/Politics

Communist Party Political Inspectors Arrive at Top Financial Institutions

Political inspectors from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have kicked off the eighth round of inspections since Xi Jinping took office as the CCP General Secretary of the 18th National Congress. A month ago, the CCP Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) announced political inspections of 25 financial institutions.

Recently, the Second Inspection Team arrived at the Bank of Communications Co., Ltd. and the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The Fourth Inspection Team came to the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC); and the Fifth Inspection Team was at the China Everbright Group Co., Ltd. Each inspection will take about two months.

The Bank of Communications Co., Ltd. is among the top 5 leading commercial banks in China. It is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the Shanghai Stock Exchange. In addition to over 2,800 branches in China, it has 23 overseas subsidiaries, branches, and representative offices in Hong Kong, New York, San Francisco, Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney, Frankfurt, London, Paris, and Johannesburg, as well as other cities.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange is the world’s 3rd largest stock market by market capitalization at US$7.62 trillion as of July 2021. It is also Asia’s largest stock exchange. According to its website, “Under the strong leadership of the CPC [the Communist Party of China] the Central Committee and the State Council and under the direct guidance of the CSRC [the China Securities Regulatory Commission], along with fervent support from all sectors of society, the Exchange makes it its mission to serve the nation’s reform and development initiatives.” CBIRC is a state agency under China’s State Council. It is the main regulator of the banking and insurance institutions.

China Everbright Group Corporation is a state-owned financial conglomerate listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with alternative asset management as its core business. During the kick-off at these institutions, the Inspection Teams emphasized that the inspection is “an important measure to uphold and strengthen the Party’s overall leadership over financial work, promote the Party building, especially political development; and an important measure to safeguard national economic security and promote the financial industry.” It is also “an important measure to strengthen the comprehensive and strict governance of the Party in the financial sector and promote the deepening of the anti-corruption struggle.”

The Inspection Teams urged the Party committees at these financial institutions to “improve their political positions and re-enforce their political responsibilities.”

The Inspection Teams have set up inspection hotlines and mailboxes for complaints and will receive letters and visits until December 15, 2021.

Source: Beijing News, October 13, 2021
https://www.bjnews.com.cn/detail/163408805114960.html

Briefings | | October 21, 2021 | Government/Politics

Leadership: CCP’s Third Decision on Historical Issues

On October 18, Xi Jinping led the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) Political Bureau to review the draft resolution of “The CCP Central Committee’s Decision on the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party’s 100 Years of Efforts.” It decided to submit the draft resolution to the Sixth Plenary Session of the CCP’s Nineteenth National Congress.

China News published an article, commenting on the significance of this decision. This is the third of the CCP’s decisions on “historical issues” during its entire one hundred year history. The article mentioned that the media Duowei reported on it and mentioned that the previous two decisions went through brutal in-fighting within the CCP. Duowei is tied to former CCP head Jiang Zemin and Zeng Qinghong (Jiang’s Right-hand man). Jiang and Zeng’s group had been fighting against Xi for many years. The China News article then commented that Duowei’s reporting on this decision and the history of the CCP in-fighting indicates that the current CCP in-fighting is intense.

The first decision, taking four years (1941 to 1945) from drafting to passage, established Mao Zedong’s superior leadership within the CCP. The second one, taking a year and half (November 1979 to June 1981) from drafting to passage, established Deng Xiaoping’s superior leadership. Duowei said Xi wants to use the third one to secure his superior leadership.

The new decision draft described Xi’s achievements vs. the previous CCP leaders’ achievements as the following: “In the course of the Party’s long-term struggle, the Chinese Communists, mainly represented by Comrades Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, and Hu Jintao, have united and led the entire Party and the people of all ethnic groups to promote the revolution, construction, and reform. They realized significant achievements and accumulated valuable experience. Since the 18th Party National Congress, the Party Central Committee, with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, has united and led the whole Party and the people of all nationalities to accomplish new major achievements and accumulate new valuable experience …”

{Editor’s Notes: The CCP officially recognizes five leaders since it ruled the mainland China in 1949: Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao, and Xi Jinping. The first two, Mao and Deng, are the paramount leaders; while the third and fourth, Jiang and Hu, didn’t have the “super leader” status. Jiang and Hu served their two full terms and retired. Xi has modified the CCP’s Constitution to allow a person to serve beyond two terms. If Xi seeks his third term, a justification that he has surpassed his two predecessors in achievements will come in handy. However, this important “decision” draft didn’t give him that. It bundles all the four previous leaders together to compare to Xi. As politically it is hard to say that Xi beats Mao and Deng, the leadership comparison ends up as Xi’s achievement being the same as that of his predecessors, including Jiang and Hu. This statement may be the result of a fierce in-fight between Xi and other fictions.}

Hong Kong Official: Legislation for Article 23 of the Basic Law Should Include Espionage

Wen Wei Po, the Hong Kong based pro-Beijing newspaper, published an exclusive interview with Chris Tang, the Secretary for Security of Hong Kong. Tang said that the Hong Kong National Security Law’s provision relating to colluding with foreign countries or foreign forces who endanger national security mainly targets “agents,” but “does not cover” much about real foreign spies.

He said that there is a lot of evidence showing the existence of espionage activities in Hong Kong, and that the US Central Intelligence Agency recently announced the establishment of a “China Mission Center” to strengthen the collection of intelligence.

“Who are these people? What are they if not spies?” In the face of the “long arms” of foreign countries, Tang expressed the belief that Hong Kong needs legislation to strengthen the regulation of espionage activities.

Earlier this month, Tang said that Article 23 of the Basic Law stipulates that Hong Kong needs to legislate to prohibit seven crimes, five of which are not included in the National Security Law, and that even the current Crimes Ordinance is not sufficient to deal with them.

Article 23 of Hong Kong Basic Law states that Hong Kong “shall enact laws on its own to prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the Central People’s Government, or theft of state secrets, to prohibit foreign political organizations or bodies from conducting political activities in the Region, and to prohibit political organizations or bodies in the Region from establishing ties with foreign political organizations or bodies.”

Source: Wen Wei Po, October 18, 2021
https://www.wenweipo.com/a/202110/18/AP616cb961e4b08d3407e0a48c.html

Briefings | | October 20, 2021 | Government/Politics

Development and Reform Commission: Private Capital Shall not Engage in News Gathering, Editing and Broadcasting Business!

According to the website of the National Development and Reform Commission, the National Development and Reform Commission publicly solicited opinions on the “Market Access Negative List (2021 Edition)” on the 8th of October. The draft mentions that it is forbidden to conduct news and media-related businesses in violation of regulations.

1. Private capital shall not engage in the news gathering, editing and broadcasting business.

2. Private capital shall not invest in the establishment and operation of news organizations, including but not limited to news agencies, newspaper publishing companies, radio and television broadcasting organizations, radio and television stations, and Internet news information collection, editing and publishing service organizations.

3. Private capital shall not operate the layout, news frequency, news channel, column, or public accounts owned by news organizations.

4. Private capital shall not engage in live broadcast services of activities and events involving politics, the economy, the military, diplomacy, major society, culture, science and technology, health, education, sports, and other related political directions, public opinion orientations, and value orientations.

5. Private capital shall not introduce news released by overseas entities.

6. Private capital shall not hold forums or summits and award selection activities in the field of news and public opinion.

Source: Xinhua, October 9, 2021
http://www.news.cn/fortune/2021-10/09/c_1127938584.htm

Related Article: China to Ban Private Capital in the News Business
http://chinascope.org/archives/27909

Briefings | | October 17, 2021 | Government/Politics

Alibaba’s Ant Group Has Sold All Its Shares in Caixin Media, According to Report

Chinese Internet giant Tencent posted news that Netease originally reported saying that Ant Group (which Alibaba owns) has recently sold all of its shares in Caixin Media and completely withdrawn from investment. According to publicly available information, Caixin Media had previously introduced external investors such as Zhejiang Shu Culture, Tencent, CMC Capital, and Ant Group through A, B, C, and D rounds of financing. As of now, Ant, Zheshu Culture, and others. have disappeared from the list of Caixin shareholders. Tencent still holds a small number of Caixin shares through the Shenzhen Litong Industrial Investment Fund.

{Note: Caixin Media is a private all-media group that provides financial news and information services. Hu Shuli, the former editor-in-chief of Caixin magazine was the founder. It is said that former Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan is one of the backers of Caixin Media.}

Also, on September 23, Alibaba sold all of its shares of Mango Excellent Media, a major TV-based entertainment media in Shanghai, at a loss of over 2 billion yuan (US$ 310 million).

Source:
1. Tencent, October 12, 2021
https://new.qq.com/omn/20211012/20211012A076VC00.html
2. Sina, September 24, 2021
https://finance.sina.com.cn/stock/s/2021-09-24/doc-iktzqtyt7741702.shtml

Briefings | | October 17, 2021 | Economy/Resources Government/Politics

Government: People’s Daily Reported Fantasia Holdings Missed Its U.S. Debt Payment

Fantasia Holdings announced that it was unable to make a U.S. debt payment of $206 million on its due date of October 4. The company was owned by Zeng Baobao, the niece of Zeng Qinghong, a former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) top official and the right-hand man of former CCP head Jiang Zemin. Many media have reported that Zeng heads the Jiang faction since Jiang has been in poor health and their group has taken many actions against Xi Jinping.

People’s Daily reported on Fantasia’s missing the $206 million debt payment. It also reported that Fantasia raised 3.3 billion yuan (US$ 512 million) by selling a core business Li Li Le (邻里乐) from Color Life, a property management company that Fantasia owns, to Country Garden Services Holdings, another real estate giant in China.

The fact that People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the CCP Central Committee, reported the negative news about Fantasia, may convey a strong political message.

Also, an article analyzing Fantasia has appeared in many Chinese media. The article said that Fantasia appeared to have plenty of money when it reported its bank balance and its cash of 27.1 billion yuan (US$ 4.21 billion) on June 30, 2021. Actually, however, for real estate companies, the cash they hold may be the cash deposits from different house buyers, so banks will freeze that. Also, Fantasia may not have mentioned other debts that it has hidden from its report.

The article commented that Fantasia might have been blocked from issuing bonds and it therefore had no choice but to borrow money on the capital market. By June 30, 2021, its capital debt was 67 percent of its total debt, with the U.S. dollar debt accounting for 53 percent of the total debt. Among the 12 U.S. dollar debts that it has, only one has an interest rate lower than 8 percent; the other 11 all have rates of around 10 percent or higher, way above the average 7.5 percent interest rate on Renminbi debt.

Meng’s Release Indicts Huawei

By Eric Chen

On September 25, Meng Wanzhou, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, arrived in Shenzhen, China on a plane specially chartered by the Chinese government. Continue reading →

Perspectives | | October 13, 2021 | @CS Government/Politics Opinion US-China Relations

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