Government/Politics - 53. page

On September 15, 2021, after several major government actions to control China, the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Xi Jinping published a collection of the remarks he has made since 2012. The title in Qiushi magazine was, “Unswervingly Persist and Strengthen the Party’s Overall Leadership.”

Xi stated that the CCP must lead in the areas of the economy; politics; cultural, social, and ecological conditions; national defense and the military forces; the reunification [Taiwan], diplomatic work, the CCP’s party-building; and other areas of importance. Xi also said that the CCP’s leadership is the fundamental point of China’s political stability, economic development, national unity, and social stability, and there should not be even the slightest doubt about it.

Xi added further that China’s most significant national condition is the CCP’s leadership. History and the people have chosen the CCP. The CCP’s leadership is the essential feature and the advantage of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The fundamentals of governing China are the CCP’s  leadership and the Chinese socialist system.

Xi pointed out that the Communist Party of China is the ruling party. The CCP rules every aspect of China and is the supreme political leadership.

Xi said that upholding and strengthening the CCP’s leadership has a bearing on the future and destiny of the CCP and China. All undertakings are built on this foundation and rooted in this essential feature and this most significant advantage.

Source: Qiushi, September 15, 2021
http://www.qstheory.cn/dukan/qs/2021-09/15/c_1127862367.htm

On September 8, days after the Cyberspace Administration announced its plan to crack down on independent financial commentators for bad-mouthing China’s economy, it announced that it has identified 2,929 illegal accounts and suspended 1,793 of those accounts. Three of those suspended accounts had over one million followers including one account which had three million followers. The Cyberspace Administration also deleted over 40,000 “harmful postings.”

On August 27, the Cyberspace Administration had announced that it would clamp down on illegally collecting, editing and publishing financial information on commercial websites and self-media. China’s major social medial platforms WeChat, the Baidu Group, Douyin, and Kuaishou immediately announced that they would comply with the official policies and regularly publish their progress reports.

On September 9, the Shanghai Securities Regulatory Bureau released a preliminary report which stated that, as part of the crackdown effort, they have banned 3,187 audio files, films, and programs and closed 53 live broadcast studios.

Source: Tencent QQ, September 9, 2021
https://new.qq.com/rain/a/20210909A03MIN00

China’s state media Global Times published an opinion article commenting on how China should win the discourse rights and change the current trend of China’s weak position in international public opinion.

The article stated that “Behind the battle of international discourse rights for public opinion is the battle for the global communication network.”

The article continued, “The ownership of the global communication network is the crisis of politics, news media and ideology. Although the focus of the United States on the current global strategic confrontation is gradually shifting to China, its main work on cyber-public opinion warfare is still to deploy globally and fight on multiple fronts. At the same time, the global data infrastructure is undergoing a new round of periodic turnover. In the global public opinion field, China still has opportunities.”

The article proposed that, “In the future, China’s main countermeasures in participating and leading the global communication network may include the following three aspects. 1). In the current era, the world data center is no less (in importance) than the world shipping center and the financial center were in the past. According to its Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, China should further strengthen the 5G network. It should further enhance the construction of the 5G network, data centers and the new generation of infrastructures, including the communication network, emerging information technology, and the computing power hub. 2). China should systematically study the experience of the cultural order’s changes during the rise of the Western powers and the deep logic of the global communication network; it should construct a strategic toolbox and a strategic research subjects group, realize awareness of real-time trends of the global public opinion field, and provide advice on agile decision-making. 3). On the basis of the dual-cycle (domestic and exporting) format of China’s economy, we should build strategic core nodes of supply of culture and promote the re-balancing of the global media and cultural order.”

Source: Global Times, august 17, 2021
https://opinion.huanqiu.com/article/44Nu8ydreJ0

In the headline news on its official website for August 31, 2021, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) stated that the entertainment industry must not harm the state’s interest.  The CCDI article reported on its interview with the State Council Development Research Center. The CCDI is the CCP’s disciplinary watchdog.

The CCP crackdown on the entertainment industry echoes its recent broader clampdown on the private sector. Increasingly Xi Jinping has emphasized the CCP’s dominant role in every aspect of China’s economy and society. The CCP has targeted high-tech, education, and other businesses using fines and restrictions. Private capital has been blamed for contributing to the risks of data breaches, education inequality, the disintegration of the Chinese culture, threatening social stability, harming state security, among other deep seated concerns.

According to the State Council Information Office in 2019, the value-added of China’s entertainment industry reached 4,436.3 billion yuan, accounting for 4.5 percent of China’s GDP.

The CCDI article states that money has been driving the growth and the chaos in the entertainment industry. Investment, entertainment stars, and fans’ consumption culture are part of one chain all led by money. In this chain, investment is the dominant force. It promotes entertainment stars to induce and influence fans’ consumption habits (particularly young people), ultimately eroding the socialist ideology.

“Entertainment is by no means mere singing, dancing, and playing music, but an important battlefield for ideological and cultural work. It is an important part of the superstructure [a Marxist term referring to culture, political power, and the state], and it is critical to Party [CCP] work. If capital is allowed to expand unfettered, entertainment will fail its role of serving the people and socialism, and it will disintegrate the spiritual homeland of the Chinese nation.”

“There are limits to capital expansion. The CCP dominant system has unique advantages so it can fully utilize capital in entertainment while effectively restricting disorderly expansion in the industry. The bottom line is that it cannot interfere with the development direction of socialism with Chinese characteristics;  it cannot manipulate the national economy and the people’s livelihood; it cannot harm state interests; and it cannot corrupt Party members and leading cadres, let alone seek improper political gains.”

Source: The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Chinese Communist Party, August 31, 2021
https://www.ccdi.gov.cn/toutiao/202108/t20210831_249112.html

According to Chinese media reports, in Beijing, most listings have been removed from Airbnb-style short-term rental platforms . A notice from the Beijing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development stated that the city-wide short-term rentals will not be open for business for the time being. On August 22, short-term rental platforms were to remove “non-compliant properties” within seven days. As of August 29, most of the listings were removed from the rental platforms. An estimated 100,000 rentals were affected.

According to the notice, short-term rental listings may be restored after the rental operators provide documentation showing agreements among property management, homeowners associations, and other owners in the neighborhood and agreements with the public security authorities, among other requirements. It is more than challenging to meet these requirements. As a result, it is unlikely that most short-term rental units will be able to continue operating.

Analysts believe the authorities are tightening the control over people visiting Beijing. After the short-term rental industry collapse, people visiting Beijing will have to stay in hotels, where guests must register. Also, the higher cost of staying at hotels may make it harder for grievance petitioners and rights defenders to come to Beijing.

The statistics released by a short-term rental platform, Tujia, show that the total number of short-term rentals exceeded 630,000 in the first half of 2021, an increase of over 16 percent compared with 2020 (540,000 units), and a year-on-year increase of 2.9 times that of 2019 (160,000 units).

Sources:

1.) Netease, September 4, 2021
https://www.163.com/dy/article/GJ33V13D051492T3.html

2.) Radio Free Asia, September 1, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/jingmao/ql1-09012021062135.html

Xinhua reported that, on September 1, 2021, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) Central Party School started its Fall Training Class for Young and Middle-Aged Cadres. Xi Jinping gave a speech at the opening ceremony.

Xi recommended that cadres have a fighting spirit in the current situation. He stressed that, at the current moment, the world’s unprecedented changes have been accelerating and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation has arrived at a critical period. The risks and challenges that the CCP faces have increased significantly. It is impractical to dream of always living in a peaceful environment without taking on any struggles. (The CCP cadres) should be realistic, dare to fight, and not yield on any principle issues. Thus they can safeguard our national sovereignty, security, and development interests with unprecedented determination. Communists, at any time, should have the bones and courage not to believe in any spirits, not to be afraid of anything, and not to yield to anyone.

Xi also stressed that the party cadres must have high ideals and firm beliefs. These ideals and beliefs are from Marxism, Communism, and Socialism with China’s Characteristics. Having a firm belief is tightly linked to being loyal to the party.

Source: Xinhua, September 1, 2021
http://www.news.cn/politics/leaders/2021-09/01/c_1127818076.htm

On August 30, 2021, China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued a directive requiring literary and artistic workers to study a series of articles by the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping.

The directive was issued to address the current violations of laws, regulations, and moral failures in the entertainment business, to further strengthen the control of education and to cultivate and promote the core values ​​of socialism.

The first item in the directive is to “strengthen study and education.” Specifically, it refers to studying Xi Jinping’s series of important expositions on literary and artistic work in depth. The directive calls for a deep understanding that the cause of entertainment is an “important cause for the party and the people” and that the entertainment front is an “important front of the party and the people.”

On August 29, 2021, the CCP media, China Youth Daily, posted a commentary entitled “Everyone Can Feel  that a Profound Change Is Underway!” More than 30 state media at the central, provincial and municipal levels in China have since prominently re-posted the commentary.

The commentary calls China’s recent crackdown measures “profound reforms” or “profound revolutions.” From censoring entertainment stars to suspending Ant’s Initial Public Offering, to Alibaba’s fine of 18.2 billion yuan, to the investigation of Didi and to the “common prosperity” policy, all measures show that a profound reform or revolution is taking place in the economic, financial, cultural, and even political arena. A profound “revolution” or “revolution” is returning capital to the people, to the CCP’s original goal, and to socialism. Those who attempt to block this reform will be “abandoned.”

The commentary continues that this “profound reform” is to counter the “barbaric and ferocious attack” of the United States against China. The commentary implies that China’s capitalists are the “fifth column” of the United States in waging a color revolution in China. “The United States is imposing increasingly severe military threats, economic and technological blockades, financial strikes, political and diplomatic containment and the suppression of China.” “The United States is more aggressively waging a color revolution through the fifth column within China. If this time, we still have to rely on those big capitalists as the main force of anti-imperialism and anti-hegemony,” China will not need enemies to fight. “It will fall first by itself,” just like the Soviet Union back then. That’s why China is reforming the “capital circle” and the “entertainment circle.”

Sources:

1.) China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, August 30, 2021
https://www.mct.gov.cn/whzx/whyw/202108/t20210830_927427.htm

2.) People’s Daily, August 29, 2021
http://politics.people.com.cn/n1/2021/0829/c1001-32211523.html

3.) Radio France Internationale, August 31, 2021
https://tinyurl.com/6p54dc87