Government/Politics - 71. page

John Lee, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Security in charge of the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF), confirmed that, in cooperation with the upcoming national security law, the HKPF is planning to set up a dedicated team to implement the national security work.

Lee told the media that, although the law is being drafted, the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region must get ready with sufficient manpower so that the laws can be enforced immediately after taking effect.

He added that, after the promulgation and enactment of the national security law, Hong Kong has the responsibility to do the job of maintaining national security. “Therefore, the Hong Kong government must be ready to carry out relevant deployment. This includes preparing sufficient manpower and providing training so that the law enforcement officers can perform their duties in this area.”

Source: Central News Agency, June 11, 2020
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/firstnews/202006110227.aspx

Hong Kong based Sing Tao Daily reported that the Domestic Security Bureau (DSB), code-named Bureau No. 1 under China’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS), was renamed to “Political Security Bureau (PSB).” The name change may have to do with the Ministry’s recent priority on “maintaining political security,” and carrying out “anti-penetration, anti-subversion, and anti-secession” battles.

As early as May 2019, at a National Public Security Work Conference held in Beijing, DSB director Chen Siyuan mentioned that “defending political security” is the “primary responsibility” of public security organs. Chen said that it is necessary to have a profound understanding of the severe and complex situation of the job of maintaining political security. He ordered that activities that “endanger political security,” should be strictly prevented in order to strengthen prevention and control measures, and to detect and dissolve different political security risks in a prompt and effective manner.

The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) state security authorities can be traced back to the Chinese Soviet Republic, established in Jiangxi in November 1931. At the time, the CCP borrowed the name from the Soviet Union’s State Political Directorate and set up the “State Political Bureau (SPB),” which essentially performed the same function as the Soviet counterpart. After the CCP took over China in 1949, the SPB moved under the MPS. In 1957, the MPS merged the functions of “enemy reconnaissance” and “KMT spy reconnaissance” into the “political security police.” At the same time the MPS set up a “Political Security Bureau (PSB),” code-named Bureau No. 1.

In the 1980s, the anti-spy reconnaissance function in the PSB under the MPS was transferred to the newly established Ministry of State Security (MSS). Since then, the PSB was renamed several times. In 1998, it was renamed to the current Domestic Security Bureau (DSB). Sun Lijun, the former MPS deputy minister, who was sacked not long ago, once served as the director of DSB and was succeeded by Chen Siyuan in early 2019.

Source: Central News Agency, June 3, 2020
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202006030235.aspx

The CCP has been strengthening ideological work, including ideological and political education, in schools at all levels.

On June 5, the Ministry of Education announced the introduction of “Guidelines for the Ideological and Political Development of the Higher Education Curriculum,” which will modify the contents of courses around the issues of political identity and national feelings. It proposes to include the subjects of “socialism with Chinese characteristics and education about the Chinese dream.” University students who are majoring in literature, business, education, science and engineering, agronomy, medicine, and the arts must take the course. The Ministry of Education will pick select universities to develop a teaching model first and will include the course evaluation results in the assessment of the university’s rankings in the future.

In May 2019, the Ministry of Education issued the “Training Plan for Teachers of Ideological and Political Theory Courses in Colleges and Universities (2019-2023)” and clearly stated that “efforts should be made to train dozens of famous teachers in ideological and political courses that have a wide range of influence, hundreds of leaders in teaching ideology and politics, and tens of thousands of elite teachers in ideology and politics.”

In January this year, the National Textbook Committee issued the “National Textbook Development Plan for Primary and Secondary Schools (2019-2022)” and required that people who compile textbooks must have a firm political position.

Source: Central News Agency, June 5, 2020
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202006050224.aspx

Recently, a six-page internal document that the Central Committee and the State Council issued was revealed to the public. The document was dated May 20. It stipulates that there are a series of 20 political words and actions that are “not allowed” outside the working hours of the party members of the Central Committee and state organs.

Below is a partial list from the document of what is “not allowed.”

1. Expressing different opinions, especially making statements that deviate from the ‘two safeguards’ [Editor’s note: the two safeguards (两个维护) means resolutely safeguarding the core position of General Party Secretary Xi Jinping and the core position of the party; safeguarding the authority of the party and its centralized and unified leadership];
2. Making a “low level compliment or high-level praise with a manipulative or sarcastic undertone (低级红、高级黑)”;
3. Browsing reactionary websites and listening to or watching foreign reactionary radio and television programs;
4. Accepting media interviews, especially from foreign media;
5. Publishing “internal” information from work;
6. Ignoring the demands of the public using non-working hours as the excuse;
7. Forming an alumni association or a comrade’s association;
8. Disseminating speech that violates the party’s theories, guidelines, and policies;
9. Disapproving of the Central Authorities;
10. Discussing or disseminating political rumors and remarks that tarnish the image of the party and the country;
11. Forming cliques and factions within the party;
12. Becoming a two-faced person.

Source: New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV), June 7, 2020
https://ntdtv.com/gb/2020/06/07/a102865262.html

After the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Coordination Group for Hong Kong and Macau Affairs was recently elevated to the Central Leading Group for Hong Kong and Macau Affairs, the group leader Han Zheng met with Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam in Beijing. According to Beijing’s mouthpiece, the Xinhua News Agency, Han said that the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s rubber-stamp law making body, will pass laws in the next step to “punish the very few people who commit serious crimes and activities that endanger national security.”

Other attendees at the meeting were Zhao Kezhi, deputy head of the Leading Group and Minister of Public Security, and Xia Baolong, Vice Chair of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and another deputy head of the Leading Group.

This was the first appearance of the Central Leading Group for Hong Kong and Macau Affairs. In 2003, the CCP set up the Central Coordination Group for Hong Kong and Macau Affairs, the coordination mechanism for Hong Kong and Macao issues. Han Zheng, Vice Premier of the State Council, has been the head of the Coordination Group since 2018.

Liu Zhaojia from the Beijing based China Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies, said that this organizational change, from Coordination Group to Leading Group, shows that Beijing is now exerting a higher authority to direct relevant ministries and agencies to deal with the Hong Kong issue. In the organizational structure of the Chinese Communist Party, “Commission” stays at the highest level, followed by “Leadership Group”, then by “Coordination Group.” At present, Hong Kong has been involved in the game play between China and the US, so the elevation of the body along the power ladder is no surprise.

Source: Central News Agency, June 3, 2020
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202006030370.aspx

Article 4 of the Hong Kong national security law, which Beijing recently approved, requires Hong Kong to establish institutions to protect national security and provides for a central government presence in Hong Kong to maintain national security.

The Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission is the Chinese Communist Party’s top apparatus that oversees all legal enforcement authorities, including the police force. Its official website states that it is very necessary for the central government to establish dedicated agencies in Hong Kong. “In the national security arena of Hong Kong, one should not only ‘set up defense lines’ but should also ‘pitch camp.’ Both are necessary and effective means to perform the duties of maintaining national security.”

The article also explained two adjustments in the draft of the bill. The article points to the revision that adds the word “activities” after the “conduct” so that the term becomes “conduct and activities that endanger national security.” The addition allows not only personal conduct but also organized activities (to be covered), making the coverage of the law “more precise.”

The article claimed that the change will mean those “who engage in division, subversion, terrorist acts and activities will not take a chance, and the law shall not be challenged.”

In the sentence that the Chief Executive of Hong Kong should “carry out promotion and education of national security,” the word “promotion” is deleted. The article considers the change to be an emphasis on the attitude toward national security education. “National security education should not stop with propaganda; it should have a real effect and enter the heart of every Hong Kong citizen.”

Source: Central News Agency, May 30, 2020
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202005300229.aspx

Jiemian.com, a mainland online news media published a false report about Meng Wanzhou’s trial and had to retract the news and issue an apology. On May 27, the judge for British Columbia’s Supreme Court in Vancouver ruled that Meng Wanzhou, the former Huawei Chief Financial Officer met the threshold of double criminality and the U.S. extradition case would move forward. This means that after being confined for 544 days to her residence in Vancouver, Meng remains under house arrest. Ironically Jiemian.com, a financial news website in China, published an article at midnight on May 26 saying that Meng was acquitted and could return home in four days. The article was widely distributed in China for 12 hours until it published an apology and retracted the news. The court result of Meng Wanzhou drew heated discussion over the internet and made it the top search listed on Weibo. At the regular press conference on May 26, Zhao Lijian, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, repeated the demand to free Meng in order to avoid further damage to Canada-China relations.

Source: Epoch Times, May 28, 2020
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/20/5/28/n12142060.htm

According to The Paper, on May 25, in the speech given at the National 13th National People’s Congress, Zhou Qiang, the president of the Supreme People’s Court, gave a report which summarized the department’s work. The report referenced the “Doing Business 2020” report that the World Bank issued. That report “measured the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it.” Zhou’s report mentioned that China introduced a law to enforce business contracts, made resolving insolvency easier, and improved the transparency and predictability of the judiciary system. It also stated that the number of legal cases the court processed relating to business helped to re-enforce the fact that China is governed by the rule of law. Zhou claimed that the index from the report stated that the rank of China’s business environment has improved considerably, that the quality of the judicial procedure ranks at the top in the world,  and that China is the “World’s Best Practitioner.”

Source: The Paper, May 25, 2020
https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_7544167