Di Dongsheng is a professor and vice dean of the School of International Studies (SIS) at Renmin University and deputy director and secretary-general of the China Center for Foreign Strategic Studies. Di is known for a public speech he made last November in which he boasted that China has influence in the U.S. political circles. [Editor’s note: That article “CCP Scholar: CCP Can Use Wall Street to Influence the U.S. Political Circle, December 6, 2020, can be seen at http://chinascope.org/archives/25265]

In a video published in February this year, Di gave another talk titled, “Belt and Road 2.0 in the Post COVID 19 Era: Exporting China’s Governance Experience and Capability.” In this talk, Di stated, “The goal of the Belt and Road initiative is to internationalize the Renminbi (Chinese Yuan) and replace the U.S. dollar.”

Di said that the Belt and Road initiative is not about (controlling) resources, in fact it is about defining the value of the RMB: “We go after the younger generations in the belt and road countries. They don’t have money but they want to buy things. We loan money to them. We invest in them. We hire them. Once they have income and money, they will buy products made in China. We will continue to use the money and loan it to them and eventually we will let the people in those countries be part of the Renminbi currency cycle.” Di proposed a model in which Beijing would build special zones (like the Shenzhen special economic zone) in the belt and road countries and then the Chinese people would migrate there. Beijing would still hold the governing power over the Chinese migrants and the local ethnic population in the zone. He also claimed that, “China’s national debt will become the global value-based benchmark. The Chinese people’s consumption power will give birth to the world’s largest market and the Renminbi will become the future world’s currency.

Gong Shengli, a Chinese economist, slammed Di’s statements saying it was merely empty talk because there is lack of trust in the Renminbi in the world and in China’s one-party political system. Gong questioned how many countries have purchased Chinese bonds and where  the economic return is from the Belt and Road Initiative. A Taiwanese economist Wu Jialong said that Di’s statements were simply to please Beijing which is in line with China’s rising power narrative.

Sources:

1. NTDTV, April 2, 2021
https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2021/04/02/a103087367.html
2. Guan Video, February 3, 2021

According to a recent report in Chinese media, Alibaba has recently established a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) committee at its headquarters in Beijing. Previously, the company only had a CCP committee at its Hangzhou headquarters. After the implementation of the “dual headquarters” in Beijing and Hangzhou in 2016, the company only had a CCP branch, instead of a CCP committee in Beijing, where CCP members accounted for more than 30 percent of its employees. The establishment of the CCP committee at its Beijing Headquarters has elevated the CCP’s organizational footprint in China’s largest e-commerce company.

1.585 million, or more than 40 percent of private enterprises in China have internal CCP organizations.

Hu Jia, a Chinese social activist, told Voice of America that, since coming to power in 2012, Xi Jinping has built up CCP organizations within the state sector. Against the current backdrop of the severe international situation, the CCP wishes to extend its tight grip over private enterprises. “The most valuable ones are those of the unicorn type, which have new technologies and the capacity to innovate in the Internet economy. Such enterprises are capably of wealth creation and societal control, and can also participate in the international economic and technological competition and even confrontation. The CCP would like to have more power over these entities.”

The expansion of CCP committees in Alibaba is also seen by public opinion as a sign that the CCP is short of money and technology and wants to use private enterprises to “feed” state-owned enterprises. Sang Pu, a commentator, told the American media Sound of Hope that the party actually controls and manipulates private enterprises in mainland China. The reason why the CCP is strengthening the Party’s leadership is that it is short of money and needs to take further action against these tech giants.

The Constitution of the CCP and China’s Corporate Law allow the establishment of CCP organizations in private enterprises. As part of its United Front Work, the CCP proposed to “establish a modern private enterprise system with Chinese characteristics” and emphasized that the party should have three privileges in private enterprises: human resources, surveillance and audit, and the leadership over trade unions.

“To be successful under the CCP’s rule, private companies must have official support and maintain some kind of intimacy with the government. From the perspective of private enterprises, they have their own considerations. If you don’t have a CCP committee, and if you don’t give sufficient convenience for CCP members to conduct party activities, you will always have the feeling that big brother is watching you, and that your wealth and business are often in an unstable and insecure state. That is because officials can control you by any means, such as tax inspections, firefighting, public health and other channels.” Hu Jia said that Chinese private enterprises somehow have to show loyalty in order to have the opportunity to survive and thrive.

Source: Voice of America, April 2, 2021
https://www.voachinese.com/a/CCP-within-Alibaba-20210402/5838104.html

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying dismissed the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and the European Union because their combined population accounts for merely 11 percent of the world’s total population. This contrasts with the CCP’s usual practice of using GDP as the yardstick to brag about its economy. As soon as this remark came out, it caused a wave of online ridicule.

On March 23, 2021, at a press conference on this subject, Hua was asked whether she was concerned that more countries would impose sanctions in a concerted manner. She issued a rebuttal, saying that the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the European Union combined account for about merely 11 percent of the world’s population, while China has about one-fifth. Therefore, she stated that these countries’ voices are not the voices of the international opinion and that their position does not represent that of the international community.  She asked these countries to “take a good look at themselves.”

Her remarks did not appear to sit well with Chinese netizens.

“According to this statement, your Party’s population [Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members] accounts for less than one-tenth of the country, and it [the CCP] is not elected or authorized in any form. Yet, you still bark everywhere without shame on behalf of a billion people.”

“Does 11 percent of your one-fifth of the world’s population support you?”

“Then how dare the 90 million [CCP members] represent one billion people? Shame on you for representing the people of the earth and managing the earth.”

“The 90 million CCP members account for only 6 percent of the Chinese population. How can they say that they represent the Chinese people? Only a government elected by the people, with each person having one vote, is in a position to say that it represents the people and the opinion of the public.”

“1.4 billion Chinese are kidnapped as hostages. In this case, the number of hostages is needed to refute the rules of the civilized world. However, when it comes to education, medical care, and pensions, 1.4 billion people are worth nothing when pandemic relief funds are needed. Not even one penny has been given out. To put it bluntly, what is happening in China is that twenty or thirty evil cult leaders determine the fate of 1.4 billion people. The rogue regime never treats people as human beings, and they are all just hostages held under the gun.”

Analysts believe that the CCP statement “Europe and the United States do not represent international public opinion” has become the latest CCP propaganda to fool Chinese people. It may also reflect the retreat of the CCP’s propaganda. After it has failed to divide Europe and the United States, the CCP now declares that the public opinion of Europe and the United States do not count whatsoever.

Source: Radio France International, March 24, 2021

https://www.rfi.fr/cn/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD/20210324-%E5%8D%8E%E6%98%A5%E8%8E%B9%E4%B8%8D%E5%86%8D%E6%AF%94gdp%E5%8F%AA%E7%9C%8B%E8%B0%81%E4%BA%BA%E5%A4%9A-%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E7%BD%91%E6%B0%91%E5%90%90%E6%A7%BD