The Ministry of Education issued a directive on January 15, 2020, saying that China has launched a new college admissions pilot program involving 36 top universities. The goal is to produce talent in areas critical to China’s national defense. Analysts view it as China’s attempt to alleviate the impact of the United States’ restrictions on China’s access to the West’s advanced technology.

On January 15, China’s Ministry of Education released the “Opinion on the Pilot Work of Basic Subject Enrollment Reform in Some Universities,” which is also called the “Strong Foundation Plan.” The ministry said that the pilot program aims to enroll students who can help alleviate the talent shortages in high-end chips and software, artificial intelligence technology, new materials, advanced manufacturing, and areas critical to national security,.

According to the Opinion on the pilot, those admitted will be trained in special programs and receive preferential treatment in terms of graduate studies, doctor’s degrees, overseas training, and scholarships. Once admitted into the pilot program, students cannot change their majors.

High school graduates in China normally need to take the national college entrance examination to be admitted to a university (gaokao). In the 2003 gaokao reform, 90 universities were allowed to use independent enrollment as an alternative admissions method. The pilot program eliminates independent enrollment.

Source: China’s Ministry of Education, January 15, 2020
http://www.moe.gov.cn/srcsite/A15/moe_776/s3258/202001/t20200115_415589.html

A Chinese Communist Party (CCP) theorist admitted that the CCP may face its end soon and collapse. Fang Ning, Party Secretary of the Institute of Political Science, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, made the point during an interview with HK01, a Hong Kong news media. Fang is a communist theorist and has given lectures at two sessions of the CCP Politburo Group Study.

HK01 asked him, “Qiushi Magazine published a series on Xi Jinping’s speech. (From Xi’s speeches), one can see that Xi Jinping has a deep worry about the crisis and whether the CCP can maintain its ruling position over the long-term. He has also talked about how to escape the historic cycle (that any party may collapse in the end). As the CCP is reaching its 100th anniversary, do you think it can escape the ‘historic cycle?’”

Fang Ning answered, “The historic cycle does exist. The cycle of a party or regime is that, when it fights for power in the beginning, it is very active, vigilant, hard-working, and self-disciplined. As time goes by, all kinds of social problems keep accumulating. It begins to slack off and can gradually collapse. That’s the rule. We hope to overcome this cycle problem. . . . Therefore (we) must do everything possible to solve this problem. Whether it can be solved in the end is dependent on how we do it.”

Source: HK01, January 5, 2019
https://www.hk01.com/議事廳/414273/01專訪-對話房寧-百年大黨能否跳出歷史週期律-

Xinhua reported that, on December 26 and 27, 2019, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Politburo held a specific Democratic Life Meeting (民主生活會) on the topic of “Don’t forget our original intention and keep our mission in mind.” Each of the 25 Politburo members took turns giving their individual reports to compare and inspect (their actions and thoughts) as required.

(Editor’s Note: A Democratic Life Meeting is a periodic gathering of cadres of the CCP who engage in criticism and self-criticism. It is one of the means by which the party forces each member to report his thoughts and receive criticism from the leader or other party members.)

At the meeting, each Politburo member spoke about seven areas. The first was maintaining a firm belief (in the CCP). The second was improving the “four consciousnesses” (consciousness of the need to maintain political integrity, to think in big-picture terms, to follow the leadership core, and to maintain alignment (with the top leader)), fostering the “four confidences” (confidence in the path, theory, system, and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics), and carrying out the “two upholds” (upholding Xi’s position as the core of the party and upholding the CCP Central Committee’s authority and its centralized, unified leadership). The third was reporting on one’s own work performance; fourth was fulfilling the original goal of “serving the people;” fifth was supporting the authority of the (communist) system; sixth was executing power cleanly without corruption; and seventh was offering consideration and suggestions about the party’s and the nation’s work.

Xi Jinping hosted the meeting and gave a key speech. In his speech, Xi pointed out that some party members and cadres deliberately do not perform, perform slowly, or fake the performance their job duties. Xi also asked the Politburo members to conduct self-discipline, stay clean, and “control their relatives, friends, and the staff members around them.”

Source: Xinhua, December 27, 2019
http://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/leaders/2019-12/27/c_1125397179.htm