On February 21, the Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Great Gulf District Development Planning Outline was held in Hong Kong. From the attendance of officials, the level of the meeting was quite high. Lin Nianxiu, Deputy Director of the National Development and Reform Commission of China; Lin Zhengyue, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region; Ma Xingrui, Governor of Guangdong Province; and Chui Sai, Chief Executive of the Macao Special Administrative Region, delivered speeches. On February 19, the official website of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) had published a low-profile article entitled, “Thoughts on the Internationalization of Renminbi (RMB) and the Convertibility of Capital Accounts.” The author was the International Division of the PBOC. The article explained why China wants to promote the internationalization of the RMB. According to the official website of the PBOC, the International Division is responsible for business dealings and cooperation with financial organizations in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and other central banks. Taken together with the contents of the meeting and the “Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Great Gulf District Development Plan” that the State Council of China just released on February 18, which repeatedly mentioned the opening up and cross-border use of the RMB, the Chinese monetary authorities’ strategic path for the internationalization of the RMB is becoming clear.

Liang Haiming, Dean of the Silk Road Zhigu Research Institute, said, in an interview with China’s official media, Securities Daily, that, in the context of the development of Guangdong, Hong Kong, and the Macao Great Bay Area, the financial system carries an important historical mission. The Great Bay Area has to increase its efforts in exploring financial innovation, especially in cross-border business and RMB internationalization, as the bond that connects China with the world. The high-profile attendance at the meeting also reflects the Chinese government’s emphasis on the planning for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Great Bay Area and its “frontier position” for the internationalization of RMB.

Source: Duowei News, February 21, 2019
http://economics.dwnews.com/news/2019-02-21/60119513.html

Qiushi, The Chinese Communist Party’s flagship publication published an article that Xi Jinping wrote, titled, “Accelerate the Development of Media Integration and Build a Communication Pattern for Omnimedia.”

The article emphasized that it is an imperative issue to promote media integration and build the Omnimedia. It asked that the products of the information revolution be used to enlarge and strengthen the CCP’s official media.

The article proposed to build a batch of “influential and competitive” new mainstream media. The mainstream media are said to give priority to a mobile platform and should firmly occupy the “commanding heights” of public opinion to give ideological guidance. The article suggested using artificial intelligence in gathering news and in production, distribution, reception, and feedback.

Source: People’s Daily, March 16, 2019
http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2019-03/16/nw.D110000renmrb_20190316_7-04.htm

The Tibet anti-violence event reached its 60th anniversary. On March 8, China’s state-run media, The Tibet Daily launched a series of articles on “Recognizing the Reactionary Essence of the 14th Dalai Lama,” directly attacking the Dalai Lama as the “head of the feudal serfdom system of the old Tibet’s joined politics and religion.” The article called him, “The head of the separatist reactionary camp” and “the head of the separatist activities.”

The article accused the Dalai Lama of selling himself out to the international anti-China forces to find a backing for Tibet’s independence and to carry out separatist activities under the banner of national religious culture and environmental protection.

The second series of commentary articles, published on March 9, pointed out that the Dalai Lama is “a loyal tool of the international anti-China forces” and declared that the international anti-China forces are doing their best to make full use of the Dalai Lama as a tool and do everything possible to support his separatist activities. They beautify his image politically, provide support financially, offer a communication platform on public opinion, and support armed rebellion militarily.

The third series of commentary articles published on the following day accused the Dalai Lama of being the ultimate source of the class, thought, and organization that has created social unrest in Tibet. The articles said that the Dalai Lama travels around the world, running around and working hard, all (for the purpose of) beautifying the feudal serf system and attempting to restore this system.

Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), March 10, 2019
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/201903100056.aspx

Known as China’s first space movie, The Wandering Earth had a smashing 4.5 billion (US$669 million) in box office revenue in mainland China but suffered a devastating flop in Hong Kong. The opening day box office revenue was only HK$320,000 (US$40,000). For the showing at 9:50 pm in a Broadway Cinema in Mong Kok, only 7 out of a total of 300 seats were sold. A Radio France Internationale article reported that, in order to improve the poor box office performance, some Hong Kong patriotic organizations and individuals launched a “rescue the Earth” campaign. Some schools, such as the New Territories School Head Association, even gave out free tickets saying it was “in the name of the upcoming 70th anniversary.”

According to the Radio France Internationale article, the official party media Global Times even reported the poor box office performance of The Wandering Earth in Hong Kong but attributed the cause to the economic gap and cultural differences between Hong Kong and the mainland. In the article that Radio France Internationale published, it reported that the Global Times seems to have forgotten the fact that, among movies made in Hong Kong in 2018, the top box hit was a low budget movie called Agent Mr. Chan, which took in revenue of 44.7 million Hong Kong dollars (US$5.69 million). As for the movie that achieved the highest box office revenue in Hong Kong last year, it was Hollywood’s “Avengers: Infinity War,” which had a box office revenue exceeding 150 million Hong Kong dollars (US$19.11 million). Another mainland movie, “Red Sea Action” had director Lin Chaoxian, who was from Hong Kong, but its box office revenue was only 8.7 million Hong Kong dollars (US$1.1 million), which was a lot lower than the mainland box office of 3.65 billion yuan (US$465 million). Therefore, it argues that citing poor economic performance in Hong Kong as the reason for the low box office performance of The Wandering Earth seems to be a bit untenable.

Source: Radio France Internationale, March 9, 2019
http://cn.rfi.fr/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD/20190309-%E6%B5%81%E6%B5%AA%E5%9C%B0%E7%90%83%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF%E7%A5%A8%E6%88%BF%E5%87%84%E6%83%A8%E7%88%B1%E5%9B%BD%E5%AD%A6%E6%A0%A1%E6%B4%BE%E7%A5%A8%E6%95%91%E5%9C%B0%E7%90%83

China’s Three Self Churches belong to the Chinese Communist Party-controlled Three Self Patriotic Movement. The three ‘Self’s are self-governance, self-support, self-propagation, and the rejection of foreigners’ influence on church leadership.

Rev. Xu Xiaohong, Chairman of the National Three Self Churches, gave a speech at a session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, which started on March 5.

Xu said, “It must be recognized that the surname of Chinese churches is ‘China,’ not the ‘West.’ The anti-China forces in the West are trying to influence China’s social stability and even subvert China’s political power through (the use of) Christianity. They are doomed to fail. For individual black sheep that participate in the subversion of national security under the banner of Christianity, we firmly support that the state brings them to justice.”

Xu added that on this issue one needs “continuously to eliminate the ‘foreign imprints’ on China’s Christian churches,” and “continuously to carry forward and practice the core values of socialism.”

Estimates have been made that more than half of China’s 60 million Protestants worship in unregistered churches.

In response to Xu comments, Xu Yonghai, an elder of the Divine Love Fellowship of the Beijing Christian House Church, said that since the 1950’s, members of the Three Self Churches have been leading armed police to search for elders and pastors. “In 1995, the authorities arrested me. This was also due to the role of the Three Self Churches.”

Source: Central News Agency, March 12, 2019
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/201903120052.aspx