On January 17, China’s provincial level police chiefs gathered together in Beijing where State Councilor and Minister of Public Security Zhao Kezhi delivered a speech. According to official reports, Zhao proposed to create a safe and stable political and social environment for the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China as a major political task for the nationwide police forces.

On 21 September 1949, then Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong proclaimed the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. 2019 is also the 30th anniversary of the June 4th incident in 1989 and 20th anniversary of the persecution of Falun Gong which began in 1999. China is also facing a series of challenges such as trade negotiations with the U.S. and a slowing domestic economy. It has been reported that Zhao also mentioned in his speech to senior officials of the Ministry of Public Security that it is necessary to guard against a “color revolution” and to battle for political security.

Zhao asked that all be on high alert for political security and always make the prevention of political risks a top priority. He demanded they “strictly guard against and resolutely crack down on various invasive and subversive activities of hostile forces at home and abroad, deepen anti-terrorism and anti-secession struggles, firmly defend political security, and resolutely defend the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and the socialist system of our country.”

Source: Beijing News, January 18, 2019
http://www.bjnews.com.cn/news/2019/01/18/540767.html

Two months ago, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials demanded that a church in Luoning County, Henan Province remove one Commandment from the list of Ten Commandments.

About 30 officials from the CCP Central Committee’s Religious Inspector Group, the Luoyang City United Front Department, and the Luoning County United Front Department visited the church. They ordered the church to wipe out the first Commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”

The priest and believers objected to the demand, but the officials told them that Xi Jinping was against this Commandment and therefore whoever did not follow their orders was committing actions against the state.

It has also been reported that, as the CCP is attempting to create “Chinese-styled Christianity,” the traditional bible is banned from being sold. It has been replaced with a “new version of the bible” that the CCP itself revised. The authorities now require all churches to promote “the Socialist Core Values.”

Source: Radio Free Asia, January 4, 2019
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/shehui/gf2-01042019083829.html

During Hu Jintao’s era, the Chinese government mandated four compulsory political courses in universities and colleges. Recently, the Ministry of Education issued a high-profile announcement to strengthen and improve the “Current Affairs and Policies” course, as an attempt to continue the party’s ideological control.

The Ministry of Education circulated a notice in April 2018, recommending that all higher education institutions in the country strengthen and improve the “Current Affairs and Policies” course to “help college students understand the situation at home and abroad in the new era correctly, and to obtain a thorough understanding of the historical achievements and historical changes of the party and the state and of the historic opportunities and challenges they are facing.” The purpose was to “further push Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era into the students’ minds, to promote the party’s major policies … and to train a new generation that will undertake the great mission of national rejuvenation.”

One student told Radio Free Asia that the course is actually “brainwashing” education in combination with current events. He cited the US-China trade war as an example. “The course tells how the United States is rude and unreasonable toward China. It also preaches that the party is very great and instills ideas about the party-state system and about xenophobia.”

The Ministry of Education stipulated that bachelor’s degree students should take no less than 8 class hours for a total of 2 credits per semester, and associate degree students no less than 8 class hours for a total of 1 credit per semester, to “ensure that the undergraduate students on campus take the course uninterrupted.”

Another student told the reporter that the “Current Affairs and Policies” course is compulsory and one cannot graduate without completing it. The credits for each political class are similar to major related classes. Many students choose to memorize the course contents.

The student also mentioned that his school once distributed questionnaires on the “Current Affairs and Policies” class, but it touched on little of the contents in the curriculum.

“A lot of stuff in the questionnaire is actually to evaluate the students’ political views. There are questions such as the following: ‘Do you agree with constitutional democracy?’ ‘Do you agree with the leadership of the Communist Party?’ ‘What do you think about religious beliefs?  One of my high school classmates who answered that he is a religious believer was called into the school for a conversation. Therefore we don’t dare to tell the truth on these questionnaires. I’m afraid that if the questionnaire is checked, the respondent will be called in for a conversation.”  Feng Chongyi, a professor at the University of Technology in Sydney, said in an interview that the “brainwashing” education exists because the Chinese ruling party must control the students’ ideological dynamics.

“After June 4, the universities intensified political classes. The democratic movement in 1989 posed great challenges to the Chinese ruling party. The government regarded students as the “worst-hit area” in terms of challenges to the Chinese Communist regime.” “(‘Brain-washing’ education) is something special in a totalitarian regime; starting at the kindergarten stage, it puts political education in the first (place). From childhood on, people have not been able to cultivate the ability to think and judge things independently and the real cognitive ability of a human being has been destroyed.”

Source: Radio Free Asia, January 10, 2019
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/kejiaowen/hj-01102019103938.html

China published a new rule to request blockchain service providers to get the real name of each user and not to publish contents that do not conform to the authorities’ requirements.

On January 10, 2019, the Cyberspace Admission Office issued the “Regulations on the Management of Blockchain Information Services,” which will take effect on February 15, 2019.

The Regulations state that the blockchain service provider holds the main responsibility for the safety management of the contents, that it should implement the real ID identification system for its users, and that it cannot use blockchain to conduct activities prohibited by the law or administrative regulations or produce, replicate, publish, or spread information prohibited by the law or by administrative regulations.

Source: Cyberspace Admission website, January 10, 2019
http://www.cac.gov.cn/2019-01/10/c_1123971138.htm