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Government and Leadership: Wang Yi vs. Qin Gang

Wang Yi and Qin Gang were both promoted after the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) 20th National Congress and both will manage China’s diplomacy work. The Epoch Times published an article commenting on their relationship.

Wang Yi, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, now sits on the 24-member CCP Central Committee and serves as the Office Manager (办公室主任) of the CCP’s Central Foreign Affairs Commission (中央外事工作委员会) where Xi Jinping is the Chair of the commission. Qin Gang is the new Minister of Foreign Affairs and is expected to become a State Council Member (国务委员, a Deputy-State level official with the same rank as Deputy Prime Minister) appointed by the People’s National Congress in March.

In China, the CCP organ sits above the corresponding state council organ. So Wang Yi in theory is above Qin Gang. However, both of them have direct access to Xi Jinping and therefore, Qin Gang may have autonomy to a certain extent. Hong Kong’s Ming Pao newspaper said that Wang is in charge of Russia and Europe while Qin Gang leads the work with the U.S.

Source: Epoch Times, February 1, 2023
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/23/2/1/n13920172.htm

Hot Topics | | |   Government/Politics

CCP’s Crimes: How Could the Authorities Match Donor’s Organs to Several People So Quickly?

An article posted on the Internet questioned (using hints) whether the communist regime is conducting organ transplants based on the recipient’s need.

It first mentioned a news item: On January 17, a 20-year-old college student fell down from a bike and was announced brain dead after being taken to the hospital. His parents recalled that their son wanted to donate his organs. Then the student’s organs including heart, liver, lungs, kidneys, and corneas, were transplanted to save seven patients.

The author raised a question: Since the college student’s death was a sudden event, how was the hospital able to match his organs with seven people so quickly (organ transplants have to be performed quickly after the death). After all, organ matching between the donor and the recipient is not a quick and high-possibility event, not to mention matching with seven recipients.

The author found a few dozen reports in the past couple of years about death-related organ donations. Most of the cases were about young people who suffered brain death (so their organs could be taken out). For example, the following were cases that occurred since the 2023 New Year: a 23-year-old girl’s organ donation saved five people, an eight-year-old girl’s organ donation saved two people, an 18-year-old college student’s organ donation saved six people.

The author then referred to a recent revelation of Gao Zhanxiang, a former Deputy Communist Party Secretary of the Ministry of Culture, who had replaced many of his organs (Chinascope also briefed on that story: “COVID Death Revealed CCP Officials Transplant Organs so They Can Live Longer”).

The author wrote, “I typed a few sentences (about my suspicions), but deleted them. Let me just write this much.”

Source: Pop Yard, January 22, 2023
https://news.popyard.space/cgi-mod/newscroll.cgi?lan=cn&r=0&sid=15&rid=731187&v=0

Hot Topics | | |   @CS Government/Politics

Economy: Professors Suggested Taxing People’s Savings to Force Consumers to Spend

China is pushing to make consumer spending its next economic growth driver since its exports has slowed down and government infrastructure investment (mainly focused on housing and construction) has become ineffective.

Recently, an Economy professor from Sichuan Agricultural University published an article on how to get people to spend. He argued that it is difficult to get the high income groups and low income groups to spend more, so the focus should be on the middle income people. His suggestion was to impose a tax on the portion above 500,000 yuan (US$74,000) of people’s money in the bank.

In August 2021, another so-called “famous economist” Xu Hongbo from Wuhan University of Technology put forth a similar idea. A tax should be based on the total cash-equivalent of assets including bank savings, cash, gold (both gold reserve and gold jewelry), and money in the online payment accounts such as Alipay and Wechat. Assets below 1 million yuan would be exempt. Then 1 – 1.5 million and above would be taxed as follows: 1 percent for 1.5  to  2 million; 2 percent for 2 to 2.5 million; 3 percent would be for higher amounts, …, with 40 percent as the top tax rate.

Source: China Digital Times, January 27, 2023
https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/692392.html

Hot Topics | | |   Economy/Resources

Procuratorate: “The Weak Will Be Trampled by the Strong”

The Procuratorate (China’s term for the Public Prosecutor) at Yichuan County, Shaanxi Province posted the following message on its official Weibo account (Weibo is a social media in China): “Stop talking about showing pity for the weak. In this world, the weak are to be trampled by the strong. You are either to be trampled or you have to become the strong.”

This message has triggered hot discussions among the Chinese people.

Source: China Digital Times, January 19, 2023
https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/692178.html

Hot Topics | | |   Government/Politics

Economy: Chinese Researcher – People Should Work Throughout Their Entire Life

China’s aging problem has become severe. Dang Junwu, Deputy Director of the China Research Center on Aging, offered a solution that people should just keep working forever. According to Baidu, the China Research Center on Aging is the only national-level research institute specializing in the science of aging.

Dang said the following in a video: “We have entered an aging society. Once we are 60, we still have on average 27 years to live. How do we spend these 27 years? We should have the idea of ‘working throughout our entire life.’ (He who keeps working) does not want to simply enjoy a comfortable retirement; he actually takes pleasure in (working continuously ).”

Source: Aboluo Website, January 22, 2023
https://www.aboluowang.com/2023/0122/1857923.html

Hot Topics | | |   Economy/Resources Government/Politics

Economy: China’s Three-Tiered Social Security Structure

On January 13, Yingtan City, Jiangxi Province, posted on social media that the county has finished the delivery of social security payments for January. 75,500 retirees of companies received 178.85 million yuan; 13,600 government retirees received 69.09 million yuan; and 137,800 other retirees (residents not working for the government or established companies) received 28.54 million yuan.

People were thus able to calculate the three-time payment structures: 5,080 yuan (US$749) per month for government employees, 2,368 yuan (US$349) per month for company retirees, and 207 yuan (US$31) per month for normal residents. This created a hot discussion on the Internet about the unfair social security treatment based on people’s classes.

Source: Epoch Times, January 16, 2023
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/23/1/16/n13908521.htm

Hot Topics | | |   Economy/Resources

Economy: Banks in China Try to Stop Early Payoff of Mortgage Loans

The Caijing website published an article discussing the phenomenon that banks are creating hurdles to prevent people from paying off their mortgage principle earlier than is stated in their schedule.

The online App of a large state-owned bank told its users that early repayment cannot be handled online and that they need to make an appointment for an office visit. However, this type of appointment has a long waiting time. A customer called on January 3 and got an appointment on June 13. Some other banks also have people wait 3 months for an appointment.

Banks prefer customers to follow the mortgage payment schedule so that they can have the interest create a steady cash flow.

People, on the other hand, prefer to pay off their mortgage earlier because, nowadays, the normal financial investment options in China, such as bank’s saving accounts, mutual funds, hedge funds, etc. have a volatile and lower return than the mortgage interest rate. Thus people would rather pay off their mortgage principle.

Source: Caijing, January 19, 2023
https://estate.caijing.com.cn/20230119/4913830.shtml

Hot Topics | | |   Economy/Resources

Economy: How Will China’s Local Governments Manage Their Debts?

The high level of China’s local government debts has grown to a point of being alarming. Liu Kun, China’s Minister of Finance asked local governments to be responsible for their own debts and that the central government will not help, as “whose child do they hold?”

A Taiwanese media Up Media republished an article by Yan Cungou, a former Wen Wei Po editor, commenting on this policy:

Why was Liu Kun so cold-hearted? It is because the central government has depleted its money. It does not have the ability to cover local governments any more. It is just giving a warning up front.

In China, the local governments have accumulated 65 trillion yuan (US$9.6 trillion)in debt. Where can local governments find the money to pay off these debts? One possibility is to exploit private companies. This can result in the massive death of private companies. A second way is to exploit the people. However, people do not have much left after the three years of “zero-COVID” control and over-exploitation can lead to escalated conflicts between people and the authorities. The third option is to cut spending and lay off government staff members. However, the officials might be so hurt that they would stop working hard for the communist regime. In the end, the local government will run out of money and won’t even be able to pay for stability control efforts. Then there would be more social turmoil.

There might be several consequences for the central government’s “not holding local governments’ children.” First is that the central government will lose its authority over the local governments. Second is that local governments will focus on own interests and depart from the central government. Third is that the infighting among local governments (for resources) would intensify. Fourth is that people would protest and add to the pressure on the authorities.

Source: Up Media, January 17, 2023
https://www.upmedia.mg/news_info.php?Type=2&SerialNo=163946

Hot Topics | | |   @CS Economy/Resources Government/Politics