Government/Politics - 118. page

On January 10, China’s Ministry of Education, Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office and the Taiwanese Affairs Office issued a joint notice to approve Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwanese to apply for primary and secondary school teaching positions in the Mainland, and allow them to work in schools in the Mainland. However, the notice listed a series of requirements: “support the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party,” “adhere to the direction of socialist education,” and “implement the party’s educational policy.”

Bruce Lui, a senior lecturer at the Hong Kong Baptist University, said that the measures exemplified the united front work to win over the education sector in Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. Some international schools in the mainland love to hire Hong Kong teachers who speak better English. Hong Kong people have worked in universities and higher education institutions in the Mainland for many years, but the authorities did not previously have the above political requirements for them. “These demands are undoubtedly asking Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan people who are teaching in primary and secondary schools in the Mainland to listen to the party and follow the party. These go against the principles of the education of each independent personality and of free thinking.”

Source: China News Service, January 10, 2019
http://www.chinanews.com/gn/2019/01-10/8725384.shtml

According to a Chinese government website, in 2018, the national disciplinary and supervision agencies received a total of 3.44 million complaints and reports, and 16.67 million different leads. The authorities have conducted 341,000 interviews, placed 638,000 cases on record, and punished 621,000 officials (including 526,000 who received party disciplinary measures). Among these officials, there were 51 at the provincial and ministerial levels, 3,500 at the bureau level, 26,000 at the county and department levels, 91,000 at the village and branch levels, and 500,000 at lower levels or who were with nongovernmental organizations.

The discipline inspection and supervision organs also were severe in investigating public servants (both officials and nonofficial) who violated party discipline last year, handling a total of 1.73 million cases.

Source: Radio France International, January 9, 2019
http://rfi.my/3XpP.T

Wu Jinglian, a well-known Chinese economist, recently gave advice in ten areas of China’s reform. He stated the direction of China’s reform can only be in market-orientation, the rule of law, and democracy, but not anything else. However, the authorities soon took his article down from the Internet.

Wu’s advise included the following:

One, establishing a market-oriented, rule of law society is the only direction for China’s reform; anything besides that will not help China.

Two, to avoid a social crisis, the authorities must truly advance the reform focusing on a market-driven economy, the rule of law, and democracy. It should establish both an inclusive economic system and an inclusive political system. It should transition itself from an authoritative model to a democratic model. This is the only possible way out for China.

Three, the prerequisite for reform is to have real, practical discussions on the theory and practice of the reform.

Four, people must abandon the Soviet ideology which still has a strong imprint on the older generations. Some people use that to oppose reform.

Wu’s other advise included that it is very dangerous to let the government intervene in the market, especially to create some theory to justify that intervention’s legitimacy. Wu also pointed out the areas that lag behind in reform, such as the state-owned economic reform and the government’s administrative function reform. These are related to the political and governmental reform that is missing.

Source: Creader.net, December 22, 2018
http://news.creaders.net/china/2018/12/22/2032590.html

The Paper reported that, in order to create a “clean and healthy political ecology,” Xiamen City of Fujian Province recently carried out a campaign among 70,000 of its party members to rectify the behavior of some of the party members. Some members choose to “believe in ghosts and in god but do not believe in Marxism-Leninism (不信马列信鬼神).” The members were asked to conduct a self-check and take corrective action if they found any violations. All violations are subject to serious investigation and an accountability check. The article stated that this is part of Xiamen City implementing the party’s political tasks which include “promoting party organizations, party members and cadres at all levels of the city to safeguard (Xi Jinping)’s core leadership in a conscious manner, firmly implement the party’s political line, and strictly enforce political discipline and political rules in order to ensure the implementation of major decisions.” So far, the city has conducted questionnaires on 20 violations of political discipline and political rules, including 3 municipal cadres. Meanwhile in 2018, Xiamen City and the local districts organized 31 training programs with 2,630 participants to study the “key messages from the 19th congress and Xi Jinping’s socialist thoughts with Chinese Characteristics in the new era.” This was done so that the members could “grasp the discipline inspection and supervision work in the new era more accurately.”

Source: The Paper, January 5, 2019
https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_2816898

The Central News Agency reported that Zheng Yefu, a famous Chinese social scholar, recently wrote that, since its establishment, the Chinese Communist Party has brought too many disasters. In the past 70 years it has completely lost its ability to correct itself. Only by peacefully fading out from the historical stage can it meet the fundamental interests of the people. However if the public keeps quiet, the people don’t deserve to see the end of this totalitarian regime.

Zheng took the history of Taiwan’s end of the one-party dictatorship as an example. He emphasized that, if there had been no democratic party to fight against the ruling party for many years, the then President Chiang Ching-kuo would not have been able to make decisions toward a democratic transformation. Compared with today’s China, if intellectuals were faithful to their own consciences, they should have been brave enough to express their views and “China would not have become what it is today.”

Zheng Yefu is a retired professor at the Department of Sociology at Peking University. He has long observed Chinese intellectuals and social development issues and has criticized official policies. Among the public he is very highly respected. He made the above appeal in his article called, “The Causes and Difficulties of Political Reform,” which was published last month.

Although this article was not published in mainland China, overseas Chinese media reprinted it and triggered extensive discussions. Chinese netizens have also reprinted on the microblog some of the content that does not contain sensitive vocabulary. They expressed their gratitude to Zheng Yefu for this article. Some people said that Zheng is “the true spirit and patriotism of Peking University.”

According to a report from Radio Free Asia and Radio France International, Zheng Yefu said in the article that most of the party’s policies do not represent the interests of the Chinese people. Instead, the party took the opportunity to turn the private land of the people into state-owned land, and the local governments then sold the land to real estate developers at a much higher price and made countless citizens become house slaves.

He pointed out that since the party came to power, for 70 years, it has brought too many disasters to the Chinese people, and it has almost completely lost the mechanism of self-correction. “Joining the party is to earn an official title and defending the party is to safeguard its vested interests; the party is increasingly hateful towards different political views, and the fear of crisis has made the party dysfunctional.”

Zheng Yefu believes that, currently, the common interest of the Chinese people and the ruling party is for “the Party to peacefully, that is, in order to avoid violence and cause the minimum social unrest, to fade out of the historical arena.” “The only big contribution for the existing party leadership to do that can go down in history is to lead the party to decently fade out of the historical arena.”

He also mentioned, “If we (the public) do not say something and do not exert pressure, we should not, and we do not deserve to see the end of this totalitarian regime.”

Zheng Yefu pointed out that “The rise and fall of a nation rests with every one of its citizens,” which was one of the purposes of his writing the article. “There is also a humble motivation. I have written millions of words over the years. If I don’t say a word on the subject that matters to the fate of the nation, I will look down on myself.”

He mentioned at the end of the article that China has not yet reached the point where all responsibility can be pushed on the politicians. “It is because today’s scholars have not fulfilled their responsibilities. If they were faithful to their own consciences, if they were brave enough to speak their own opinions, China would not be what it is today.”

Source: Central News Agency, January 5, 2019
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/201901050094.aspx

On December 27, Xi Jinping hosted a Political Bureau of the Central Committee meeting and reviewed the “Regulations on the Political and Legal Work of the Party.” The Paper published a commentary article that CCTV had originally reported. The article stated that Xi’s speech during the meeting, “further reinforced the party’s absolute leadership over political and legal work.” It called for all levels of the political and legal department to “study, understand, and implement the practice of political and legal work.” The article also commented that “promoting the rule by law is meant to further consolidate the party’s ruling status, improve the party’s ruling style, improve the party’s ability to govern, and ensure the long-term stability of the party and the country.” The article stated that, “the Political and Legal system must ensure that it is consistent with the Party Central Committee led by Xi in terms of its political stance, political direction, political principles, and political path, and that it is determined to be the guardian and the developer of the socialist country ruled by law.”

Source: The Paper, December 28, 2018
https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_2788729

Radio Free Asia reported that on December 27, the National Financial Work Conference was held in Beijing. The conference called for the “mentality to live on a tight budget next year” and strictly control general expenditures and spending. In addition, it proposed that there will be a substantial increase in local government special bonds, strict control of local government’s implicit debt, prevention and resolution of financial risks; promotion of economic transformation; further release of domestic demand potential; promotion of regional coordinated development; the strengthening of safeguards; and the improvement of people’s livelihood. At the same time, the meeting proposed that a larger scale of tax reduction and fee reduction will be implemented next year.

The conference also promoted the key work in 2019, which includes a pilot project on agriculture-related funds in poverty-stricken counties, accelerating the construction of poverty alleviation funds, poverty alleviation, and rural construction. At the same time, it emphasized the requirement to strengthen the international financial cooperation led by the “One Belt, One Road” project, actively participating in and leading the formulation of rules in international finance and economics, and firmly safeguarding and enhancing China’s national interests.

In the article, RFA quoted a statement an economist made. He stated that the key reason for China’s economic deterioration is the defects in the existing system. Therefore, no matter how the government strengthens macroeconomic regulations and control, it cannot solve the fundamental problem. The existing political system has resulted in a serious imbalance in the Chinese economy. The policy that allows the state to advance and the private sector to retreat has caused an abnormal development of the economy. As a result, the general public has to bear the pain from reform, including the unemployment of hundreds of millions of workers. Many small and medium-sized enterprises began to fall in the winter of 2017 with a sharp decline in revenue and no guarantee for financing.

Source: Radio Free Asia, December 28, 2018
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/jingmao/ql2-12282018100637.html