Weekly Report 4|26 5.8.2021-5.14.2021
Highlights
The Central Committee launched an inspection of the Ministry of Education and 31 universities (see Party Discipline section).
Sun Chunlan met with provincial- and ministerial-level cadres to emphasize the importance of public health in China’s new stage of development (see Senior Leaders section).
Senior Leaders
On an Inspection of Seed Industry Work in Hainan, Hu Chunhua Emphasized Doing a Good Job on the Census, Protection, and Utilization of Germplasm Resources
5.8 Politburo Member and Vice Premier Hu Chunhua (胡春华) visited Hainan Province, where he inspected that region’s seed industry work. On the inspection, Hu stressed “thoroughly implementing the spirit of Xi Jinping’s important instructions,” as well as those of the CCP Central Committee and the State Council regarding the security of germplasm resources and their critical strategic importance for national security. Hu visited sites in Tunchang, Qiongzhong, and Lingao Counties and Danzhou City. On the tour, he inspected a range of agricultural germplasm resource sites and the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences’ Tropical Crops Genetic Research Institute in order to “understand the protection and utilization of agricultural germplasm resources and the situation of producing natural rubber,” among other goals. Hu pointed out that seeds are “the foundation of agricultural modernization,” saying it was necessary to conduct a census of agricultural germplasm resources, “carrying out identification and classification [of seeds] in strict accordance with scientific standards” to ascertain their source. He further identified several areas of work for developing a “comprehensive system” for protecting agricultural germplasm resources, including building and managing habitat protection zones, living specimen conservation sites, and germplasm resource banks. On the tour, Hu also advocated for the strategic importance of natural rubber and encouraged support of the industry.
Xi Jinping Writes Letter Back to Entire Editorial Staff of Journal of Literature, History, and Philosophy Editorial Department
5.11 People’s Daily published Xi Jinping’s letter to the editorial department of the Journal of Literature, History, and Philosophy to recognize the editorial staff’s achievements over the years in “doing a great amount of work to promote Chinese civilization [and] prosperous academic research.” Xi stated that “to strengthen the unyielding character and confidence of the Chinese people and to let the world better recognize and understand China, it is necessary to deeply comprehend Chinese civilization” from the perspective of combining history and reality, theory and practice. He further stated that “high quality academic journals must stick to their aspirations, lead innovation, display high-level research results, support the growth of excellent academic talent, and promote academic changes between China and foreign countries.” He concluded his letter by expressing hope that the editorial department will “continue the struggle to make the journal better.”
Sun Chunlan Emphasized Promoting the Undertaking of High-Quality Development of Hygiene and Health, Raising People’s Health and Well-Being to a New Level
5.11 Vice Premier and Politburo member Sun Chunlan (孙春兰) held a discussion on 10 May with provincial- and ministerial-level cadres to promote the construction of a “healthy China.” After noting the importance of “thoroughly implement[ing]” Xi Jinping’s theory concerning the construction of a healthy China, Sun pointed out that during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, China’s economy will move from a stage of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development. She said that China must prioritize people’s health, improve the system for disease prevention and control, promote the healthy China initiative, strengthen the construction of regional medical centers, deepen the reform of public hospitals, among other things. She also discussed the epidemic and urged the acceleration of producing and supplying COVID-19 vaccines. The discussion was jointly organized by the Organization Department of the Central Committee, the Central Party School, the National Health Commission, and the State Medical Insurance Administration.
General Office of the CCP Publishes Suggestions on Continuing to Select and Send First Secretaries and Working Groups to Key Villages
5.12 Recently, the General Office of the CCP published its “Suggestions on Continuing to Select and Send First Secretaries and Working Groups to Key Villages” to help “win the fight against poverty,” “comprehensively promote rural revitalization,” and “consolidate and expand the achievements of poverty alleviation.” Suggestions include:
On the basis of implementing the strict requirements of the “four do not picks” (四个不摘--do not pick responsibility, policy, assistance, or supervision), rationally adjust the scope of selection, optimize the forces stationed in the villages, expand the substance of work, and progressively change direction to comprehensively promote rural revitalization.
On villages lifted out of poverty and villages resettled to alleviate poverty, continue to select and assign first secretaries and work teams. For villages where the task of consolidating the achievements of poverty alleviation is relatively light, the number of candidates can be reduced as appropriate. For villages with weak party organizations, continue to fully cover the selection and assignment of first secretaries. For other villages, localities can make arrangements according to actual needs.
Strictly select candidates based on their good political quality, resolute implementation of Party theory, principles and policies, love of rural work, strong work ability, responsibility, innovative spirit, and dedication, among other qualities. The first secretary must be a formal Party member and meet experience requirements. The secretaries and personnel should be chosen from outstanding cadres at various levels, personnel from state-owned enterprises and public institutions, and from cadres who have left leadership positions but have not yet retired. They should meet relevant experience requirements and go through the proper steps to be selected.
The first secretaries and working groups will mainly do the following tasks: 1. Construct strong village party organization, which includes developing young party members and standardizing party branches; 2. Advance strengthening the village and enriching the people, which includes modernizing agriculture and developing rural industries; 3. Improve the level of governance, which includes promoting a sound rural governance system; 4. Handle services for the people, which includes focusing on improving the people’s livelihoods and promoting all kinds of resources to sink to the grassroots level.
Strengthen management assessment by implementing systems such as attendance, leave, work reports, and discipline. There should be joint annual assessments by various departments with party committees, which should serve as an important basis for job evaluations and promotions.
Strengthen organization guarantees by promoting party building, strengthening responsibilities, and cooperating closely with relevant departments. Make sure that working groups are adequately provided for in rural areas and given proper working and living conditions.
During Inspection of Chinese Medicine Law Enforcement in Gansu, Wang Chen Emphasized Promoting the Development and Revitalization of Chinese Medicine to Play a Greater Role in Building a Healthy China
5.12 From 9 to 12 May, Politburo member and National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) Vice Chair Wang Chen (王晨) led an NPCSC law enforcement inspection team in an inspection of Chinese medicine law enforcement in Gansu. On the tour, Wang emphasized “taking Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as the guide, implementing the new development concept, strengthening the implementation and supervision of the Chinese Medicine Law, and promoting the development and revitalization of Chinese medicine,” in order to enhance China’s health, prosperity, and welfare. In Gansu, Wang and his team listened to reports on law enforcement in traditional Chinese medicine, held informal discussions with responsible parties in government and relevant universities and colleges, and visited a number of sites for inspection. He pointed out that Gansu had “conscientiously implemented the Chinese Medicine Law,” and had made “solid progress” as a pilot “model province” for the development and comprehensive reform of Chinese medicine. Wang detailed a number of Gansu’s successes as a model province, though noted that areas for growth remain.
While in Gansu, Wang also inspected the provincial People’s Congress and visited the Eighth Route Army Lanzhou Office Memorial Hall.
At Zhejiang Investigation and Regional Symposium of Central Steering Group, Guo Shengkun Emphasized Solidly Advancing the Education and Consolidation of Political and Legal Teams to Stimulate the Entrepreneurial Motivation of Administrators
5.14 From 10 to 13 May, Politburo member and Secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission Guo Shengkun (郭声琨) conducted an investigation in Zhejiang, where he emphasized adhering to Xi Jinping Thought and studying and implementing Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law. He also noted the importance of advancing the education of political and legal teams to stimulate the entrepreneurial motivation of administrators. During his investigation, he visited the Nanhu Revolutionary Memorial Hall in Jiaxing and urged political and legal organs to place the development of Party History Study and Education in a prominent position, and deepen various types of education. He went to several other cities in Zhejiang and emphasized the importance of unifying thoughts and actions and improving the ability to perform duties. At the regional symposium, Guo emphasized that the Central Steering Group should focus on supervision in a number of areas to avoid merely going through the motions of making improvements. At a county-level social conflict and dispute mediation center, Guo stressed adherence to and development of the “Maple Bridge Experience” (枫桥经验) in the new era, innovation in grassroots social governance, and social harmony and stability. During his visit to various legal departments, Guo asked about environmental protection and public interest litigation, pointing out that it is important to punish behavior that harms the environment.
Propaganda Work
Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Consolidate the Forces of Major Power Diplomacy with Chinese Characteristics
5.11 People’s Daily reported on how the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) is implementing the Party History Study and Education initiative. Wang Yi reportedly personally asked the diplomatic front to carry out Party History Study and Education shortly after Xi Jinping initiated the campaign, asking them to “further strengthen [their] ideals, beliefs, and party spirit, [to] use the Party’s glorious tradition to strengthen the diplomatic spirit, [to] seek inspiration from Party’s historical experience to cultivate diplomatic wisdom, [to] recognize the general trend of the world and contemporary China’s historical position, and grasp the historical initiative in the development of diplomacy.” The MFA then established a leading group for Party History Study and Education and demanded that MFA party committees at all levels regard the initiative as a “major political task” over the course of the year.
More than 400 party organizations within the MFA, including at embassies and consulates abroad, have participated in the education campaign. People’s Daily highlighted how embassies and consulates abroad were making use of “overseas red resources” to carry out the education campaign, for example, conducting visits to Lenin’s tomb, the site of the Chinese embassy bombing in Belgrade, the Sino Korean Friendship Tower in Pyongyang, and sites commemorating the Vietnam War. Some embassies invited communist party leaders from their host country to analyze the successes and failures of their own parties. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched a themed activity called “100 Days to Tell 100 Stories of the Chinese Communist Party’s Foreign Affairs,” which reportedly received widespread attention on social media. Embassies and consulates around the world “preached” to people abroad about the “glorious journey of the Chinese Communist Party” and guided them to understand “why socialism with Chinese characteristics is good.”
Communist Youth League Central Committee: Let the Red Gene and the Revolutionary Flame Pass from Generation to Generation
5.13 A People’s Daily article detailed how the Communist Youth League (CYL) Central Committee has been implementing Party History Study and Education and “guiding the broad masses of CYL members to love the Party, love the country, and love socialism.” According to the article, on 4 March, the CYL Central Committee issued a notice that arrangements should be made throughout the CYL to “learn party history, strengthen beliefs, and follow the Party.” The CYL Central Committee then held a mobilization meeting on 12 March for the education campaign. CYL Central Committee First Secretary He Junke (贺军科) said to “take the launch of Party History Study and Education as an important duty to demonstrate the Party’s role as assistant and reserve force, to strengthen the substance of the CYL’s ideological construction, [and] as an important opportunity to increase the ideological and political quality of members, [so that] the red gene and the revolutionary flame pass from generation to generation.”
The article praised youth league organizations nationwide for quickly promoting the education campaign and integrating it into their daily lives. The Gansu Provincial Youth League Committee, for example, has organized members to participate in themed activities, take party history classes, visit a patriotic education base, read classic “red books,” and watch educational films. On Youth Day, on 4 May, the CYL organized a themed group activity called “Doing Things for the Youth,” in which youth league members went to schools, red education bases, and private enterprises to participate in the activities of grassroots youth organizations. People’s Daily also highlighted activities focusing on music and using new media platforms to reach more people.
Seminar on Studying, Disseminating, and Implementing Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and High-End Forum on Party History Study and Education Held in Shanghai
5.14 A seminar on studying, disseminating, and implementing Xi Jinping Thought and a forum on Party History Study and Education was held in Shanghai on 13 May. Politburo member, head of the Propaganda Department, and head of the leading group for party history learning and education Huang Kunming (黄坤明) attended and delivered a speech. In his speech, he stated that people must “adhere to the comprehensive leadership of the Party,” “adhere to people as the center,” fully recognize the characteristics of Chinese-style modernization, and “carry forward the spirit of self-reliance.” Politburo member and Party Committee Secretary of Shanghai Li Qiang (李强) also gave a speech. In his speech, Li stated that Shanghai was the “birthplace of the Party,” that the Party’s original mission has been “fully practiced and witnessed in Shanghai for a century,” and that Shanghai will continue this mission under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought.
United Front Work
All-China Federation of Taiwan Compatriots’ Outstanding Taiwan Youth Compatriots National Tour, and Taiwan Youth Cultural Communication Workshop Activities Were Held in Tongchuan, Shaanxi
5.10 From 25 to 28 April, the All-China Federation of Taiwan Compatriots and the All-China Youth Federation co-sponsored the tour, speaking activities, and cultural communication workshop jointly held by the Shaanxi Youth Federation, the Tongchuan Municipal Party Committee, and the Tongchuan People’s Government in Tongchuan, Shaanxi. Members of the Taiwan Youth Federation and the All-China Youth Federation and “more than 40 outstanding Taiwan Youth representatives from all over the country” gathered at the “red holy site” (色圣地) of the Zhaojin Revolutionary Base in Tongchuan, where they began a four-day lecture, exchange, and culture tour. At the opening ceremonies, Director of the All-China Federation of Taiwan Compatriots Research Office, All-China Youth Federation Vice Chair, Tongchuan Municipal Party Standing Committee Member and Vice Mayor Chen Xiaoyan (陈小艳) gave a welcome speech, focusing on the area’s “glorious red heritage” (光荣红色传承) and celebrating cross-Strait exchanges. The event also featured speeches by the Director of New Media for the Global Times, Hao Junshi (郝珺石), a professor from Huaqiao University, and other “veteran experts” in communications. During the tour, participating Taiwan youth visited revolutionary, cultural, and development sites and put on a series of TED-talk like lectures called “Taiwan Youth Talk,” which showcased the entrepreneurial style of young long-term residents of China from Taiwan who had “deeply integrated into the motherland.”
United Front Work Department: Focus on Gathering Strength, and Persist in Studying to Promote Action
5.12 The United Front Work Department (UFWD) reported that it has taken Party History Study and Education as a “major political task,” striving to use the education campaign to “enhance the party spirit.” After the Central Committee held its mobilization meeting for the education campaign, UFWD Head You Quan (尤权) exhorted the entire united front apparatus to carry out the campaign. Since then, the UFWD has carried out three intensive seminars and invited members of the Central Leading Group for Propaganda and Ideology to deliver special reports for UFWD cadres. The report also detailed specific activities that the UFWD has undertaken, such as organizing cadres to visit Soong Ching-ling’s residence in Beijing. According to the report, everyone who attended the visit said they must “engrave the glorious history of the Party in their memory, learn from history and practice, transform it into conviction and strength and implement it in united front work.” The department has also organized in-depth study of the revised “Regulations on the United Front Work of the Chinese Communist Party” for department members and Party History Study and Education activities for united front organizations, focusing on promoting the initiative among non-Party intellectuals, private businesses, and people from “new social classes” to strengthen their ideals and beliefs and promote “patriotic struggle.”
Party Discipline
The 19th Central Committee Completed the Launch of the Seventh Round of Inspections
5.11 According to People’s Daily, as of 10 May, 15 inspection teams have completed deploying to 32 work units for the 19th Central Committee’s seventh round of inspections. The seventh round of inspections will conduct inspections of the Ministry of Education and 31 universities, including prominent institutions such as Peking University and Tsinghua University in Beijing along with Fudan University and Shanghai Jiaotong University in Shanghai, as well as others throughout the country. Before mobilization meetings held individually for the work units being inspected, each Central Committee inspection team conveyed “the spirit of Xi Jinping’s important instructions on inspection work” to the leadership of the Party organs of the work unit being inspected. The inspection teams have been tasked with “thoroughly studying and implementing Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and [his] important speeches on education work, constantly improving political judgement, political comprehension, and political implementation, and earnestly grasping the new requirements for higher education” in the “new era” and the “new journey” of Party and national development. They will also focus on identifying political deviance, contradictions, and problems, as well as encouraging the universities in their important task of cultivating “socialist builders (社会主义建设者) and successors” with a “fully developed [sense of] morality, intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetics, and labor” (德智体美劳).
The 15 teams’ work is projected to last two months, during which time they will also solicit information about Party organs, Party organization leaders and members, cadres, and others at the sites being investigated, focusing on violations of discipline. The inspectors will receive complaints and reports until 30 June 2021. People’s Daily also reported that the seventh round of inspection work will be supported by provincial, autonomous regional, and municipal Party Committees along with the Ministry of Education’s Party Leadership Group.
Strictly Investigate Corruption in Agricultural Services, Land Leases, and Financial Guarantees; Deepen the Comprehensive Rectification of the Supply and Marketing Cooperative System
5.13 The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and National Supervision Commission (NSC) announced that former Heilongjiang Supply and Marketing Cooperative Director and Party Secretary Zhang Wenming (张文明) had been expelled from the Party for violating political, organization, and work discipline. Over the past ten years, the CCDI and NSC reported, more than 10 provincial-level leaders from the supply and marketing cooperative system have been expelled from the Party for similar violations of discipline.
The CCDI and NSC website stated that these cases show that if the management of business resources is not standardized, this easily breeds corruption. Therefore, in order to give full play to the leading role of strict party governance and to breed “good political ecology” in the supply and marketing cooperative system, discipline inspection and supervision agencies are carrying out special rectifications targeting this area. The article reviewed recent efforts by the Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Heilongjiang provincial discipline inspection commissions to clean up the supply and marketing cooperative sector. The article warned that “corruption will be dealt with, rectification and reform will be promoted, reforms will be organically promoted and integrated, and the standardized, orderly, and healthy development of the supply and marketing cooperation system will be promoted.”
International Liaison Work
5.11 International Department Head Shen Tao (宋涛) held a videoconference with Guyanese People's Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) General Secretary and Guyanese Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo. Other participants included International Department Deputy Head Shen Beili (沈蓓莉), PRC Embassy in Guyana Chargé d’Affaires Chen Xilai (陈锡来), and PPP/C General Secretary Assistant and Guyanese Minister within the Office of the Prime Minister Kwame McCoy.
5.11 International Department Deputy Head Chen Zhou (陈洲) held a video exchange with Malayian Progressive Democratic Party President and Special Envoy of the Malaysian Prime Minister to China Tiong King Sing (张庆信).
5.13 Shen Beili held a videoconference with Brazilian Social Liberal Party (PSL) President Luciano Bivar.
Organization Work
5.12 Gao Yu (高雨) was appointed the director of the Counsellors’ Office of the State Council.
5.12 Qin Huaijin (秦怀金) was appointed the deputy head of the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
5.12 Zhou Dechang (周德昶) was appointed the deputy head of the National Mine Safety Administration.
Comments