08/03/2019
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Indian cricketers wore army camouflage-style caps in a match with Australia on Friday in solidarity with Indian paramilitary police killed in a militant attack by a Pakistan-based group and in an unusually strong display of patriotic fervour in sport.
The suicide bombing last month killed 40 in Indian-controlled Kashmir, a region also claimed by Pakistan. The attack prompted India to launch an air strike inside Pakistan, which responded with an aerial attack the next day.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has in recent days tried unsuccessfully to isolate Pakistan in the cricketing world. The International Cricket Council rejected India’s calls to boycott games against Pakistan, whose prime minister is former cricketing hero Imran Khan.
But there are still calls within India for the national team to pull out of a World Cup match against Pakistan in June in England.
The idea to sport the olive-and-black caps bearing the BCCI’s logo came from former Indian cricket captain and current player Mahendra Singh Dhoni, one of the game’s biggest stars and an honorary lieutenant colonel with the Indian army.
“It’s a special cap,” Indian captain Virat Kohli said before the third in a five-match one-day series with Australia. “This is to pay respect to the martyrs … and their families.”
He said all the players would donate their fees from the match to a national defence fund to help out the families of defence personnel who die on duty. Kohli also urged all Indians to contribute to the fund.
The BCCI posted a clip on Twitter of commentators for the match also wearing the caps, signing off the tweet with “#JaiHind”, or “Hail India”.
The board has scrapped the opening ceremony for the Indian Premier League Twenty20 tournament, which begins on March 23, and will donate the money saved to the families of those who died in the bomb attack.
Cricket historian Boria Majumdar said he could not remember seeing any Indian cricket team in the past making such a gesture, which he called a “peaceful political stand”.
“(Indian cricket) teams have expressed solidarity in the past but not this kind of public display of that solidarity,” Majumdar told Reuters.
“Sport has always been meshed with politics and people have often used it to make very strong points. This is yet another one. This is a peaceful way of expressing solidarity in a manner which I don’t see problematic at all.”
But Pakistani lawyer Abdullah Nizamani said on Twitter the BCCI and international cricket board should keep “sports away from petty politics”. Some Pakistanis even asked on social media if Indian cricketers would turn up for the World Cup match with Pakistan in military fatigues.
Nuclear-armed neighbours India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars since independence over Kashmir, which both sides claim in full but rule in part.
Source: Reuters
Posted in Abdullah Nizamani, army, Australia, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Boria Majumdar, boycott, British Prime Minister, camouflage caps, Country, Cricket historian, cricketers, England, Hail India, honorary lieutenant colonel, Imran Khan, independence, India alert, indian army, Indian captain, International Cricket Council, JaiHind, June, Kashmir, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, military fatigues, nuclear-armed neighbours, Pakistan, Pakistani lawyer, paramilitary police, patriotism, Reuters, Twitter, Uncategorized, Virat Kohli, World Cup |
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08/03/2019
The plane was on a routine training sortie and hence was unarmed.(Mint/ Representative Image)
A MiG-21 fighter jet of the Indian Air Force crashed in Rajasthan’s Bikaner on Friday. The plane crashed after it reportedly suffered a bird hit.
The plane had taken off from Nal near Bikaner. The pilot is said to have ejected safely.
Bikaner SP Pradeep Mohan Sharma said the MIG aircraft crashed in Shobhasar ki Dhani, 12 km from Bikaner city, news agency PTI reported.
Sharma said police teams have rushed the spot to cordon off the area. No loss of life has been reported.
A statement by the IAF said that the MiG-21 had taken off from the Indian Air Force’s Nal airbase in Rajasthan and that it was on a routine mission.
The IAF statement said, “Today afternoon a MiG-21 aircraft on a routine mission crashed after getting airborne from Nal near Bikaner. Initial inputs indicate the likely cause as bird hit after take off. Pilot of the aircraft ejected safely. A CoI [Court of Inquiry] will investigate the cause of the accident.”
In recent times, the IAF has witnessed a series of crashes involving fighter jets and choppers.
On February 1, a Mirage 2000 fighter jet had crashed during a routine testing flight. Both the pilots in the jet had died after their safety equipment gave way. The pilots were on an “acceptance sortie” of the Mirage 2000 trainer aircraft after it was overhauled by the Bengaluru-based Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
Barely a fortnight later, two Surya Kiran Hawks were involved in a collision that led to the death of one pilot. The crash had taken place barely days before the 12 edition of Aero India.
On February 12, a MiG-27 fighter jet had crashed at the Pokhran firing range after taking off from the Jaisalmer air base. The jet was on a training mission. The pilot managed to eject safely from the jet before it crashed.
More recently, on February 27, a Mi17 helicopter of the Indian Air Force had crashed at Budgam in Kashmir. All six IAF personnel on board the chopper were killed. A civilian was also killed in the crash.
The MiG-21 fighter jet has been in the news recently after Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, who was flying a similar aircraft shot down a Pakistani F-16 before crashing in Pakistan.
The MiG-21 is a supersonic jet fighter and interceptor aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in the erstwhile Soviet Union.
Source: Hindustan Times
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08/03/2019
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday condemned in strong words the attack on a group of Kashmiri merchants in Lucknow by a group of right-wing men, assuring that those behind the attack will be dealt with sternly by the Uttar Pradesh government.
SNS Web | New Delhi | March 8, 2019 4:48 p
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday condemned in strong words the attack on a group of Kashmiri merchants in Lucknow by a group of right-wing men, assuring that those behind the attack will be dealt with sternly by the Uttar Pradesh government.
Addressing a rally in Kanpur, located 80 kilometres from Lucknow, the PM said, “Desh mein ekta ka vatavaran banaye rakhna bahut ahem hai. Lucknow mein kuch sirphire logo ne hamare Kashmiri bhaiyon ke sath jo harkatein ki thi uss par UP sarkar ne turanth karwayi ki (There is an environment of unity across the country. (But) Some crazy people in Lucknow attacked our Kashmiri brothers. The UP government has taken prompt action on them),” he said.
“I will also urge other state governments to take strict action whenever wherever they try to do such an act,” PM Modi added.
On 6 March, two Kashmiri street vendors were attacked by a group of men from a fringe right-wing group on a busy road in the Uttar Pradesh capital.
In a video shot by one of the accused, the men clad in saffron shirts were seen with sticks in their hands and thrashing the vendors. The men were heard saying that they were assaulting the vendors because they were from Kashmir. The vendors were rescued after several locals intervened.
As the video of the incident went viral on social media, the BJP and the state government came in for severe criticism from across the political spectrum.
The police arrested a man identified as Bajrang Sonkar. An FIR has been registered against unidentified men.
Read More: 2 Kashmiri vendors beaten up by fringe right-wing members in Lucknow; 1 arrested
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, too, condemned the incident and requested chief ministers of all the states to protect and love Kashmiri students.
“I want to convey a message to the entire country. I heard of a few incidents against Kashmiri children. Kashmiris are, were and will remain our people,” Rajnath Singh said.
Earlier on February 20, two Kashmiri shawl vendors claimed they were beaten up and called “stone pelters” by unidentified men on a train, forcing them to cut short their business trip to Rohtak.
The incidents come amid reports of some Kashmiri people claiming they were being targeted in many parts of the country in the aftermath of the February 14 terror attack on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama that left over 44 personnel dead.
Posted in attack, Bajrang Sonkar, condemns, Country, CRPF, India alert, Kanpur, Kashmiri vendors, Lucknow, PM Modi, prompt action, Pulwama, Rajnath Singh, right-wing men, state governments, Uncategorized, Union Home Minister, UP govt, Uttar Pradesh |
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07/03/2019
LHASA, March 6 (Xinhua) — To conserve the ecosystem while eradicating poverty, southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region hired 309,000 farmers and herders as forest rangers in 2018, bringing the total number of people engaged in environmental protection to 667,000.
Average annual subsidies in the jobs increased to 3,500 yuan (522 U.S. dollars), according to the regional department of ecology and environment.
Last year, Tibet invested 10.7 billion yuan in environmental protection funds, with 74,133 hectares of trees planted and forest coverage rising to 12.14 percent.
The region also invested 100 million yuan in enhancing the ecology along the upper reaches of the Yangtze, China’s longest river.
“Protecting the forests is equal to protecting our homeland,” said a local Tibetan forest ranger.
The implementation of a series of measures contributed to environmental protection, making Tibet one of the areas with the best ecological environment in the world, authorities said.
Source: Xinhua
Posted in China alert, ecosystem, Environmental protection, eradicating poverty, farmers, forest rangers, herders, regional department of ecology and environment, Southwest China, Tibet, Tibet Autonomous Region, Uncategorized, Yangtze River |
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07/03/2019
BEIJING, March 6 (Xinhua) — Chinese companies operating in Africa have created huge opportunities for the continent’s development, a senior political advisor said Wednesday at a press conference on the sidelines of the annual sessions of the top legislative and political advisory bodies.
There are more than 10,000 Chinese companies in Africa and over 90 percent of them are private businesses, said Nan Cunhui, a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee, citing a recent survey.
These companies have built roads, railways, airports, ports and other infrastructure projects in Africa, addressing the bottleneck in development, said Nan, also a vice chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce. They have also invested in green energy development, including photovoltaic power stations, to boost local power supply.
The Chinese companies have also brought advanced technologies, development concepts and management to the continent, Nan said.
Citing the operation of an industrial park in Egypt as an example, Nan said over 95 percent of the employees are locals who develop professional skills and gain managerial know-how through their work.
“Chinese companies in Africa have contributed a lot to the local economic development through infrastructure construction, job creation and tax payment,” Nan said. “I believe China-Africa cooperation will go from strength to strength.”
Source: Xinhua
Posted in advanced technologies, africa, airports, All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, bottleneck, China alert, China-Africa cooperation, Chinese companies, create, development concepts and management, development opportunities, green energy, infrastructure construction, infrastructure projects, job creation, local economic development, local power supply, Nan Cunhui, photovoltaic power stations, ports, railways, roads, Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee, tax payment, Uncategorized, vice chairman |
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07/03/2019
BEIJING, March 6 (Xinhua) — China has created a special committee to implement the country’s national nutrition plan, according to the National Health Commission (NHC).
Jointly established by NHC and 17 other government departments to coordinate and advance nutrition and health related work, the national nutrition and health committee held its inaugural meeting on Feb. 28 in Beijing, said a source of the NHC.
During the meeting, the committee adopted the regulation on its work and the main tasks for 2019 on the national nutrition plan.
Among the key jobs are improving food nutrition and health standards that build upon food safety, and establishing subcommittees at local levels to organize nutrition education and training, to conduct pilot programs and spread scientific knowledge in this regard.
Innovation will also be encouraged in the efforts, while nutrition intervention will be introduced in the campaign to battle poverty.
The national nutrition plan (2017-2030) was released by the General Office of the State Council in July 2017, with the goal of raising awareness of nutrition among the Chinese people, reducing obesity and anemia among students.
Source: Xinhua
Posted in China alert, Chinese people, food nutrition, General Office of the State Council, health standards, innovation, National Health Commission (NHC), national nutrition plan, nutrition education and training, obesity and anemia, pilot programs, scientific knowledge, special committee, students, Uncategorized |
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07/03/2019
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, joins panel discussions by deputies from Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region at the second session of the 13th National People’s Congress in Beijing, capital of China, March 6, 2019. (Xinhua/Ding Lin)
BEIJING, March 6 (Xinhua) — Senior Chinese leaders on Wednesday urged for more efforts to advance high-quality development.
Li Keqiang, Wang Yang and Han Zheng — members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee — made the remarks at the annual “two sessions” of the country’s top legislative and political advisory bodies.
Joining panel discussions by deputies to the 13th National People’s Congress (NPC) from southwest China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Premier Li Keqiang stressed following the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as China’s development faces more and graver risks and challenges in 2019.
He called for efforts to keep the economic growth within an appropriate range and promote high-quality development, and urged solid implementation of the planned tax and fee cuts to reduce burden on the real economy.
At the joint panel discussions of political advisors from economy and agriculture sectors, Wang Yang, chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee, told them to focus on major and difficult tasks, such as high-quality development and supply-side structural reform, and to deepen their investigations and researches. Wang also urged the advisors to guide the people in correctly interpreting the changes in economy and boost their confidence in development.
Vice Premier Han Zheng joined the panel discussions by lawmakers from Hong Kong. He expressed the support to Hong Kong’s bid to build itself into an international innovation and technology hub, and encouraged the people of Hong Kong, especially the youth, to start up businesses and work in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
Han also joined panel discussions by lawmakers from Macao. He said that Macao will be supported in its efforts to expand new development space, and to develop its tourism and exhibition industries.
Source: Xinhua
Posted in China alert, Chinese leaders, Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee, exhibition industries, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Han Zheng, high-quality development, Hong Kong, international innovation, Li Keqiang, Macao, National People's Congress (NPC), new era, President Xi Jinping, Southwest China, Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, technology hub, Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, Tourism, Uncategorized, wang yang |
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07/03/2019
BEIJING, March 6 (Xinhua) — China should push forward its reform to facilitate the development of private enterprises, a political advisor said Wednesday.
The reform should give them tangible benefits in terms of steady development and fair competition, Liu Shijin, deputy director of the economic committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), said at a press conference.
Compared with state-owned enterprises, private enterprises have seen more difficulties partly due to insufficient credit support, Liu said.
The reform of existing financial enterprises should be promoted, and more importantly, the country should relax market access for the development of a number of financial institutions and financial products that provide special services to smaller firms, Liu said.
The private sector plays an important role in the economic system, contributing more than 50 percent of tax revenue, 60 percent of GDP, 70 percent of technological innovation, 80 percent of urban employment and 90 percent of new jobs and new firms.
“The private sector and the country’s economic and social development have been closely related to each other, and formed a community of a shared future,” Liu said.
However, the difficulties that private firms and small businesses face in accessing affordable financing have not yet been effectively solved. The business environment still falls short of market entities’ expectations, according to a government work report delivered Tuesday by Premier Li Keqiang at the opening of the annual legislative session.
Loans to small and micro businesses by China’s large state-owned commercial banks will increase by over 30 percent in 2019, the report said.
The country also announced reducing the tax burden on and social insurance contributions of enterprises by nearly 2 trillion yuan (about 298 billion U.S. dollars) this year, with a focus on the manufacturing sector and smaller businesses, according to the report.
Liu said that the government’s policy of supporting the development of private enterprises had been “explicit and consistent.”
The non-public sector’s status and functions in the country’s economic and social development have not changed. The principle and policies to unswervingly encourage, support and guide the development of the non-public sector have not changed, and the principle and policies to provide a sound environment and more opportunities to the sector have not changed either, according to an important symposium on private enterprises last year.
Private enterprises have truly felt the government’s unchanged stance on, confidence in and policy support for the private sector, said Nan Cunhui, a member of the Standing Committee of the CPPCC National Committee and chairman of power equipment giant CHINT Group.
“The only change is that what we receive keeps becoming better and better,” he said.
The tax-cut measures for the manufacturing sector put forward in the government work report is a big stimulus to private enterprises and the whole sector, Nan said.
Private firms also need to have the conditions for equal development and a level playing field, Liu said.
Policy support is important, but what’s more important is a stable law-based environment that does not change with short-term policy changes, Liu added.
“We will strive to create a positive business environment in which entrepreneurs can be free of concerns in doing business and running companies,” the government work report said.
Source: Xinhua
Posted in annual legislative session, China alert, CHINT Group, deputy director of the economic committee, Liu Shijin, manufacturing sector, More reform, Nan Cunhui, National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), power equipment giant, Premier Li Keqiang, private enterprises, smaller businesses, social insurance contributions, Standing Committee of the CPPCC National Committee, state-owned commercial bank, tax burden, Uncategorized |
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07/03/2019
- Mainland has overestimated its nominal and real growth rates by about 2 full percentage points on average between 2008 to 2016
- Calculations suggest that the current nominal size of the economy is about 18 per cent lower than the official level of US$13.4 trillion at the end of 2018
The paper, “A Forensic Examination of China’s National Account”, was submitted to the “Brookings Papers on Economic Activity”, a journal published by the US-based Brookings Institute. Photo: EPA
China has overestimated its nominal and real growth rates by about 2 full percentage points on average between 2008 to 2016, with the miscalculation increasing each year, according to a new study published on Thursday.
The results indicate that the actual size of China’s economy at the end of 2018 was well below the government’s official estimate.
It also raises questions not only about the quality of economic data from the world’s second largest economy, but also the willingness of the government to take the steps necessary to accurately report information.
Using the study’s findings and applying them to government figures starting with the level of nominal gross domestic product (GDP) at the end of 2007 and the growth rate for 2008, calculations by the South China Morning Post show that the current nominal size of the Chinese economy is about 18 per cent lower than the official level of 90 trillion yuan (US$13.4 trillion) at the end of 2018.
The calculation assumes that the government’s official 2017 and 2018 nominal growth rates are overestimated by 2 percentage points, as suggested by the study.
Overestimates of growth in 2007 and previous years would further reduce the current size of the Chinese economy.
SCMP calculations show the adjusted nominal GDP level in China is about US$11.5 trillion using current exchange rates, still more than twice the size of Japan’s economy at US$5.16 trillion, but well below the economy of the United States at US$20 trillion.
The
paper, “A Forensic Examination of China’s National Account”,
was submitted to the “Brookings Papers on Economic Activity”, a journal published by the US-based think tank Brookings Institute twice a year on macroeconomic issues that are influencing the public policy debate. It will be formally presented in Washington on Thursday.
“Our estimates suggest that the extent by which local governments exaggerate local GDP accelerated after 2008, but the magnitude of the adjustment by the NBS did not change in tandem,” the authors said.
The study focuses primarily on nominal, non-inflation adjusted growth.
The paper comes at a sensitive time for Chinese policymakers, who are battling a slowing economy due to their campaign to reduce debt and risky lending as well as the effect of the trade war with the United States. The inflation-adjusted growth rate of 6.6 per cent last year was the slowest since 1990.
On Tuesday,
the government announced that it had lowered its growth target for 2019 to a range of 6 to 6.5 per cent, down from “about 6.5 per cent” last year due to the multiple headwinds the economy is facing. The government also announced new tax cuts and additional government spending to help stabilise growth.
The paper’s four authors – Chen Wei, Chen Xilu and Michael Song from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Chang-Tai Hsieh from the University of Chicago – used a mix of economic indicators that are less likely to have been manipulated by authorities to prove that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) have not done enough to correct the errors in the data collected from provincial governments over the past decade.
Our estimates suggest that the extent by which local governments exaggerate local GDP accelerated after 2008, but the magnitude of the adjustment by the NBS did not change in tandem.Report authors
It has long been believed that local Chinese officials inflate figures reflecting their economic performance, which is closely tied to their opportunity for promotion. Since 2003, the NBS has produced a national gross domestic product (GDP) figure that is lower than aggregate provincial data after examining other data such as the census and land sales.
Local statistics bureaus generally overstate industrial output as a portion of overall production as well as the size of investment within overall expenditures, the two different approaches to calculating GDP, according to the paper. The methods of data collection are often the cause, for example, calculations of investment spending have been based purely on government reports on specific projects rather than on the financial statements of the investing firms involved.
One method that the authors used to probe the accuracy of the NBS’s adjustments was comparing the growth of official GDP with the growth of revenue from value-added tax (VAT), which taxes the value added to a product at each stage of production.
Local governments have fewer incentives to manipulate VAT revenue, since a large portion of it is eventually transferred to the central government, therefore overstating VAT would only increase fiscal revenue losses.
Premier Li Keqiang confirmed China had lowered its growth target for 2019 to a range of 6 to 6.5 per cent at the National People’s Congress on Tuesday. Photo:
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The authors found that since 2008, the official growth rate for industry and other sectors exceeded their corresponding VAT growth rate, with the gap widening over the past decade, indicating that the government was overstating official GDP.
In other words, the overstatement of official growth has worsened since 2008 and NBS’s corrections have been increasingly inadequate to offset bottom-up data exaggerations.
A similar conclusion was drawn when the authors examined and adjusted the official GDP growth data with a set of alternative indicators, including satellite images showing lights at night, national tax revenue, electricity consumption, railway cargo traffic, as well as imports and exports that are less likely to be over-reported, although these proxies did not fully capture the growing importance of the service sector in the economy in recent years.
Among all 31 Chinese provinces, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Beijing, and Shanghai appeared to have the highest data quality, based on the economists’ own calculations that were privately confirmed by NBS officials. The worst performing provinces included Tianjin, Liaoning and Inner Mongolia, all of which have been exposed as having exaggerated economic data in recent years.
The economists suggested that the problem is that much of the underlying data needed to project GDP is outside the NBS’s control, even though the agency has been trying hard to collect local data itself. At the same time, the NBS is also in a weak political position to confront local political leaders to demand better data collection.
Although the NBS adjusts downwards local statistics, it does not report the adjusted local statistics, perhaps out of a desire to not confront powerful local leaders.Report authors
“Although the NBS adjusts downwards local statistics, it does not report the adjusted local statistics, perhaps out of a desire to not confront powerful local leaders,” the authors said.
Since September, the NBS has named and shamed local governments on its website for manipulating data, but it remains to be seen if local governments fall in line.
In a post in January, the NBS said it had passed 14 cases of data falsification on to local governments before February 2018 but that it had not been updated even though local officials are required by law to punish those responsible for manipulating data within six months after receiving a notice of a violation.
The NBS’s ability to fix China’s GDP data problem is bound by its limited political power, the authors indicated.
“There are three problems with China’s GDP. One is that it doesn’t necessarily measure the right thing. Two is statistical bias in the way data is collected. Three is really a macro policy problem by the government which should write down all the bad debt,” said Michael Pettis, professor of finance at Peking University.
“The NBS is only trying to fix the second problem.”
Source: SCMP
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07/03/2019
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s ruling Communist Party is ramping up calls for political loyalty in a year of sensitive anniversaries, warning against “erroneous thoughts” as officials fall over themselves to pledge allegiance to President Xi Jinping and his philosophy.
This year is marked by some delicate milestones: 30 years since the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in and around Tiananmen Square; 60 years since the Dalai Lama fled from Tibet into exile; and finally, on Oct. 1, 70 years since the founding of Communist China.
Born of turmoil and revolution, the Communist Party came to power in 1949 on the back of decades of civil war in which millions died, and has always been on high alert for “luan”, or “chaos”, and valued stability above all else.
“This year is the 70th anniversary of the founding of new China,” Xi told legislators from Inner Mongolia on Tuesday, the opening day of the annual meeting of parliament. “Maintaining sustained, healthy economic development and social stability is a mission that is extremely arduous.”
Xi has tightened the party’s grip on almost every facet of government and life since assuming power in late 2012.
Last year parliament amended the country’s constitution to remove term limits and allow him to stay in office for the rest of his life, should he so wish, though it is unclear if that will happen and Xi has not mentioned it in public.
Later in the year the party will likely hold a plenum of its top leadership focused on what China calls “party building”, diplomats and sources with ties to China’s leadership say, a concept that refers to furthering party control and ensuring its instructions are followed to the letter.
In late January the party again stressed loyalty in new rules on “strengthening party political building”, telling members they should not fake loyalty or be “low-level red”, in a lengthy document carried by state media.
“Be on high alert to all kinds of erroneous thoughts, vague understandings, and bad phenomena in ideological areas,” it warned. “Keep your eyes open, see things early and move on them fast.”
LOYALTY FIRST
On March 1, Xi spoke at the Central Party School, which trains rising officials, mentioning the word “loyalty” at least seven times, according to official accounts in state media.
Xi noted that whether an official is loyal to the party is a key gauge of whether they have ideals and convictions. “Loyalty always comes first,” he said.
Duncan Innes-Ker, regional director for Asia at the Economist Intelligence Unit, said China was concerned about resistance at lower levels to following party orders, the slowing economy and also about demands for political reforms as people get steadily richer.
“The desire for control is not something particular to any time period,” he said. “It is a fundamental tenet of autocratic governments that they are constantly paranoid about being overthrown.”
Xi looms large over this year’s session of China’s largely rubber stamp parliament, known as the National People’s Congress, which has always been stacked with people chosen for their absolute fealty to the party.
Government ministers who spoke to reporters on the sidelines of parliament’s opening session on Tuesday peppered their comments with references to Xi – 16 times in all.
Customs minister Ni Yuefeng said that Xi himself “pays great attention to not allowing foreign garbage into the country”, a reference to China’s ban on solid waste imports, part of the country’s war on pollution.
“Ideology comes first this year,” said one Western diplomat who is attending the parliamentary sessions as an observer. “It’s all about the 70th anniversary.”
ROOTING OUT DISLOYALTY
The party has increasingly been making rooting out disloyalty and wavering from the party line a disciplinary offence to be enforced by its anti-corruption watchdog, whose role had ostensibly been to go after criminal acts such as bribery and lesser bureaucratic transgressions.
The graft buster said last month it would “uncover political deviation” in its political inspections this year of provincial governments and ministries.
Top graft buster Zhao Leji, in a January speech to the corruption watchdog, a full transcript of which the party released late February, used the word “loyalty” eight times.
“Set an example with your loyalty to the party,” Zhao said.
China has persistently denied its war on corruption is about political manoeuvring or Xi taking down his enemies. Xi told an audience in Seattle in 2015 that the anti-graft fight was no “House of Cards”-style power play, in a reference to the Netflix U.S. political drama.
The deeper fear for the party is some sort of unrest or a domestic or even international event fomenting a crisis that could end its rule.
Xi told officials in January they need to be on high alert for “black swan” events..
That same month the top law-enforcement official said China’s police must focus on withstanding “colour revolutions”, or popular uprisings, and treat the defence of China’s political system as central to their work.
The party has meanwhile shown no interest in political reform, and has been doubling down on the merits of the Communist Party, including this month rolling out English-language propaganda videos on state media-run Twitter accounts to laud “Chinese democracy”. Twitter remains blocked in China.
The official state news agency Xinhua said in an English-language commentary on Sunday that China was determined to stick to its political model and rejected Western-style democracy.
“The country began to learn about democracy a century ago, but soon found Western politics did not work here. Decades of turmoil and civil war followed,” it said.
Source: Reuters
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CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 