Archive for ‘Socialism’

13/05/2020

Xinhua Headlines-Xi Focus: Xi stresses achieving moderately prosperous society in all respects

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, learns about poverty alleviation efforts at an organic daylily farm in Yunzhou District of Datong City, north China’s Shanxi Province, May 11, 2020. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

— Xi stressed addressing the difficulties faced by enterprises in resuming production and operation.

— Xi underscored lifting the remaining poor population out of poverty.

— Xi required implementing pro-employment policies.

TAIYUAN, May 12 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Xi Jinping has stressed efforts to complete building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and ride on the momentum to write a new chapter in socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks during an inspection tour in north China’s Shanxi Province.

Xi called for efforts to overcome the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 epidemic and make greater strides in high-quality transformation and development to ensure that the target of poverty eradication is reached and the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects is completed.

During the tour from Monday to Tuesday, Xi inspected work on coordinating the regular epidemic response with economic and social development, and on consolidating the poverty eradication results.

While visiting an organic daylily farm in Yunzhou, Datong City, on Monday, Xi said what he cares about the most after poverty eradication is how to consolidate the achievements, prevent people from falling back into poverty, and make sure rural people’s incomes rise steadily.

He said an important benchmark to evaluate an official’s job performance is to see the amount of good and concrete services he or she has delivered to the people.

When visiting a community of relocated villagers, Xi said relocation is not only about better living conditions but also about chances to get rich. He called for follow-up support to residents with tailor-made rural business projects to ensure sustainable development.

Highlighting that whether the people can benefit shall be a top concern, Xi demanded more supporting policies be put in place in terms of industrial development, financing, agricultural insurance, among others.

Xi applauded the strenuous efforts made by primary-level officials on helping people fight poverty.

At the home of villager Bai Gaoshan, Xi chatted with Bai’s family as they sat on a “kang” — a bed-stove made out of clay or bricks in north China.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, learns about poverty alleviation efforts in a village of Xiping Township in Datong City, north China’s Shanxi Province, May 11, 2020. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

Xi said the CPC wholeheartedly seeks happiness for the Chinese people, having stopped collecting agricultural taxes and fees, helping the impoverished rural residents with housing and medical service, training them with skills, and finding ways for them to live a prosperous life.

“I believe our villagers will enjoy better days ahead,” Xi said.

On top of that, he called for consolidating achievements in poverty alleviation, and then focusing on rural vitalization to ensure a better life for rural residents.

He then went on to visit the 1,500-year Yungang Grottoes, a “treasure house” of artifacts featuring elements blending Chinese and foreign cultures, as well as cultures of China’s ethnic minorities and the Central Plains.

Xi stressed that historical and cultural heritages are irreplaceable precious resources, and protecting them should always be put in the first place in tourism development.

Noting that tourism should not be over-commercialized, Xi said tourism should become a way for the Chinese to understand and appreciate the culture of the nation and enhance their cultural confidence.

The historical implications of communication and integration behind the Yungang Grottoes should be further explored to enhance the sense of community for the Chinese nation, said Xi.

During a research tour in a stainless steel manufacturer in the provincial capital Taiyuan on Tuesday morning, Xi said products and technology are the lifeline of businesses, calling for more efforts in technological innovation to make a greater contribution to the development of advanced manufacturing.

He also called on businesses to strictly implement epidemic prevention and control measures to ensure the safety and health of their workers, while promoting the resumption of work and production to make up for the time lost.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, waves to workers during a research tour in a stainless steel manufacturer in Taiyuan, capital city of north China’s Shanxi Province, May 12, 2020. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

Later on, Xi went to check the ecological protection work of the Fenhe River in the city, and urged the incorporation of environment protection, energy revolution, green development, and economic transformation.

After hearing the work reports of the CPC Shanxi Provincial Committee and the provincial government on Tuesday afternoon, Xi stressed that no relaxation is allowed in epidemic prevention and control, noting that efforts should be made to guard against both imported infections and domestic rebounds, improve regular prevention and control mechanism, and prevent new outbreaks.

Xi called for efforts on more promptly and effectively addressing the difficulties faced by enterprises in resuming production and operation, on solid implementation of all the policies and measures for expanding domestic demand, and on strengthening the competitiveness and quality of the real economy, especially the manufacturing industry.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, speaks with workers during a research tour in a stainless steel manufacturer in Taiyuan, capital city of north China’s Shanxi Province, May 12, 2020. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

Continuous efforts should be made to promote the adjustment and optimization of China’s industrial structure, and scientific and technological innovations should be greatly enhanced to continue achieving breakthroughs in new infrastructures, technologies, materials, equipment as well as new products and business models, Xi said.

He stressed overcoming the difficulties and obstacles facing reforms in key areas, including state-owned enterprises and assets, the fiscal, tax, and financial system, business environment, the private sector, domestic demand expansion, and urban-rural integration.

Xi also highlighted efforts to improve the country’s system and mechanism for opening-up.

China will uphold the concept that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets, and steadily implement the national strategy for ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River basin, he said.

More should be done to accelerate institutional innovation and strengthen the implementation of institutions to help form a green way of production and living, he said.

Efforts should be made to solidify the foundation for the development of agriculture and rural areas, beef up policy support for grain production and lift the remaining poor population out of poverty, Xi said.

Authorities should adhere to the people-centered development philosophy and ensure the bottom line of people’s livelihood, Xi said. He added that efforts should be made to implement pro-employment policies and facilitate the employment of key groups such as college graduates, veterans, rural migrant workers and urban people facing difficulties.

Efforts should be expedited to improve the weak areas in the public health system exposed by the epidemic and shift the focus of social governance to the primary levels, Xi said.

The rich and colorful local history and culture as well as revolutionary cultural resources should be fully drawn on and used to promote cultural advancement, Xi said.

He stressed consistent efforts to promote core socialist values to guide Party cadres as well as the public to enhance morality, cultivate good ethics and strengthen cultural confidence.

Xi also called for efforts to improve the Party’s political ecosystem, strictly observe the Party’s political discipline and rules and fight against corruption and undesirable conduct.

Source: Xinhua

21/04/2020

Xi Focus-Quotable Quotes: Xi Jinping on poverty alleviation

BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Xi Jinping attaches great importance to poverty alleviation. He has addressed the issue on many occasions. The following are some highlights of his quotes.

— It is an essential requirement of socialism to eradicate poverty, improve people’s living standards and achieve common prosperity among the people.

— No single poor area or individual shall be left behind.

— Genuinely poor people are to genuinely shake off poverty. Poverty must be truly eliminated.

— The measurement for moderate prosperity lies in rural areas.

— Cadres play a key role in helping people shake off poverty.

— Eradicating poverty is a common mission of human beings.

— It will be the first time in the millennia-old history of the Chinese nation that absolute poverty is comprehensively eliminated.

— Being lifted out of poverty is not an end in itself but the starting point of a new life and a new pursuit.

Source: Xinhua

20/04/2019

Commentary: China proves socialism best way to eradicate poverty

BEIJING, April 19 (Xinhua) — In the countdown to China’s deadline to eradicate absolute poverty by 2020, the socialist system is playing a crucial role.

“Socialism means development. Development must serve the common prosperity for everyone,” President Xi Jinping called for greater efforts to win the battle against poverty on time during a recent inspection tour to southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality.

China’s socialist system has made it possible to pool resources for its aims and stick to its targets from start to finish, especially when it comes to tasks concerning people’s livelihoods.

Thanks to consistent hard work, more than 700 million Chinese people have been lifted out of poverty in the past four decades, with poverty rate in rural areas lowered from 97.5 percent in 1978 to 1.7 percent in 2018.

The Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2017 pledged to eliminate poverty in all poor counties and regions by 2020, waging a final war on poverty to realize its goal.

Under the leadership of the CPC, poverty alleviation has become a strategic task for the country. Governments at every level have taken steps to ensure the task is completed on time.

Party members have been dispatched to impoverished villages across the country to assist poverty reduction work, including government officials, ex-servicemen and college graduates, all working to fully implement the central government policy.

China has made it crucial to adopt customized measures based on local conditions to ensure resources are used in the right place at the right time.

With only two years until the deadline, the country is at a critical juncture in finishing off the final, and most difficult tasks, in its poverty reduction campaign. The socialist system will continue to show its strength in the final battle.

Source: Xinhua

06/10/2016

Chinese people optimistic about the future, says Pew survey – BBC News

At a time of Brexit and talk of a wall between the United States and Mexico, it seems the Chinese are embracing international engagement.

They think their country’s power is rising, that their living standards will keep improving, that corruption is being cleaned up and that air pollution should be fixed even if it means slowing down economic growth.

These are the views which have emerged from a broad survey from Washington-based the Pew Research Center.

Elsewhere there is fear and uncertainty. Here optimism trumps all.

When asked about economic globalisation, 60% of people said it is a good thing and only 23% think it is bad for China.

While some China watchers are warning that this country’s mounting local government debt could mean that a hard landing is on the way, Chinese people don’t appear to share this pessimism.

Nearly 90% of respondents amongst this group of 3,154, interviewed face-to-face in China earlier this year, think that the state of their country’s economy is either “very good” or “somewhat good”.

GETTY IMAGES – Chinese people seem to remain optimistic

Looking into the future things will apparently get even better: 76% of people think the economy will improve over the next 12 months, 70% said their personal financial situation will improve and eight out of 10 people believe that their children will have a better standard of living than they do.

Bread and butter issues

It’s not that people are without concerns.

“Corrupt officials” is at the top of the table when it comes to people’s worries (83% said this was a “very big” or “moderately big” problem) and yet here too we see optimism.

Some 64% of them said that President Xi Jinping‘s massive anti-corruption drive would improve the situation over the next five years.

Running down the concern list, an alarmingly high number of people see income inequality and the safety of food and medicine as “very big” problems.

This should give the Chinese Communist Party pause for concern.

If you enjoy monopoly power on the basis that you are delivering “socialism with Chinese characteristics” then a small group of ultra-rich driving around in their sports cars and showing off their wealth while most struggle to pay the rent is surely at odds with your central message.

Then, if ordinary Chinese people can’t even trust the food and medicine they are giving their children, the possibility for social unrest over bread and butter issues is looming large.

The environment also emerges as a massive challenge with water and air pollution at the front of people’s minds.

Air pollution is so bad in China that half of those polled said their country should fight air pollution harder even if it means sacrificing economic growth.

GETTY IMAGES – Emissions from coal-powered industries, cars and heating systems generate the smog

Only 24% saw air deterioration as a necessary price to pay.

When it comes to the war of ideas in the top echelons of power here, those ministers in favour of tougher environmental protection measures could do worse than table this research.

A “major threat” to China?

The South China Sea and other geo-strategic tensions offer some of the most bleak opinions.

Nearly six out of 10 people think that territorial pressures with neighbours could lead to military conflict; 77% say their way of life needs to be protected from “foreign influence” (up by 13 percentage points since 2002) and only 22% say China should help other nations.

Regarding relations with rival superpower the United States people views are complex and, at times, seemingly contradictory.

Around half of Chinese respondents rated the US favourably but more than half think that Washington is trying to prevent China from becoming an equal power.

About 45% said that US power and influence poses a “major threat” to China. In fact the US came in at number one as the top international threat to the country.

GETTY IMAGES – More than half of Chinese people think that Washington is trying to prevent China from becoming an equal power

It’s interesting that some would see the Obama administration’s so-called “pivot to Asia” as a greater threat than say jihadist extremist groups just across the western border promoting bloody conflict in China’s vast Muslim region of Xinjiang.

Either way, whatever the perceived threat, China is seen as becoming ever more important and with ever more power at its disposal.Information is being controlled here ever more tightly – whether it is coming from the traditional media or sources online – so some analysts will see these views as the inevitable result of messages being delivered to the Chinese people by their government.

This may the be case but, in a world where politicians in various countries are accused of exploiting people’s fear and insecurity, could it be that a quarter of the globe’s population are going around with a smile on their dial because every day they look out the window and to them it just gets better and better?

Source: Chinese people optimistic about the future, says Pew survey – BBC News

28/12/2013

Communist Party orders ‘core socialist values’ on the curriculum | South China Morning Post

Educational institutions – from primary schools to universities – will be a major target of a sweeping Marxist education campaign announced yesterday by the Communist Party.

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The unusually detailed action plan released by the ruling party\’s General Office was seen as an attempt by party boss and President Xi Jinping to fight against public scepticism and fill a perceived moral vacuum opened by decades of breakneck economic growth.

The document called on almost every sector of society – from schools to the media to social organisations to the business community – to promote the so-called socialist core values.

The 24 values, which include prosperity, democracy, social harmony, credibility and rule of law, were detailed by last year\’s national party congress. The values were divided into three groups, known as the \”three advocates\”.

\”Xi is trying to leave his own legacy by pressing the whole society to embrace the \’three advocates\’ with specific action plans for a variety of social institutions,\” said Zhang Ming, a political science professor at Renmin University. \”But the question remains whether the public will buy it. It is impossible to carve them into the brain.\”

In 2006, former party chief and president Hu Jintao similarly released a set of moral principles known as \”eight honours and eight shames\”, which urged cadres to be patriotic, serve the people and follow science.

This latest document called for the core values to be incorporated into the education system, stressing that ideological education from primary schools to universities must be strengthened.

The mass media should be further utilised, with major broadcasters designating specific programmes for spreading socialist ideologies, as well as encouraging more public service advertisements, it said.

Zhang Lifan , a Beijing-based commentator, said the stress on ideology was triggered by controversies that have shaken the party\’s authority, such as the debate over constitutionalism, or making the party subject to an overarching system of laws.

\”The party has lost faith among the public,\” Zhang said. \”And the ultimate fear is that it will lose its power.\”

via Communist Party orders ‘core socialist values’ on the curriculum | South China Morning Post.

24/12/2013

China promotes core socialist values – Xinhua | English.news.cn

The Communist Party of China (CPC) on Monday issued guidelines bolstering core socialist values and pooling positive energy to realize the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation.

Core socialist values should be included in the overall national education plan and \”cover all schools and those receiving education\”, said the guidelines on cultivating and practicing core socialist values, issued by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee.

According to the guidelines, core socialist values include national goals of prosperity, democracy, civility, and harmony; social goals of freedom, equality, justice and the rule of law; and individual values of patriotism, dedication, integrity, and friendship.

\”Core socialist values should be incorporated into the curriculum and classrooms and made a way of thinking for students,\” the document said.

\”The media must steadfastly uphold correct guidance of public opinion,\” the guidelines said.

\”Management of the media should be strengthened and the media should not provide channels for the spread of the wrong points of view,\” said the guidelines.

News, publishing institutions and their personnel were encouraged to strengthen self-discipline and enhance their sense of responsibility and their ability to promote core socialist values.

The circular asked radio and television stations to run more public service broadcasts spreading mainstream socialist values at prime time, and newspapers should give more prominence to such issues.

To cope with the fast development of the Internet, \”efforts should be made to manifest core socialist values in Internet publicity, culture and service, so as to use a positive voice and advanced culture to capture the online front,\” the guidelines said.

The CPC authorities also ordered strengthened management of the Internet in accordance with the law and a fight against obscenity, online rumors and criminality to make the Internet environment clean.

Integrity should be enhanced in government, business, society and judicial fairness, and special projects on moral education should be carried out, according to the guidelines.

Various volunteer activities should be organized to promote the spirit of Lei Feng, a young Chinese soldier, known in the 1960s for devoting almost all of his spare time and money to selflessly helping the needy.

The national flag should be displayed and the national anthem played and sung on major occasions. More importance should be attached to traditional Chinese festivals.

More free public museums, memorial halls, libraries and science and technology museums are needed to promote core socialist values, the document said, adding that red tourism should be developed vigorously.

Party members and officials are urged to take the lead in practising the values.

China has made enormous economic strides over past years, but its soft power still needs to be strengthened, according to Xin Ming, a professor with the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, adding that core socialist values play a vital role in soft power.

\”Cultivating and practising core socialist values should be incorporated into China\’s overall national education plan, enabling everyone to understand and uphold the values and practise them consciously,\” said Xie Chuntao, another professor with the Party School.

\”People from various fields should be mobilized to foster and practise core socialist values,\” Xin said, adding that \”only by doing so can we transfer the values into social group consciousness and conscious action.\”

via China Focus: China promotes core socialist values – Xinhua | English.news.cn.

17/10/2012

* In search of a dream

As usual, The Economist has encapsulated India’s dilemma superbly. India is at a crossroads between a welfare oriented approach that has not really worked for 60+ years and a growth driven approach that has been of great service to China for the past two decades. But are Indians ready to make a paradigm shift? Only future history will tell.

The Economist: “When India won independence 65 years ago, its leaders had a vision for the country’s future. In part, their dream was admirable and rare for Asia: liberal democracy. Thanks to them, Indians mostly enjoy the freedom to protest, speak up, vote, travel and pray however and wherever they want to; and those liberties have ensured that elected civilians, not generals, spies, religious leaders or self-selecting partymen, are in charge. If only their counterparts in China, Russia, Pakistan and beyond could say the same.

But the economic part of the vision was a failure. Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the independence movement, Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, and his daughter, Indira Gandhi, left the country with a reverence for poverty, a belief in self-reliance and an overweening state that together condemned the country to a dismal 3-4% increase in annual GDP—known as the “Hindu rate of growth”—for the best part of half a century.

That led to a balance-of-payments crisis 21 years ago which forced India to change. Guided by Manmohan Singh, then finance minister, the government liberalised the economy, scrapping licensing and opening up to traders and investors. The results, in time, were spectacular. A flourishing services industry spawned world-class companies. The economy boomed. Wealth and social gains followed, literacy soared, life-expectancy and incomes rose, and gradually Indians started decamping from villages to towns.

But reforms have not gone far enough (see our special report). Indian policy still discourages foreign investment and discriminates in favour of small, inefficient firms and against large, efficient ones. The state controls too much of the economy and subsidies distort prices. The damage is felt in both the private and the public sectors. Although India’s service industries employ millions of skilled people, the country has failed to create the vast manufacturing base that in China has drawn unskilled workers into the productive economy. Corruption in the public sector acts as a drag on business, while the state fails to fulfil basic functions in health and education. Many more people are therefore condemned to poverty in India than in China, and their prospects are deteriorating with India’s economic outlook. Growth is falling and inflation and the government’s deficit are rising.

Modest changes, big fuss

To ease the immediate problems and to raise the country’s growth rate, more reforms are needed. Labour laws that help make Indian workers as costly to employers as much better-paid Chinese ones need to be scrapped. Foreign-investment rules need to be loosened to raise standards in finance, higher education and infrastructure. The state’s role in power, coal, railways and air travel needs to shrink. Archaic, British-era rules on buying land need to be changed.

Among economists, there is a widespread consensus about the necessary policy measures. Among politicians, there is great resistance to them. Look at the storm that erupted over welcome but modest reformist tinkering earlier this month. Mr Singh’s government lost its biggest coalition ally for daring to lift the price of subsidised diesel and to let in foreign supermarkets, under tight conditions.

Democracy, some say, is the problem, because governments that risk being tipped out of power are especially unwilling to impose pain on their people. That’s not so. Plenty of democracies—from Brazil through Sweden to Poland—have pushed through difficult reforms. The fault lies, rather, with India’s political elite. If the country’s voters are not sold on the idea of reform, it is because its politicians have presented it to them as unpleasant medicine necessary to fend off economic illness rather than as a means of fulfilling a dream.

Another time, another place

In many ways, India looks strikingly like America in the late 19th century. It is huge, diverse, secular (though its people are religious), materialistic, largely tolerant and proudly democratic. Its constitution balances the central government’s authority with considerable state-level powers. Rapid social change is coming with urban growth, more education and the rise of big companies. Robber barons with immense riches and poor taste may be shamed into becoming legitimate political donors, philanthropists and promoters of education. As the country’s wealth grows, so does its influence abroad.

For India to fulfil its promise, it needs its own version of America’s dream. It must commit itself not just to political and civic freedoms, but also to the economic liberalism that will allow it to build a productive, competitive and open economy, and give every Indian a greater chance of prosperity. That does not mean shrinking government everywhere, but it does mean that the state should pull out of sectors it has no business to be in. And where it is needed—to organise investment in infrastructure, for instance, and to regulate markets—it needs to become more open in its dealings.

India’s politicians need to espouse this vision and articulate it to the voters. Mr Singh has done his best; but he turned 80 on September 26th, and is anyway a bureaucrat at heart, not a leader. The remnants of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, to whom many Indians still naturally turn, are providing no leadership either— maybe because they do not have it in them, maybe because they have too much at stake to abandon the old, failed vision. Sonia Gandhi, Nehru’s grand-daughter-in-law and Congress’s shadowy president, shows enthusiasm for welfare schemes, usually named after a relative, but not for job-creating reforms. If her son Rahul, the heir apparent to lead Congress, understands the need for a dynamic economy, there’s no way of knowing it, for he never says anything much.

These people are hindering India’s progress, not helping it. It is time to shake off the past and dump them. The country needs politicians who see the direction it should take, understand the difficult steps required, and can persuade their countrymen that the journey is worthwhile. If it finds such leaders, there is no limit to how far India might go.”

From: http://www.economist.com/node/21563720

11/07/2012

* Socialist market economy turning point for China

Xinhua: “Good education, housing, medical care and insurance are within the reach of more Chinese since the adoption of a market economy, according to a Tuesday commentary in the People’s Daily, the flagship newspaper of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

The formation and improvement of China’s socialist market economy has reshaped the lives of 1.3 billion people and exerted an influence on the future of the whole world, wrote Ren Zhongping.

In the past 20 years, the most populous nation has become the world’s second-largest economy and has stood among middle-income countries in terms of its per capita gross domestic product, Ren said.

China turned itself from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market and became the world’s biggest exporter and a member of the World Trade Organization, Ren said.

At the beginning, China’s transformation faced many obstacles, including domestic prejudice and doubts of foreign countries, Ren said.

However, the “China miracle” surprised everyone, Ren wrote.

“It is said that everything happened in the past 20 years could not be planned in any plan,” Ren said.

Focusing on developing productivity, adhering to the common development of public-owned and private economies and integrating market allocation with the government regulation helped make China successful, Ren said.

However, the problems that have emerged after development are no smaller than those that existed before China’s prosperity, Ren said.

It’s imperative to enhance the quality of economic development, eliminate factors that hamper economic growth mode and smash the administrative monopoly so as to further free development of the private economy, Ren said.

The author called for a sound insurance system that can relieve social anxiety and narrow the income gap, as well as stark government reforms.

Unswerving reform is the only way to realize the goal of “establishing a sound social market economic system by 2020,” Ren said.

Changing China’s economic growth mode, promoting transformation of government functions and boosting equality in public services will allow China to shoulder a sea of challenges both now and in the future, Ren wrote.”

via Socialist market economy turning point for China: People’s Daily – Xinhua | English.news.cn.

A fair summary of the past 20 years and a good prognostication of the next twenty.

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