New year, new perspective: How China sees itself
In keeping with the tradition of trying new things in the new year, this newsletter will be making a few experimental changes as well...
Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a restful and happy winter break.
As a new year has arrived, I thought it would be a fun idea to take a fresh approach to this newsletter. I usually do a sort of "ripped from the headlines" style, where I take the biggest news story in Western media about China and give my own take on it, using China’s historical context to try and get to the bottom of what’s happening and why.
This year I thought I'd try flipping that strategy, instead looking at the top stories making headlines in Chinese newspapers, interpreting why they're important and what the context of these stories are from a Chinese perspective. This will also allow me to keep on using historical analysis, combining Western and Chinese knowledge and historiography to get a better understanding of how China sees itself and its place in the world.
I do usually try and give China’s side of the story at least a little in each newsletter, but I don’t think I’ve ever attempted to present news or information entirely from a Chinese (or CCP) perspective. I think it would be handy for those of you interested in China, the CCP, and how Chinese media works, and it would be a nice change of pace for those of you who already get your broader China news from other sources.
I will still be doing my News Roundup newsletter every other week, so you can still look to Sinobabble for a general overview of what's going on in China at the moment. Feel free to also follow me on Twitter, where I tend to retweet the latest news and best coverage on China every day.
So, let’s kick off the new year with our first story!
The first story
Where better to start than with the CCP’s predictions for the new year?
On New Year’s Eve, Xi Jinping gave a speech outlining his hopes and aims for China in the upcoming year, as well as recapping some of the major achievements of the party since his inauguration in 2012. This speech, as well as the party and Xi’s general aspirations for the country, are currently major front page news on sites like Xinhua, China Daily, and Global Times. Most national newspaper websites currently have cool banners that look something like this:
Though the speech is quite general, there are still a few points that jump out. For example, Xi gets right into the business of ‘national rejuvenation’ (中华民族伟大复) within the first couple of sentences, going on to state that while the party has made great strides in poverty alleviation and in generally raising standards of living, there’s still a long way to go.
National rejuvenation is not something that can be achieved easily, with the beating of gongs and drums, nor can it be achieved overnight.
中华民族伟大复兴绝不是轻轻松松、敲锣打鼓就能实现的,也绝不是一马平川、朝夕之间就能到达的。我们要常怀远虑、居安思危,保持战略定力和耐心,“致广大而尽精微”。
In case we haven’t covered it enough already, the national rejuvenation (or, for a more direct translation ‘the great rejuvenation of the Chinese people’) project is a two step process to allow China to recover from the century of repression and imperialism suffered at the hands of mainly Western nations (but also Japan). This process will let China take its rightful place as a global leader, as it had been in previous centuries. According to Xinhua, to achieve national rejuvenation:
First, socialist modernization should be 'basically realized' by 2035, and second, China should be built into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful by the middle of the 21st century, which will be around the centenary of the PRC in 2049.
Though absolute poverty has been abolished, and China is now a ‘moderately prosperous nation’ by its own standards, in order to achieve its grander goal, China needs to keep developing, particularly in terms of the economy.
According to Central China Television (CCTV), the top keywords from Xi’s speech include “development”, “people”, “cooperation”, and “economy”. The focus on the economy has certainly been picked up in other major articles in the national press, which are keen to both point out the strengths of the Chinese economy, as well as what aspects of the economy need to be strengthened moving forward.
A review of economists at 37 national institutions showed that most believed the economy would remain stable in 2022, and that in order to promote growth investment in construction and manufacturing needed to increase. The government had some wins, sustaining a two-year average GDP growth rate of 4.9%, apparently shrugging off the worst effects of Covid. Surprisingly, one Xinhua article seems to boast that China was able to profit from the misfortune of Southeast Asian countries during the pandemic:
Export-oriented Southeast Asian countries became the hardest hit areas during the anti-epidemic response from July to August. The substitution effect meant China’s exports have filled a gap in the market and have grown faster than expected. This is a manifestation of China’s large range of industries and the advantages of being the “world factory”, as well as the competitive advantage of China’s successful control of the epidemic. (出口导向的东南亚国家在7~8月的疫情反扑中成为重灾区,替代效应使得我国出口填补市场空白,超预期增长,这是我国工业门类齐全、“世界工厂”优势的体现,也体现了我国成功控制疫情形成的竞争优势。)
But China’s economy also has its weaknesses. The article glosses over the Evergrande situation by stating that the government would be tightening real estate financing as “some real estate companies that had radically expanded in the early stage experienced debt defaults”. In general, the government wants to aim for a 6% growth rate, but it may have to switch priorities in order to reach that target. According to Chen Xinguang, Professor of Economics at Shanghai University, China’s top 3 priorities moving forward should be ensuring food security, expanding poverty alleviation, and promoting rural revitalisation. Rural living standards and social services still lag behind their urban counterparts, and food security especially will continue to be a pressing issue for China, with ever more extreme weather events and an aging population becoming the norm over the next few decades.
Interestingly, “religion” ranked #5 on the keyword list, showing that the party has a keen awareness of the ongoing situation in Xinjiang, as well as the attention it’s receiving worldwide (safety also features close to the bottom of the list). China remains defensive over news related to Xinjiang, posting a constant torrent of articles showing happy Uyghurs or analyses by scholars and government employees in the region who insist there’s nothing to see here. Chinese citizens for their part seem to back their government up, going as far as to boycott brands who have boycotted products from Xinjiang.
Apart from Xinjiang, other regions of note in the speech were Hong Kong and Macau, and while Taiwan was not mentioned by name, Xi does state that “Realizing the complete reunification of the motherland is the common aspiration of the compatriots on both sides of the strait” (实现祖国完全统一是两岸同胞的共同心愿。真诚期盼全体中华儿女携手向前,共创中华民族美好未来.) Again, the speech doesn’t go into much detail, but it’s worth noting that schools and universities in Hong Kong held a Chinese flag raising ceremony on New Year’s Day to cultivate patriotism. PolyU, which was the site of a campus takeover during the Hong Kong protests in 2019, has said that “from this year onward, PolyU will have the national flag hanging on campus every day, and hold flag-raising ceremonies on important dates and every Monday morning. Administrators, teachers, and employees of PolyU will attend the ceremonies to deepen the staff and students' national concept and sense of belonging in the country.”
Of course, Covid got a brief mention, but mainly in the vein of cooperation between China and other countries, which has been a major theme of Chinese foreign policy for around 10 years now, and seems to be maintaining its relevance going forward. China is extremely proud of the help it’s been able to provide to other countries during the pandemic, particularly in the form of vaccines to developing nations. Cooperation is a key part of the national rejuvenation project, as China’s idea of rejuvenation is essentially exporting Chinese industry, knowledge and culture to the rest of the world, and, again, particularly the developing world. This is not just my speculation. In the last section of his speech, Xi states:
Our three astronauts are on a “business trip” in vast space, our overseas compatriots are still working hard, and our embassies and consulates, Chinese-funded enterprises and other overseas staff and students are still standing firm, and countless dream-seekers are still struggling and devoted. (我们的三位航天员正在浩瀚太空“出差”,海外同胞仍在辛勤耕耘,使领馆、中资企业等海外派驻人员和广大留学生仍在勇毅坚守,无数追梦人还在奋斗奉献)
This statement reveals the importance of China’s global enterprises to the party, especially non-economic ventures such as diplomatic relations and student exchanges. Chinese students especially who study abroad are seen as quasi-ambassadors for the nation. They are expected to take part in patriotic rallies, and we’ve seen that the party actively monitors the activities of its students who study abroad. The party has a vast and deep system for spotting accounts belonging to overseas nationals that say anything even remotely bad about the party, even if they believe themselves anonymous.
Long term goals
As you can see from Xi’s New Year message, the CCP has a long-term plan for the country, and thus expects to be in power for a long time. In fact, it so sees the need to be in power to keep China on the right track that it lists upholding the party’s leadership as first in its list of priorities for the country.
This is good for us, because it means that going forward the same themes will keep recurring, and it will be easier to keep a thread connecting each story we cover to create a larger picture of what China’s aims are and how they intend to participate in global politics and economics. Hopefully by the end of the year we will have a good idea of China’s intentions, internally and externally, and who knows, maybe we’ll even be able to predict where it’s going next!
Thanks for reading this week’s newsletter. Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @sinobabble, and check out the Sinobabble podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts!
Sources
China Daily, 国家主席习近平发表二〇二二年新年贺词 (President Xi Jinping delivers a New Year message for 2022)
China Daily, China rebukes so-called Xinjiang tribunal
China Daily, Xinjiang sends warm message overseas
Global Times, 'No genocide in Xinjiang,' envoys, scholars reaffirm during press conference by Xinjiang govt, Chinese Embassy in UK
Global Times, Schools in HK host national flag-raising ceremony on New Year's Day to enhance national identity, patriotism
Global Times, Chinese consumers cancel Sam’s Club membership over removal of Xinjiang products
NYT, A Digital Manhunt: How Chinese Police Track Critics on Twitter and Facebook