CiCM 28th August 2023

NEWS IN CHINA

U.S. Secretary of Commerce met with Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao: On August 28^th, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo met with her Chinese counterpart in Beijing to improve the trade status quo. It is speculated that the meeting lasted for about two hours. Beijing emphasized that it is willing to work on “joint efforts” to build a more “favourable environment” to promote bilateral trade and investment. Establishing new channels of information exchange for continuous contact was also mentioned to maintain a stable economic relationship. The commerce secretary said that she aimed to improve travel and tourism between the U.S. and China, as bringing back Chinese visitors would lead to creating more U.S. jobs as well. The U.S. defended its “de-risking strategy,” which came after U.S. has been demanding tighter controls on exports of advanced American technology that it considers essential to ensuring “national security” to China. Beijing has reiterated that it believes it is a move to constrain Chinese development.

A Book on Introduction to Xi Jinping’s Thought was published: In order to further promote Xi’s new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics into teaching materials and classrooms, on 28^th August, the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Party and the Ministry of Education organized a compilation of “An Introduction to Xi Jinping’s Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in the New Era”. It is a unified textbook that comprehensively highlights Xi Jinping’s thoughts on the theme and is published by the Higher Education Press and People’s Publishing House for its national scale distribution. The textbook consists of an Introduction along with 17 chapters and a conclusion with themes ranging from achievements of modern Marxism in China, practices, and reforms in the new era. It stresses on following the laws of education and teaching orientation and pays attention to the cognitive characteristics of young students and emphasizes need for ideological and political courses at all levels of education. The content compilation task included experts and scholars in the field and teachers on the front lines. The Marxist Theoretical Research and Construction Engineering Office was responsible for organizational work.

China eases COVID-19 restrictions: On August 28^th, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Webin announced in a regular press conference that effective from August 30^th 2023, people coming to China do not need to undergo pre-entry COVID-19 nucleic acid or antigen testing. The move will make travel to China considerably easier and is following a step away from a strict zero-covid policy. The move aims to increase tourism and revive the Chinese travel industry and overall economy in efforts to fully open and stabilize relations with the rest of the world.

China reveals 2023’s standardized internet map: On occasion of the annual National Surveying and Mapping promotion day, the 2023 version of the standard map was officially released. The main event of the 2023 National Surveying and Mapping Law Publicity Day and National Mapping Awareness week was “no mistakes in the standarised use of maps”. 879 standard maps and reference maps of the latest version were released at the event site. This included 20 standard maps, 6 maps of China and 14 maps of continent composed of 13 provinces including Beijing, Hebei and Heilongjiang. The Ministry of Natural resources developed a standard map service system on its official website that is comprised of standardised as well as interactive maps. Since the introduction views, downloads and users have increased contributing to putting an “end to problem maps”.

China-Canada cooperation on climate change and biodiversity: Canadian Environment Minster Steven Guilbeaut travelled to Beijing to join talks on fighting climate change and preserving biodiversity. The talks are part of a three-day annual gathering from 28^th-30^th August organized by China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED), a semi-official think tank. He is expected to meet his Chinese counterpart Huang Runqiu as well. Guilbeaut will be the first Canadian minister to China since 2018 after bilateral ties hit a low following Vancouver arrest of Huawei Chief on a U.S. warrant and Chinese detention of two Canadian nationals on security and espionage charges. The main area of cooperation includes greenhouse gas emissions and talks on a global renewable energy target.

Revised draft of the Public Security Management Punishment Law submitted for deliberation: The revised draft of Public Security Management Punishment Law was submitted to the Fifth session of the Standing Committee of the Fourteenth National People’s Congress for deliberation. While confirming old practices in place, the new draft has added several punishable behaviors including including cheating in exams, organizing pyramid schemes for leaders, obstructing public transport, high-altitude parabolic objects, drones "black flying", etc. It emphasised additional changes for the protection of Minors. Changes like severe punishment for acts involving damage to the rights and interests of minors, the requirement of presence of guardian or suitable guardians during proceedings and to increase the regulations on minors violating the security management record sealing system, are being suggested in the draft. The draft also promotes including promoting the connection between public security management punishment and mediation and establishing a leniency system for admitting mistakes and admitting punishment, and appropriately increasing the range of fines.

SOCIAL MEDIA CHATTER IN CHINA

Trailer for video series on Colonization gains traction: Escape from the British Museum that recently released has gained online attention. Directed by two Chinese vloggers, the story revolves around a Chinese cultural relic escaping from the British museum trying to find its way home. The makers of the series wanted to prompt attention to overseas Chinese artefacts held abroad especially at the British Museum. Data published by the UNSCEO shows that about 1.6 million Chinese cultural relics were stolen from China and collected by 47 museums around the world, among which the British Museum has the largest collection, at about 23,000 pieces. The video sparked a discussion on Weibo with some netizens demanding a free public return of Chinese relics by the British Museum through a hashtag 'Please Return Chinese Cultural Relics' . It also sparked greater discussions amongst netizens on imperialism, international legal defence and a question on U.K.’s sincerity in undoing colonial crimes.

INDIA WATCH

The launch of the new standardised map by the Ministry of Natural Resources for 2023 reiterates the relevance and importance of the bilateral border issue at hand for India. The 2023 version has yet again included regions of contention with not just India but the rest of the world as well. The official map has claimed areas in the state of Arunachal Pradesh especially near the state capital Itanagar as part of Zangnan or Southern Tibet alongside areas of Aksai Chin. Additional areas of dispute such as Taiwan and large areas of the South China sea are also “standardised” in this map. India has constantly dismissed Beijing’s attempts to alter historical narratives and reject claims on national territory and sovereignty. New Delhi continues to assert that Arunachal was and always remain an integral part of India. This move is of extremely high relevance given the interactions of Modi and Xi Jinping regarding security and border issues during the BRICS summit and now highly relevant as the response from New Delhi would also further predict the way the upcoming G-20 summit would pan out for these countries as well.

Prepared By

Priyanka Raman

Priyanka Raman is a final-year student at Shiv Nadar University Noida, with a major in international relations and a minor in communications. Through her degree, she has had the opportunity to pursue multiple courses relating to Chinese politics and is deeply interested in politics of the Party media and knowledge dessimination. Her research interests surround topics of propaganda media and politics, gender and international relations and refugee politics.