CiCM 21st December 2023

NEWS IN CHINA

Xi Jinping addressed the annual Central Rural Work Conference: The annual Central Rural Conference was held from 19^th to 20^th December in Beijing. The conference was addressed by Chinese President Xi Jinping where he laid out important guidelines on work regarding agriculture, rural areas and farmers. He said that based on the experience from the Green Rural Revival Program, efforts should be taken to implement policies diligently, undertake progressive steps and reach visible results in the people's best interests. He emphasized setting up a diversified food supply system, enriching the quality of arable land and safeguarding food security. His main focus was on ensuring sufficient land acreage for cultivation and increasing per unit productivity. Development of targeted rural industries was also discussed to ensure increase in farmers’ income and fulfill poverty alleviation. A statement was released laying out measures to effectively prevent agricultural disasters and emphasizing the need to make sure grain output remains above 650 million metric tons in 2024. The conference was also attended and addressed by Chinese Vice Premier Liu Guozhong.

China and the US restored military dialogue for the first time in more than a year: CQ Brown, the Air Force General and chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff talked to Liu Zhenli, his Chinese Counterpart on 21^st December via video conference call to resume military-to-military dialogue between the two countries. The Pentagon said in a statement that the two military leaders “discussed the importance of working together to responsibly manage competition, avoid miscalculations, and maintain open and direct lines of communication,” The Chinese government had earlier stopped all military engagements with Washington in response to then-House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August 2022. During the meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco in November, the resumption of military dialogues was discussed to a great extent. The US side emphasized the significance of the People’s Liberation Army involved in substantive dialogue to reduce potential misunderstandings and reaffirmed the need to resume bilateral Defense Policy Coordination talks and Military Maritime Consultative Agreement talks. The Chinese defence ministry also revealed that General Liu approached the US to sincerely respect China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea.

Premier Li Qiang signed a State Council order to announce amendments to the rules of the Patent Law: Chinese Premier Li Qiang signed an order of the State Council announcing the “Decision of the State Council on Amending the Implementing Rules of the Patent Law of the People's Republic of China” recently. The decision primarily amends the implementing rules of the Patent Law in various ways and will be in effect from 20^th January 2024. It aims to enhance the patent application system to make it simple for applicants to obtain patents, improve the quality of patent examination, protect the legitimate rights and interests of patent holders and refine patent services encouraging the creation, transformation and application of patents. A particular chapter on patent term compensation has been included to clear out the conditions and time requirements for patent term compensation requests, the compensation period calculation method and the scope of compensation, etc. Additionally, new exclusive regulations have been added for international applications for industrial designs to align with the Hague Agreement on the International Registration of Industrial Designs passed in 1999.

China’s education ministry initiates science education recommendations through experimental schools: The Ministry of Education in China launched the first batch among three batches of national primary and secondary science education experimental zones and experimental schools to ensure the high- quality development of science education . The focus has been on curriculum development, teacher team building, reforms in teaching methods, evaluation reforms and social force integration. The process is to hold pilot trials in different fields and key links, resolve barriers and difficulties, go through effective ways to execute scientific education and innovative models for talent training and create a development pattern that vertically connect universities, middle and primary schools and horizontally connects inside and outside schools to produce a batch of replicable and promotable examples. The Ministry will form an expert group to review the materials submitted by provincial education departments and decide and release the list of about 100 experimental zones and about 1,000 experimental schools. These experiments will run for three years. The acceptance of the construction results of experimental areas and experimental schools is organized by the provincial education administrative department at the end of each year and the acceptance results are reported to the Ministry of Education.

National Industrial and Information Work Conference was held in Beijing: The National Industrial and Information Work Conference was held on 21^st December in Beijing. Minister of Industry and Information Technology, Jin Zhuanglong participated in the meeting amongst other leaders in the Ministry and delivered a speech. The meeting agreed that the promotion of new industrialization is a major strategic deployment made by the Party Central Committee to amplify the overall strategy of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with major changes in the world unseen in a century. It has been expected that industrial added value shall increase by more than 4.3% year-on-year throughout the year, the proportion of manufacturing added value in GDP will be stable and the overall scale will stay the first in the world for 14 years consecutively. The meeting decided to enhance efforts to promote the steady growth of the industrial economy, execute high-quality development actions for key manufacturing industry chains, improve industrial innovation capabilities, expedite the upgrading of traditional industries and cultivation of emerging industries, promote green and low-carbon development of industry, support the “double first-class” construction of subordinate universities, improve the modernization level of industry governance, etc.

Shanghai Putuo Metaverse Industry Alliance is established for technological innovation: The Metaverse Industry Alliance in Shanghai’s Putuo District was officially established on 20^th December. The first batch of members of the alliance consists of 20 units in total covering leading state-owned industries, cutting-edge technology R&D universities and metaverse Enterprises in the region. Through this alliance, Putuo District shall consolidate metaverse enterprises, research organizations and academic institutions to facilitate enhanced integration of science and industry and steer the upgrading and transformation of the regional economy. The focus will be on artificial intelligence, big data, blockchain, and cloud computing. On one hand, technology like computing and virtual reality will build a gathering center for technological innovation to boost the application of technological achievements in the metaverse field. On the other hand, measure will be taken to encourage comprehensive integration of culture and technology while endorsing the Putuo regional characteristics and emerging technologies. By integrating such efforts, the alliance aims to expand metaverse content and applications along with cultural characteristics to enhance the efficiency, intensity and depth of cultural communication.

SOCIAL MEDIA CHATTER IN CHINA

Young boy hands unattended bag of cash over to police despite Family’s financial crisis: Yang Xuan, a 13-year-old boy from Jiangsu province, found a bag of cash worth 158,000 yuan (US $22,000) on the street and handed the money to the police instead of taking it for himself or his family. His family has been struggling financially since the boy’s father was hospitalized because of a cerebral haemorrhage. While he was walking home with his mother, he noticed a white bag near a stone tablet and opened it out of curiosity. He had seen the owner leave swiftly on a bicycle and even tried to catch him. He told his mother “The owner must be distraught, and he probably needs the money to save a life, like my father. Let’s call the police.” In the end, they were able to track down the owner with the help of the police. A police officer saluted Yang and his school also held a ceremony to honour him. His selflessness was particularly appreciated by everyone considering his family’s situation where his father is on a sick bed. A netizen commented, “His parents have done an excellent job of raising him.” Another commented, “A kind heart is more precious than money.”

INDIA WATCH

With China developing its military assertiveness, India and the United States recently met in November to strengthen their strategic alliance by improving defence and security collaboration and strengthening cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region. The 5^th annual 2+2 ministerial dialogue took place between Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and their American counterparts Lloyd Austin and Antony Blinken. They discussed strategies to boost India’s idea of becoming a key hub for global defence manufacturing. Their joint statement revealed that the two countries are setting up new liaison positions to ensure smooth communication and collaboration between their respective armed forces. While the US is India’s oldest and most significant 2+2 dialogue partner, India has also held 2+2 meetings with ministers from Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom and Russia. This strategic bilateral relationship of India with its partners over the years has produced profound results for India. In the context of defence itself, India and the US have signed a troika of “foundational pacts” for deep military cooperation, starting from the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) in 2016, followed by the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) after the first 2+2 dialogue in 2018, and then the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) in 2020. Such strategic mechanisms of cooperation between the militaries of India and the US are highly significant in the context of an increasingly aggressive China, which threatens a large number of countries around it and has been challenging several established norms of international relations.

Prepared By

Adhithi Senthilkumar

Adhithi Senthilkumar is an undergraduate student pursuing a major in International Studies and a minor in Public Policy at FLAME University, Pune. She is fascinated by the complex dynamics of international relations and the substantial impact that policies can have on communities around the globe. Her passion for studying history, societies and contemporary global and domestic politics has been a driving force in her academic journey. She has participated in internships, attended conferences and engaged in volunteer work related to public policy gaining valuable insights into real-world application of policies. She aspires to apply her knowledge and skills to contribute to addressing pressing global issues and collaborate with like-minded individuals to make a positive difference through policymaking.