CICM 24th October 2024

NEWS IN CHINA

Xi Jinping Delivers Speech at BRICS+ Leaders Dialogue: President Xi Jinping attended the BRICS+ Leaders’ Dialogue at the 16^th BRICS Summit in Kazan and delivered a speech titled, ‘Combining the Great Strength of the Global South To Build Together a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind’, calling on countries of the Global South to strive for common prosperity, common security and a community with a shared future for mankind. He called the rise of the Global South a distinctive feature of the transformation in world politics, urged the strengthening of global governance and reform of international institutions. He pointed out that the Global Development Initiative has funded more than 1,100 projects and made 20 billion USD in development finance available to recipients. He also stated that the Global Security Initiative has made progress in maintaining regional stability and emphasised political settlement of the Ukraine crisis. Xi stated that China will build a World Smart Customs Community Portal and a BRICS Customs Center of Excellence, and welcomed the participation of all countries. During his visit to Kazan for the BRICS Summit, Xi met with heads of state from India, Iran, Egypt and Russia. Xi Jinping was accompanied by top officials Cai Qi and Wang Yi for the BRICS Summit.
Ministry of Natural Resources Reprimands Local Governments for Land Use Violations: The Natural Resources Supervision Agency of the Ministry of Natural Resources held talks with 12 cities from various provinces, where illegal and irregular actions and problems were discovered during investigations on farmland and ecological protection. The Agency carried out supervision actions in 31 provinces of the country in 2023 to detect prominent issues affecting ecological protection and implement the “three zones and three lines” policy. The inspections discovered that localities around the country encroached on arable land to dig lakes for landscaping, built greenhouses, occupied permanent farmland to dig fish ponds, planted decorative turf and caused problems of "non-agriculturalization" and "non-grainization" of arable land that impacted the red line. Such problems were found to be prominent in 12 cities and two county-level cities, like Tongliao in Inner Mongolia, Yichun in Jiangxi, Zhangjiang in Guangdong, Longnan in Gansu and Lushunkou District in Liaoning and Xingyi City in Guizhou. Officials from these cities were invited to Beijing to discuss these problems and asked to rectify their mistakes. The responsible officials have agreed to undertake rectification measures and maintain the policy of natural resource management.
Cities to Promote Large-Scale Application of Beidou Products in Pilot Project: Cities across 22 provinces in China have been selected to promote the application of Beidou products in various industries and information communication technology fields. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology identified 39 cities across China to undertake a two year long pilot project to introduce and upgrade Beidou equipment and applications in three specific sectors; mass consumption, industrial manufacturing and integrated innovation. Pilot projects for the mass consumption sector will promote Beidou-enabled products like smart phones, wearable devices, tablets and drones. Other pilot cities will accelerate the promotion of Beidou applications in automobiles, ships, aircraft and industrial robots. For instance, Beidou navigation products will be deployed on ships on inland rivers and coastal areas, as well as on public transportation. The pilot also involves the cultivation of Beidou+ integrated innovative applications in fields like remote sensing, big data and Internet of Things to deploy in smart city projects, precision agriculture and network logistics. Cities like Wuhan, Qingdao, Changsha, Xi’an and Urumqi have been selected for this pilot project and those that fail to meet the required targets will lose their pilot titles.
Ministry of Education Announces Policy to Standardise Character Writing in Schools: China’s Ministry of Education has released a notice on “Strengthening the educational function of standardized Chinese character writing education”, directing primary and secondary schools in China to further standardise the education of writing Chinese characters. The Notice puts forward eight specific instructions for schools to improve the standardized writing level of students to promote “excellent Chinese character culture”. The Policy emphasises writing habits to prevent and correct students’ scoliosis and small glasses. The Notice proposes that education in writing characters should be conducted in accordance with the cognitive characteristics and physical and mental development levels of students at various levels of study, focus on the formation of good writing habits of lower grade students and achieve the “three ones” (one foot away from the book, one fist away from the table, and one inch away from the pen tip). The Ministry also instructs schools to deploy digital resources like the National Smart Education Platform for Primary and Secondary Schools and National Language Resource Service Platform, while also strengthen the training of teachers. The Notice also urges schools to organise events like Chinese Classics Recitation and Writing and Speaking Competitions and bring famous calligraphers to enter campuses in order to develop rich mediums of learning.
Beijing Tourism Action Plan Announced by Municipal Government at Tourism Development Conference: The Beijing Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government held the Beijing Tourism Development Conference, the first in recent years, to discuss ways to build Beijing into a tourism hub. The conference introduced the "Implementation Opinions on Promoting High-Quality Development of the Tourism Industry in Beijing", which proposed that by 2029 the value added of tourism industry will account for more than 5% of the city’s GDP, tourists to the city will increase by more than 2% annually, tourism revenue will increase by 4% and number of national 5A-level tourist attractions will rank among the top cities in the country. The plan outlines seven measures to promote Beijing into a tourism construction pilot area. New tourism products and science and technology tourism products have been prioritised and small transportation services have been identified to connect scenic spots and large transportation services for connection between cities. The Plan includes usage of media platforms to strengthen the city’s image, reliance on large state events to enhance publicity and deeper cooperation with international organisations to enhance Beijing’s international reputation. The Beijing Holiday Tourism Work Leading Group has been tasked with implementing the seven measures.

SOCIAL MEDIA CHATTER

Yu Huaying’s Death Penalty Sparks Intense Debate on High-Profile Child Trafficking Trial: The death sentence handed to Yu Huaying by the Guiyang Intermediate People’s Court in Guizhou has sparked an intense discussion of the high-profile court case in China. Yu Huaying was convicted of abducting and trafficking 17 children between 1997 and 2003. The children were taken from their families in Guizhou, Chongqing and Yunnan and sold in Hebei. Yu was sentenced to death by the Guiyang Court but appealed to the Guizhou High People’s Court for a retrial due to omission of facts. The retrial by the Guiyang Intermediate People’s Court ended with the court imposing the death penalty on Yu. Many users on social media expressed very little sympathy for Yu, stating, “Death is not a pity” and “Execute her quickly”. Others expressed frustration with the legal process, “Too long! It has been delayed for too long! I don’t understand why such an obvious case has been delayed for so long? The legal process needs to be more reasonable and intelligent.” The court case also provoked discussions about the death penalty in China, with some saying, “The death penalty cannot be abolished!” and “Sometimes the courts give too light a sentence, which leads to constant crime”. Another said, “Some ancient criminal laws should be retained”. The case has sparked discussions about crime, justice and child rights on social media, with some users even discussing mental health issues.

INDIA WATCH

Global Times Op-Ed by Senior Editor Discusses Prospects for India-China Growth Opportunities: An op-ed written in the Global Times by its senior editor and senior fellow with the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China has advocated for growth opportunities for India and China, following the resolutions reached regarding the border area. The author expresses disappointment with the fact that border clashes dampened India-China economic engagement. He also states that the US plan to paint China as a rival and its China Plus One strategy acted as a wedge between China and India. He argues that India could not have transformed into a manufacturing power overnight and support the US plan to diversify away from China. The author commends the Modi government in India for “laser-focused” approach to internal reforms and unwillingness to make India a pawn in America’s chess game, and argues that one country cannot replace the other and when one grows, it creates opportunities for both. The article compares Baotou steel to Tata steel, asking if Tata Steel can do for India what Baotou Steel did for China; support massive infrastructure and overall development. The author expresses optimism regarding the future of India-China economic relations and states that the Indian public will determine how much space can be created for India and China to grow together.

Prepared By

Rahul Karan Reddy

Rahul Karan Reddy is a Senior Research Associate at Organisation for Research on China and Asia (ORCA). He works on domestic Chinese politics and trade, producing data-driven research in the form of reports, dashboards and digital media. He is the author of ‘Islands on the Rocks’, a monograph about the Senkaku/Diaoyu island dispute between China and Japan. Rahul was previously a research analyst at the Chennai Center for China Studies (C3S). He is the creator of the India-China Trade dashboard and the Chinese Provincial Development Indicators dashboard. His work has been published in The Diplomat, East Asia Forum, ISDP & Tokyo Review, among others. He can be reached via email at rahulkaran.reddy@gmail.com and @RahulKaranRedd1 on Twitter.