12-25 March 2023

Fortnightly newsletter tracking high-level policy signals sent by China’s top leaders. For more information, visit About Five Things.

Commentary

The last fortnight’s most widely circulated articles in China’s official media were unsurprisingly dominated by pro-forma pieces marking the end of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and Chinese People Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) meetings and Xi Jinping’s visit to Russia.

Alongside these items were two pieces of more general interest. First, the “Work Plan on Investigation and Research in the Whole Party” (《关于在全党大兴调查研究的工作方案》), a document issued by the CPC’s General Office aimed at guiding party bodies at all levels to identifying and dealing with important problems, and second, “Xi Jinping’s world feelings” (“习近平的天下情怀”), an 8,500-character, soft-focus piece on the CPC’s view of what a better world might look like.

The work plan (original; machine translation), with its list of 12 areas of focus, is aimed at ensuring that party organizations are proactively trying to deal with the key challenges China’s leaders see the country facing. It provides a methodology (raise awareness, formulate a plan, carry out research, deepen research, solve problems, follow up with supervisory return visits); and lists four functions that should be attended to (strengthen organizational leadership, maintain strict work discipline, adhere to overall planning and advancement, and increase publicity efforts).

It also appears to be linked to the two biggest institutional changes announced at the NPC: the shift of overall responsibilities for finance from government regulators to a Central Financial Commission, and the creation of a new body to oversee science and technology, the Central Committee for the Science and Technology, both Party bodies through the CPC Central Committee can decide and coordinate policies in their respective domains.

The aim of putting the Party’s leaders more in charge of policies appears aimed at ensuring the country is focused on developing in line with their priorities, among them boosting market confidence and promoting a full economic recovery from the Covid slowdown, pursuing higher-quality growth, advancing Chinese modernization, preventing or defusing major financial risks, strengthening domestic demand, deepening supply-side structural reforms, attracting foreign investment, etc.

These goals are now collected together under the rubric of “Chinese style modernization”, shorthand for the bundle of goals China’s leaders want China to achieve in its next stage of development (modernizing the country’s population, ensuring prosperity for all, that balances material and spiritual needs, that is ecologically balanced, and that is conducted peacefully).

With the Party replacing the government, and requiring that all major decisions and problems must be reported to its Central Committee before they are taken or dealt with, clearly its leaders also must have Party bodies at all levels investigating and acting on their own, both to ensure at the very least knowledge of what is happening can be transmitted up the hierarchy, with relevant action also taken where necessary. Serving these needs appears to be the goal of the work plan.

Of course, whether the institutional restructuring and concomitant Party activity will make policy making and implementation more effective or not is far from given. While a new framework has been put in place, little attention appears to have been paid to incentives, with central control and direction instead having carry more weight.

Indeed, the biggest problem of the structural reforms announced at the NPC and CPPCC meetings is that they increase the power of the Communist Party to over key parts of the economy – science and technology and finance, rather than leaving oversight in the hands of the government or encouraging businesses and organizations to act autonomously.

The message that this sends out is that even if such closer control were to prove less efficient, that is less of an issue than retaining control. Perhaps this is because of China’s leaders apparent belief that history has a right side and that they are on it.

The “Xi Jinping world’s world feelings” article (original, machine translation), offers a different outlook. Based around a speech Xi gave at a meeting of world political parties in Beijing in mid-March, it presents a CPC-led China as offering huge potential for global advancement:

“Our country is getting closer to the center of the world stage. It has the ability and responsibility to play a greater role in global affairs and make greater contributions to solving the problems of all mankind together with other countries.” General Secretary Xi Jinping stated in one sentence the mission and responsibility of taking the world as his responsibility.

While other recent articles in China’s official media have highlighted how Chinese-style modernization offers an alternative form to Western-style development (a theme discussed in detail by China Media Project here), the focus of this article are the various occasions in which Chinese interventions either has brought or could bring benefits for others:

“The Chinese nation has always been advocating ‘one family under heaven’, advocating the unity of the people, the harmony of all nations, and the great unity of the world, and looking forward to a beautiful world where ‘the journey of the great road makes the world a public’,” General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out.

Xi goes on to propose a shared future:

“Jointly advocate respect for the diversity of world civilizations”, “Jointly advocate the promotion of the common values of all mankind”, “Jointly advocate emphasizing the inheritance and innovation of civilization”, “Jointly advocate strengthening international cultural exchanges and cooperation”. By focusing on promoting the modernization process of human society … General Secretary Xi Jinping solemnly proposed a global civilization initiative … contributing new and powerful wisdom and strength to promote exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations and promote the progress of human civilization.

While most Western observers continue to see China’s decision to offer tacit backing for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as having harmed its global standing, the country’s leaders view themselves as being able to position themselves as global leaders offering an alternative. Whether that turns out to be the case will depend on another belief of China’s leaders – that the US and the West are in decline, opening the way for a new world order in which China could play a leading role.

Underpinning this outlook is the idea that the world is undergoing changes unparalleled in the last century (“百年未有之大變局”), with the east rising and the west declining (“東升西降”). Again, teleology appears to be doing some heavy lifting for China’s leaders.

Top-ranked articles for 12-25 March 2023

% = percentage of publications carrying the article

1. First session of 14th CPPCC National Committee closes
全国政协十四届一次会议闭幕
Xinhua News Agency, 11 March 2023
Chinese / Machine translation / 63%

2. Other State Council members appointed
决定国务院其他组成人员
Xinhua News Agency, 12 March 2023
Chinese / Machine translation / 63%

3. Premier Li Qiang attends press conference, answers questions from Chinese and foreign journalists
李强总理出席记者会 并回答中外记者提问
Xinhua News Agency, 13 March 2023
Chinese / Machine translation / 60%

4. First Session of 14th National People’s Congress concludes in Beijing
十四届全国人大一次会议在京闭幕
Xinhua News Agency, 13 March 2023
Chinese / Machine translation / 60%

5. Nominated by President Xi Jinping, Li Qiang is made State Council premier
根据国家主席习近平的提名 决定李强为国务院总理
Xinhua News Agency, 11 March 2023
Chinese / Machine translation / 58%

6. “Work Plan for Investigation and Research in the Whole Party”
《关于在全党大兴调查研究的工作方案》
Xinhua News Agency, 19 March 2023
Chinese / Machine translation / 49%

7. Xi Jinping holds talks with Russia’s President Putin
习近平同俄罗斯总统普京举行会谈
Xinhua News Agency, 21 March 2023
Chinese / Machine translation / 46%

8. Xi Jinping arrives in Moscow
习近平抵达莫斯科
Xinhua News Agency, 20 March 2023
Chinese / Machine translation / 46%

9. Xi Jinping meets with Russia’s Prime Minister Mishustin
习近平会见俄罗斯总理米舒斯京
Xinhua News Agency, 21 March 2023
Chinese / Machine translation / 43%

10. Xi Jinping’s world feelings
习近平的天下情怀
Xinhua News Agency, 23 March 2023
Chinese / Machine translation / 42%

For more information about Five Things on China’s Leader’s Minds, visit About Five Things on China’s Leaders’ Minds or email fivethings@bilby.ai.