May 9-15 Five Things on China’s Leaders’ Minds: Socialist heroes, mainly

Five Things on China’s Leaders’ Minds collates and analyses the five articles most published and/or quoted each week in China’s official media. It provides an authoritative guide to what’s China’s leaders want officials and other decision makers to be thinking about.

May 9-15, 2021 – top-ranked articles:

1. Xi Jinping seminar; Party history forum

2. Socialist hero: Yang Kaihui

3. Socialist hero: Su Zhaozheng

4. City water saving

5. Socialist hero: Xiang Jingyu

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Commentary: We need a hero

This week saw an unusual sight. The five top-ranked articles featured three on historical figures from the Chinese Communist Party. A modern-day equivalent for the US would be the New York Times most-read articles for the week being about figures from Detroit Democratic Party branch meetings of the 1930s.

Why do this? Because the people picked represent the values that the Party wishes to promote. Those values may not be Western values, but they have to be taken seriously. Rather than relying primarily on material incentives and market forces, China’s ruling system also adds a wide array of moral urgings and imperatives. The idea is not to make everybody act the same way – a difficult task across 90m party members and 45m public servants – but to show everyone how to think in the way that the Party wishes them to. This also has the advantage that understanding of key ideas can be measured and standardised, with members assessed on how well they can quote their understanding of these figures, so allowing China’s leaders to know how well those below them are aligned with their objectives.

On the government side, China’s water problems received much needed attention. To quote a former British and EU diplomat: “In the north [of China], eight provinces suffer from acute water scarcity (defined as less than 500 m3 per person per year), and a further four suffer from scarcity (1,000 m3). They account for 38% of China’s agriculture, 50% of its power generation, 46% of its industry and 41% of its population… The social, economic and political consequences of running out of water in the north are obvious. In 1999, then Vice Premier Wen Jiabao declared that water shortages threaten “the very survival of the Chinese nation”.

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1. Xi Jinping socialist thought seminar; Party history and education forum

学习宣传贯彻习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想研讨会暨党史学习教育高端论坛在上海举行

Learning, publicizing and implementing Xi Jinping’s New China’s Socialist Ideology Seminar and the Party’s History Learning and Education Forum held in Shanghai

Date of first publication: May 13, 2021

Story ranking: 7

Length: 571 characters/407 words

学习宣传贯彻习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想研讨会暨党史学习教育高端论坛13日在上海举行。中共中央政治局委员、中宣部部长、党史学习教育领导小组组长黄坤明出席并讲话，强调要坚持从党的历史深处吸收养分、从党的理论创造中汲取力量，不断加深对习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想的理解领悟，增强奋斗新时代、奋进新征程的理论自觉和道路自信。

A seminar on studying, propagating and implementing Xi Jinping’s thoughts on socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era and a high-end forum on party history learning and education were held in Shanghai on the 13th. Huang Kunming, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Minister of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee, and leader of the Party History Study and Education Leading Group, attended and delivered a speech. The understanding and comprehension of the socialist ideology with Chinese characteristics of the era will enhance the theoretical awareness and road self-confidence of striving for a new era and a new journey.

A jargon-heavy internal seminar; unsurprising given that this is the centennial anniversary of the Party. Despite a relatively low position in the Politburo, articles featuring Huang Kunming tend to rank highly, reflecting his position as head of the body ultimately responsible for China’s media.

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2. Socialist hero (and Mao’s second wife): Yang Kaihui

杨开慧：“牺牲我小，成功我大”

Yang Kaihui: “This sacrifice for me is small, my success will be grand”

Date of first publication: May 13, 2021

Story ranking: 5

Length: 972 characters/709 words

“我失骄杨君失柳，杨柳轻飏直上重霄九……”细雨之中，松柏之间，杨开慧烈士墓园庄严肃穆，前来瞻仰祭拜的社会各界人士络绎不绝，墓后花岗岩护壁上印刻的毛泽东词《蝶恋花·答李淑一》，将人们的思绪带回到“湖湘女杰”杨开慧奋斗的年代。

“I lost my proud poplar and you your willow. As poplar and willow they soar straight up to the ninth heaven...” In the drizzle, between the pines and willows, the Yang Kaihui Martyrs Cemetery was solemn, as people from all walks of life came to pay homage and worship. Mao Zedong’s poem “The Immortals” engraved on the granite wall brought people’s thoughts back to the time when even  “Hunan Heroine” Yang Kaihui struggled.

Yang Kaihui is usually considered one of Mao’s wives, although they never formally married. She was one of Mao’s former teacher’s daughters who bore him two children, including Mao Anying, usually thought of as Mao’s favourite child, who was killed in the Korean War. Yang was executed by the KMT in 1930 aged 29.

This is an article largely of allusions, based on a poem that Mao wrote commemorating Yang. (Yang is the poplar). The reference to Hunan heroine refers also to Xiang Jiangyu (no. 5 in this list). We don’t think that she is being singled out especially here, but rather that we expect this series of communist heroes to run for the next few months, and everyone will need to meet their quota of mentions.

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3. Socialist hero Su Zhaozheng

苏兆征：红色精神穿越百年

Su Zhaozheng: The Red Spirit Crosses a Hundred Years

Date of first publication: May 9, 2021

Story ranking: 5

Length: 1,007 characters/728 words

“苏兆征生于一个贫苦农民家庭，幼时因为家境很穷，只读了3年私塾……”琅琅读书声，从广东省珠海市唐家湾镇淇澳村兆征纪念学校传出。这是一堂红色教育课，上课的五年级一班，是“苏兆征（11）班”。

“Su Zhaozheng was born in a poor peasant family. When he was a child, because his family was very poor, he only read a private school for three years...” This was sonorously read from a red education class in the Zhaozheng Memorial School in Qi’ao Village, Tangjiawan Town, Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province. The fifth grade class is the “Su Zhaozheng class”.

Su was a famous labor leader who contributed troops to the Nanchang Uprising, an event during which  the precursor to today’s People’s Liberation Army was founded. The choice of the class is the only interesting part: Su’s birthplace and eponymous school is in a small village famous mainly for being where Chinese forces had a rare win over HK-based British forces in the nineteenth century. Those who think that the heroes are picked and placed deliberately might read something into that; we think it is more a coincidence.

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4. City water saving

全国城市20年节水近千亿立方米

China’s cities save nearly 100 billion cubic metres of water over 20 years

Date of first publication: May 9, 2021

Story ranking: 5

Length: 637 characters/485 words

记者9日从住房和城乡建设部了解到，我国城市节水总量大，从2000年到2020年，全国城市节水量累计达到972亿立方米，相当于9个南水北调中线工程的年调水量。

Wang Youliang (Xinhua reporter) learned from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development on May 9 that the total amount of water saving across China is large. From 2000 to 2020, the total amount of water saved in cities across the country has reached 97.2 billion cubic meters. That is equivalent to the annual water transfer volume of nine South-to-North Water Transfer Projects.

A report signalling the government’s concern about the water shortages facing the north of the country, further underlined by the fact of Premier Li Keqiang being responsible for water scarcity problems. Perhaps more interesting is that this government ministry report was cited more than Xi Jinping’s own meeting on the same issue on the same day. We put that down to this being good news and various leaders wanting to circulate the positive idea, rather than due to a shift of responsibility or emphasis.

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5. Socialist hero: Xiang Jingyu

向警予：共产主义战士 模范妇女领袖

Xiang Jingyu: model woman leader of Communist fighters

Date of first publication: May 13, 2021

Story ranking: 5

Length: 1,148 characters/786 words

日前，湖南省怀化市溆浦县警予学校书声琅琅，“自治心、公共心”的校训镌刻在这所名校教学楼上。不远处的溆水河畔，就是向警予同志纪念馆。纪念馆讲解员肖艳萍说：“每讲一次警予故事都是心灵的洗礼，都能感受到她的伟大和精神的力量。”向警予原名向俊贤，1895年出生于湖南溆浦，是中国共产党创建时期重要领导人之一，杰出的共产主义战士，忠诚的无产阶级革命家，中国妇女运动的先驱和领袖。

A few days ago Xupu County, Huaihua City, Hunan Province authorities wrote to the school, and the motto of “independence and public spirit” was engraved on the main classroom of this prestigious school. Not far from the Xushui River is the Comrade Xiang Jingyu Memorial Hall. Xiao Yanping, a lecturer at the memorial hall, said: "Every story told by Jingyu is a baptism of the soul, and she can feel her greatness and spiritual strength."

Xiang Jingyu, whose original name was Xiang Junxian, was born in Xupu, Hunan Province in 1895. She was one of the important leaders in the founding period of the Communist Party of China, an outstanding communist fighter, a loyal proletarian revolutionary, and a pioneer and leader of the Chinese women's movement.

Like Yang Kaihui (see item 2), Xiang Jingyu was executed by the KMT, dying aged 34 in 1928. She was adopted as a martyr after that. The school referred to above she founded herself before her death.

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