Top-ranked articles for week of 2-8 October 2022

For background on this newsletter, please visit About Five Things on China’s Leaders’ Minds.

Commentary

One of Five Things’ working hypotheses about China is that it has a governance system that a) more or less works most of the time; b) has improved enormously in terms of effectiveness over the last four decades; c) that further improving it is a major concern of the country’s leaders.

Last week’s most widely circulated articles in China’s official media offered confirmation of this – and suggested that continuing this work will be a major feature of the five years that will follow next week’s Communist Party congress.

The first article, on the publication of “Excerpts from Xi Jinping’s Discussions on Governing the Party by Regulations”, highlights this point. An authoritarian regime set on monitoring and controlling as much as possible from the centre also needs mechanisms to codify, transmit, explain and legitimise its wishes. Regulations and laws are the formal machinery for this.

But also important are the mass media (see the fifth most widely circulated articles, about a 16-part television series on China’s experience under Xi), articles about “Party governance in the new era” (see the second most widely circulated article) and the release of an “Opinions” document on the upgrading of government services (see the fourth most widely circulated article).

In none of this does ideology matter. Rather, it’s all about reiterating the point that officials must work with the system that’s in place – in which communist party organizations at all levels will continue “to ensure that the decisions and arrangements of the party’s central committee are implemented.”

The article on party governance underlines this point:

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core has shown unprecedented courage and determination to promote comprehensive and strict party governance, and has achieved historic and groundbreaking achievements in promoting comprehensive and strict party governance in the new era.

That alone, however, has not been enough to ensure total compliance, either of the law or of party discipline. Instead, as the article notes, corruption remains an issue, in good part because of political failings: “Corruption is essentially political deterioration, and there are often political problems behind corruption.”

The answer will be even tighter political supervision, so accompanying the efforts aimed at strengthening governance will also be continuing use of disciplinary inspections, and an ever greater emphasis on the importance of Xi, so continued reiteration of the “Two Safeguards” (Safeguarding Xi Jinping as the core within the CPC; safeguarding the Party’s centralised authority).

This points to a major theme of the coming five years being how officials resolve tensions between directives about ends and the regulatory and other mechanisms put in place to ensure the country is run effectively. The attempts to handle China’s property crisis and rein in its private technology companies are illustrative here.

That this need not necessarily end in failure can be seen in last week’s third most widely circulated article and its celebration of a far-better-than-feared summer grain harvest. Despite worries that droughts across much of the country might do severe harm to crops, the machinery put in place to protect agriculture appears to have worked better than had been expected. The piece’s tone – opening with some idealised scene-setting and dotted with joyful vignettes – is unusual, but instantly recognisable as a late signal; something that could have been troublesome is now a source of satisfaction. The sense of relief is almost palpable.

1. Yet another Xi book

习近平关于依规治党论述摘编》出版发行

“Excerpts from Xi Jinping’s Discussions on Governing the Party by Regulations” published and distributed

Date of first publication: 7 October 2022

Article usage: 39%

Article source: Xinhua News Agency

Length: 579 characters / 466 words

中共中央党史和文献研究院编辑的《习近平关于依规治党论述摘编》一书，近日由中央文献出版社出版，在全国发行。 Full article

The book “Excerpts from Xi Jinping’s Discussions on Governing the Party by Regulations”, edited by the Institute of Party History and Literature of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, was recently published by the Central Literature Publishing House and distributed nationwide.Machine translation of full article

2. Party governance in the new era

开辟百年大党自我革命新境界

Opening a new realm of self-revolution in our century-old party

Date of first publication: 5 October 2022

Article usage: 30%

Article source: Xinhua News Agency

Length: 2,799 characters / 2,113 words

“全面从严治党是新时代党的自我革命的伟大实践，开辟了百年大党自我革命的新境界。”

党的十八大以来，以习近平同志为核心的党中央以前所未有的勇气和定力推进全面从严治党，推动新时代全面从严治党取得了历史性、开创性成就，产生了全方位、深层次影响。 Full article

“Comprehensively and strictly governing the party is a great practice of the party’s self-revolution in the new era, opening up a new realm of self-revolution for a century-old party. “

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core has made unprecedented courage and determination to promote comprehensive and strict Party governance, and has achieved historic and groundbreaking achievements in promoting comprehensive and strict Party governance in the new era. , deep influence. Machine translation of full article

3. A successful harvest

希望的田野 耕耘的画卷

The field of hope, the picture scroll of cultivation

Date of first publication: 4 October 2022

Article usage: 30%

Article source: Xinhua News Agency

Length: 4,177 characters / 3,055 words

和风拂过希望的田野，一片丰收在望的景象。东北平原的稻谷颗粒饱满，黄土高原的苹果红润喜人，东南沿海的鱼虾新鲜肥美，黄淮海的青纱帐一眼望不到边…… Full article

The wind blows over the fields of hope, a scene of a harvest in sight. The rice grains in the Northeast Plain are full, the apples in the Loess Plateau are rosy and gratifying, the fish and shrimps on the southeast coast are fresh and plump, and the green gauze tents in the Huanghuaihai Sea can’t be seen at a glance... Machine translation of full article

4. Upgrading government services

加快推进“一件事一次办” 打造政务服务升级版

Accelerate the “one thing at a time” process to upgrade government services

Date of first publication: 3 October 2022

Article usage: 26%

Article source: Xinhua News Agency

Length: 573 characters / 381 words

日前，国务院办公厅印发《关于加快推进“一件事一次办”打造政务服务升级版的指导意见》（以下简称《意见》）。 Full article

A few days ago, the General Office of the State Council issued the “Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Promotion of ‘One Matter, One Time’ to Create an Upgraded Version of Government Services” (the “Opinions”). Machine translation of full article

5. TV series on last decade

回望非凡十年 述录伟大变革

Looking back at an extraordinary ten years, describing the great changes

Date of first publication: 7 October 2022

Article usage: 23%

Article source: Xinhua News Agency

Length: 556 characters / 410 words

为迎接党的二十大胜利召开，中央宣传部联合中央党史和文献研究院、国家发展和改革委员会、国家广播电视总局、中央广播电视总台、中央军委政治工作部，共同摄制了16集大型电视专题片《领航》。 Full article

To welcome the victory of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Central Propaganda Department cooperated with the Central Party History and Literature Research Institute, the National Development and Reform Commission, the State Administration of Radio and Television, the Central Radio and Television Station and the Central Military Commission Political Work Department to co-produced the 16-episode long large-scale TV feature “Pilot”. Machine translation of full article

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