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Five things on China’s Leaders’ Minds – 13 September 2021

Top-ranked articles for week of 5-11 September 2021

Messages

In the week’s most widely circulated official news article, Xi Jinping asks young cadres “to adhere to principles and dare to fight”. In particular, “on principle issues [they] must not be vague and must not yield, otherwise they will be irresponsible to the Party and the people, or even commit a crime”.

So principles are more important than means and ends? In the current environment, yes. This is not saying that cadres can on occasion fight orders from above – anything but. Rather, they must “struggle” (another popular theme this week) in their attempts to wrestle with the challenges that China faces by inculcating the correct types of individual behaviour. What is being pointed to is that government policy has broadened: economic growth is no longer the primary goal, it has to be balanced with other needs (notably the environment and reversing inequality).

Exactly how these competing needs should be balanced is not spelled out; that’s the job of officials to determine – using principles. That this could be tough is signalled with the use of “dare to fight” (敢于斗争). The Party appears to be suggesting that hard times lie ahead and cadres – raised on decades of non-stop economic growth and a benign international environment – might find themselves having to run things in a rather different climate.

The other part, on “daring”, is more difficult. Like it or not, these officials were raised on competing with each other, and the easiest thing to compete on is economic growth. Xi may wish for them to compete on “common prosperity” or another ideological phrase, but none of those things are as easy to measure as growth. So while to dare may be to win, to do what you’re told may remain safer; thus Xi’s exhortations.

This week’s other articles show the importance of set phrases to official Chinese discourse. In international relations, China often speaks in two tongues. Asean, for example gets a very different type of language treatment from that used to discuss US-China ties or to report Xi’s call with Merkel. For Asean, it’s all the benefits of cooperation that have accrued over the years; for Biden, it’s a barely veiled threat for the US to fall in line; for Merkel, it’s a warning not to throw all the advances of recent decades. (Remember these messages aren’t for their apparent targets; the audience for all three is domestic.)

This works well with classical Chinese phrases in particular. The Asean piece proposes a community of shared destiny and mutual assistance. The use of “sharing weal and woe” (休戚与共) is a traditional formulation that sounds great but also sends a message to literate Chinese audiences. The phrase is taken from the Records of the Three Kingdoms by Chen Shou (3rd century CE). In the original context, Cao Pi pledges his loyalty and allegiance to his brother, the Emperor of Wei, the strongest of three competing kingdoms at the time. The allusion would not have escaped Chinese officials.

Xi’s congratulatory letter to the International Food Loss Reduction Conference seems incongruous, yet it too is linked to the principles point. One of his first campaigns after becoming CPC chief was to get people to “clean their plate” in order to reduce food wastage and so strengthen food security, with official banquets a major target. In April this year, China’s first anti-food-waste law was passed.

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1. Cadre training

坚持原则 敢于斗争

Stick to principles and dare to fight

Date of first publication: 4 September 2021

Story ranking: 21

Story source: Xinhua News Agency

Length: 1,409 characters / 991 words

论学习贯彻习近平总书记在中青年干部培训班开班式上重要讲话

“共产党人讲党性、讲原则，就要讲斗争。”在2021年秋季学期中央党校（国家行政学院）中青年干部培训班开班式上，习近平总书记明确要求年轻干部坚持原则、敢于斗争，指出“在原则问题上决不能含糊、决不能退让，否则就是对党和人民不负责任，甚至是犯罪”，强调“共产党人任何时候都要有不信邪、不怕鬼、不当软骨头的风骨、气节、胆魄”。

On Studying and Implementing General Secretary Xi Jinping’s Important Speech at the Opening Ceremony of the Training Class for Young and Middle-aged Cadres

"Communists talk about party spirit and principles, and they must talk about struggle." At the opening ceremony of the training class for young and middle-aged cadres at the Central Party School (National School of Administration) in the fall semester of 2021, General Secretary Xi Jinping clearly asked young cadres to adhere to principles and dare to fight. It is pointed out that “on principle issues must not be vague and must not yield, otherwise it will be irresponsible to the party and the people, or even commit a crime”, and emphasized that “Communists must have the spirit and integrity of not believing in evil, not afraid of ghosts, and improperly at all times. Courage.”