Book Discussions & Key Stories
Dear Subscribers,
I hope this finds you all well. Both Shibani and I are recovering from our vaccine jabs; so we’re not doing the regular newsletter this week. But I do have some interesting content for you to go through.
I. Book Discussions
Earlier this week, I recorded a podcast with Mr. Avtar Singh Bhasin, former Director of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs’ Historical Division on his new book Nehru, Tibet and China. The book is based on meticulous archival research and worth reading to understand the dynamics that led to the 1962 war.
A bit before that we held a discussion with Amb. Shivshankar Menon on his new book India & Asian Geopolitics: The Past, Present. You can watch that conversation here.
II. In China
A couple of big developments that I would like to highlight:
a. There was really long piece in Politburo member Wang Chen in the People’s Daily on Monday. While the theme of the piece was the Yan’an Spirit, what it did was essentially equate Xi to Mao and Xi Thought to Mao Thought.
“Today, the lesson from the history of the party for a hundred years and carrying forward the Yan’an spirit is to promote the whole party and the people of all nationalities to hold high the great banner of Xi Jinping Thought...resolutely safeguard General Secretary Xi Jinping’s position as the core of the Party Central Committee and the core position of the whole party; resolutely safeguard the authority and centralized and unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee, and consciously maintain a high degree of ideological and political consistency with the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, so as to ensure that the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics always advances in the right direction.” 今天我们学习百年党史,弘扬延安精神,就是要推动全党全国各族人民高举习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想伟大旗帜,坚决维护习近平总书记党中央的核心、全党的核心地位,坚决维护党中央权威和集中统一领导,自觉在思想上政治上行动上同以习近平同志为核心的党中央保持高度一致,确保中国特色社会主义事业始终沿着正确方向前进.
b. Next, in my daily tracker I did a breakdown of Xi’s speech on international communication. This is the one where he talked about creating a “loveable” image of China. I don’t see any of this signifying stylistic change in Chinese diplomacy. Do also read David Bandurski’s take on this.
c. Two important Party regulations were made public this week.
The first was the “opinions of the central committee on strengthening supervision of top leaders/chief officials/leading officials and leading groups.” 中共中央关于加强对“一把手”和领导班子监督的意见. Note that official media have told us that “this is the first special document formulated by the party for the supervision of ‘leading officials’ and the leading groups.” I’ve done a breakdown of the document here. But this was my TLDR:
One cannot underscore the significance of this document enough. Read it in the context of the structural changes since October 2017 and the ongoing rectification campaign of the political and legal apparatus, but also in regard to recent propaganda around Party history, the Yan’an Spirit, the likeness drawn between Xi and Mao and, of course, in regard to the 20th Party Congress in 2022. Also, this is not simply about central leadership’s attempts to control local leadership. This is about Xi tightening control over the Party’s top leadership, including those in the Central Committee.
The other document contains regulations related to the Party’s organisational work. These were discussed by the Politburo on April 30 and promulgated by the Central Committee on May 22. I’ve done a detailed breakdown of the document here. But some points worth noting are:
Article 1 of the document tells us the objective that it aims to achieve, i.e., “These Regulations are formulated in accordance with the Constitution of the Communist Party of China and relevant laws in order to thoroughly implement Xi Jinping’s thought of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, implement the general requirements for party building and the party's organisational line in the new era...”
Article 18 is rather emphatic:
“Party organizations at all levels and all party members must resolutely safeguard General Secretary Xi Jinping's position as the core of the CPC Central Committee and the whole party, resolutely safeguard the authority and centralized and unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee, and insist that individual party members obey the Party organization, the minority obey the majority, subordinate organizations obey superior organizations, and all party organizations and all party members obey the Party’s National Congress and Central Committee.” 第十八条 各级党组织和全体党员必须坚决维护习近平总书记党中央的核心、全党的核心地位,坚决维护党中央权威和集中统一领导,坚持党员个人服从党的组织,少数服从多数,下级组织服从上级组织,全党各个组织和全体党员服从党的全国代表大会和中央委员会.
Finally, while on the issue of discipline and organisation, do check out this excellent report by Chun Han Wong for WSJ: “China’s Graft Busters Pursue Very Old Cases—and Even the Dead Can’t Escape”
Other Stories:
China approves Covid-19 vaccine for children as young as three/ Chinese city of Guangzhou reports seven new COVID-19 cases
Putin says Russia-China relations at highest-ever level/ Modi and Xi are “responsible” leaders, can solve Sino-India issues: Putin
China Delivers Three-Child Policy, but It’s Too Late for Many
Biden Expands Blacklist of Chinese Companies Banned From U.S. Investment
The Lab-Leak Theory: Inside the Fight to Uncover COVID-19’s Origins
Subdued but Not Silenced, Hong Kong Tries to Remember Tiananmen Massacre/ Microsoft blocks Bing from showing image results for Tiananmen ‘tank man’
Also note these posts on Twitter about Tiananmen by the US State Department:
And by the EU’s HK and Macao office