China’s Xi Urges Self-Reliance Amid Change ‘Unseen in 100 Years’

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2018-12-18/china-won-t-be-dictated-to-jinping-video
https://youtu.be/8A10yeIodrc https://youtu.be/sajhWARyFJM https://youtu.be/lX2cxhaagew

Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed self-reliance amid “changes unseen in 100 years,” as the country faced an economic slowdown and a more confrontational U.S. under President Donald Trump.

In his annual New Year’s Eve address, Xi stressed China’s capacity to weather the storm, citing a series of industrial and technological achievements in 2018. He said the government would keep growth from slowing too quickly and follow through on a tax cut as part of an effort “to ease the burden on enterprises.”

“Despite all sorts of risks and challenges, we pushed our economy towards high-quality development, sped up the replacement of the old drivers of growth, and kept the major economic indicators within a reasonable range,” Xi said.

The speech followed reminders of Xi’s twin challenges: another dose of weak economic data Monday and a phone call with Trump on Saturday touching on their trade dispute. China’s factories slid back into contraction territory in December, with the manufacturing purchasing mangers index dropping to 49.4.

Meanwhile, a U.S. delegation led by Deputy Trade Representative Jeffrey Gerrish was preparing for talks in Beijing next week that would test a tariff cease-fire established earlier in the month by the two sides. Trump said he and Xi spoke at length and that “big progress” is being made toward a deal.

Looking Ahead

Next year marks 70 years since Mao Zedong led the Communist Party to power -- a milestone that would surpass the Soviet Union. The anniversary underscores the urgency Xi faces in turning around stalled growth and investor confidence, while pushing forward an agenda of political reform that will strengthen his power.

The government launched over 100 reform measures in 2018, Xi said Monday, and stepped up efforts to improve standards of living.

“Our people are the country’s solid foundation and our main source of confidence to govern,” he said.

A little less than a year since he scrapped term limits, clearing the path toward his indefinite rule, Xi has seen his major initiatives -- notably the Belt and Road trade and infrastructure program -- draw international backlash amid the unprecedented trade war.

Over the next few months, March’s National People’s Congress and April’s Belt and Road Summit, both to be held in Beijing, could see the announcement of new regulations and investments meant to counter skepticism over Xi’s leadership.

China is already considering a new law on the practice of forced technology transfer that has drawn U.S. ire, and stepped up internal scrutiny of Belt and Road as poorer countries adopt a more cautious approach to China’s plans for what it regards as its backyard.

The country’s growth is still slowing as it transitions from a high-growth, export-led model to a consumer- focused state. Top economic policy makers last week pledged to exact “significant” stimulus policies this coming year.

— Bloomberg, with assistance by Shuping Niu, Dandan Li, and Fox Hu

Related:

2018: End of an era - Global Trends 

 

China will tread own path steadily in 2019

In the face of sudden escalation of China-US trade conflict throughout 2018, Beijing chose neither a concession nor a confrontation. The country has continued advancing and establishing its position as the world's second largest economy, maximizing its vitality and cooperation. Undoubtedly, that is China's lifeline to keep steady progress in an increasingly restless world.

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China marks 40th anniversary of reform and opening-up with greater resolve to cope with unimaginable perils'

China marks 40th anniversary of reform and opening-up with greater resolve to cope with ‘unimaginable’ perils

Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of his speech at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing to mark the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening up. Photo: Reuters

https://youtu.be/Zj-7Qx5Cges

https://youtu.be/MILBtNHX4rQ

• Chinese president avoids specifics for the road ahead 

• Audiences at home and abroad need convincing that reforms started 40 years ago will continue 

China faces “unimaginable” perils and dangers ahead and must rely on Communist Party rule and economic reform to sail through them, Chinese President Xi Jinping said in one of the most watched speeches of his leadership in Beijing on Tuesday.

Speaking at the Great Hall of the People to mark the 40th anniversary of the country’s reform and opening up, Xi did not directly address the specific challenges facing the world’s second biggest economy or touch on sensitive issues such as the ongoing trade war with the US.

Instead, Xi spent much of the hour-and-a-half speech drawing general conclusions about China’s economic and social development in the past four decades since Deng Xiaoping, China’s former paramount leader, started to embrace market-oriented changes in China.

The No 1 lesson China can draw from the 40 years of success is that the country must stick to the leadership of the Communist Party, Xi said.

China tightens control of local economic data ahead of expected weak growth next year

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“The practices of reform and opening up in the past 40 years have shown us that the Chinese Communist Party leadership is the fundamental character of socialism with Chinese characteristics … east, west, south, north, and the middle, the party leads everything,” he said.

“Every step in reform and opening up will not be easy, and we will face all kinds of risks and challenges in the future and we may even encounter unimaginable terrifying tidal waves and horrifying storms,” Xi said.

“Only by improving the party's leadership and governance … can we ensure the ship of reform and opening up will sail forward.”

Xi’s speech was delivered as prospects for China’s growth are clouded abroad, by rising rivalries between China and the US, and by a deepening economic slowdown at home.

Xi, who is now legally entitled to retain his presidency beyond 2023 after a constitutional amendment in March this year, needs to convince domestic and foreign audiences that Beijing remains committed to the economic liberalisation process that was started by Deng 40 years ago.

The stock indexes of Shanghai and Shenzhen, which had both risen in early trading in anticipation of possible policy announcements, retraced their declines soon after proceedings began.

Shanghai’s composite index fell as much as 1.2 per cent, while Shenzhen’s index fell as much as 1.5 per cent to an eight-week low.

On the Hong Kong exchange, the Hang Seng Index fell 0.9 per cent while the H-share index declined 1.3 per cent.

Stocks slide as Xi refrains from kick-starting China’s sagging growth

Xi stressed that China would stick to its own chosen path, namely socialism with Chinese characteristics.

“To push forward reform and opening up in a country with 5,000 years of civilisation and a population of 1.3 billion, there are no textbooks containing golden rules or teachers who can be arrogant to the Chinese people,” he said.

Xi quoted the renowned Chinese author Lu Xun, who asked, “what's a road? A trodden path in a place where there was previously no road, and a passage opened from a place where there were only thorns.”

How a generation climbed China’s social ladder through 40 years of luck, talent and economic growth

Xi opened his speech by saying the Cultural Revolution, from 1966 to 1976, had brought China's economy to the brink of collapse and went on to quote Deng, saying “China's modernisation and socialism will be buried if we do not embrace reform and opening up now.”

The audience at the Great Hall of the People listen to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s speech commemorating 40 years of opening up and reform. Photo: Xinhua

He made it clear that Beijing would not abandon its road as China's developmental achievements in the past four decades had proven the “vivid vitality” of China's “scientific socialism”.

“For those that ought to be changed or can be changed, we will change; but for those that shouldn't be changed or cannot be changed, we will firmly not change,” Xi said.

In international relations, Xi reiterated Beijing’s existing line that China would not seek hegemony, but he did not mention the US specifically.

Xi said China was walking closer to the world’s centre stage and was now “an internationally recognised” builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, and a keeper of international order.

China, he said, had contributed “China wisdom, China solutions and China power” to world peace and development.

The Chinese president said China would play its role as “a big responsible country” to support developing countries and to take part in global governance.

“China will never grow at the cost of other countries' interests but will never give up its legitimate rights and interests … China's development does not pose a threat to any other country. No matter how far China develops, it will never seek hegemony,” Xi said.

How China’s ‘reform and opening up’ transformed poor families into middle-class shoppers

In a long list of China's economic and social achievements of the past four decades, Xi said China had achieved an annual average growth in GDP of 9.5 per cent since 1978, and contributed more than 30 per cent towards total global economic growth for many years.

China, he said, was now the world's second largest economy, the world's biggest manufacturing country and the world's No 1 commodity trading country.

From left: Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang at the 40th anniversary commemorations of reform on Thursday. Photo: AP

Bureaucracy still hampers academic research in China 40 years after opening up

In terms of ideology, Xi said China would stick to its official ideology, namely Marxism, Leninism, Mao Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, Three Represents theory, scientific development concept and his own “Theory of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in the New Era”.

In terms of economic policies, Xi reiterated the policy that China would support public ownership while offering “unswerving” support to non-state sectors.

By  Zhou Xin  Nectar Gan Catherine Wong,  South China Morning Post

China needs strong core leadership: media survey

‘Transitional period demands strong administration’

Chinese people believe that a strong central leadership is indispensable for the rise of the country, and highly anticipate further confirmation of the role of the core leadership by President Xi Jinping during this period of historic significance, according to a poll recently released by a magazine affiliated with the People's Daily.

The survey, conducted by the People's Tribune, a magazine affiliated with the newspaper, through questionnaires, face-to-face and telephone interviews, as well as online polls between April 15 and September 8, interviewed 15,596 people living in cities and rural areas. The survey results were released earlier this month.

The main findings were that a strong central leadership as well as a pioneering figure is especially critical for a rising world power, and that as president and general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, Xi, with full leadership qualities, is supported whole-heartedly by a wide range of officials and people.

To the question of why a country in a transitional period needs a strong central leadership, most respondents strongly agreed that it is vital to safeguard a country's sovereignty and national security, putting the approval rate at 4.50, on a 5-point scale from disagree to complete approval, the survey found. This is followed by the number of respondents who think that core leadership is as important to "guide the nation toward a lofty goal" or that it was "particularly important for a populous and multi-ethnic country."

This year, the necessity for strong leadership has been a theme expounded by many media organizations.

The Guangming Daily on October 9 published a commentary by Fan Dezhi, a senior official at the Party History Research Center of the CPC Central Committee, which asserted that "A strong core leadership is needed more than ever before to achieve the great dream of the renewal of the Chinese nation."

To promote the core leadership of the Party, the priority is to "conform with the CPC Central Committee, with General Secretary Xi Jinping as well as with the Party's theories, guidelines, principles and policies," read a commentary in the Qiushi Journal in March, the flagship magazine of the CPC Central Committee.

Social and political stability, which can be realized by a potent government backed by public support, is the prerequisite for a smooth transition and reform of any country, said Zhi Zhenfeng, a legal expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"Both the rise of great Western powers and the rapid development of developing countries needed a strong core leadership and powerful government," Zhuang Deshui, deputy director of the Research Center for Government Integrity-Building at Peking University, told the Global Times.

Zhuang cited the examples of Otto von Bismarck who unified Germany in the 19th century and the strong Japanese government that carried out Meiji Restoration to bring about its modernization and Westernization.

China should unwaveringly uphold the CPC's leadership if it hopes to realize a stable and sustainable development, Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, said in March, adding that everyone should conform to the ideology and actions of the CPC Central Committee with Xi as general secretary.

"Since China faces complicated situations in different areas, coupled with a huge population, only a strong core leadership is able to coordinate the interests of different groups while taking full account of the majority of its nationals," Zhuang noted.

Zhi said a lack of consciousness of "the core" has made a few local officials and Party members fail to follow or strictly implement the policies issued by the CPC Central Committee.

Charismatic leadership

The People's Tribune poll found that the Chinese people are drawn to the charisma of Xi. The survey found that most respondents believe that Xi has leadership qualities, namely "strategic willpower with full confidence," "bravery to tackle problems head-on" and "intelligence to cure both the symptoms and root causes of problems." The list is rounded out by "top-level design with wisdom and philosophy" and "personal charisma to set an example for others."

When asked which trait is essential for a core leadership to give full play in reality, 79.13 percent of those surveyed said a "leader of integrity and ability."

In addition, the poll results showed that people from all walks of life highly anticipate the further confirmation of Xi's role as the core of the leadership.

Without releasing the specific data, the survey found that most respondents believe that officials that lacked "the consciousness of the core" would go astray and lose their sense of responsibility or discipline.

"Only by establishing authority in the CPC Central Committee can the Party and the nation be forceful. In this sense, firmly espousing Xi as the core is a matter of direction, principle and realistic needs," the magazine quoted anonymous officials who participated in the poll.

Therefore, we should further strengthen the consciousness of the core in the Party and across the country, improve intra-Party political life and the leadership system of the Party and the State, and further confirm Xi's core role in the critical rise of China, said the survey report. - Global Times.

Xi as core long affirmed by public opinion

All Chinese know clearly that the Xi’s leadership has played a critical role in the changes in China in the past four years and the significance of the word “core” being written into the Party document. The sixth plenum is themed on strict Party governance

 

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