Xi Jinping: “Immeasurable Splendor, many Tribulations”

The following is an excerpt from Xi Jinping’s acceptance speech on March 13 after his “re-election” as State Chairman of the PRC.

It starts with some pseudo-history: Xi doesn’t explicitly place “semi-colonialism” and “semi-feudalism” into the same number of years or centuries, but whoever would like to take away the impression that everything that went wrong in China was the fault of foreign imperialists is free to do so.

^{Oh-so honored}

This has become part of building narratives in Chinese propaganda; Xi took a similar approach when “retelling” the history of the Korean War. in 2020. The guise of innocence in international relations isn’t as much about openly lying, but to leave any aspects out of the stories that might be inconvenient.

Main Link:

Speech at the first session of the 14th National People’s Congress (在第十四届全国人民代表大会第一次会议上的讲话)

Delegates!
各位代表：

This assembly has elected me Chairman of the PRC for another term. I would like to express my sincere thanks for the trust all delegates and all the country’s nationalities have placed in me!
这次大会选举我继续担任中华人民共和国主席，我对各位代表和全国各族人民的信任，表示衷心感谢！
This is my third term at the sublime position as State Chairman. The people’s trust is my main motivation for further progress, and also a heavy responsibility to sholder. I will faithfully fulfill my duties as assigned by the constitution, with the needs of the state as my mission, the people’s interests as the criteria, I will work with devotion, wholeheartedly and respectfully, and never betray the great trust of the delegates and all the country’s nationalities!
这是我第三次担任国家主席这一崇高职务。人民的信任，是我前进的最大动力，也是我肩上沉甸甸的责任。我将忠实履行宪法赋予的职责，以国家需要为使命，以人民利益为准绳，恪尽职守，竭诚奉献，绝不辜负各位代表和全国各族人民的重托！

Delegates!
各位代表！

In it’s 5,000 years of civilizational history, the Chinese nation has created immeasurable splendor, and also been through many tribulations. During modernity¹⁾, China, step by step, became a semicolonial and semifeudal society, suffering from the great powers’ bullying and humiliation, being partitioned, undergoing the chaos of war, and the bitterness of the people being in terrible situations. The Communist Party of China has, after its foundation, tightly united and led all nationalities and people of the country, gone through a century of struggle, wiped out the national humiliation, the Chinese people has become master of its own destiny, the Chinese people have welcomed the huge leap²⁾ from standing up to getting rich, from getting rich to becoming strong. The Chinese nation has taken an irreversible historical turn.
具有五千多年文明史的中华民族，在历史上创造了无数辉煌，也经历过许多磨难。近代以后，中国逐步成为半殖民地半封建社会，饱受列强欺凌、四分五裂、战乱频繁、生灵涂炭之苦。中国共产党成立之后，紧紧团结带领全国各族人民，经过百年奋斗，洗雪民族耻辱，中国人民成为自己命运的主人，中华民族迎来了从站起来、富起来到强起来的伟大飞跃，中华民族伟大复兴进入了不可逆转的历史进程。

From now on to this mid-century, comprehensively building a strong, modern socialist country and promoting the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is the entire party’s, the entire country’s and the entire people’s central duty. The relay baton of building a strong country and of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese people has been assigned to us by history. In accordance with the party’s 20th National Congress’s srategic arrangements, we will coordinate and promote the general concept of the “Integration of the Five Dimensions”, coordinate the concept of the “Four Comprehensives”, accelerate the construction of Chinese-style modernization, unite and struggle, pioneer and innovate, and make contributions on the new journey that live up to the era, to history, to the people’s achievements, so as to promote the construction of a strong country and to the national rejuvenation!
从现在起到本世纪中叶，全面建成社会主义现代化强国、全面推进中华民族伟大复兴，是全党全国人民的中心任务。强国建设、民族复兴的接力棒，历史地落在我们这一代人身上。我们要按照党的二十大的战略部署，坚持统筹推进“五位一体”总体布局、协调推进“四个全面”战略布局，加快推进中国式现代化建设，团结奋斗，开拓创新，在新征程上作出无负时代、无负历史、无负人民的业绩，为推进强国建设、民族复兴作出我们这一代人的应有贡献！

[…]

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Notes

1)	Seems this could be translated as after modernity, but that wouldn’t make sense to me because 近代 – among Chinese, and not among Americans or Taiwanese – usually refers to the times from around 1912 and 1949. Among the latter, it would be from the late Ming dynasty to 1912.
2)	not to be confused with the “great leap forward” (see “Gasps of Admiration”, Xi’s “Resisting U.S., aiding Korea” commemorative speech, 2020)

No further Orders, Militant Greetings

All the news I’ve learned on Twitter (or elsewhere)

Source: VoK. 75th founding anniversary of the “Korean People’s Army” – see last item of this blog for details
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Sunday, Febr 5, 2023	“While the three major indicators of production, consumption and investment all rose for the second consecutive year, suggesting a recovery in industrial activity, the most recent monthly data suggests otherwise”, KBS World Radio reported last Sunday. The government attributed declines in the most recent industrial output comparison (month-on-month) to “slowing exports and weakened domestic recovery”.
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Sun Febr 5 / Mon 6, 2023	“A presumed weather balloon from North Korea entered South Korean airspace for a few hours” last Sunday (Febr 5), KBS World Radio reported on Monday. “The Joint Chiefs of Staff(JCS) […] instructed the frontline unit to simply keep a close eye on the balloon after assessing that it was a weather balloon, without giving further orders.”
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Monday, Febr 6, 2023	40 Taiwanese search -and-rescue workers left for Turkey on Monday night (Taiwan standard time). Interior minister Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) and foreign minister Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said that Taiwan helped in the same spirit in that Turkey had helped during the September 1999 earthquake in Taiwan.
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Tuesday, Febr 7, 2023	Communist Party of China general secretary Xi Jinping (also state chairman and central-military-commissions chairman) gave an opening speech to a Seminar for the implementation of Xi Jinping’s ideology of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era and the spirit of the party’s 20th national congress. According to Chinese television’s main evening news on Tuesday night local time, newly-joined members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and alternate members, provincial-level leading cadres as well as comrades from the democratic parties’ central committees, the all-China industrial and trade association, and others took part in the seminar.
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Tuesday, Febr 7, 2023	The Eighth Central Military Commission of North Korea’s ruling “Workers’ Party of Korea” held its fourth expanded meeting on Monday, February 6, South Korea’s foreign radio reported on Tuesday. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un reportedly chaired the meeting and emphasized a need to “react to the current situation” and to “further improve preparedness for war” This was seen as a signal that North Korea was closely following the South Koreas and America’s strengthened extended deterrence, and react to joint South Korean and US miltary exercises, according to the South Korean radio report.
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Wed, Febr 8 / Thu, 9, 2023	North Korea held a nightly military parade on February 8, celebrating “the 75th founding anniversary of the Korean People’s Army, the revolutionary armed forces of the Workers’ Party of Korea”, North Korean foreign radio station “Voice of Korea” reported. Some of the 150 photos published by VoK also featured North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter.  Kim Jong Un sent militant greetings*) to the life guardsmen taking part in the parade, says VoK.

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Notes

^*) 战斗问候 in VoK’s Chinese version
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The State of Xi – Dented, but Dominant?

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Friday nights in Sanlitun are reportedly busy:

Increasing numbers of people are going around maskless too. Fear of the virus is receding in Beijing, at least among the young. Most have already been infected anyway.

Reactions abroad aren’t that sanguine: those who dare to, introduce controls.Passengers arriving in Taiwan from China have had to undergo nucleic acid tests since Wednesday (December 28), South Korea has announced restrictions on visa for Chinese travellers until the end of January, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and France have introduced restrictions or are about to do so, but Germany is too busy working on its national security strategy – not least because the federal states demand to participate in its definition.
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The State of Xi

The Chinese leadership, according to Xi Jinping at the Chinese People’s Consultative Conference’s tea meeting on Friday, has reason to celebrate:

We have solemnly celebrated the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to the motherland, resolutely fought against “Taiwan independence” splittist behavior and foreign forces’ interference. We have continued to promote great-power diplomacy with Chinese characteristics and maintained overall stability within the general external environment. These successes haven’t been easy to achieve. They are the fruits of united struggle by the entire party, the entire army, the entire nation’s nationalities – the fruits of tenacious struggle.
我们隆重庆祝香港回归祖国25周年。我们对“台独”分裂行径和外部势力干涉进行坚决斗争。我们继续推进中国特色大国外交，维护外部环境总体稳定。这些成绩来之不易，是全党全军全国各族人民团结奋斗、顽强拼搏的结果。

Let’s have some tea together

Deng Yuguan, a regular columnist for the Chinese service of the “Voice of America”, believes that his (rather gloomy, apparently)  predictions of last year, concerning China and Xi Jinping’s government, have come true. Among those, China’s external environment hasn’t been favorable in 2022 (外部环境和中国面临的地缘政治让中国好起来的因素没有出现). The party leaders with Xi as the core etc. would agree: “a turbulent and unsafe environment outside China’s borders” (外部环境动荡不安，给我国经济带来的影响加深) is what they called it after their annual economic work conference on December 15 and 16.
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Deng sanctimoniously deplores that the situation now was even worse than his predictions, and that “Xi’s image has quickly fallen from his divine pedestal” (习的形象从高高在上的神坛快速跌落). That said, it’s just Xi’s image, not the guy himself yet, and some of the examples Deng cites to prove the great helmsman’s decline are as evil as you’d expect, but, by Chinese standards, also rather trivial: the Li Tiantian “incident” (李田田事件[编辑]), tennis star Peng Shuai’s sexual-assault allegations against Zhang Gaoli and her disappearance, and the “Xuzhou chained woman incident”. Then Deng moves to China’s lockdown policies, and to what turned out to be “the failure to fight the pandemic” (抗疫的失败对习的权威是巨大打击). Those, of course, are real blunders, but his conclusions may still be somewhat far-reaching, concerning Xi’s reign.
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There had been some ups and downs already, such as the trade standoff with the Trump administration, but every time, Xi had been able to defend his status – most recently by stopping the spread of Covid within China, successfuly sold as Chinese victories over the West to the Chinese public (although only for a while, until people lost patience), writes Deng.
He doesn’t go as far as to suggest that Xi will be toppled, but

Now, he has started his third term at the 20th party national congress with a unified Xi team, but the failure to fight the pandemic – while it apparently hasn’t hurt his grip on power – has seen him crossing the peak of his power and authority, and entering a downward spiral.
如今，他虽然在二十大如愿以偿开启第三任期，并建立了一个清一色的习氏班子，抗疫的失败看起来并未动摇他对权力的绝对掌控，可从毛的案例来看，他跨过了权力和权威的巅峰期，进入下行通道。

Comparing Xi’s situation with Mao’s after the latter’s numerous setbacks, Deng doubts that Xi would be able to overthrow everything that opposes him and restore his power and authority that way. On the other hand, while weakened, he isn’t likely to be sidelined either, writes Deng, and so much for the rendition of his VoA column.
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If the U.S.-led policy on semi-conductor restrictions on China should turn out to be successful, Xi’s greatest mistake will probably turn out to be China’s “more assertive” role after 2012. The “wolf-warrior diplomacy” was utterly useless (except for those attacked by it – Sweden, Lithuania, South Korea and many other countries have gained new insights on what a “powerful” China will do, and the U.S. seems to have gained some insights, too.  Much of the “turbulent and unsafe environment outside China’s borders” (CPC speak, see above) is a world made by China itself. Beijing hasn’t been powerful enough (yet) to shape the world in a way to its liking, but they’ve successfully left unpleasant turds all through the five continents.
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Meantime, not all the news is bad for Beijing.

Tired of a too-strong and newly weaponized greenback, some of the world’s biggest economies are exploring ways to circumvent the US currency,

notes a signed Bloomberg article. That’s not to say that the dollar is going to hell in a basket, according to the authors, but both sanctions and “[t]he he US currency’s rampant gains have [..] made Asian officials more aggressive in their attempts at diversification“.

So, let’s think of the dollars future reign (for whatever period) as something like Xi Jinping’s reign over China (according to Deng’s VoA column): possibly somewhat dented, but dominant all the same.

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Related

新年茶话会，习近平发表重要讲话, CPBS, Dec 31, 2022
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Central Asia: Russia’s Restive “Bulk” of Allies

Links within blockquotes added during translation.

In another bid to prove his president’s claim to the global public that you can’t isolate Russia, Russian foreign minister Lavrov wrote in a signed article for Rossiyskaya Gazeta that Russia could see its trade with Central Asia growing dynamically despite “the turbulent geopolitical situation”, and that “the bulk” of Central Asian countries were Russia’s allies.

There’s probably a need to emphasize that, although the Russian government-owned Rossiyskaya Gazeta may not be an ideal communication channel to the Central Asian public.

That was long ago: a QSL card
from Radio Tashkent, December 1985

But then, security issues aren’t only Russia’s issue. Its allied “bulk” is worried about Moscow’s miltary rampage in Ukraine, and China’s relations with Central Asia may become affected, too.

“Due to its size and geography, China’s role [in Central Asia] will grow [following the war], but the SCO won’t have many success stories to point to”,

RFA/RL quotes Temur Umarov, a fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center.

“Beijing is also now seen as a supporter of Russia and as a country that isn’t doing much to restrain Moscow when many [SCO members] are seeing it as a potential threat.”

Pengpai News (“The Paper”, Shanghai), by no means a natural critic of Russia, suggested in an article on April 25 that

Since Russia started its “special military operation” againly been upped further, and their immediate and long-term political and economic effects are slowly emerging. In the five Central Asian countries that once belonged to the Soviet region, the Russian-Ukrainian state of affairs has given rise to worries, with their approach becoming more and more subtle.

在刚刚经历过“一月政变”的哈萨克斯坦，从总统托卡耶夫到外交部长和国防部长都在公开表态中与莫斯科保持了一定的距离。哈官方承诺不会成为帮助俄罗斯规避西方制裁的工具，并接待了专程到访的美国副国务卿，两国还宣布拟扩大高水平战略伙伴关系。

Kazakhstan’s regime, despite Russian military dispatches to quell demonstrations against the Tokayev regime only weeks earlier,

officially promised not to become a tool that would help Russia in evading the West’s sanctions, and received a US deputy secretary of state’s special visit. The two countries announced that they would broaden their high-level strategic partnership.

哈官方承诺不会成为帮助俄罗斯规避西方制裁的工具，并接待了专程到访的美国副国务卿，两国还宣布拟扩大高水平战略伙伴关系。

Timur Suleimenov, first deputy chief of Kazakhstan’s Executive Office, is quoted by Pengpai News as saying that his country, while a member of the Eurasian Economic Union,

we are also a member of the international community. We do not want America and the European Union to impose secondary sanctions on Kazakhstan, therefore we have to prove to our European partners that Kazakhstan will not become a tool for Russia to evade America’s and the EU’s sanctions. We will abide by the sanctions.”

“虽然我们和俄罗斯、白俄罗斯一样，是欧亚经济联盟成员，但我们也是国际社会的一员，我们不希望美国和欧盟对哈萨克斯坦实施二级制裁，因此我们必须向欧洲的伙伴证明，哈萨克斯坦不会成为俄罗斯规避美国和欧盟制裁的工具。我们将遵守制裁。”

Kazakhstan’s president, having just been protected from his own people by Russian troops,

presented, in his State of the Nation address on March 16, an entire set of reform plans, and acknowledged frankly that the Russian-Ukrainian state of affairs had made the importance of national independence obvious. He promised to carry out comprehensive political reform.

托卡耶夫在最近一次于3月16日所作的国情咨文中拿出了一整套改革方案，他坦言眼前的俄乌局势凸显了国家独立重要性，并承诺进行全面政治改革。

Uzbekistan is quoted as even telling Russia to stop its “aggressive” behavior (停止“侵略”行为). To find a peaceful solution, Uzbekistan’s foreign minister Abdulaziz Kamilov is quoted,

“We support the search for a peaceful solution to this state of affairs, and a solution to this conflict by political and diplomatic means”. For this, “(Russia) must first end military activity and its invasion.”

“我们支持寻求和平解决这一局势，并通过政治和外交手段解决这一冲突”。为此，“（俄罗斯）首先必须结束军事活动和侵略”。

Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan who are more dependent on Russia, and who have Russian military bases within their borders, kept “prudently silent” after the launch of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. To offset the return of many of its migrant workers from Russia, however, Kyrgyzstan negotiated with South Korea and Turkey, apparently to find work for its citizens there, and asked Turkey to ease visa restrictions on migrant workers.

The fallout, according to Pengpai News, is there: Both Kazakhtan and Uzbekistan are drawing closer to America. Even Russians flee to Uzbekistan, the Pengpai article says, to avoid military service in Russia. And Uzbek nationals have been warned by their government that they could face five years in prison if they serve in Russia’s military.

“In a different World”

First of all, don’t worry. The world hasn’t really changed that much, but the above is a quote. As far as I’m concerned, we’ll be in a different world when the Bundestag, Germany’s federal parliament, passes a property tax to finance the rebuilding of our army, the Bundeswehr.

Also, the Chinese foreign minister says that “the cold war has long gone”.

Chinese worries (“Guanchazhe”, Shanghai, Febr 26):
Is the crying man really pro-Kiev,
rather than pro-Russian?
Are the Western media lying again?

But Twitter would be a useless distraction if I didn’t keep an account of what I learn there. So here goes.

February 22	Demonstration in Prague
Thousands of people gather on Prague’s Wenceslas Squareshow their solidarity with the Ukrainian people, Radio Prague, the Czech Republic’s foreign radio station, reports the following day. Ukraine’s ambassador Yevhen Perebyinis thanks them, and says that ” it really means a lot to us because we see that we are not alone.”
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February 23	“No plans to leave Kiev”
Andreas Umland, a political scientist who has lived in Kiev for about two decades, is currently in Germany, but plans to return to Kiev on Saturday, he says in an interview with Polish foreign radio’s German service, broadcast on February 23. He doesn’t expect an attack on Kiev.
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February 23	“China is watching us”
Latvia’s defense minister Artis Pabriks tells a TV station that “if we weren’t members of NATO and also of the EU, we would definitely be in the positon of Ukraine now – I can guarantee that,” and that “we have nowhere to retreat, because others are watching us. China is watching us.”
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February 23	“Nixon’s visit changed the world”
China is certainly watching the U.S. China policy. At 22:05 local time, party-affiliated tabloid “Huanqiu Shibao” publishes an editorial titled “Washington must not fall back from Nixon’s diplomatic legacy”, and quotes Nixon himself as referring to his visit, from February 21 to 28, 1972, as “world-changing”. The editorial speaks about “overall stability” in Sino-U.S. relations despites “ups and downs”, about “mutual benefit”, and “double-win”. 此后50年，中美关系虽然历经风雨但保持了总体稳定，成就了两个大国长达半个世纪的互利共赢。.It wasn’t true, “Huanqiu Shibao” argues, that only the USSR,considered an enemy by both at the time, had made Nixon’s initiative possible, as that alone couldn’t explain the comprehensive and rapid development, nor the amazing vitality that kept erupting once the ice between China and the U.S. had been broken. Those “old stubborns” who had “once opposed Nixon” seemed to be coming back to life, “Huanqiu Shibao” deplores. 当年反对尼克松的老顽固们仿佛纷纷复活了，历史和美国兜了一个大圈子。
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February 23	Own nukes for South Korea?
Seven out of ten citizens support the idea, reports South Korea’s foreign radio station KBS World, citing a Hankook Research survey. While tensions around Ukraine are rapidly rising in Europe, North Korea, of course, keeps testing missiles which run as a kind of background noise to South Koreans daily routine.Asked froom where they see the greatest threats to South Korea now, most respondent name North Korea,followed by China, Japan, and the U.S.. Asked which country would be the gravest threat in ten years, 56 percent name China.
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February 24	“Everything suggests that this is a large-scale invasion”
Austrian Radio’s Moscow correspondent states that “everything suggests that this is a large-scale invasion” (“alles deutet auf eine groß angelegte Invasion hin”). Austrian radio’s coverage in general follows this diction.
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February 24	Czech arms industry prepared to supply Ukraine
The Czech Republic’s arms industry is prepared to supply Ukraine with military material if the Czech government makes a decision in favor of that, Radio Prague’s German service quotes Jiří Hynek, chairman of the country’s arms industry association.
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February 24	“Pleasantries are no strategy”
Christoph Heusgen, a former foreign-policy and security-policy advisor who served Chancellor Merkel from 2005 to 2017, says that while it had been right to keep channels with Moscow open, they had always underestimated Putin’s brutality and unscrupulousness. That’s how Radio Poland’s German service quotes Heusgen in their daily press review.
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February 24/25	South Korea and Taiwan will join sanctions
Both South Korea and China announce that they will join international sanctions against Russia. South Korea’s foreign ministry says on Febr 24 that “South Korea, as a responsible member of the international community, will support and participate in international efforts, including economic sanctions, aimed at curbing Russia’s encroachment and resolving the situation peacefully.” On February 25, in a speech at National Cheng Kung University in Tainan, announces Taiwan’s participation in the sanctions, saying that “Taiwan is ready to do anything that might help achieve a peaceful resolution to the conflict”.
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February 24	Finland and Sweden
“It is important for Finland and Sweden to be involved in the Nato meeting, due to the situation in the Baltic Sea region, for example,” Yleisradio’s (Finland) English website quotes its country’s foreign minister, Pekka Haavisto. He reportedly also says that “we consider it important that Nato continues its open-door policy and that we can apply for membership if we wish.”
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February 24	Taiwanese citizens in Ukraine
There are still 33 Taiwanese citizens in Ukraine, reports Radio Taiwan International’s German service, despites requests from the Taiwan government to leave the country.
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February 24/25	Vietnam’s reaction
Vietnam’s foreign radio station’s foreign language programs are focused on the development of a strategic partnership with Singapore where state president Nguyen Xuan Phuc is visiting. There is a notice from a spokesperson of Vietnam’s foreign ministry however, on February 24, suggesting that substantial numbers of Vietnamese citizens are in Ukraine, and offering them help if needed.
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I’ve left the well-known newsitems (SWIFT cuts, arms supplies to Ukraine from other European countries, Nordstream 2 etc. out because they are well known. Think of this blogpost as a diary entry.

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Related

Sweden’s Donation, FoarP, Febr 27, 2022
No Quadriga for Nobody, July 18, 2011

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Huanqiu Shibao: G7 London Meeting, small-circled cliques and factions

As he said before, it’s you, not us

The following is a translation of an article by Huanqiu Shibao online, published on Tuesday (May 4). Huanqiu’s translations from English do not necessarily reflect what the persons quoted there actually said.

The Reuters article referred to by Huanqiu Shibao can be found here.

Main Link: Evoking the China-Russia threat once again? (又渲染中俄威胁)

Bian Zihao, Huanqiu Online reporter — Hyping another Chinese-Russian threat? The G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Britain’s capital London opened on May 3. According to Reuters, Britain will seek decisive action from the G7 member states to respond to global threats. Reuters says that these so-called “global threats” include China and Russia.

【环球网报道 记者 边子豪】又炒作中俄威胁？七国集团外长会3日在英国首都伦敦开幕，据路透社报道，英国4日将寻求与G7成员国采取果断行动以应对全球威胁。路透社称，上述所谓“全球威胁”包括中国和俄罗斯。

As it holds the G7’s rotating chairmanship this year, Britain also invited Australia’s, India ‘s , South Africa ‘s and South Korea ‘s foreign ministers this week. Reuters says that this is the first time in two years that G7 representatives talk face-to-face and that this is seen as an opportunity to “strengthening support for the international rules-based system.

作为今年七国集团轮值主席国，除了G7成员国外，英国本周还邀请了澳大利亚、印度、南非和韩国等国外长。路透社说，本次会谈是近两年来七国集团代表首次举行面对面会议，被英方视为“加强支持基于规则的国际体系的机会”。

Reuters also quoted Britain’s wording, an evocation of the so-called “China-Russia threat”, saying that China’s economic influence and Russia’s “evil activities” could break that system.

此外，路透社还引述英方说法，渲染所谓“中俄威胁”说，中国的经济影响力和俄罗斯的“恶意活动”可能会破坏上述体系。

The report also mentioned that on May 3 local time, U.S. secretary of state Blinken, after meeting British forign secretary Raab, called for the building of an international alliance. He claimed that although there was no intention to “contain China”, there was a need to make sure that China “acted in accordance with the rules”. In a program broadcast by Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), Blinken explained his position similarly. He said there, “our goal isn’t to contain China, not to block China, not to inhibit China. (But) it is the protection of order-based rules to which China currently raises challenges …”

报道还提到，当地时间5月3日，在与英国外交大臣拉布会面后，美国国务卿布林肯呼吁组建一个全球联盟，他宣称尽管不想“遏制中国”，但要确保中国“按规则行事”。 而在5月2日哥伦比亚广播公司（CBS）播出的一档节目中，布林肯也曾有过相似表态。当时他说：“我们的目的不是遏制中国，不是阻止中国，不是压制中国。（而）是为了维护基于秩序的规则，（但）中国正在对（这些规则）提出挑战……”

The foreign ministers’ meeting is seen as a warm-up for the G7 summit in June. The G7 consists of Britain, America, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan. Russia joined as the eighth country in 1997. In 2014, after the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis, Russia was excluded.

本次外长会被视为将于6月在英国举行的七国集团峰会的预热。七国集团由英国、美国、法国、德国、意大利、加拿大和日本组成，俄罗斯1997年加入后成为八国集团。2014年乌克兰危机爆发以后，俄罗斯被排除在外。

In reality, concerning talk about the so-called “China threat”, FMPRC spokesman Zao Lijian has previously emphasized that China adheres unswervingly to the road of peaceful development, we have never provoked a war on our own accord, and never violated an inch of another country’s territory, nor have we ever constituted a threat to any country. Facts have repeatedly proven that China has always been a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, a protector of international order, and that China’s development is an opportunity for the world.

事实上，关于所谓“中国威胁论”，中国外交部发言人赵立坚此前曾强调，中国坚定不移走和平发展道路，我们从来没有主动挑起过一场战争，也从来没有侵犯过别国一寸领土，不对任何国家构成威胁。事实一再证明中国始终是世界和平的建设者、全球发展的贡献者、国际秩序的维护者，中国的发展是世界的机遇。

Zhao Lijian said that China’s development spells the growth of global peace, that it is the woeld’s opportunity and not a challenge. China has always firmly upheld the international system with the United Nations at the core, based on international law. But that isn’t an international order defined by individual countries to protect their own interests. In the age of globalization, the destruction of international order [happens] for real when lines are drawn along ideology and when countries form small-circled cliques and factions. In the end, this is what really doesn’t enjoy popular support and what doesn’t provide a way out.

赵立坚说，中国的发展是世界和平力量的增长，是世界的机遇而非挑战。中方始终坚定维护的是以联合国为核心的国际体系和以国际法为基础的国际秩序，而不是个别国家为维护自身霸权所定义的国际秩序。在全球化时代，以意识形态划线，拉帮结派，搞针对特定国家的小圈子才是对国际秩序的破坏。这终究是不得人心的，也是没有出路的。

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Related

Wolf Warrior Diplomacy on Vacation, Aug 9, 2020
An unprecedented common cause, June 7, 2013
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Before you define your next China policy, learn from Lu Xun

Chinese nationalism has had its share of wishful thinking. But in recent decades, the West has fallen into similar traps, although its humiliations – the 2008 financial crisis and the flat-footed reaction of most Western countries to the Covid-19 pandemic – have been comparatively minor humiliations.

True story

But humiliations they have been, and nothing shows this more clearly than the way some of the West’s governments have reacted to China’s handling of the pandemic. To quote one of the more civil criticisms  – by Iain Duncan Smith, a former leader of the United Kingdom’s Conservative Party -, “the world would have had more time to prepare for the pandemic if Chinese leaders had been more forthcoming”. No worries, though, he switched into another gear right away:

For too long, nations have lamely kowtowed to China in the desperate hope of winning trade deals. Once we get clear of this terrible pandemic it is imperative that we all rethink that relationship,” he said.

Politics, that much is true, must never let a crisis go waste, and there are reasons to “rethink” the West’s, and possibly the world’s, relationship with China.

But China only bears a limited share of responsibility for this global crisis. If people in the West don’t understand that, they don’t understand their own political class.

We don’t need to reconsider our relationship with China because its role in the pandemic was questionable.

We must reconsider our relationship with China because we must not tolerate the way Chinese authorities treat Chinese citizens. Human rights violations often hit “national minorities” like Tibetans or Uyghurs hardest, but the political malpractice doesn’t stop there.

We must reconsider our relationship with China because in Hong Kong, Beijing has shown complete disregard for the rule of law, within Hong Kong’s autonomy (that’s nothing new, China has never understood the concept of autonomy anyway), and complete disregard of international law.

We must reconsider our relationship with China because in the South China Sea and other international waters, China has adopted a policy of annexation.

And we must reconsider our relationship with China, because with his “Resist America, Aid Korea” speech in October, Chinese CPC secretary general and state chairman Xi Jinping has made China’s disregard for international law official, by suggesting that Maoist China’s war against the United Nations had been a “war against imperialism”.

There may be some reason to believe that many within the CPC believe that the speech has been a non-starter, because they haven’t dwelled too much on it in the media since, and because the faces of many of the leaders during Xi’s speech appeared to speak volumes. But there is no reason to believe that Xi’s speech wasn’t an honest attempt at rewriting history, at the expense of truth. This attempt must be taken seriously.

All that said, when reconsidering our relationship with China, we must not walk into the Ah-Q trap. This is something we might learn from China indeed: the way Chinese intellectuals used to be self-critical was part of China’s more recent successes, just as China’s more recent pompousness and triumphalism may earn it serious setbacks.

The same is true for us, and especially for those who consider themselves our “elites”. For decades, China has been described as an opportunity too big to miss, and to justify throwing valuable Western-made technology at it. To make this foreign-trade salad more palatable to the general public (and arguably also to the propagandists themselves), China-trade advocates added that trade and engagement with China would lead to improvements in the country’s human rights practice, or its economic and social system.

“The party is over,” a long-forgotten “expert” crowed in the 1990s, in a huge, long-forgotten book. Others suggested that the CPC might become a “social-democratic” party. But nobody seemed to ask the CPC people if they had any such intentions, at least not seriously. And if they did, they only heard the answers they wanted to hear.

There was never a doubt that China’s political system is a dictatorship. And when that dictatorship began to succeed economically and technogically, quite a number of Western intellectuals, and especially business people, began to admire that dictatorship:

I have fantasized–don’t get me wrong–but that what if we could just be China for a day? I mean, just, just, just one day. You know, I mean, where we could actually, you know, authorize the right solutions, and I do think there is a sense of that, on, on everything from the economy to environment. I don’t want to be China for a second, OK, I want my democracy to work with the same authority, focus and stick-to-itiveness. But right now we have a system that can only produce suboptimal solutions.

Don’t get me wrong either. I don’t think Thomas Friedman argued in favor of the introduction of authoritarianism, let alone totalitarianism. But he didn’t apply any logic – and he’s no exception among Western intellectuals. He’s full of ideas and without a plan when it comes to these issues.

Because if we could be China for one day, we could be China every day. And then we would be the kind of society that we now want to reconsider our relationship with. (OK, maybe not Friedman.)

But the worst thing is to think of ourselves as Santa. The guys who only want the best for China, etc.. I’m pretty sure that half of my fellow Germans, in as far as they have misgivings about China, don’t worry about China’s human rights record. They worry about its economic clout, and the preparedness of a lot of Chinese people to work harder, for less income, then we would.

That’s legitimate self-interest, but nobody should confuse this interest with something like international solidarity. To do that, to suggest that “we are nice, we are generous, we’ve done everything for them, and they are bloody ingrats” is typical Ah-Q thought.

No, guys. Our bosses threw our technology at China, technology developed with support of public institutions we paid our taxes for. That’s what our bosses usually do. Sometimes at the Chinese, sometimes at other promising markets. But as our bosses’ greed for profits from China knew no limits, they fooled themselves, too. Occasionally, they complained once it went wrong. But this wasn’t “Chinese” greed – they only picked up what was thrown at them. And even if they never told us that they would make good use of it, with or against the law, daily practice could have shown us in a year that this transactional model wouldn’t work – at least not for the West.

China – not just the CPC, but most of the Chinese people – have always told us that their rightful global place was at the pole position.

They have always told us that they would “re-take” Taiwan, once they had the power to do so.

Every bloke in the street told us that Hong Kong was no stuff to negotiate about – it had been taken by the imperialists, and had to be retaken by China. Besides, those Hong Kongers shouldn’t think of themselves as “special”. Yadayada.

We played along, one year after another. We still do. I’m afraid we’ll continue to do so. Our governments, for example, keep participating in the diplomatic charade to this day that, for some incomprehensible reasons (depending on what individual Western nation’s memoranda with Beijing have made up out of thin air), Taiwan wouldn’t be quite a sovereign country.

In short: it was hard to get China wrong, but we managed anyway. And if we don’t stop suggesting that our intentions in this relationship had always been honest, we won’t get our next China policy right either.

To reshape our relationship with China, let’s learn from Lu Xun first.

Xi Jinping’s “Resisting U.S.” Speech (4): Gasps of Admiration

The following is the 4th and last part of my translation. Links within blockquotes added during translation.

« Part 3

Comrades and friends!

同志們、朋友們！

In the 60 years since the war to resist america and aid Korea, unprecedented historic and huge changes have taken place under the CPC’s strong leadership, socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, the Chinese nation has welcomed the huge leap forward^*) from standing up to getting rich, from getting rich to becoming strong.

抗美援朝戰爭勝利60多年來，在中國共産黨堅強領導下，中國發生了前所未有的歷史巨變，中國特色社會主義進入了新時代，中華民族迎來了從站起來、富起來到強起來的偉大飛躍。

Today, we stand at the historic confluence of the “Two Centenaries”, with the establishment of a moderately prosperous society in sight, and the shining perspective of a socialist modern country. The road ahead won’t be easy. We must engrave into our memory the hardships and great victory of the war to resist the U.S. and to aid Korea, the daring struggle, the improvement through struggle, the advancement despite difficulties, the tenacious movement ahead. We must continuously push forward toward the great cause of the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

今天，我們正站在實現“兩個一百年”奮鬥目標的歷史交匯點上，全面建成小康社會勝利在望，全面建設社會主義現代化國家前景光明。前進道路不會一帆風順。我們要銘記抗美援朝戰爭的艱辛歷程和偉大勝利，敢于鬥爭、善于鬥爭，知難而進、堅韌向前，把新時代中國特色社會主義偉大事業不斷推向前進。

To engrave into our memories the great victory and to push the great cause, we must uphold the CPC’s leadership, and with the party, forge even greater strength. The victory in the war to resist the U.S. and to aid Korea proved once again that there is no political force that would be a match to the CPC which struggles for the national rejuvenation, the people’s happiness, not hesitating to spill blood, sacrifices its life, doesn’t spare any effort, and unites the masses of hundred millions, leading them continuously toward victory. As long as we don’t forget what got us started, as long as we keep our mission in mind, promote the new great project of party construction with a self-reformative spirit, constantly enhance the party’s leadership strength, its ideologically guiding role, its ability to organize the masses, the power to rally support from within society, the party will always be the most reliable and strongest backbone of the Chinese people!

銘記偉大勝利，推進偉大事業，必須堅持中國共産黨領導，把黨鍛造得更加堅強有力。抗美援朝戰爭偉大勝利再次證明，沒有任何一支政治力量能像中國共産黨這樣，為了民族復興、人民幸福，不惜流血犧牲，不懈努力奮鬥，團結凝聚億萬群眾不斷走向勝利。只要我們不忘初心、牢記使命，以自我革命精神全面推進黨的建設新的偉大工程，不斷增強黨的政治領導力、思想引領力、群眾組織力、社會號召力，就一定能夠使黨始終成為中國人民最可靠、最堅強的主心骨！

To engrave into our memories the great victory and to advance the great cause, we must adhere to putting the people first, serving the people and relying on the people in all matters. History is created by the people. The power of the Communist Party of China, the power of the people’s military forces has its foundations among the people. We must persevere with the fundamental objective of serving the people with heart and soul, gain advantages for the people, seek the people’s profit, do our duty for the people, assume responsibility for the people, with the people’s yearning for a better future as the unswerving goal of the struggle, and always maintain the ties of flesh and blood with the masses. As long as we adhere to the people’s position and the people’s supremacy, we will definitely arouse a force that can’t be overcome, and definitely keep writing marvelous and magnificent chapters of the great Chinese rejuvenation!

銘記偉大勝利，推進偉大事業，必須堅持以人民為中心，一切為了人民、一切依靠人民。歷史是人民創造的。中國共産黨的力量，人民軍隊的力量，根基在人民。我們要堅持全心全意為人民服務的根本宗旨，為民謀利，為民盡責，為民擔當，把人民對美好生活的向往作為始終不渝的奮鬥目標，始終保持黨同人民群眾的血肉聯係。只要我們始終堅持人民立場、人民至上，就一定能夠激發出無往而不勝的強大力量，就一定能夠不斷書寫中華民族偉大復興的精彩華章！

To engrave into our memories the great victory and to advance the great cause, we must uphold and promote economic and social development, and continuously expand our country’s comprehensive national power. Those who fall behind will be beaten, and only development can lead to self-strengthening. Ever since New China was founded over seventy years ago, our country has spent decades to complete what developed countries did in centuries, and created a development miracle that caught global attention. Currently, our country is entering a new stage of development, facing new opportunities and challenges. As long as we plan and promote the integration of the five dimensions as a whole, coordinate and promote the “four comprehensives‘” strategy, unswervingly implement the new development concept, and build a new development pattern, we can certainly achieve development of a higher quality which is more efficient, fairer, more sustainable and safer, making the world gasp in admiration!

銘記偉大勝利，推進偉大事業，必須堅持推進經濟社會發展，不斷壯大我國綜合國力。落後就要挨打，發展才能自強。新中國成立70多年來，我國用幾十年時間走完了發達國家幾百年走過的發展歷程，創造了舉世矚目的發展奇跡。當前，我國將進入新發展階段，面對新機遇新挑戰，只要我們統籌推進“五位一體”總體布局、協調推進“四個全面”戰略布局，堅定不移貫徹新發展理念，構建新發展格局，就一定能夠實現更高質量、更有效率、更加公平、更可持續、更為安全的發展，不斷創造讓世界驚嘆的更大奇跡！

To engrave into our memories the great victory and to advance the great cause, we must accelerate the promotion of national defense and military modernization, and comprehensively build the People’s Army into a globally front-ranking army. Without a strong army, there can be no strong motherland. To uphold and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics, development and security must be planned as a whole. The country must be made wealthy, and the army must be made strong. The party of the new era‘s ideology to strengthen the army must be implemented, the military thrust of the new era must be implemented, the party’s absolute leadership over the People’s Army be persevered with without the slightest sway, the army be politically built, the army be strengthened through reform, through science, through talent, and the army must be ruled by law, its defense of the country’s sovereignty be comprehensively improved, the benefits of its strategic abilities be developed [questionable translation – JR], so as to better fulfill the People’s Army’s mission and duties in the new era. As long as we we keep up with the times in strengthening national defense and building the army, progress and stride forward in accordance with the party’s goals for strengthening the army, it will certainly be able to provide even stronger strategic support for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation!

銘記偉大勝利，推進偉大事業，必須加快推進國防和軍隊現代化，把人民軍隊全面建成世界一流軍隊。沒有一支強大的軍隊，就不可能有強大的祖國。堅持和發展中國特色社會主義，必須統籌發展和安全、富國和強軍。要貫徹新時代黨的強軍思想，貫徹新時代軍事戰略方針，毫不動搖堅持黨對人民軍隊的絕對領導，堅持政治建軍、改革強軍、科技強軍、人才強軍、依法治軍，全面提高捍衛國家主權、安全、發展利益的戰略能力，更好履行新時代人民軍隊使命任務。只要我們與時俱進加強國防和軍隊建設，向著黨在新時代的強軍目標闊步前行，就一定能夠為實現中華民族偉大復興提供更為堅強的戰略支撐！

To engrave into our memories the great victory and to advance the great cause, we must protect global peace and justice and promote the building of a common-destiny community of mankind. The Chinese nation has always upheld the concept of “close and fair to your neighbor”. As a major responsible country, China holds fast to all of mankind’s values of peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom, perseveres with the comprehensive governance concept of joint discussion, joint construction and shared benefit. China unswervingly follows the road of peaceful development, cooperative development and common development. As long as we adhere to the road of peaceful development and promote the building of a common-destiny community of mankind together with all countries and peoples, we will certainly invite mankind’s beautiful future of peace and development!

銘記偉大勝利，推進偉大事業，必須維護世界和平和正義，推動構建人類命運共同體。中華民族歷來秉持“親仁善鄰”的理念。作為負責任大國，中國堅守和平、發展、公平、正義、民主、自由的全人類共同價值，堅持共商共建共享的全球治理觀，堅定不移走和平發展、開放發展、合作發展、共同發展道路。只要堅持走和平發展道路，同各國人民一道推動構建人類命運共同體，就一定能夠迎來人類和平與發展的美好未來！

Comrades and friends!

同志們、朋友們！

The world belongs to all the people of the world, the problems and challenges the world is facing require the collaboration of the people from all countries, a search for solutions hand in hand, and only mutually beneficial cooperation is the word’s correct path. In today’s world, unilateralism, protectionism and extreme egoism absolutely don’t work! No continuation in one’s own ways, as the only one who deserves to be honored, no way and behavior of hegemony and bullying, can work! Not only does it not work, but in the end, it will inevitably be a dead-end road!

世界是各國人民的世界，世界面臨的困難和挑戰需要各國人民同舟共濟、攜手應對，和平發展、合作共贏才是人間正道。當今世界，任何單邊主義、保護主義、極端利己主義，都是根本行不通的！任何訛詐、封鎖、極限施壓的方式，都是根本行不通的！任何我行我素、唯我獨尊的行徑，任何搞霸權、霸道、霸淩的行徑，都是根本行不通的！不僅根本行不通，最終必然是死路一條！

China has, all along, pursued a defensive national defense policy, and the Chinese military have always been a resolute force to maintain global peace. China will never proclaim itself hegemon, it won’t expand, and it will resolutely oppose hegemony and power politics. We will not sit and watch national sovereignty, security, and development interests being harmed, and we won’t allow anyone or any force to violate and break up our motherland’s sacred territory. Once such a serious situation occurs, the Chinese people will inevitably deliver a frontal assault!

中國一貫奉行防禦性國防政策，中國軍隊始終是維護世界和平的堅定力量。中國永遠不稱霸、不擴張，堅決反對霸權主義和強權政治。我們決不會坐視國家主權、安全、發展利益受損，決不會允許任何人任何勢力侵犯和分裂祖國的神聖領土。一旦發生這樣的嚴重情況，中國人民必將予以迎頭痛擊！

Comrades and friends!

同志們、朋友們！

As we are looking back to the great war to aid Korea and resist the U.S., and carrying out new great historic struggles, as we are looking forward to the shining prospect of the Chinese nation’s great rejuvenation, we are imcomparatively resolute and self-confident. Let us unite even more inseparably and closely around the party’s central committee, enhance the great spirit of aiding Korea and resisting the U.S., valiantly continue to march forward, toward the new order of comprehensively building a modern socialist country, toward bringing about China’s dream of the Chinese nation’s great of rejuvenation!

回望70年前偉大的抗美援朝戰爭，進行具有許多新的歷史特點的偉大鬥爭，瞻望中華民族偉大復興的光明前景，我們無比堅定、無比自信。讓我們更加緊密地團結在黨中央周圍，弘揚偉大抗美援朝精神，雄赳赳、氣昂昂，向著全面建設社會主義現代化國家新徵程，向著實現中華民族偉大復興的中國夢，繼續奮勇前進！

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Notes

^*) 偉大飛躍 / 伟大飞跃, not to be confused with the “Great Leap Forward” – JR
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