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)

After the End of the Beginning: Civil-Society Replacement in Hong Kong

The following is rather old news, but historical processes are mostly slow, especially when promoted and manipulated by the Communist Party of China. Being “old” or “slow” doesn’t limit their relevance.

Sometimes, however, those operations may take a leap or two, as illustrated by Didi Kirsten Tatlow, in an article published by Sinopsis, a Czech website, in August 2020. Rather than “the beginning of the end of Hong Kong’s freedoms,” she argued,

it was the end of the beginning, the culmination of a deliberate, decades-long effort by the Communist Party of China (CPC) to build a parallel political order for Hong Kong despite the content of the Sino-British agreement over Hong Kong’s future, the Joint Declaration, and Hong Kong’s post-handover constitution, the Basic Law.

The episode you’ll read about underneath is just one of many unspectular, boring and hardly noticeable steps post-imposition (of the “national security law” in Hong Kong), but it seems to give me an idea of what these small post-2020 steps look like.

^{Message from a bunker}

Main Link/source: All Walks of Life from Hong Kong society

It is about a meeting of members of all walks of life of Hong Kong society to study the spirit of the Twentieth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, i. e. the CPC’s party congress in October last year. To help them appreciate the national congress’s feats, Tam Yiu-chung (谭耀宗, a pro-Beijing politician in Hong Kong and a member of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress) as well as some committee members of the “Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference”, assisted the learners. Tam also “presided” over the meeting. Reportedly, it took place on November 17, 2022.

The Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (in short, Hong Kong Liaison Office) published a short rendition of the “study meeting”. At least one of the participants used his invitation and speech there as an embroidery for his organization’s “Facebook” page, with some impressions of his own, but the Hong Kong press, as far as they cared, apparently only republished the Liaison Office’s text.

The meeting was described as a combination of online participants (probably in various locations) and one main venue where people met in person. No mention was made of the location of that main venue.

Luo Huining (骆惠宁), the Liason Office’s director at the time (and during the introduction and implementation of the “national security law”), had been “invited” to “share his views” (作交流分享). He expressed his hope that “everyone will support the [HK SAR] chief executive and local government to govern in accordance with the law so as to make a great contribution to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and Hong Kong’s long-term stability”.

When reading the participants’ statements (all of the “civil-society” members mentioned are, of course, people who have proven to be “patriots” fit to “govern Hong Kong” in one way or another), you get the feeling that even among them, there was some unease about the director of Beijing’s crackdown agency in Hong Kong.

Ng Chau-pei (Stanley Ng), leader of the pro-Beijing Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, not only advocated trade-union positions, but also the continuation of “Hong Kong’s good traditions of forbearance, mutual support, and a focus on finding common ground” (香港包容共济、求同存异的优良传统).

Luo was apparently happy to tune his statement to an apparently nervous audience, as long as it came without opportunity costs for Beijing – he referred to the “Spirit of the Lion Rock” (狮子山精神), and to something like a “new legend” to be written “Below the Lion Rock”. 獅子山下, a Cantonese television series that started in the 1970s at RTHK and has since been continued by TVB. The soothing message: Hong Kong’s story continues. The unshakable “but”: under the successful implementation of the “one-country-two-systems” principle, which he described as a “struggle”.

Other participants quoted by the Liasion Office – probably all at the main venue – were Dr Jonathan Choi Koon-shum (蔡冠深, Chairman of The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, Hong Kong), who advertised the advantages his institution could provide, such as in form of “diversified and high-value financial services to the mainland” (为内地提供多元且高质量金融服务) and as in its capacity as “a ‘super contact’ (超级联系人) between the mainland and the world”, as well as a promoter of the Greater Bay Area.

Nancy Ip (叶玉如, head of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) and Chong Ka-bun (庄家彬, a fourty-plus years-old “Youth Activity Committee” chairman and businessman) also attended. The latter called on the youth of Hong Kong to learn from “the CPC’s exemplary difficult, revolutionary and militant development history” (以党的艰辛革命、奋斗发展历史为榜样).

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Related

Beijing law takes priority, BBC, June 28, 2022

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Xi Jinping’s Rabbit of the Year

The following are translated excerpts of China’s main evening TV news, Xinwen Lianbo, on January 20th, 2023.
Links within blockquotes added during translation.
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CCTV News (Xinwen Lianbo): The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council held a Spring Festival meeting in the Great Hall of the People in the morning of December 20th. Communist Party of China Secretary General, State Chairman and Central Military Commissions Chairman Xi Jinping gave a speech on behalf of the Central Committee and the State Council, wishing a happy new year to the entire nation’s and the entire people’s nationalities, to the compatriots in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, to the compatriots in Macau Special Administrative Region, and to the Taiwanese and overseas Chinese compatriots.
央视网消息（新闻联播）：中共中央、国务院20日上午在人民大会堂举行2023年春节团拜会。中共中央总书记、国家主席、中央军委主席习近平发表讲话，代表党中央和国务院，向全国各族人民，向香港特别行政区同胞、澳门特别行政区同胞、台湾同胞和海外侨胞拜年。

^{Absolutely rabbit: Kang Hui announces the happy gathering}

Xi Jinping emphasized that the outgoing year of the tiger’s thirty-ninth year I3 of the 60 year cycle [i. e. 2022] had been a year of utmost importance in the history of the party and the country. Facing an unusually stormy international environment and formidable duties of reform, development and stability at home, the entire party, the entire army and the entire country with all its nationalities rose to the challenges, fought unitedly, and based on the enthusiasm of the soaring tiger and the leaping dragon, dared to enter the tiger’s cave, and wrote, with fortitude and tenacity, a new chapter of socialist modernization.
习近平强调，即将过去的壬寅虎年，是党和国家发展史上极为重要的一年。面对风高浪急的国际环境和艰巨繁重的国内改革发展稳定任务，全党全军全国各族人民迎难而上、团结奋斗，凭着龙腾虎跃的干劲、敢入虎穴的闯劲、坚忍不拔的韧劲，书写了社会主义现代化建设的新篇章。

Li Keqiang presided over the meeting, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Han Zheng, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang, Li Xi and Wang Qishan attended the meeting.

李克强主持团拜会，栗战书、汪洋、李强、赵乐际、王沪宁、韩正、蔡奇、丁薛祥、李希、王岐山等出席。

[…]

Xi Jinping pointed out that in traditional Chinese culture, the Rabbit is referred to as the auspicious Jade Rabbit, standing for resourcefulness and nimbleness, honesty and kindness, serenity and beauty. The auspicious rabbit represents symbolizes the increasingly auspicious peace, abundant vitality and youthful energy of the Chinese lands. In the lunar year of the Rabbit, we hope that the entire people, and especially many young people, will leap ahead in the way of the Rabbit and exert themselves in all areas of life in a graceful manner.

习近平指出，在中华传统文化中，兔被称为瑞兔、玉兔，代表着机智敏捷、纯洁善良、平静美好。吉兔呈祥，象征中华大地愈发安宁祥和、生意盎然、朝气蓬勃。在农历兔年，希望全国人民特别是广大青年像动如脱兔般奋跃而上、飞速奔跑，在各行各业竞展风流、尽显风采。

Leading and old comrades from the Central Committee, the National People’s Congress’s Standing Committee, the State Council, theNational Supervision Commission,  the Supreme People’s Court, the People’s Republic of China Supreme People’s Procurate, and the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, attended the gathering.

中共中央、全国人大常委会、国务院、国家监委、最高人民法院、最高人民检察院、全国政协、中央军委领导同志和老同志出席团拜会。

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Related

“Open the Skies for the Young”, May 5, 2013

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China’s New Normal is the Old Decadent Normal

At some point during the past fourteen years of blogging, I began to feel bored by Chinese press reviews. They weren’t funny anymore,  or that’s how I felt about them anyway. They had been comical until spring 2012, if I trace the involuntary jokes back correctly, and then lost their luster.
But give a secretary-general of the Communist Party of China a lifetime job, and the fun will be back. A man with powers only held by Mao Zedong (and certain emperors) before him reopens the pandora box of ingratiation, sycophancy and loss of touch with reality that have made China great.

Xi speaking, cadres taking notes – CCTV evening news on July 24, 2013.

Here’s Xi Jinping’s vision of shared future, and its place in history:

Thousands of years ago, China envisaged a world where people would live in perfect harmony and be as dear to one another as family. Today, President Xi Jinping has given the world such a vision in the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind.

Don’t get me wrong: the “One-Belt-one-Road” initiative has been a fairly clever approach to foreign relations. Even cold warriors like yours truly never hesitate to learn from fascists like Xi when they get something right. In the case I remember, in April 2015, on a state visit, it was just the right bit of ingratiation and – calculated, I suppose – loss of reality. (It was just Pakistan, and there was therefore no danger that the great helmsman would be overegging it. The loss of reality was Pakistan’s problem, not Xi’s.)
But it’s a different story for China when Xi’s subjects sing the praise of their overlord. Extreme flattery is where madness sets out from, and loss of reality is how it continues. Or, in the words of Jacques Ellul, a French sociologist and theologican (1912 – 1994)^*),

In an article in Pravda in May 1957, the Chinese writer Mao Dun wrote that the ancient poets of China used the following words to express the striving of the people toward a better life:
“The flowers perfume the air, the moon shines, man has a long life.” And he added: “Allow me to give a new explanation of these poetic terms. The flowers perfume the air — this means that the flowers of the art of socialist realism are incomparably beautiful. The moon shines — this means that the sputnik has opened a new era in the conquest of space. Man has a long life — this means that the great Soviet Union will live tens and tens of thousands of years.”

Ellul’s comment:

When one reads this once, one smiles. If one reads it a thousand times, and no longer reads anything else, one must undergo a change. And we must reflect on the transformation of perspective already suffered by a whole society in which texts like this (published by the thousands ) can be distributed and taken seriously not only by the authorities but by the intellectuals. This complete change of perspective of the Weltanschauung is the primary totalitarian element of propaganda.

One might object that this isn’t funny at all. I can see that point, and I can even feel a bit of the pain myself. But I also believe that the most comical stories grow in the most terrifying gardens. Chinese propaganda is making fun of itself  again – not because of a sense of self-irony (there’s nothing like that), but because Chinese public life has become living satire again.
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Notes

*)	Jacques Ellul: “Propaganda – the Formation of  Men’s Attitudes”, New York, 1968, 1973

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Some Porridge, some Rice: China’s New Normal?

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Xi Jinping’s new year address for 2023 has been flowery as usual, but it also comes with some frugal characteristics. If it is such great news that China has maintained its position as the world’s second-largest economy, times must be tough indeed, especially when you take into consideration that (according to China’s propaganda) the world’s biggest economy, i. e. America, has gone to hell in a basket. If they are still bigger than China now, where is China?

According to the great helmsman, China has “blown the trumpet to signal the brave beginning of a new journey” (吹响了奋进新征程的时代号角), with “stable and steady economic development” (stable and steady probably referring to the lowest growth numbers since the last years of Mao Zedong’s reign), a 19th consecutive bumper harvest this year (十九连丰), and “the consolidation of achievements made in shedding poverty”  (我们巩固脱贫攻坚成果). —Corrections, Jan 27^*)

How green is our motherland? (Source: Beijing News, Dec 31, 2022)

With the Scarce Resources always on your Mind

Generally, Chinese propaganda points out that its 19th bumper harvest in a row has been achieved while the world had been facing a food crisis. That’s not a big deal when you consider that Russia hasn’t blocked China’s northeastern provinces from the rest of the country, but it may be considered an invitation to the Chinese public to cherish self-sufficiency.

As for the “new phase of pandemic prevention and control now entered” by China, Xi doesn’t wade into the details, and just sees the light – or the dawn of a new era – ahead (目前，疫情防控进入新阶段，仍是吃劲的时候，大家都在坚忍不拔努力，曙光就在前头).
The lines closest to Xi’s heart – if the communist faith he’s wearing on his sleeves is real – are probably these:

After the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party I and other colleagues went to Yan’an together, to renew what we had learned about the magnificent years when the Party’s Central Committee prevailed over difficulties rarely seen over generations and to appreciate the spiritual strength of the old generation of communists. I frequently say that difficulties and deprivation only perfect the jade. The Communist Party of China’s past one-hundred years have been hard work in the open regardless of the weather, cutting their way through thistles and thorns,  – how difficult and great the journey has been. We want to advance further, keep struggling, and make tomorrow’s China even better.
党的二十大后我和同事们一起去了延安，重温党中央在延安时期战胜世所罕见困难的光辉岁月，感悟老一辈共产党人的精神力量。我常说，艰难困苦，玉汝于成。中国共产党百年栉风沐雨、披荆斩棘，历程何其艰辛又何其伟大。我们要一往无前、顽强拼搏，让明天的中国更美好。

Both China’s economic plans and its “great-power diplomacy” appear to be in some trouble. As for China’s economy, it would take a real lot of innovation to catch up with the ageing of society. And China’s “great-power diplomacy” (大国外交), although re-iterated by Xi in another new-year address one day ealier, to a meeting of the Chinese People’s Consultative Conference on December 30th, appears to have fed its wolf-warriors some chalk. For now, that is.

There is no reason to believe that China has given up on “replacing” America, or on other major goals, “core interests” and what have you. But the CPC leaders are revisiting and reassessing the foundations of their power. The emphasis on food security suggests that self-sufficiency in that field will always be a priority – China doesn’t only distrust the sealanes, it also distrusts its immediate neighbors. And if America’s restrictions on chip and chip-manufacturing equipment supplies to China find international support and cooperation, China’s growth plans will probably need to be postponed.

When enumerating China’s moderate successes to Chinese People’s Consultative Conference members, Xi emphasized that those successes hadn’t been “easy to achieve” or “easy to come by” (来之不易). That term is linked to a proverb about man’s most basic needs, i. e. food and clothing. My try at a translation:

Some porridge and rice aren’t easy to come by,half a silk or cotton thread, permanently bear in mind how scarce are your resources.
一粥一饭，当思来处不易；半丝半缕，恒念物力维艰

That’s also where China’s grassroot propaganda – in the shape of newspapers more prominent than, say, “People’s Daily” – is taking us as it picks up Xi’s reference to the latest bumper harvest: to the countryside. Here, too, none of the bumper harvests has been “easy to come by”. The proverb didn’t feature prominently in politics articles before the end of December, while it was popular in all other kinds of (less basic-need-related) online articles or comments. Now, it is represents the flavor of the new era.

To help the readers understand the significance of this year’s output, his attention is drawn to a number of natural disasters.

Delicious Meat then, Tough Bones now

How planned are China’s readjustments? The new “cold war” China keeps warning us of may not have been intended by Beijing, but it was provoked by Beijing.

Either way, tough times have occasionally been predicted by China’s propaganda before, and by its supreme mouth not least. In February 2014, Xi Jinping told Russian television that

After 30 years of reform, China has entered the deep water [or blue water], and all the pleasant reforms have been completed. The delicious meat has been eaten, and what is still on the dishes are rather tough bones. This requires our courage, and steady moves. Courage means to push reform even when it is difficult, and to prove worthy, to tackle the hard bones, and to enter dangerous shoals. Steadiness is about keeping to the accurate direction, driving steadily, and, above all, to avoid disruptive mistakes.

The Russians must have been an understanding audience. Now, eight years later, Xi needs to find out how understanding the Chinese are.
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Notes

^*) Corrected – previous text:
… and “the consolidation of hard-earned achievements made in previous difficult missions” (我们巩固脱贫攻坚成果)
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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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–

China-GCC Summit: “Let’s be Partners in our Civilizational Rise”

–
“The Chinese people see the Arab people as good friends”, then Chief State Councillor Wen Jiabao told his hosts during a visit to the Arab League headquarters in Cairo, thirteen years ago. A few months earlier, then Chinese special representative to the Middle East, Wu Sike, had told a press conference in Beijing that Islamic countries from government to the people, all understand and support the measures the Chinese government took to maintain stability.

To prove that, Xi Jinping held a summit with the Gulf Cooperation Council (in the following: GCC) country leaders in Riyadh on Friday last week. Judging by the faces around the table, only God knows for sure how understanding and supportive the GCC leaders really are, but business is business, and maybe Arab heads of state and govenment never look happy during official appointments anyway. At any rate,

Mohammad Altowaim, a member of the Saudi Chinese Business Council, told the Global Times that he read Xi’s article carefully twice, and the second time he read it to his friends, he read it loud

China’s propaganda usually limits its posts on Twitter to trite feelgood quotes from their great helmsman, but Xi Jinping’s actual “keynote speech” was ambitious. How connective the interfaces of both sides, coined “highly complementary” by Xi, will turn out to be, remains to be seen.  But China’s reference point and litmus test – America – is showing promising signs: Washington is not happy, says CNN.

The following is my translation of Xi Jinping’s keynote speech, given at the China-GCC summit on Friday afternoon local time in Saudi Arabia. Links within blockquotes added during translation.

Esteemed Colleagues, Secretary General Nayef, Hello Everyone!
尊敬的各位同事，
纳伊夫秘书长：
大家好！

First of all, let me sincerely express my heartfelt gratitude to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for its efforts in holding the first Chinese-Gulf-Cooperation Council countries’ summit. I’m very glad that we are getting together all at once, to discuss the development of Sino-GCC relations together.
首先，我谨对沙特阿拉伯王国为举办首届中国－海湾阿拉伯国家合作委员会峰会作出的努力表示衷心感谢。很高兴同大家齐聚一堂，共商中海关系发展大计。

China and the GCC countries share a history of nearly two-thousand years of friendly contacts. China and the GCC countries have maintained and valued peace, harmony, and sought the real knowledge of “Eastern wisdom”, along the ancient Silk Road. Ever since the GCC was established in 1981, China and the GCC have, for more than fourty years, written a brilliant work of unity and mutual help and win-win cooperation.
中国同海合会国家有近两千年友好交往历史。双方人民秉持重和平、尚和谐、求真知的“东方智慧”，沿着古丝绸之路往来不绝。1981年海合会一成立，中国即同海合会建立联系。40余年来，双方谱写了团结互助、合作共赢的灿烂篇章。

China and the GCC countries relations have, after all, achieved rapid development rooted in deep mutual trust. China and the GCC countries have always supported each others’ sovereignty and independence, respected each others’ paths of development, equality of big and small countries without exception, and firmly maintained multilateralism. Rooted in highly complementary [economies], with China’s vast consumer market and its perfect industrial system and with the GCC’s rich energy resources and increasingly diversified development, the two sides are natural cooperation partners. Rooted in popular sentiment, China and the GCC both belong to the Eastern civilization, with similar civilizational values and its peoples knowing each other well. Rooted in trials and tribulations lived through together, facing the challenges of international and regional instabilities and the financial crisis, the COVID-19 epidemic situation, and major natural disasters, the two sides have been in the same boat, keeping watch over each other.
中海关系之所以实现跨越式发展，归根于深厚互信，中国和海合会国家始终相互支持彼此主权独立，尊重各自发展道路，坚持大小国家一律平等，坚定维护多边主义。归根于高度互补，中国拥有广阔消费市场，工业体系完备；海方能源资源丰富，经济多元化发展方兴未艾，双方是天然合作伙伴。归根于民心相通，中海同属东方文明，文化价值相近，人民相知相亲。归根于患难与共，面对国际和地区风云变幻以及金融危机、新冠肺炎疫情、重大自然灾害等挑战，双方同舟共济，守望相助。

Colleagues!
各位同事！

Facing a century of turbulent changes, the GCC countries have united in their strife for self-improvement, have overcome the negative epidemic impact and achieved economic growth, actively promoted political solutions for regional hotspots and problems, promoted the GCC to become the Middle Eastern Gulf’s most vital regional organization, which is highly appreciated by China. At a historical crossroads, let’s contintue the good tradition of China-GCC strategic partnership, and substantiate the content of China’s and the GCC’s strategic relationship.
面对百年变局，海合会国家团结自强，克服疫情影响实现经济增长，积极推动地区热点难点问题政治解决，推动海合会成为中东海湾最具活力的地区组织，中方对此高度赞赏。站在历史的十字路口，我们要赓续中海友好传统，以建立中海战略伙伴关系为契机，充实中海关系战略内涵。

Let’s be partners in unity and continuously solidify mutual political trust, let’s firmly support each others’ core interests. Let’s jointly uphold the principle of non-interference, join hands for a genuine practice of multilateralism, and protect the numerous developing countries’ common interests.
——做共促团结的伙伴。我们要不断夯实政治互信，坚定支持彼此核心利益。共同维护不干涉内政原则，携手践行真正的多边主义，维护广大发展中国家共同利益。

Let’s be jointly-planning¹ partners. Let’s strengthen strategic development interfaces, bring complementary advantages into play, and train the kinetic energy of development. China looks forward to cooperating with all parties to promote and implement global development initiatives, to implement the United Nations’ agenda for sustainable development, and to promote regional development and prosperity.
——做共谋发展的伙伴。我们要加强发展战略对接，发挥互补优势，培育发展动能。中方期待同各方一道推进落实全球发展倡议，落实联合国2030年可持续发展议程，促进地区发展繁荣。

Let’s be partners in building security together. China will continue its firm support for GCC countries’ protection of their security, its support for the region’s countries in solving disagreement through dialogue and consultations, and in building a Gulf security framework. GCC countries are welcome to participate in global security initiatives and in upholding regional peace and stability together.
——做共筑安全的伙伴。中国将继续坚定支持海合会国家维护自身安全，支持地区国家通过对话协商化解分歧，构建海湾集体安全架构。欢迎海合会国家参与全球安全倡议，共同维护地区和平稳定。

Let’s be partners in our civilizational rise. We should enhance communication between our peoples, enrich cultural exchanges, learn from each others’ outstanding civilizational products, promote the eastern civilizations’ profound marrows, and make positive contributions to humankind’s civilizational development and progress.
——做共兴文明的伙伴。我们要增进民心相通，丰富人文交流，借鉴彼此优秀文化成果，弘扬东方文明深厚精髓，为人类文明发展进步作出积极贡献。
Colleagues!
各位同事！

During the coming three to five years, China would like to make efforts with the GCC countries in the following major fields of cooperation:
未来3到5年，中国愿同海合会国家在以下重点合作领域作出努力：

Firstly, let’s build a new pattern of three-dimensional energy cooperation. China will continue to import great quanitities of crude oil from GCC countries, broaden its imports of liquified natural gas, strengthen upstream oil and gas exploration and exploitation, and cooperation in engineering services and refining logistics. Full use should be made of Shanghai Petroleum and Natural Gas Exchange, and the settlement of accounts in RMB should be developed. Hydrogen power, energy storage systems, wind and solar energy, intelligent electrical networks and other cooperation on clean and low-carbon energy technology as well as localization of new energy source equipment should be developed. A Sino-GCC forum for the peaceful use of nuclear technology as well as a Sino-GCC demonstration center for nuclear safety should be established, and 300 technical talents from GCC countries be educated in the peaceful use of nuclear technology.
第一，构建能源立体合作新格局。中国将继续从海合会国家持续大量进口原油，扩大进口液化天然气，加强油气上游开发、工程服务、储运炼化合作。充分利用上海石油天然气交易中心平台，开展油气贸易人民币结算。加强氢能、储能、风电光伏、智能电网等清洁低碳能源技术合作和新能源设备本地化生产合作。设立中海和平利用核技术论坛，共建中海核安保示范中心，为海合会国家培养300名和平利用核能与核技术人才。

Secondly, let’s make headway in financial and investment cooperation. China would like to cooperate with GCC countries to develop financial-supervision cooperation, facilitate GCC countries’ access to the Chinese capital market. establish sovereign wealth funds with GCC countries, and launch cooperation in numerous ways. Let’s explore and hold Sino-GCC industrial and investment cooperation forums. Let’s strengthen cooperation in the fields of investment in the digitized economy and in green development, and establish bilateral mechanisms for investment and economic cooperation. Let’s work on the interchangeability of our own currencies, deepen digitized currency cooperation, and promote the multiple central bank digital currency bridge project.
第二，推动金融投资合作新进展。中国愿同海合会国家开展金融监管合作，便利海合会国家企业进入中国资本市场。同海方成立共同投资联合会，支持双方主权财富基金以多种方式开展合作。研究举办中海产业和投资合作论坛。加强数字经济和绿色发展等领域投资合作，建立双边投资和经济合作工作机制。开展本币互换合作，深化数字货币合作，推进多边央行数字货币桥项目。

Thirdly, let’s expand new fields of cooperation on innovative technology. China would like to establish a big-data and cloud-computing center with GCC countries, strengthen 5G and 6G technological cooperation, jointly establish a number of innovation and startup incubators, and ten projects around cross-border e-commerce and communications infrastructure. Let’s establish a cooperation mechanism for meteorological cooperation between China and the GCC and hold research Sino-GCC research forums on climate change.
第三，拓展创新科技合作新领域。中国愿同海合会国家共建大数据和云计算中心，加强5G和6G技术合作，共建一批创新创业孵化器，围绕跨境电商合作和通信网络建设等领域实施10个数字经济项目。建立中海气象科技合作机制，举办中海应对气候变化研讨会。

Fourthly, let’s achieve new breakthroughs in space cooperation. China would like to carry out a series of cooperation projects concerning remote-sensing and communications satellites, space applications, and space infrastructure. Let’s select the best astronauts² for training. China welcomes GCC austronauts to the Chinese space station, to carry out scientific experiments on flights together with Chinese austronauts. GCC austronauts are welcome to participate in China’s Chang’E, Tianwen, etc. transport cooperation. and in the establishment of a Sino-GCC moon-probing and space-probing center.
第四，实现航天太空合作新突破。中国愿同海合会国家在遥感和通信卫星、空间应用、航天基础设施等领域开展一系列合作项目。开展航天员选拔训练合作，欢迎海合会国家航天员进入中国空间站，同中国航天员联合飞行并进行空间科学实验。欢迎海方参与中国嫦娥和天问等航天任务的搭载合作，研究成立中海联合月球和深空探测中心。

Fifthly, let’s build cooperation highlights in language and cultural cooperation. China is going to cooperate with 300 GCC universities, middle- and elementary schools for Chinese-language education to establish 300 Chinese-language classrooms, to provide 3000 “Chinese Bridge” summer (or winter) camps, establish Chinese Learning and Testing Centers and online Chinese classrooms. Let’s hold Sino-GCC language and cultural forums, build humanities exchange and mutual-learning and bilingual data bases.
第五，打造语言文化合作新亮点。中国将同300所海合会国家大中小学合作开展中文教育，同海合会国家合作设立300个中文智慧教室，提供3000个“汉语桥”夏（冬）令营名额，建立中文学习测试中心和网络中文课堂。举办中海语言文化论坛，共建中海人文交流和互鉴双语文库。

Colleagues!
各位同事！

China and the GCC countries all shoulder their own responsibilities in the mission of rejuvenated national development. The Sino-GCC relations are both old and young. Let’s connect the past and the future, advance hand in hand, and jointly initiate the beautiful future of Sino-GCC relations!
中国和海合会国家各自肩负民族发展振兴的光荣使命，中海关系既古老又年轻。让我们继往开来，携手奋进，共同开创中海关系美好未来！

Thank you all!
谢谢大家！

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Notes

1	共谋 (gòngmóu) is actually a rather negative verb – to scheme, to conspire, etc.. “Jointly plan” is also a possible translation, but by far the nicest one among a rather nasty lot.
2	Chinese-English nomenclature: taikonaut

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Related

How to speak to Pakistan, April 22, 2015

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German Chancellor’s first China Visit: Opportunities and Liabilities

It is going to be the first visit to China for German chancellor Olaf Scholz who took office late last year with a three-party coalition (SPD, Greens, and FDP).

On Friday (November 4), he is scheduled to meet “President” Xi Jinping, according to his office’s website, and following that, a meeting his planned with him and Li Keqiang, his actual colleague as head of a government. Bilateral relations, international topics such as climate change, Russia’s “war of aggression” against Ukraine and the situation in the east Asian region are said to be on the agenda. “Federal Chancellor Scholz will be accompanied by a business delegation during his visit”, the office’s statement concludes.

^{Not everybody’s first visit}
Shanghai’s “Jiefang Daily” suggests^*) that

many European companies have experienced serious economic problems this year, because of the energy crisis, high inflation, rising interest rates and problems like the economic slowdown. It is crucial for these European companies to make up for these losses in Europe by profiting from the Chinese market. Brudermüller for example, CEO at Germany’s chemical giant BASF, plans to further expand BASF’s “favorable investments” in China. It’s business report shows that unlike in Europe, results in China have been positive.
欧洲很多企业今年以来由于能源危机、高通胀、利率上升和经济放缓等遭遇严重经营困难。对这些欧洲企业来说，用中国市场的收益弥补在欧洲的亏损至关重要。比如德国化工巨头巴斯夫集团首席执行官薄睦乐就打算进一步扩大巴斯夫在中国的“有利投资”。业绩报告显示，与在欧洲的亏损不同，巴斯夫集团在中国的增长一直是正向的。

–
Michelin’s business report, said to have been published on October 25, also shows rapidly rising sales in China, in contrast with an eight-percent drop in Europe, “Jiefang Daily” reports.

Michelin’s handsome China numbers notwithstanding, the “Global Times”, a Chinese paper for a foreign readership, blames a “sour-grape” mentality for France’s differences with Germany’s China policy. Those differences probably exist, with Paris being more skeptical about Chinese “opportunities” than Berlin, but you might consider Germany’s dependence on Chinese export markets as a liability, rather than as an opportunity, just as well.

While the SPD remains highly cooperative when it comes to China business, both its coalition partners have advised caution. And while it may be difficult to forecast a trend of future German investment in, exports to and supply chain connections with China, there are statements from German business circles you wouldn’t have heard a few years ago.

China itself rather bets on protectionism, but wants to get into the act globally, including in Germany (China setzt selbst eher auf Abschottung, will aber überall in der Welt mehr mitmischen, auch bei uns in Deutschland),

German weekly “Focus” quotes Martin Wansleben, head of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce.  Scholz should champion clear-cut rules.
It isn’t only France that is concerned about Germany’s economic dependence on China. “Voice of America’s” (VoA) Chinese service, too, points out that “the West shows growing concern about Chinese trade practices and its human rights record”, as well as unease about “Germany’s dependence on the world’s second-largest economic body” (对德国对中国这个世界第二大经济体的依赖感到不安).

VoA also quotes a German government spokesman as saying that while Berlin’s view on China had changed, “decoupling” from China was opposed by Berlin.

When you keep pressing people for a while, the main problem appears to be China’s aggressive policy against Taiwan. Most Germans (this blogger included) never expected that Russia would really invade Ukraine. Now that this has happened, peoples’ imagination has become somewhat more animated – and realistic.

The Social Democrats are more skeptical than its middle- and upper-class coalition partners when it comes to the West’s human-rights agenda, and rightly so. (If China put all its SOEs on international sale, you wouldn’t hear a word about the Uyghurs from Western governments anymore.)

But the Russian-Chinese alliance is a fact, and so is that alliance’s preparedness to annex third countries. That is something the Social Dems can’t ignore. If the press, the oppositional CDU/CSU and the SPD’s coalition partners statements are something to go by, the tide of German integration with China’s economy is being reversed.

“Nothing speaks against German SMEs continuing to import their special nuts and bolts from China”, a columnist mused on German news platform t-online last week, but not without a backup source.

China’s propaganda doesn’t look at Scholz’ visit in a way isolated from its other global contacts. In fact, the German visitor is mentioned in a row with General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nguyễn Phú Trọng, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan – all of them bearing testimony, or so the propaganda suggests, of how attractive “Chinese opportunities” (中国机遇) actually are.

But Germany’s dependence on China, while worrying and in need to be cut back substantively, shouldn’t be viewed in an isolated way either. Scholz visit won’t even last for a full day, without an overnight stay, and also in November, Scholz will travel to Vietnam. Statistics appear to suggest that German industry will find backup sources there – if not first sources just as well.

And Annalena Baerbock, Germany’s foreign minister and one of the leaders of the SPD’s China-skeptic Green coalition partner, is currently travelling Central Asia. All the countries there “once hoped to be a bridge between Russia, China, and Europe,” German broadcaster NTV quotes her – the European Union needed to provide Central Asia with opportunities. Options beyond Russia and China, that is.

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Notes

*)	“Jiefang” actually “quotes foreign media”, but Chinese propaganda is often very creative in doing so – therefore no names here.

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