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Bhurki

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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/28/world/asia/china-xinjiang-children-boarding-schools.html

China sends half a million kids to boarding schools

HOTAN: The first-grader was a good student and beloved by her classmates, but she was inconsolable, and it was no mystery to her teacher why.
“The most heartbreaking thing is that the girl is often slumped over on the table alone and crying,” he wrote on his blog. “When I asked around, I learned that it was because she missed her mother.”The mother, he noted, had been sent to a detention camp for Muslim ethnic minorities. The girl’s father had passed away, he added. But instead of letting other relatives raise her, authorities put her in a state-run boarding school — one of hundreds of such facilities that have opened in China’s far western Xinjiang region.

As many as 1 million ethnic Uighurs, Kazakhs and others have been sent to internment camps and prisons in Xinjiang over the past three years, an indiscriminate clampdown aimed at weakening the population’s devotion to Islam. Even as these mass detentions have provoked global outrage, though, the Chinese government is pressing ahead with a parallel effort targeting the region’s children.

Nearly a half-million children have been separated from their families and placed in boarding schools so far, according to a planning document published on a government website, and the ruling Communist Party has set a goal of operating one to two such schools in each of Xinjiang’s 800-plus townships by the end of next year.

The party has presented the schools as a way to fight poverty, arguing that they make it easier for children to attend classes if their parents live or work in remote areas or are unable to care for them. And it is true that many rural families are eager to send their children to these schools, especially when they are older.

But the schools are also designed to assimilate and indoctrinate children at an early age, away from the influence of their families, according to the planning document, published in 2017. Students are often forced to enroll because authorities have detained their parents and other relatives, ordered them to take jobs far from home or judged them unfit guardians.

The schools are off-limits to outsiders and tightly guarded, and it is difficult to interview residents in Xinjiang without putting them at risk of arrest. But a troubling picture of these institutions emerges from interviews with Uighur parents living in exile and a review of documents published online, including procurement records, government notices, state media reports and the blogs of teachers in the schools.
State media and official documents describe education as a key component of President Xi Jinping’s campaign to wipe out extremist violence in Xinjiang, a ruthless and far-reaching effort that also includes mass internment camps and sweeping surveillance measures. The idea is to use the boarding schools as incubators of a new generation of Uighurs who are secular and more loyal to both the party and the nation.
“The long-term strategy is to conquer, to captivate, to win over the young generation from the beginning,” said Adrian Zenz, a researcher at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in Washington who has studied Chinese policies that break up Uighur families.

To carry out the assimilation campaign, authorities in Xinjiang have recruited tens of thousands of teachers from across China, often Han Chinese, the nation’s dominant ethnic group. At the same time, prominent Uighur educators have been imprisoned, and teachers have been warned they will be sent to the camps if they resist.

Thrust into a regimented environment and immersed in an unfamiliar culture, children in the boarding schools are only allowed visits with family once every week or two — a restriction intended to “break the impact of the religious atmosphere on children at home,” in the words of the 2017 policy document.

The campaign echoes past policies in Canada, the United States and Australia that took indigenous children from their families and placed them in residential schools to forcibly assimilate them.
“The big difference in China is the scale and how systematic it is,” said Darren Byler, an anthropologist at the University of Colorado who studies Uighur culture and society.

Public discussion in China of the trauma inflicted on Uighur children by separating them from their families is rare. References on social media are usually quickly censored. Instead, the state-controlled news media focuses on the party’s goals in the region, where predominantly Muslim minorities make up more than half the population of 25 million.
Visiting a kindergarten near the frontier city of Kashgar this month, Chen Quanguo, the party’s top official in Xinjiang, urged teachers to ensure children learn to “love the party, love the motherland and love the people.”
Science vs Scripture
Abdurahman Tohti left Xinjiang and immigrated to Turkey in 2013, leaving behind cotton farming to sell used cars in Istanbul. But when his wife and two young children returned to China for a visit a few years ago, they disappeared.

He heard that his wife was sent to prison, like many Uighurs who have traveled abroad and returned to China. His parents were detained too. The fate of his children, though, was a mystery.
Then in January, he spotted his 4-year-old son in a video on Chinese social media that had apparently been recorded by a teacher. The boy seemed to be at a state-run boarding school and was speaking Chinese, a language his family did not use.
Tohti, 30, said he was excited to see the child and relieved he was safe — but also gripped by desperation.
“What I fear the most,” he said, “is that the Chinese government is teaching him to hate his parents and Uighur culture.”

Beijing has sought for decades to suppress Uighur resistance to Chinese rule in Xinjiang, in part by using schools in the region to indoctrinate Uighur children. Until recently, though, the government had allowed most classes to be taught in the Uighur language, partly because of a shortage of Chinese-speaking teachers.

Then, after a surge of anti-government and anti-Chinese violence, including ethnic riots in 2009 in Urumqi, the regional capital, and deadly attacks by Uighur militants in 2014, Xi ordered the party to take a harder line in Xinjiang, according to internal documents leaked to The New York Times earlier this year.

In December 2016, the party announced that the work of the region’s education bureau was entering a new phase. Schools were to become an extension of the security drive in Xinjiang, with a new emphasis on the Chinese language, patriotism and loyalty to the party.
In the 2017 policy document, posted on the education ministry’s website, officials from Xinjiang outlined their new priorities and ranked expansion of the boarding schools at the top.
Without specifying Islam by name, the document characterized religion as a pernicious influence on children and said having students live at school would “reduce the shock of going back and forth between learning science in the classroom and listening to scripture at home.”
By early 2017, the document said, nearly 40% of all middle-school and elementary-school age children in Xinjiang — or about 497,800 students — were boarding in schools. At the time, the government was ramping up efforts to open boarding schools and add dorms to schools, and more recent reports suggest the push is continuing.

Chinese is also replacing Uighur as the main language of instruction in Xinjiang. Most elementary and middle school students are now taught in Chinese, up from just 38% three years ago. And thousands of new rural preschools have been built to expose minority children to Chinese at an earlier age, state media reported.
The government argues that teaching Chinese is critical to improving the economic prospects of minority children, and many Uighurs agree. But Uighur activists said the overall campaign amounts to an effort to erase what remains of their culture.
Several Uighurs living abroad said the government had put their children in boarding schools without their consent.

Mahmutjan Niyaz, 33, a Uighur businessman who moved to Istanbul in 2016, said his 5-year-old daughter was sent to one after his brother and sister-in-law, the girl’s guardians, were confined in an internment camp.
Other relatives could have cared for her, but authorities refused to let them. Now, Niyaz said, the school has changed the girl.
“Before, my daughter was playful and outgoing,” he said. “But after she went to the school, she looked very sad in the photos.”
‘Kindness Students’

In a dusty village near the ancient Silk Road city of Hotan in southern Xinjiang, nestled among fields of barren walnut trees and simple concrete homes, the elementary school stood out.
It was surrounded by a tall brick wall with two layers of barbed wire on top. Cameras were mounted on every corner. And at the entrance, a guard wearing a black helmet and a protective vest stood beside a metal detector.
It wasn’t always like this. Last year, officials converted the school in Kasipi village into a full-time boarding school.

Kang Jide, a Chinese language teacher at the school, described the frenzied process on his public blog on the Chinese social media platform WeChat: In just a few days, all the day students were transferred.
Classrooms were rearranged. Bunk beds were set up. Then, 270 new children arrived, leaving the school with 430 boarders, each in the sixth grade or below.
Officials called them “kindness students,” referring to the party’s generosity in making special arrangements for their education.
The government said children in Xinjiang’s boarding schools are taught better hygiene and etiquette as well as Chinese and science skills that will help them succeed in modern China.
“My heart suddenly melted after seeing the splendid heartfelt smiles on the faces of these left-behind children,” said a retired official visiting a boarding elementary school in Lop County near Hotan, according to a state media report. He added that the party had given them “an environment to be carefree, study happily, and grow healthy and strong.”

But Kang wrote that being separated from their families took a toll on the children. Some never received visits from relatives, or remained on campus during the holidays, even after most teachers left. And his pupils often begged to use his phone to call their parents.

“Sometimes, when they hear the voice on the other end of the call, the children will start crying, and they hide in the corner because they don’t want me to see,” he wrote.
“It’s not just the children,” he added. “The parents on the other end also miss their children, of course, so much so that it breaks their hearts and they’re trembling.”

The internment camps, which the government describes as job training centers, have cast a shadow even on students who are not boarders. Before the conversion of the school, Kang posted a photo of a letter that an 8-year-old girl had written to her father, who had been sent to a camp.
“Daddy, where are you?” the girl wrote in an uneven scrawl. “Daddy, why don’t you come back?”
“I’m sorry, Daddy,” she continued. “You must study hard too.”
Nevertheless, Kang was generally supportive of the schools. On his blog, he described teaching Uighur students as an opportunity to “water the flowers of the motherland.”
“Kindness students” receive more attention and resources than day students. Boarding schools are required to offer psychological counseling, for example, and in Kasipi, children were given a set of supplies that included textbooks, clothes and a red Young Pioneer scarf.

Learning Chinese was the priority, Kang wrote, though students were also immersed in traditional Chinese culture, including classical poetry, and taught songs praising the party.
On a recent visit to the school, children in red and blue uniforms could be seen playing in a yard beside buildings marked “cafeteria” and “student dormitory.” At the entrance, school officials refused to answer questions.

Tighter security has become the norm at schools in Xinjiang. In Hotan alone, more than $1 million has been allocated in the past three years to buy surveillance and security equipment for schools, including helmets, shields and spiked batons, according to procurement records. At the entrance to one elementary school, a facial recognition system had been installed.

Kang recently wrote on his blog that he had moved on to a new job teaching in northern Xinjiang. Reached by telephone there, he declined to be interviewed. But before hanging up, he said his students in Kasipi had made rapid progress in learning Chinese.
“Every day I feel very fulfilled,” he said.
‘Engineers of the Human Soul’
To carry out its campaign, the party needed not only new schools but also an army of teachers, an overhaul of the curriculum — and political discipline. Teachers suspected of dissent were punished, and textbooks were rewritten to weed out material deemed subversive.

“Teachers are the engineers of the human soul,” the education bureau of Urumqi recently wrote in an open letter, deploying a phrase first used by Stalin to describe writers and other cultural workers.

The party launched an intensive effort to recruit teachers for Xinjiang from across China. Last year, nearly 90,000 were brought in, chosen partly for their political reliability, officials said at a news conference this year. The influx amounted to about one-fifth of Xinjiang’s teachers last year, according to government data.

The new recruits, often ethnic Han, and the teachers they joined, mostly Uighurs, were both warned to toe the line. Those who opposed the Chinese-language policy or resisted the new curriculum were labeled “two-faced” and punished.

The deputy secretary-general of the oasis town of Turpan, writing earlier this year, described such teachers as “scum of the Chinese people” and accused them of being “bewitched by extremist religious ideology.”

Teachers were urged to express their loyalty, and the public was urged to keep an eye on them. A sign outside a kindergarten in Hotan invited parents to report teachers who made “irresponsible remarks” or participated in unauthorized religious worship.

Officials in Xinjiang also spent two years inspecting and revising hundreds of textbooks and other teaching material, according to the 2017 policy document.
Some who helped the party write and edit the old textbooks ended up in prison, including Yalqun Rozi, a prominent scholar and literary critic who helped compile a set of textbooks on Uighur literature that was used for more than a decade.
Rozi was charged with attempted subversion and sentenced to 15 years in prison last year, according to his son, Kamaltürk Yalqun. Several other members of the committee that compiled the textbooks were arrested too, he said.

“Instead of welcoming the cultural diversity of Uighurs, China labeled it a malignant tumor,” said Yalqun, who lives in Philadelphia.
There is evidence that some Uighur children have been sent to boarding schools far from their homes.
Kalbinur Tursun, 36, entrusted five of her children to relatives when she left Xinjiang to give birth in Istanbul but has been unable to contact them for several years.
 

xizhimen

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In Beijing probably over half of the high school students go to boarding schools, Beijing may have more people than Xinjiang, so number can be much bigger in Beijing.
 

Bhurki

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This article comes quite close to potray both the sides.
Although, its written for US citizens who gasp at the concept of 'boarding schools' or 'school uniforms', it'll sound quite normal to Indian citizens.
 

indiatester

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In Beijing probably over half of the high school students go to boarding schools, Beijing may have more people than Xinjiang, so number can be much bigger in Beijing.
Really! Half the students go to boarding schools? Any decent article on this aspect. I would love to know.
 

Bhurki

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OrientalGamer

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I used to be one in beijing. Didn’t read the article, most are from other places have no relatives in beijing.
 

f3243007008

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Really! Half the students go to boarding schools? Any decent article on this aspect. I would love to know.
In Chinese university ,90% of students are boarding in university.

University will responsible for students living , and cost is about 1500RMB per year(exclude elec & water).

Usually 4 students share a room


1_9jooz__.jpg
1_l3rqt__.jpg
 

indiatester

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In Chinese university ,90% of students are boarding in university.

University will responsible for students living , and cost is about 1500RMB per year(exclude elec & water).

Usually 4 students share a room


View attachment 41211 View attachment 41212
For universities, its almost the same case in India.
In my university, we never had such cubicles though... but then that was a while back. Only 2 used to share a room.
I was surprised with the school boarding part.
Before the school system modification by the British, most "Gurukuls" (Schools) were boarding only.
 

smooth manifold

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Chinese President Xi Jinping has delivered a New Year speech in which he reviewed the achievements of 2019 and extended his New Year wishes for 2020.

Below is the full text:

Comrades, friends, ladies and gentlemen,

The year 2020 is arriving. From China's capital Beijing, I would like to extend my New Year wishes to you all!

In 2019, we sweated and we toiled as we pressed ahead with concrete efforts for achievements. Thanks to our steady pursuit of high-quality development, China's GDP is expected to edge close to 100 trillion yuan with the per capita figure reaching the level of 10,000 U.S. dollars.

Significant breakthroughs have been achieved in three tough battles.

Coordinated development in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region, the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and the Yangtze River Delta, all accelerated. Ecological protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River basin have become national strategies.

About 340 impoverished counties and more than 10 million people have been lifted out of poverty. Our lunar probe Chang'e-4, for the first time in human history, landed on the far side of the moon; the Long March-5 Y3 rocket was successfully launched; the Xuelong 2 icebreaker set sail on its maiden voyage to the Antarctic; the construction of the global network of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System is sprinting towards the finish line; the commercial application of 5G technology is accelerating; the Beijing Daxing International Airport "phoenix spread its wings"… all these achievements are the result of the efforts and sweat of those who strive in the new era, and they demonstrate extraordinary Chinese splendor and Chinese strength.

Over the past year, reform and opening-up has continuously generated vigor for development. The reform of Party and government institutions has been successfully completed. We have set up another batch of pilot free trade zones, and expanded the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone.

The Science and Technology Innovation Board was launched smoothly. We have cut taxes and fees by more than 2 trillion yuan, and raised the individual income tax threshold.

Many types of commonly-used medicines have seen their prices drop, while cheaper and faster internet connection has enabled faster flow of information. Garbage sorting is leading the new trend of a low-carbon lifestyle.

This year we have also streamlined the work of officials at the grassroots level. New changes are taking place everywhere and the country is taking on a fresh look.

Over the past year, we have steadily pushed forward reforms in our national defense and military systems. The armed forces have taken on a new look of a strong army in the new era. We held a grand military parade on National Day, celebrated the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the Navy and the Air Force, and also hosted the 7th Military World Games. The country's first self-developed aircraft carrier was commissioned. The people's army will always serve as a great wall of steel that guards our motherland. Let's salute those loyal soldiers who safeguard our home.

The most memorable moment of 2019 was the celebrations for the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. We cheered for the glorious achievements the People’s Republic has made over the past 70 years, and were overwhelmed by the sheer force of patriotism. The formations during the military parade were powerful, and the mass pageant thrilling. Tiananmen Square was turned into a sea of happiness.

All of China was arrayed in red with proud smiles on all faces as the song "My Motherland and I" played throughout the streets and alleys. Patriotic feelings brought tears to our eyes, and patriotic spirit forms the backbone of the Chinese nation. All these merge into a surging current that sings an ode to New China and inspires us to work harder in the new era, filling us with boundless energy.

Over the past year, I have visited many places. Construction of Xiong'an New Area is progressing, Tianjin Port is booming, Beijing's sub-center is thriving, grasslands in Inner Mongolia are splendid, the Hexi Corridor, after thousands of years, is teeming with new life. The winding Yellow River, where the sky is high and waters are wide, sometimes turbulent, sometimes calm; on both banks of the Huangpu River, there is plenty and prosperity, and ribbons of light shine in the night.

Everything is flourishing across our motherland. I traced the routes of China's revolution to strengthen my original aspiration. From Yudu in Jiangxi Province where the Red Army gathered for their Long March, to the Revolution Museum in Xinxian County in Henan Province, the former capital of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui revolutionary base, from the Monument to the West Route Army in Gaotai, Gansu Province, to the revolutionary memorial site in the Fragrant Hills in Beijing, all these places aroused many feelings and thoughts in my mind. Our original aspiration and mission are our inexhaustible source of motivation during our Long March of the new era.

As usual, no matter how busy I was, I spent time visiting people in the countryside. People shared many of their innermost thoughts with me, and I always keep them in mind. I have also received letters from villagers of the Dulong ethnic group in Gongshan, Yunnan Province; residents of Xiadang township, Shouning County in Fujian Province; soldiers of the Wang Jie Squad; the graduate students of the Class of Champions at Beijing Sport University; and children and senior volunteers from Macao. In my reply letters, I applauded the achievements they had made and sent my best wishes.

Over the past year, many people and their stories touched us deeply. Zhang Fuqing has kept a low profile and stayed true to his original heart despite the great contributions he's made to the nation; Huang Wenxiu dedicated her youth and life to poverty alleviation; 31 fire fighters sacrificed their lives in the line of duty in Muli, Sichuan Province; Du Fuguo sacrificed himself to protect his teammates; and China's Women's National Volleyball Team won the World Cup in an eleven-match winning streak. Numerous unsung heroes, with neither complaint nor regret, with dedication. Ordinary people living extraordinary lives.

In the year of 2019, China continued to open its arms wide to embrace the world. We hosted the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, the Beijing International Horticultural Exhibition, the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations, and the second China International Import Expo, showcasing a civilized, open and inclusive China to the rest of the world.

I held meetings with many heads of state and government, sharing with them China's proposals, promoting friendship and deepening consensus. A few countries joined hands with us. The number of countries that have diplomatic ties with China now stands at 180. We have friends in every corner of the world.

2020 will be a year of milestone significance. We will finish building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and realize the first centenary goal. 2020 will also be a year of decisive victory for the elimination of poverty.

The bugle has sounded. We shall all of one heart "add oil." The greater the difficulties, the further we advance, strengthening our weak links even more and laying a more solid foundation to win the hard battle against poverty with determination, to lift all impoverished rural residents and counties out of poverty by current standards as scheduled.

Several days ago, I attended the celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of Macao's return to the motherland and felt heartened for the prosperity and stability in Macao. The successful practice of Macao indicates that the principle of "One Country, Two Systems" is fully applicable, achievable, and popular. In recent months, our hearts have been concerned about the situation in Hong Kong.

Without a harmonious and stable environment, how can people live in peace and enjoy their work! I sincerely wish Hong Kong well and our Hong Kong compatriots well. Hong Kong's prosperity and stability is the wish of Hong Kong compatriots and the expectation of people of our motherland.

Human history, like a river, runs forever, witnessing both peaceful moments and great disturbances. We are not afraid of storms and dangers and barriers. China is determined to walk along the road of peaceful development and will resolutely safeguard world peace and promote common development. We are willing to join hands with people of all countries in the world to build together the Belt and Road Initiative, and push forward the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, and make unremitting efforts for the creation of a beautiful future for mankind.

At this moment, many people are still at their posts, many people are safeguarding peace and security, and many people are working tirelessly. Your hard work is greatly appreciated.

Let's seize the day and live it to the full, and greet the arrival of the year 2020 together. I wish you all a happy new year!

 

smooth manifold

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Joined
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Messages
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Country flag
Chinese President Xi Jinping has delivered a New Year speech in which he reviewed the achievements of 2019 and extended his New Year wishes for 2020.

Below is the full text:

Comrades, friends, ladies and gentlemen,

The year 2020 is arriving. From China's capital Beijing, I would like to extend my New Year wishes to you all!

In 2019, we sweated and we toiled as we pressed ahead with concrete efforts for achievements. Thanks to our steady pursuit of high-quality development, China's GDP is expected to edge close to 100 trillion yuan with the per capita figure reaching the level of 10,000 U.S. dollars.

Significant breakthroughs have been achieved in three tough battles.

Coordinated development in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region, the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and the Yangtze River Delta, all accelerated. Ecological protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River basin have become national strategies.

About 340 impoverished counties and more than 10 million people have been lifted out of poverty. Our lunar probe Chang'e-4, for the first time in human history, landed on the far side of the moon; the Long March-5 Y3 rocket was successfully launched; the Xuelong 2 icebreaker set sail on its maiden voyage to the Antarctic; the construction of the global network of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System is sprinting towards the finish line; the commercial application of 5G technology is accelerating; the Beijing Daxing International Airport "phoenix spread its wings"… all these achievements are the result of the efforts and sweat of those who strive in the new era, and they demonstrate extraordinary Chinese splendor and Chinese strength.

Over the past year, reform and opening-up has continuously generated vigor for development. The reform of Party and government institutions has been successfully completed. We have set up another batch of pilot free trade zones, and expanded the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone.

The Science and Technology Innovation Board was launched smoothly. We have cut taxes and fees by more than 2 trillion yuan, and raised the individual income tax threshold.

Many types of commonly-used medicines have seen their prices drop, while cheaper and faster internet connection has enabled faster flow of information. Garbage sorting is leading the new trend of a low-carbon lifestyle.

This year we have also streamlined the work of officials at the grassroots level. New changes are taking place everywhere and the country is taking on a fresh look.

Over the past year, we have steadily pushed forward reforms in our national defense and military systems. The armed forces have taken on a new look of a strong army in the new era. We held a grand military parade on National Day, celebrated the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the Navy and the Air Force, and also hosted the 7th Military World Games. The country's first self-developed aircraft carrier was commissioned. The people's army will always serve as a great wall of steel that guards our motherland. Let's salute those loyal soldiers who safeguard our home.

The most memorable moment of 2019 was the celebrations for the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. We cheered for the glorious achievements the People’s Republic has made over the past 70 years, and were overwhelmed by the sheer force of patriotism. The formations during the military parade were powerful, and the mass pageant thrilling. Tiananmen Square was turned into a sea of happiness.

All of China was arrayed in red with proud smiles on all faces as the song "My Motherland and I" played throughout the streets and alleys. Patriotic feelings brought tears to our eyes, and patriotic spirit forms the backbone of the Chinese nation. All these merge into a surging current that sings an ode to New China and inspires us to work harder in the new era, filling us with boundless energy.

Over the past year, I have visited many places. Construction of Xiong'an New Area is progressing, Tianjin Port is booming, Beijing's sub-center is thriving, grasslands in Inner Mongolia are splendid, the Hexi Corridor, after thousands of years, is teeming with new life. The winding Yellow River, where the sky is high and waters are wide, sometimes turbulent, sometimes calm; on both banks of the Huangpu River, there is plenty and prosperity, and ribbons of light shine in the night.

Everything is flourishing across our motherland. I traced the routes of China's revolution to strengthen my original aspiration. From Yudu in Jiangxi Province where the Red Army gathered for their Long March, to the Revolution Museum in Xinxian County in Henan Province, the former capital of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui revolutionary base, from the Monument to the West Route Army in Gaotai, Gansu Province, to the revolutionary memorial site in the Fragrant Hills in Beijing, all these places aroused many feelings and thoughts in my mind. Our original aspiration and mission are our inexhaustible source of motivation during our Long March of the new era.

As usual, no matter how busy I was, I spent time visiting people in the countryside. People shared many of their innermost thoughts with me, and I always keep them in mind. I have also received letters from villagers of the Dulong ethnic group in Gongshan, Yunnan Province; residents of Xiadang township, Shouning County in Fujian Province; soldiers of the Wang Jie Squad; the graduate students of the Class of Champions at Beijing Sport University; and children and senior volunteers from Macao. In my reply letters, I applauded the achievements they had made and sent my best wishes.

Over the past year, many people and their stories touched us deeply. Zhang Fuqing has kept a low profile and stayed true to his original heart despite the great contributions he's made to the nation; Huang Wenxiu dedicated her youth and life to poverty alleviation; 31 fire fighters sacrificed their lives in the line of duty in Muli, Sichuan Province; Du Fuguo sacrificed himself to protect his teammates; and China's Women's National Volleyball Team won the World Cup in an eleven-match winning streak. Numerous unsung heroes, with neither complaint nor regret, with dedication. Ordinary people living extraordinary lives.

In the year of 2019, China continued to open its arms wide to embrace the world. We hosted the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, the Beijing International Horticultural Exhibition, the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations, and the second China International Import Expo, showcasing a civilized, open and inclusive China to the rest of the world.

I held meetings with many heads of state and government, sharing with them China's proposals, promoting friendship and deepening consensus. A few countries joined hands with us. The number of countries that have diplomatic ties with China now stands at 180. We have friends in every corner of the world.

2020 will be a year of milestone significance. We will finish building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and realize the first centenary goal. 2020 will also be a year of decisive victory for the elimination of poverty.

The bugle has sounded. We shall all of one heart "add oil." The greater the difficulties, the further we advance, strengthening our weak links even more and laying a more solid foundation to win the hard battle against poverty with determination, to lift all impoverished rural residents and counties out of poverty by current standards as scheduled.

Several days ago, I attended the celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of Macao's return to the motherland and felt heartened for the prosperity and stability in Macao. The successful practice of Macao indicates that the principle of "One Country, Two Systems" is fully applicable, achievable, and popular. In recent months, our hearts have been concerned about the situation in Hong Kong.

Without a harmonious and stable environment, how can people live in peace and enjoy their work! I sincerely wish Hong Kong well and our Hong Kong compatriots well. Hong Kong's prosperity and stability is the wish of Hong Kong compatriots and the expectation of people of our motherland.

Human history, like a river, runs forever, witnessing both peaceful moments and great disturbances. We are not afraid of storms and dangers and barriers. China is determined to walk along the road of peaceful development and will resolutely safeguard world peace and promote common development. We are willing to join hands with people of all countries in the world to build together the Belt and Road Initiative, and push forward the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, and make unremitting efforts for the creation of a beautiful future for mankind.

At this moment, many people are still at their posts, many people are safeguarding peace and security, and many people are working tirelessly. Your hard work is greatly appreciated.

Let's seize the day and live it to the full, and greet the arrival of the year 2020 together. I wish you all a happy new year!
News jargon of Chinese characteristics:
1.One Country, Two Systems
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_country,_two_systems
2.One Belt, One Road
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belt_and_Road_Initiative
3.Moderately Prosperous Society In All Respects
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moderately_prosperous_society
4.Community With A Shared Future For Mankind (Community Of Common Destiny)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_of_shared_future_for_mankind
5.
Two Centenaries
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Centenaries
 
Last edited:

Hiranyaksha

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Strange but interesting thread.
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f3243007008

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It's 4500 RMB a year not 1500 RMB.

In Zhongshan University is about 1500 , and as I know top 100 university do not need so much accommodation cost , picture is Zhongshan University & Sichuan University 's cost , 住宿费 means accommodation cost
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捕获.JPG
 
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smooth manifold

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What do Chinese High School & college & university compulsory political course teach?

1. Fundamentals of Marxist Philosophy
# Dialectical Materialism & Historical Materialism
# Principles of Marxist Political Economics
# Scientific Socialism

2. Mao Zedong Thought and Socialist Theory of Chinese Characteristics
# Marxism-Leninism & Mao Zedong Thought https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maoism
# Deng Xiaoping Theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deng_Xiaoping_Theory

# Three Representatives https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Represents
# Scientific Outlook on Development
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_Outlook_on_Development
# Xi Jinping Thought https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi_Jinping_Thought

3. Modern Chinese History(1840—)
# Centenary of Turbulence (1840—1949)
# Socialism Established in the People's Republic of China (1949—1978)
# Socialist Modernization(1978—)

4. Moral Cultivation and the Legal Basis
# Pursue Lofty Ideals and Firm Noble Faith
# Inherit the Patriotic Tradition and Promote the Chinese Spirit
# Study Moral Theory and Focus on Moral Practice
# Understand the Spirit of Law and the Legal System

5. Policy & Strategy and Contemporary World Economy & Politics
# Domestic Affairs
# Chinese Diplomacy
# International Affairs
 
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smooth manifold

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What's the Three Represents? I look it up in Wikipedia. It's pretty subtle.

The formal statement of the theory is:

This experience and the historical experiences gained by the Party since its founding can be summarized as follows: Our Party must always represent the requirements for developing China's advanced productive forces, the orientation of China's advanced culture and the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people. These are the inexorable requirements for maintaining and developing socialism, and the logical conclusion our Party has reached through hard exploration and great praxis.

— Detail from Jiang Zemin's work report at the 16th CPC Congress, 8 November 2002



What does it mean exactly? Wikipedia gives an abstract explanation:

The three constituent parts mentioned in the quote above are as follows:

  1. "advanced productive forces" meaning economic production
  2. "progressive course of China's advanced culture" meaning cultural development
  3. "the fundamental interests of the majority" meaning political consensus

Let me explain this directly:
  1. "advanced productive forces" meaning entrepreneurs and capitalist elites.
  2. "progressive course of China's advanced culture" meaning intellectuals and cultural elites.
  3. "the fundamental interests of the majority" meaning Party cadres, military officials and political elites and allies.
It's like a stable triangle. This is how the Theory of Three Represents works.
 

smooth manifold

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Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, simply known as Xi Jinping Thought

What is it exactly?


Wikipedia summarizes it pretty well

The thought consists of a 14-point basic policy as follows:

  1. Ensuring Communist Party of China leadership over all forms of work in China.
  2. The Communist Party of China should take a people-centric approach for the public interest.
  3. The continuation of "comprehensive deepening of reforms".
  4. Adopting new science-based ideas for "innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development".
  5. Following "socialism with Chinese characteristics" with "people as the masters of the country".
  6. Governing China with Rule of Law.
  7. "Practice socialist core values", including Marxism, communism and socialism with Chinese characteristics.
  8. "Improving people's livelihood and well-being is the primary goal of development".
  9. Coexist well with nature with "energy conservation and environmental protection" policies and "contribute to global ecological safety".
  10. Strengthen national security.
  11. The Communist Party of China should have "absolute leadership over" China's People's Liberation Army.
  12. Promoting the one country, two systems system for Hong Kong and Macau with a future of "complete national reunification" and to follow the One-China policy and 1992 Consensus for Taiwan.
  13. Establish a common destiny between Chinese people and other people around the world with a "peaceful international environment".
  14. Improve party discipline in the Communist Party of China.


Zuckerberg meets with former Chinese Internet chief Lu Wei (now in jail) who promotes the new concept of "Cyber Sovereignty".
 
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smooth manifold

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Xi stresses always staying true to Party's founding mission

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on Wednesday called for continued efforts to ensure that the whole Party remains true to its original aspiration and keeps its mission firmly in mind.[1]

Xi, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks at a meeting summarizing a campaign themed "staying true to our founding mission."

To win lasting support from the people, the Party should always remember its original aspiration and mission, said Xi.

"We must resolutely remove whatever weakens the Party's advanced nature and undermines the Party's purity, and rid ourselves of any tumor that erodes the Party's health," said Xi, adding that the Party should resolutely guard against all dangers of running counter to the original aspiration and the mission or shaking the foundation of the Party.

Xi called on the whole Party to take the campaign as a new starting point, further deepen self-reform, and continue to push the Party to remain true to its original aspiration and keep the mission firmly in mind.

Members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee Li Keqiang, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Zhao Leji and Han Zheng; and Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan attended the meeting.

Wang Huning, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the leading group of the campaign, presided over the meeting.

The campaign, carried out from the top down in two batches starting from the end of May 2019 and having been largely completed, has promoted unity in thought, political orientation and action within the Party[2], said Xi.

It has served to effectively mobilize thought, political orientation, organization and action to achieve the two centenary goals[3], according to Xi.

Xi stressed that the campaign, based on the experience of previous intraparty campaigns, carried out explorations and generated new experience in organizing such campaigns within the Party in the new era.

Noting that the CPC is leading the Chinese people to undertake a great struggle with many new historical features, Xi ordered the whole Party to deepen self-reform and stay true to its founding mission.

Xi stressed that staying true to the Party's founding mission should be a permanent theme in strengthening the Party, and a lifelong task for all CPC members and officials.

"All the hard work, struggles and sacrifices the Party has made since its founding are for the happiness of the Chinese people and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation," said Xi.

To stay true to the founding mission, Xi also required the CPC to unite its thought, will and action with the latest achievements in adapting Marxism to the Chinese context.

Xi stressed that to stay true to its founding mission, the Party must have the courage to face up to and solve the problems to continuously push forward self-reform.

"Squarely facing problems and courageously righting wrongs is an outstanding feature and strength of our Party," Xi said. "A strong party is forged through self-reform."

He also called for unremitting efforts to improve Party conduct, enforce Party discipline and fight corruption.

Xi pointed out that to remain true to the Party's founding mission, one must have a fighting spirit and a keen sense of responsibility.

He called on all Party members and officials to take the lead in effectively coping with major challenges, withstanding major risks, overcoming major obstacles and addressing major conflicts.

Xi underscored that to stay true to the founding mission, the Party must improve and develop intraparty institutions and put in place long-term mechanisms.

Xi also called on leading Party organs and officials to take the lead in staying true to the founding mission.

While presiding over the meeting, Wang Huning said Xi's speech expressed appreciation for the results achieved in the education campaign.

Xi also outlined overall plans and clear requirements for consolidating and expanding the achievements of the education campaign, as well as for continuously deepening the Party's self-reform and promoting staying true to the founding mission throughout the Party, said Wang Huning.

All Party members should carefully learn Xi's instructions to ensure that the Party's great vitality and strong ability are maintained forever, he said.

Note:
[1] Remains true to its original aspiration and keeps its mission firmly in mind
(不忘初心,牢记使命)

It may sound weird in English but it's more of grammatically symmetry and rhymed elegance if expressed in Mandarin.

On October 18, 2017, in his report to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping proposed to carry out the theme education of "Stay true to our original aspiration and keep our mission firmly in mind" throughout the party, and stated that the original aspiration of the Chinese Communists is to seek happiness for the Chinese people and for the Chinese Renaissance.

[2] Unity in thought, political orientation and action within the Party
To uphold Xi Jinping as the core of CPC unswervingly.

[3] Two Centenaries

The Two Centenaries is a set of goals advanced by Xi Jinping following the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China held in 2012. It is said to be the basic foundation for achieving the "Chinese Dream", another ideology advanced by Xi.

The "centenaries" refer to two 100-year anniversaries.

  • The centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China in 2021, at which point, a full Xiaokang society would have been achieved. While "Xiaokang" – roughly meaning "moderately well-off" – is a relatively abstract theory rooted in both Confucianism and socialist ideology, the party has outlined this in objective, quantitative terms: a doubling of the 2010 per capita income figures.
  • The centenary of the founding of the People's Republic of China in 2049, at which point, China will have become a "strong, democratic, civilized, harmonious, and modern socialist country."
 
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smooth manifold

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Key meeting reaffirms Party leadership role


A key meeting presided over by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, on Tuesday reaffirmed the importance of upholding Party leadership over work in all areas and aspects.

During the daylong meeting, the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee heard reports from Party organizations of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the State Council, the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

Xi delivered a speech at the meeting. There was also a report from the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee.

In upholding Party leadership, the primary requirement is to firmly uphold the authority of the Central Committee and its centralized, unified leadership, according to a statement released after the meeting.

Party leadership and the authority of the Central Committee are the fundamental reason why the country has been able to take solid and assured steps forward over the years in the face of a challenging and complex situation-both within and outside China-and in light of various risks, according to the statement.

The CPC Central Committee's receiving of reports from the Party organizations of the five State bodies and the Secretariat each year is an important part of the Party's leadership mechanism, according to the statement, adding that the practice must be upheld and refined so it can be transformed into efficient State governance.

Efforts by the Party organizations of the five State bodies were acknowledged. They were applauded for carrying out the decisions and plans of the Central Committee, discharging their duties in the overall work of the Party and country, adopting concrete measures to enhance the building of Party organizations and fully implementing their responsibilities for strict Party governance over the past year.

The Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee was also commended for ensuring the implementation of decisions and plans from the Central Committee, improving Party regulations and mechanisms and guiding the work and reform of people's organizations.

This year will see the conclusion of the task of building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, as well as the fulfillment of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), and Party organizations from the five State bodies must closely align themselves with the Central Committee in terms of political stance, direction, principle and path, according to the statement.
 

Jameson Emoni

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U.S. Designates China’s Official Media as Operatives of the Communist State

The State Department told China on Tuesday that its five foremost news agencies — Xinhua, CGTN, China Radio, China Daily and The People’s Daily — will officially be treated as foreign government functionaries, subject to similar rules as diplomats stationed in the United States. The new action was described on Tuesday afternoon by two senior State Department officials.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/18/world/asia/china-media-trump.html
 

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