China Reform Monitor: No. 1147

February 3:

China has released its “No.1 Central Document” pledging to narrow the development gap of cities and villages. “It has become a key issue to consolidate the position of agriculture as the foundation of the economy against the current backdrop of slowdown,” noted the document. The official Xinhua news agency reports that China will “transform the development mode of agriculture, boost policies that benefit farmers, push forward the building of ‘new socialist countryside.’” It calls for upgrading rural infrastructure, improvements in public services, and improved living conditions. “The document introduces measures to encourage grain production, [and] nurture secondary and tertiary industries.”

[Editor’s Note: The goals of these newly-announced rural development policies reflect those of the 1970s Maoist agricultural modernization program. Yet, this official article notes that Premier Li Keqiang worked as a farmer in Fengyang, Anhui, “where far-reaching rural reform began at the end of 1970s. Communal farming was ended and the ‘household contract responsibility system,’ came in its place. A golden era began with rapidly increasing grain production and ballooning purse.” In short, it uses pro-reform references to justify neo-Maoist rural polices.]

February 4:

Hong Kong’s Ming Pao newspaper staff launched an hour-long “pen strike” to protest their editor-in-chief, Chong Tien-siong’s sudden decision to pull a banner headline piece on the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown. About 100 staff, including reporters and editors, left the office at 6pm, put their pens down outside the entrance, and held white boards with the word, “Ridiculous,” in Chinese. The piece was to be the first in a series of investigative pieces on the Canadian government’s analysis of the crackdown including unsealed documents about a student who witnessed mainland soldiers opening fire. Chong came in on his day off to join the editorial board meeting and at around 11pm he changed the headline, The Standard reports.

The Russian Federal Service for Control Over the Trafficking of Narcotics (FSKN) has uncovered a major synthetic drug trafficking channel from China into Russia, Interfax reports. The gang consisted of six clusters, each comprised of about 20 members. “The monthly turnover of illegal drugs at just one cluster ranged from 500,000 to 1 million doses, approximately 100 to 200 kg, with an estimated value of 40 to 80 million rubles,” Interfax reports. Last month in Moscow, three dealers were arrested with over 10 kg of concentrated synthetic drugs, which lead to the arrest of twelve others. Gang leaders in Shanghai and Moscow coordinated over the internet and received money from the sale of the drugs to their accounts via various payment systems and financial structures.

February 5:

An editorial in Pakistan’s The Dawn called for improved transparency in Sino-Pakistani relations: “Pakistan’s government should bring more transparency into its dealings with China, especially in the reasons behind the shelving of the Gadani power projects. Many politicians tend to go overboard when it comes to China, with the government employing the usual rhetoric about Sino-Pak friendship. What is lost sight of every time is that the projects being negotiated with China are purely commercial ventures with little more than the cold play of geopolitics behind them. A little level headedness and transparency will go a long way to ensure that our China conversation remains focused on the country’s national interests, as opposed to the parochial interests of a few.”

February 10:

The president of the prestigious Nankai University in Tianjin, Gong Ke, has told the official People’s Daily that recent allegations that universities were infested with subversion evoked dangerous parallels to the Anti-Rightist Movement of 1957 and the Cultural Revolution a decade later. “Recently, I’ve read people on the Internet saying that the ranks of academics must be cleansed, purified and rectified. I can’t agree with this. This was the mentality of 1957 or 1966. In enhancing ideological work, we cannot go to another extreme. We cannot re-enact this history of ‘leftist’ errors against intellectuals.” Gong, who is a party member appointed by the party’s organization department, is the son to Gong Yuzhi a former prominent party propaganda official persecuted during the Cultural Revolution. The Communist Party of China is in the midst of a campaign to cleanse universities of liberal Western textbooks, the New York Times reports.