[Epoch Times, December 14, 2021]The Central Economic Work Conference from December 8th to 10th highlighted the dilemma of China’s economy. Weak triple pressure”. At the same time, the meeting also revealed the party troubles encountered by the Xi authorities, which can be seen from the following two points.
First, the Xi authorities put “must adhere to the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee” as the first priority.
The conference summed up the “knowledge of the regularity of economic work” as “four musts”, and “must adhere to the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee”, which ranks first. Why put this in the first place? In addition to the factor of infighting, there is also a factor of institutional decay, and the two are intertwined. In this regard, the Xi authorities have no other clever tricks. They will only engage in centralizing power and capture power as much as possible into their own hands in the name of protecting the party. At present, the worse the economic situation is, the greater the challenge the authorities will face, and the more they emphasize “must adhere to the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee.” Let’s look at an example.
In October of this year, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection suddenly stationed in 25 financial regulatory agencies including the Central Bank, China Banking Regulatory Commission, China Securities Regulatory Commission, and Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges to conduct inspections. Xu Jiaai, the leader of the Disciplinary Inspection and Supervision Team of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection in the People’s Bank of China, published an article in November, denounced that the financial sector has a weak foundation for comprehensive and strict governance of the party, and the tendency of financial “specialism” and central bank “exceptionalism” is prominent. The Wall Street Journal reported that the disciplinary inspectors sent an unusually harsh message: Beijing will not tolerate any remarks about the independence of the central bank; the People’s Bank of China, like any other government department, must obey the party’s command.
The idea of central bank independence (free from political interference) began to emerge in the 1970s. For example, to the chairman of the Federal Reserve, the president of the United States has to make a smile. But this violated the CCP’s taboo. In China, there are a group of foreigners in the economic bureaucracy of the central bank (the governor of the central bank, Yi Gang, is a returnee), and Liu He has also been a visiting scholar at the Business School of West East University in the United States. Therefore, the Disciplinary Inspection Team of the Central Discipline Inspection Commission in the Central Bank is keen to teach party lectures. For example, in response to the “central bank independence” argument, it is dedicated to the Monetary Policy Department to explain how to understand the political, popular, pertinent, and effective of monetary policy.
Under political pressure from the authorities, on December 9, the central bank suddenly lowered its RRR. Originally, the central bank had stated in mid-November that it would adhere to a prudent monetary policy to curb the disorderly expansion of financial capital. This implies that the RRR will not be lowered. However, the central bank was frightened by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and had to negate all its previous policies.
From this example, it can be seen that, compared to the other three “must” (“must adhere to high-quality development”, “must persist in seeking progress while maintaining stability”, “must strengthen overall planning and coordination”), “must adhere to the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee”. “Although it is a cliché, it is not empty talk. There are too many specific contents, sometimes to the point of absurdity. This can be regarded as a “feature” of the CCP.
However, what do you think about the authorities doing this? Various ministries and commissions, various localities, on the surface, shouted the central sages on the surface, but kept cursing in their hearts. “It is necessary to uphold the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee” and the actual disintegration of the CCP are two sides of the same coin.
Second, the meeting rarely requested that “leading cadres should improve their professional ability to lead economic work.”
The CCP has always said that “After the political line is determined, cadres are the decisive factor.” Now, the “lying down” of cadres has become a major concern for the Xi authorities. For example, at the opening ceremony of the training course for young and middle-aged cadres on September 1 this year, Xi Jinping eloquently expressed four major concerns for officials: First, young cadres “always want to live a peaceful life and do not want to fight. “; The cadres of the second party “cannot withstand the wind and waves” and “flee the battle” at critical moments; third, officials do not tell the truth to him or tell the truth; fourth, they are not loyal (in wartime they must ” To give up one’s life and forget to die” now depends on whether we can resolutely maintain the authority of the Party Central Committee and centralized and unified leadership).
At this meeting, Xi Jinping specifically talked about one thing—the reform of toilets in rural areas in some places is heavily formalism and bureaucracy, causing a large number of toilet problems—in order to beat the officials and ask them to embody the “two maintenances”. To the practical actions of sharing worries for the party, fulfilling responsibilities for the country, and dedicating to the people”.
This meeting rarely proposed that “Leading cadres should strengthen their knowledge of economics and science and technology…resolutely prevent simplification and chaos, and resolutely oppose non-accountability and inaction.”
However, officials do not think that the current economic chaos in China should be their own responsibility. They are all caused by the central government. Why should they be responsible for it? Moreover, officials of different ministries and commissions, central officials and local officials, abdicated officials and incumbent officials shirk each other’s excuses and blame each other. Let’s also look at an example.
On December 11, Han Wenxiu, Deputy Director of the Office of the Committee of Finance and Economics of the Communist Party of China, stated at the 2021-2022 China Economic Annual Meeting that China’s economic development is facing the triple pressures of demand contraction, supply shock, and expected weakening. The growth momentum of consumption and investment has weakened and the supply chain has been blocked. , The production of enterprises is facing a shortage of production factors, including lack of chips, lack of electricity, lack of cabinets, lack of labor and other issues.
Lou Jiwei, the former finance minister who attended the meeting, bluntly said that none of these appeared in the statistical indicators, and that the indicators disclosed were all “very good” and did not reflect economic downside risks at all.
Ning Jizhe, director of the National Bureau of Statistics who also attended the meeting, said that the problem of data fraud in China has been a thing of the past as early as 2018.
Who is right and who is wrong? A mess. The spearhead from the outside world is directed at the Xi authorities; Xi authorities scold the officials for incompetence and lying flat. Noisy, a farce and ugly drama. It is the common people who suffer.
It’s time for this farce and ugly drama to call for a curtain call!
The Epoch Times
Editor in charge: Gao Yi#
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