Analysis: Jiangsu has to meet the “zero” requirements and develop economic officials, which is a dilemma between Xi and Li
[TheEpochTimesAugust192022](The Epoch Times reporters Fang Xiao and Luo Ya reported) The epidemic situation in Hainan was severe, and many cities were “closed” without warning, causing 170,000 tourists from other provinces to be trapped in the province, involving Jiangsu and other provinces. provinces and cities. Vice Premier Sun Chunlan of the Communist Party of China went to Hainan, emphasizing the implementation of Xi’s epidemic prevention requirements, “urgent” to achieve social zero, and stressed that tourists must not be rejected or limited. The Hainan provincial government sent a letter to the Jiangsu provincial government requesting to accept tourists stranded in Hainan, but the other party shied away.
Some analysts believe that Jiangsu must meet Xi Jinping’s “clearing” requirements in fighting the epidemic, and at the same time develop the economy in accordance with Li Keqiang’s requirements. Officials are caught between Xi and Li and are in a dilemma.
Hainan sent a letter to Jiangsu asking it to accept passengers stranded in Hainan
On August 15, a “Letter on Emergency Coordination and Release of Flights” from the Hainan Provincial Government’s Duty Office to Jiangsu Province was circulated on the Internet. The Hainan provincial government stated that due to the unwillingness of some cities in Jiangsu Province to accept stranded passengers, flights could not take off, and a large number of stranded passengers gathered at Haikou Airport.
“I urge your province to urgently coordinate the release of flights from relevant cities and feed back the results of the coordination to our province,” the document said. “If your province delays in accepting stranded passengers or restricting the number of flights, our province will report to the State Council … and inform the corresponding passengers truthfully. “
The Jiangsu Provincial Government on-duty confirmed the authenticity of the document on the 16th, but said that the restricted flight was a temporary increase in frequency.
So why is Jiangsu Province reluctant to accept tourists stranded in Hainan?
Current affairs commentator Tang Jingyuan told The Epoch Times on the 18th that the main reason was that he was worried that returning Jiangsu tourists might bring the epidemic back to the province. Since the currently popular virus strains are all mutant strains of Omicron, the transmission is extremely high and the concealment is very strong. Most of the infected people are mild or asymptomatic, so it is hard to prevent. At the critical juncture of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, no one wants to have an outbreak on their own territory and has to close the city to “clear”. Jiangsu’s performance objectively shows that although people know that Omikron has actually mutated into a flu-like disease, no one dares to touch Xi Jinping’s “clearing” high-voltage line.
Li Hengqing, an overseas economist, said in an interview that CCP officials are not for real epidemic prevention, but to protect their own black gauze hats. If Jiangsu accepts tourists returning from Hainan, it may bring about an epidemic, and they have to engage in so-called “foreign defense against imports and internal defense against rebound”. The provincial party secretary of Jiangsu is most afraid of losing the black gauze hat. He is not sure now what will happen next, whether he can continue to keep his position as a member of the Central Committee and secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee. They will never really benefit the common people, otherwise why would the common people in their own province not want to take it back? What is this parental official?
Li Hengqing believes that if the epidemic in Jiangsu resumes and companies shut down again, the economy will be affected and the province’s GDP will be dragged down.
Sun Chunlan went to Hainan and asked the relevant provinces and cities not to refuse or limit the number of passengers
At the beginning of August, the local epidemic in Hainan resumed. After epidemiological investigation and virus gene sequencing analysis, it was found that this wave of epidemic was Omicron BA.5.1.3, which was the first time that this variant virus was detected in the mainland.
Sanya City and Danzhou City, which are prefecture-level cities in Hainan Province, have successively announced the implementation of global static management, which is equivalent to a closed city. From 6:00 a.m. on the 6th, Sanya City has implemented temporary global static management to strictly limit the outflow of people, and will not leave Sanya temporarily unless it is necessary; Sanya City, where tourists are concentrated, has 80,000 foreign tourists stranded there.
Hainan began to evacuate passengers stranded in Sanya on August 9. The first batch was to return to Xi’an and Shanghai, but the evacuation arrangements were only a drop in the bucket.
On August 13, Vice Premier Sun Chunlan of the Communist Party of China arrived in Hainan to investigate and guide the epidemic prevention and control. He presided over a symposium, emphasizing the need to implement Xi’s “instruction spirit” on epidemic prevention and control, and “to achieve social zero as soon as possible.”
Sun Chunlan mentioned that there are about 150,000 tourists stranded in Hainan. She asked that passengers stranded in Hainan should be transferred from emergency evacuation to standardized commercial transportation. The important thing is that the central government ordered relevant provinces and cities not to refuse or limit the acceptance of passengers. Hainan strictly implements the prevention and control measures for outlying islands, and there are “point-to-point” Arrangements are made to prevent the spread of the epidemic.
Tang Jingyuan believes that Sun Chunlan went to Hainan to guide the epidemic prevention, but in her public speech, she did not deliberately emphasize the insistence on dynamic clearing, but only asked Hainan to achieve social clearing as soon as possible. Judging from the fact that Sun Chunlan had to rely on coercive orders to allow various places to accept returning tourists from Hainan, Xi’s political red line remains high, which reflects that Xi’s power foundation has not been substantively shaken.
Experts on economic pressure in Jiangsu: the problems involved in their actions
In fact, Jiangsu has been under great economic pressure recently.
On August 16, Li Keqiang held a video symposium with the principals of the government of a major economic province in Shenzhen, and senior officials from six provinces including Jiangsu attended the meeting. At the meeting, Li Keqiang specifically named the four coastal provinces of Jiangsu, Shandong, Zhejiang, and Guangdong, which contributed more than 60% of the net transfer of central finance, and had to complete the “turnover task”.
On July 7, Li Keqiang hosted a video symposium for the heads of five provinces and cities along the southeast coast in Fujian, and made a similar request. At the meeting, Xu Kunlin, Governor of Jiangsu and others made speeches through video.
The CCP mouthpiece Xinhuanet reported Li Keqiang’s speech at the symposium that night, showing that Li did not mention epidemic prevention and control at the meeting. Looking at the official recent activities, it can be seen that Li Keqiang emphasized how to develop the economy, and Xi Jinping usually put forward requirements for epidemic prevention and control in his speeches at local levels. Previously, foreign media reported that Xi and Li had disagreements on this point, which made the officials at the bottom bewildered about the specific implementation.
As for how to balance the relationship between the two in Jiangsu Province, Tang Jingyuan said that Jiangsu is a big economic province. Once the outbreak of the epidemic is implemented, the economic results will be seriously affected. Moreover, Jiangsu is twice named by Li Keqiang as an economic powerhouse. Once the epidemic cannot be prevented and economic indicators cannot be achieved, it will have a serious impact on the careers of local officials. That is to say, Jiangsu’s shirking attitude is actually caused by the dilemma between Xi Jinping’s request to clear the first place and Li Keqiang’s request to maintain the economy’s first place.
Li Hengqing questioned Li Keqiang’s request for the six major economic provinces to complete the task of turning over their finances: Can it be done? The economy is now in negative growth. If the central government takes the money, what will the province get paid for? The CCP’s policies are contradictory. Under such a big situation, China’s economy will definitely continue to decline. Under such circumstances, it is impossible in principle to fulfill Xi’s request or Li’s order. “I think the subsequent problems will become more and more serious, so now this is the real problem in China.”
Responsible editor: Lin Rui