Xi Jinping Meets with Lee Hsien Loong and Announces Upgrade of China-New Zealand Partnership

by admin April 1, 2023

April 1, 2023

01.04.2023

Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is in Beijing and met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday. The two countries issued a joint statement announcing that they will establish an “all-round high-quality forward-looking partnership” and are committed to completing the signing of the protocol of the free trade agreement within this year. According to Chinese official media reports, Lee Hsien Loong opposed “black and white, choose sides” in international affairs during the meeting.

(Deutsche Welle Chinese website) Chinese President Xi Jinping received visiting Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in Beijing on Friday and announced that the relationship between the two countries will be upgraded to “a comprehensive high-quality forward-looking partnership.”

According to Chinese state media reports,Xi JinpingDuring the bilateral meeting, it was stated that China is willing to strengthen strategic communication with Singapore, use the bilateral cooperation mechanism to strengthen the “New Land-Sea Corridor Construction” and promote personnel exchanges between the two countries.

Xi Jinping also pointed out that over the years, the Asian region has maintained a good momentum of overall peace and stability, rapid development, and overall rise. Under the current international background, Asian countries should “jointly safeguard the dividends of regional peace” and “resolutely oppose bullying and bullying. Clearly resist ‘decoupling and breaking chains’, and allow no country to deprive Asian people of their right to pursue a better and happier life.”

At the National People’s Congress, which concluded this spring, Mr. Xi won his third term as president. According to Singapore’s “Lianhe Zaobao” report, Xi Jinping introduced to Lee Hsien Loong that this year’s two sessions have elected a new leader of the country’s leading body, “this time you can also meet when you come.” He emphasized that “China will enjoy the current major strategic opportunities together with the countries that cooperate with China.”

This is the first meeting between the two leaders, Xi Jinping and Lee Hsien Loong, after four months. The last time was during the APEC meeting in Bangkok last November. Lee Hsien Loong expressed his great pleasure to come to China again after visiting China in 2019. He expressed relief that “life has returned to normal across China”.

Xi Jinping introduced to Lee Hsien Loong that this year’s two sessions have elected a new leader of the national leadership organization, “You can also meet this time when you come.”

The Singaporean Prime Minister pointed out that China has a new leadership team and has planned a vision and long-term goals for the next stage of development. “I am confident that China’s economy will continue to strengthen. Many countries, including Singapore, actively hope to strengthen economic ties with China. I hope my visit will inject new momentum and high-level exchanges into bilateral cooperation,” he emphasized in his speech .

Reuters pointed out that Lee Hsien Loong’s passionate speech comes at a time when the relationship between China and the West, especially the United States, is becoming increasingly tense. From the war in Ukraine to human rights, the confrontation between China and the West is intensifying.

“Today’s China is no longer the China of the past. This is something that other countries have to accept,” Lee Hsien Loong said in an interview with China’s CCTV. “It has become more prosperous and contributes more to the world economy. It also has a greater say in international affairs.”

According to Xinhua News Agency, Lee Hsien Loong also emphasized his recognition of the “One China” policy and “Taiwan issue is China’s internal affairs” during the talks, and expressed his advocacy of “Ukraine today, Taiwan tomorrow“It will bring unpredictable and serious consequences. He emphasized that Singapore advocates that countries should be based on “mutual respect and trust”,Can’t be “black or white, choose sides”。

According to the “Joint Statement on Establishing an All-round, High-Quality Forward-looking Partnership” released on the official website of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on April 1, “Both sides welcome the China-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement launched in accordance with the “Protocol on Upgrade” signed in 2018. The follow-up negotiations on the upgrade of the agreement have been substantially completed, and the signing of relevant protocols will be completed as soon as possible this year.”

Reuters pointed out that China is Singapore’s largest trading partner, while Singapore is also China’s largest foreign investor.

(Reuters, Xinhua News Agency, Lianhe Zaobao)

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Xi Jinping’s 10 years in power

Break the convention to start the 3rd term

On March 10, 2023, at the 3rd plenary session of the 14th National People’s Congress of China, 2,952 delegates voted unanimously to support the 69-year-old Xi Jinping as president of the country and chairman of the Central Military Commission of China. There was thunderous applause when the election was announced. As a result, Xi Jinping broke the practice of CCP leaders serving two terms for a total of 10 years after Deng Xiaoping, and began his third term.

Xi Jinping’s 10 years in power

Fighting tigers and flies together, building personal authority

In 2013, Xi Jinping proposed at the Second Plenary Session of the 18th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection to “unswervingly punish corruption and strictly govern the party”, and shouted the slogan “fight tigers and flies together”, and then the CCP launched a series of internal party rectifications sports. In 2014, Zhou Yongkang, the former secretary of the Political and Legal Committee of the Communist Party of China, became the highest-ranking official arrested for corruption. According to Chinese officials, from December 2012 to May 2021, China’s discipline inspection and supervision agencies have filed cases and examined 392 leading cadres at or above the provincial and ministerial levels, 22,000 officials at the department and bureau level, more than 170,000 officials at the county and department levels, and more than 170,000 officials at the county and department levels. 616,000 cadres at the same level; a total of 4,089,000 people were investigated and dealt with. In addition to cracking down on corrupt officials, the anti-corruption campaign is also a means for Xi Jinping to root out political dissidents.

Xi Jinping’s 10 years in power

Eliminate re-election restrictions and deepen the cult of personality

At the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in October 2017, “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era” and “Realizing the Chinese Dream of the Great Rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation” were written into the party constitution. It is generally believed that Xi Jinping consolidated his core leadership within the party at this time. The following year, in 2018, the First Session of the Thirteenth National People’s Congress formally approved the constitutional amendment, which abolished the term limit set by Deng Xiaoping, paving the way for Xi Jinping to continue to be re-elected after the 20th National Congress. The “third historical resolution of the Communist Party of China” announced in 2021 once again deepened the personality cult of Xi Jinping. The guiding position of socialist ideology”.

Xi Jinping’s 10 years in power

Xi: Victory in poverty alleviation Li: 600 million people earn less than 1,000 yuan a month

When Xi Jinping became the top leader in 2012, he declared that eradicating poverty was his top policy goal. In February 2021, he announced at the National Poverty Alleviation Summary and Commendation Conference, “Through the joint efforts of the whole party and the people of all ethnic groups, the battle against poverty has won an all-round victory. Under the current standard, 98.99 million rural poor people have all been lifted out of poverty.” However, the World Bank The standard for “extreme poverty” is less than US$1.9 per person per day, and China’s standard is slightly lower than that of the World Bank, which is about US$1.7 per day. Economist Hu Xingdou once said that if measured by the standards of the United Nations or the World Bank, there are still hundreds of millions of poor people in China. It is worth noting that Chinese Premier Li Keqiang once stated in 2020 that although China’s per capita annual income is 30,000 yuan, “there are 600 million people whose monthly income is only 1,000 yuan. difficulty.”

Xi Jinping’s 10 years in power

Promoting common prosperity, private enterprise tycoons become the target

Despite the declared success in poverty alleviation, the gap between the rich and the poor in China is widening. In order to adjust this phenomenon, Xi Jinping proposed at the 10th meeting of the Central Finance and Economics Committee in August 2021 that “common prosperity” is the essential requirement of socialism and an important feature of Chinese-style modernization. The meeting emphasized the need to rationally regulate excessively high incomes and encourage high-income groups and enterprises to give more back to society. The meeting also mentioned the plan of “three distributions”, that is, under the influence of moral force, rich people are encouraged to donate, so that funds flow to relatively poor people to realize social income transfer. Since then, a number of private companies have become the targets of the Chinese government. Private company leaders such as Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, and Liu Qiangdong, the founder of JD.com, have announced that they will step back behind the scenes to avoid getting into trouble.

Xi Jinping’s 10 years in power

Rectify the real estate industry and crack down on the education and training industry

In recent years, the Chinese government has begun to be hostile to and suppress capital. Under Xi Jinping’s slogan of “housing to live in, not speculation,” Beijing began to take substantive measures to curb the abnormal expansion of the real estate market. In 2021, the “three red lines” that restrict financing for real estate companies will be introduced, requiring real estate companies to reduce their debts. Cool down. In July 2021, the Chinese government launched a “double reduction” policy to rectify the education and training industry: the capitalization of education and training institutions is strictly prohibited, and the existing subject training institutions are required to be uniformly registered as non-profit institutions. death penalty”. The stock prices of New Oriental and TAL, leading education and training companies, plummeted by more than 80% and 90% respectively.

Xi Jinping’s 10 years in power

COVID-19: From an initial cover-up to a tough zeroing policy

At the end of 2019, the new crown epidemic first spread quietly in Wuhan, and the authorities tried to conceal the news in the early stage of the epidemic. Li Wenliang, a doctor at Wuhan Central Hospital, once revealed on his private WeChat that it might be the SARS virus, and questioned the authority’s statement that “there is no human-to-human transmission.” He was subsequently interviewed by his superiors and reported by CCTV news as “spreading rumors”, but died of new coronary pneumonia a month later. Today, after more than two years of the global epidemic, most countries are gradually returning to normal life, but Xi Jinping still emphasizes that China’s epidemic prevention will continue to adhere to “dynamic zeroing.” In China, the entire city of large and medium-sized cities has been “statically managed”, tens of millions of residents are in a state of blockade, and economic development is also seriously affected by the epidemic prevention policy. In the second quarter of 2022, the GDP growth rate was only 0.4% year-on-year, a record high in the past two years. new low.

Xi Jinping’s 10 years in power

From the cross-border arrest of people in the Causeway Bay bookstore incident to the destruction of Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” by the National Security Law

In 2016, five bookstore shareholders and employees of Causeway Bay Bookstore in Hong Kong disappeared suddenly. Among them, Li Bo, the bookstore operator, was later confirmed to have been arrested in Hong Kong, which aroused public opinion’s dissatisfaction with “cross-border arrests by mainland law enforcement officers”. Three years later, Hong Kong broke out in 2019 against the “Extradition Bill Amendment Movement”, and the demonstrations initiated by the people were suppressed by the Hong Kong government. A year later, the National Congress of China voted to pass the “Hong Kong National Security Law” in 2020. People who criticize the government may be charged with “subversion of state power.” Xi Jinping met with the new Hong Kong Chief Executive Li Jiachao this year and said that this year coincides with the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s “return to the motherland”. In the eyes of critics, autonomy policies such as “one country, two systems” and “Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong” are now only slogans.

Xi Jinping’s 10 years in power

From overseas exposure of Xinjiang re-education camps to the release of the Human Rights Council report

The Chinese government has long said it must crack down on “separatist, extremist and terrorist forces” in Xinjiang. Xi Jinping once said during his visit to Xinjiang in 2014: “For violent and terrorist activities, we must maintain a high-pressure posture to suppress the enemy first, and attack when exposed.” Since 2017, Xinjiang has set up “re-education camps” on a large scale to detain Uyghurs. and other minorities. German independent scholar Andrian Zenz’s research first revealed this phenomenon, and later international media reports gradually revealed practices that violated human rights such as forced labor, torture, and brainwashing in the camps. China still denies the existence of re-education camps in Xinjiang, calling them vocational education and training centers to eradicate extremism and provide Uyghurs with employment skills. In August 2022, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a report stating that China’s allegations of torture of Uighurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang were credible, and mentioned that China may have committed crimes against humanity.

Xi Jinping’s 10 years in power

Major Power Diplomacy: The Belt and Road Initiative has changed from “spreading money” with great fanfare to full of problems

In 2013, the Chinese government began to initiate and lead a transnational economic belt known as the “Belt and Road”, which covers the historical land and sea Silk Road. This is also part of the “big power diplomacy” proposed by Xi Jinping – clearly positioning itself as an influential power in the world and developing economic partnerships with developing countries. The Chinese government says the Belt and Road Initiative “aims to strengthen regional connectivity and embrace a better future” and has invested a total of US$843 billion in 163 countries until 2021. However, this initiative has been criticized in recent years. Some Western countries call it “debt trap diplomacy”. The Chinese government’s generous aid to foreign countries and the cancellation of debts of poor countries have been dubbed by some people as “big money”. In addition, the export of Chinese workers overseas to build a large number of infrastructure has also caused controversy related to ecology and human rights.

Xi Jinping’s 10 years in power

U.S.-China relations sour: From trade war to chip war

In 2018, then U.S. President Trump announced large-scale tariffs on Chinese imports on the grounds that China had stolen U.S. intellectual property. In the next few months, the United States and China imposed high tariffs on goods imported from each other, and the Sino-US trade war began. Xi Jinping said at the time that China hopes to reach a trade agreement with the United States, but China is not afraid of a trade war and will “fight back” if necessary. In January 2020, representatives of China and the United States signed the first phase of the economic and trade agreement in Washington. In addition to promising to expand imports of American goods in the next two years, China also promised to carry out a series of substantive reforms. In the United States, except for a small number of tariffs that have been reduced, most of them remain unchanged. After taking office, Biden continued to extend the imposition of tariffs on China. In August of this year, Biden signed the “Chip Act” to promote the development of the US semiconductor industry. In September, the U.S. government announced that it would ban chip companies Nvidia and AMD from exporting high-end AI chips to China. The Commerce Department said it was reviewing other China-related policies and practices “to prevent advanced technology from falling into the wrong hands.”

Xi Jinping’s 10 years in power

Policy on Taiwan: The Chinese will not fight the Chinese, but they will not renounce the use of force

Xi Jinping has repeatedly stated publicly that he firmly opposes “Taiwan independence” separatism and interference by external forces, and will never leave any space for any form of “Taiwan independence” forces. In 2019, Xi Jinping stated at the 40th anniversary commemorative meeting of the “Message to Compatriots in Taiwan” that “the Chinese will not fight the Chinese” and that he is willing to strive for the prospect of peaceful reunification with the greatest sincerity and best efforts, but he does not promise to renounce the use of force and reserves the right to take options for all necessary measures. In August 2022, after Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, visited Taiwan, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army launched military exercises and organized live ammunition in the six seas and airspace surrounding Taiwan. The People’s Liberation Army also announced that it will regularly organize combat readiness and police patrols across the Taiwan Strait in the future.

Xi Jinping’s 10 years in power

Claims that there is no “forbidden zone” for cooperation between China and Russia

In 2019, China-Russia relations will be upgraded to a comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination in the new era. Since the Ukrainian-Russian War, China has so far refused to blame Russia, pointing to the United States and NATO for instigating the conflict. Now that countries are boycotting Russia, China has benefited from buying a large amount of low-priced oil from Russia. A few weeks before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine this year, Xi hosted Putin in Beijing, during which the two sides issued a joint statement opposing NATO’s eastward expansion, saying that “the friendship between the two countries has no boundaries and there is no ‘forbidden zone’ for cooperation.” September 14 From the 16th to the 16th, Xi Jinping went abroad for the first time after the new crown epidemic, flew to Central Asia to attend the SCO summit, and of course met with Putin.

Xi Jinping’s 10 years in power

China-India relations fall from high to low

China and India share a border, and India has long had a distrust of China since the 1962 India-China border war. However, after Xi Jinping took power, China and India designated 2014 as the “China-India Friendly Exchange Year” and issued the “Joint Statement on Building a Closer Development Partnership”. Make at least one meeting. However, in 2020, Chinese and Indian troops clashed several times in the Galwan Valley near the border between the two countries, causing casualties on both sides. After several rounds of talks between officials of the two countries, the incident gradually subsided. During this period, the Indian government announced the ban on the use of Chinese mobile phone applications by the public, and the National Federation of Indian Traders called for a nationwide boycott of Chinese products. In the past two years, the relationship between China and India has been at the bottom due to border disputes. Although both Xi and Modi attended this month’s SCO summit, the two sides did not meet during the summit, as expected.

Xi Jinping’s 10 years in power

EU says Xi ‘turning to dictatorship’

During Merkel’s tenure as German Chancellor, economic exchanges between Germany and China increased significantly. Before Merkel steps down as German chancellor in 2021, Chinese state media called Merkel an “old friend of the Chinese people.” At the same time, China’s interactions with other European countries are also very active: under the “Belt and Road” initiative, the railway freight volume between China and Europe has been greatly increased; Chinese companies invest in infrastructure projects in EU countries and acquire companies that are not doing well. This friendly situation has gradually changed in recent years. In 2019, the European Union announced that China will be called an “institutional competitor.” In 2020, the China-EU negotiations on an investment agreement were completed, but they were frozen indefinitely by the European Parliament due to human rights disputes in China. In 2021, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pointed out: “There are fundamental differences between Europe and China, whether it is in the economic system and the response to globalization, democracy and human rights, or in dealing with third countries.” The document also emphasizes , Xi Jinping’s “turn to dictatorship” has caused serious concern in the European Union. On the occasion of the China-EU summit this year, the EU called out to China: “I hope that even if China does not support our (Russia) sanctions, it will at least not destroy them.” However, Xi Jinping still showed a high-profile friendly relationship with Putin.

Xi Jinping’s 10 years in power

Military base built on islands and reefs in the South China Sea

In 2015, the Philippines lodged a diplomatic protest with the Chinese embassy in the Philippines, demanding that Beijing stop land reclamation activities only 135 kilometers away from the Philippines. The images released by the Washington think tank show the progress of China’s land reclamation in the Nansha Islands since 2014, including the construction of runways for bombers to take off and land, artificial new islands, etc. In the next few years, the Chinese side continued to carry out the expansion project. China’s official media “People’s Daily” published an article at the end of 2017 saying that “the islands and reefs in the South China Sea have taken on a new look.” A think tank report in the same year pointed out that China has built hangars, underground warehouses, missile silos and radar facilities on islands and reefs in the South China Sea. In March this year, U.S. Indo-Pacific Commander Aquilino stated that at least three of China’s artificial islands and reefs in the South China Sea have been completely militarized. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin responded to this by saying that China “deploys necessary homeland defense facilities on its own territory. , is the natural right of a sovereign state”. However, in 2015, during talks with former U.S. President Barack Obama, Xi Jinping said that China’s projects in the Spratly Islands “are not aimed at or affecting other countries,” and that China “has no intention of pursuing militarization.” China’s official announcement to complete the militarization of islands and reefs in the South China Sea now runs counter to what Xi Jinping said in the past.

Xi Jinping’s 10 years in power

Wolf Warrior Diplomacy: Stirring Chinese Nationalism

Compared with the moderate Chinese diplomats in the past few decades, since Trump became the President of the United States and the Sino-US trade war began, the international style of Chinese diplomats has gradually turned into a tough “wolf warrior diplomacy”. The term “Wolf Warrior” comes from a 2015 Chinese film of the same name. Some lines in the film, such as “Those who violate China, will be punished even if they are far away” successfully ignited Chinese nationalism. A Reuters report in 2020 stated that Chinese diplomats confirmed that Xi Jinping had instructed that in the face of international challenges such as the deterioration of Sino-US relations, diplomats must take a tough stand and show a “spirit of struggle.” Some scholars believe that rather than using the posture of a wolf warrior to protect the dignity of the country, it is better to say that they want to perform for the public and show China an image that is not easy to be bullied. Deng Yuwen, a political commentator, pointed out that China was always criticized for its weak diplomacy in the past, so now the “wolf warrior diplomacy” of diplomats is very popular among the people. The country’s diplomacy caters to the preferences of the people and inflates the intensified nationalist sentiment, but it arouses resentment from other countries internationally.

Xi Jinping’s 10 years in power

Speech censorship: 87% of WeChat sensitive words are related to Xi Jinping

According to research released by the Citizen Lab of the University of Toronto in Canada in 2020, the social platform WeChat blocked a large number of sensitive words at the beginning of the new crown epidemic, covering a wide range of content, including the Chinese government’s epidemic prevention measures, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan epidemic prevention work, and the Li Wenliang incident. Among them, 192 groups of sensitive words involved the central leadership, 87% of which were related to Xi Jinping, including “Xi Jinping went to Wuhan”, “Xi Jinping + the spread of the epidemic”, etc. The report pointed out that Chinese leaders emphasized “firmly controlling the leadership of news and public opinion” in the early stages of the epidemic. On the one hand, it was to reduce public panic, and on the other hand, it was to avoid embarrassment for leaders and maintain the prestige of the central government.

Xi Jinping’s 10 years in power

Surveillance density is the highest in the world, and social incidents are still frequent

In June 2022, the “New York Times” published an investigation report stating that the Chinese government is obtaining citizens’ personal information through mobile phones and surveillance to stabilize the regime. China has also been the country with the highest density of surveillance cameras for several consecutive years. More than half of the nearly 1 billion surveillance cameras in the world are located in China. These monitoring networks are closely linked to the “social credit system” promoted since 2014 to regulate public behavior and punish “distrustful persons”. Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized the importance of building a social credit system, saying that it is necessary to build a large-scale pattern of credit punishment that “one place is untrustworthy and everywhere is restricted.” Although it seems that a safety net has been put in place covering every corner, social incidents are still heard from time to time. This year’s incident of the woman in iron chains in Fengxian County and the beating incident at a barbecue restaurant in Tangshan have attracted public attention. The social credit system can be cured.

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