[Epoch Times, April 27, 2022]On April 26, Xi Jinping presided over the 11th meeting of the Central Financial and Economic Commission to study “comprehensively strengthening infrastructure construction” and said that it is of “great significance” to “unblock the domestic circulation” , “to be moderately advanced”, “to calculate both the economic account and the comprehensive account”. In the past few months, the CCP has been promoting the “stabilization” of the economy, but it seems that “stabilization” is no longer possible.
A new round of big infrastructure is about to come out?
Xinhua News Agency reported that this financial meeting chaired by Xi Jinping was of course the headline, with the subtitle “Comprehensive Strengthening Infrastructure Construction and Building a Modern Infrastructure System”. “Xi Jinping emphasized that infrastructure is an important support for economic and social development,” the report said at the beginning.
The report said, “It must be recognized” that “my country’s infrastructure is still not suitable for the needs of national development and security. Strengthening infrastructure construction in an all-round way is not conducive to ensuring national security, smoothing the domestic circulation, promoting domestic and international dual circulation, and expanding domestic demand. It is of great significance to promote high-quality development.”
The party media once again proposed the “big domestic cycle”, echoing the CCP’s “Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of a National Unified Market” that was publicly released on April 10; now “comprehensively strengthening infrastructure construction” has become a key measure for “internal circulation”.
The report stated that it is necessary to “mobilize the forces of the whole society”, “speed up the construction of new infrastructure”, “must be moderately ahead”, “multi-wheel drive, and give play to the various roles of the government and the market, the central and local governments, state-owned capital and social capital”, ” It is necessary to calculate both the economic account and the comprehensive account.”
The top leaders of the CCP know that the role of large-scale infrastructure in stimulating the economy is already limited and the benefits are not good, but they have nothing to do in the face of the current economic dilemma.
According to the report, “it is necessary to strengthen the construction of network-based infrastructure such as transportation, energy, and water conservancy, and focus on networking, network supplementation, and strong chains”; “strengthen the planning and construction of coastal and inland port waterways”; “developing distributed smart grids, Build a number of new green and low-carbon energy bases and accelerate the improvement of oil and gas pipeline networks”; “promote the construction and modernization of key water sources, irrigation areas, and flood storage and detention areas”; Next-generation supercomputing, cloud computing, artificial intelligence platforms, broadband infrastructure and other facilities”; “arrange and build a number of regional airports, general-purpose airports, and cargo airports”; and “strengthen the construction of national security infrastructure and accelerate the ability to respond to extreme situations. “.
There are more urban infrastructure projects, including “constructing a convenient and efficient intercity railway network, developing urban (suburban) railways and urban rail transit”; “strengthening the construction of urban flood control and drainage, sewage and garbage collection and treatment systems”; “strengthening the construction of urban Disaster prevention and mitigation infrastructure construction”; “Strengthen the construction of public health emergency facilities”;
Rural infrastructure projects include: “Improving farmland water conservancy facilities”, “strengthening high-standard farmland construction”, “improving rural transportation system”, “accelerating the construction of urban and rural cold chain logistics facilities”, “implementing large-scale water supply projects”, “strengthening Construction of Rural Sewage and Garbage Collection and Treatment Facilities”.
Although these projects are numerous, they are relatively general and are probably still in the intentional stage. The specific implementation requires the establishment and approval of projects by various ministries and commissions, provinces and cities. The most important thing is where the funds come from and how to divide them.
One of the measures of internal wrestling within the CCP before the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China
At the end of 2021, the CCP acknowledged that “economic development is facing triple pressures of shrinking demand, supply shocks, and weakening expectations”, and once again demanded that “party and government organs must adhere to a tight life.” Entering 2022, the CCP has continued to emphasize “stabilizing” the economy; however, when the Russian-Ukrainian war broke out, the CCP insisted on “clearing and preventing epidemics”, which led to new domestic and foreign economic difficulties. On April 18, in the face of various doubts, Xinhua News Agency had to publish “Ten Questions about the Current Chinese Economy” in an attempt to blame and blame, but it also exposed more real data.
Before the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping’s re-election and personnel layout were encountering a new crisis, and new measures were urgently needed to reverse the situation. This financial conference should be one of the plans proposed by the Xi camp, in order to quell doubts within the party and seek solutions in the infighting. Dominance. If officials at all levels see the opportunity to make a big profit, many people will actively agree.
Large-scale infrastructure to drive the economy is a consistent practice of the CCP in the past. It is not new, but it has already failed, and has produced serious sequelae. It is also a hotbed of corruption in the CCP. After the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, in the past 10 years, CCP insiders have also constantly warned that similar low-efficiency construction cannot be repeated. Today, the top leaders of the CCP have no choice but to signal a new round of large-scale infrastructure construction, which is suspected of imitating the Biden administration, but funding is a big problem.
The Xinhua News Agency reported that it is necessary to “expand long-term funding channels, increase financial investment, and better focus on ensuring the funding needs for major national infrastructure construction”; mechanism to coordinate the planning and construction of infrastructure in various fields and regions, and strengthen the guarantee of resource elements such as land use, sea use, and energy use.”
It seems that the major infrastructure theme of this meeting is not just a slogan. It is likely to be promoted as soon as possible. It is best to implement some projects before the 20th National Congress to prove that the CCP high-level officials have once again “turned the tide”.
Highlight the “Party Central Committee” leading economic work
The report also stated, “The meeting pointed out that since the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Central Finance and Economics Committee has conducted in-depth research on a number of fundamental and long-term major issues and played a strategic guiding role. To strengthen the leadership of the Party Central Committee over economic work, we must attach importance to political leadership. , Gang raised his eyes.”
The implementation of such large-scale infrastructure projects should still be undertaken by the State Council, but the “Party Central Committee” needs “political leadership”. Li Keqiang, Wang Huning, and Han Zheng also attended the meeting. Xinhua News Agency reported only a small amount of Xi Jinping’s words, and more generally referred to as “the meeting pointed out” and “the meeting emphasized”. It is still uncertain whether there is a consensus among the top leaders of the CCP; if there is no consensus, Xinhua News Agency is eager to release a signal, indicating that the Xi camp may be preparing to vigorously promote large-scale infrastructure. Even if other members of the CCP Politburo Standing Committee and Politburo members have different views, I am afraid Can’t stop it either.
This is not primarily an economic issue, but a political one. It is not yet known whether there may be relevant major personnel appointments in the future, which will become a transitional form of personnel arrangement for the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.
At present, China’s stock market and foreign exchange market are both falling, which should be at least one of the main contents of this financial conference, but Xinhua News Agency’s report only mentioned in general at the end, “We must guide market expectations, clarify policy orientation and principles, and stabilize the market. Confidence.” As for the RRR cut just now by the CCP’s central bank, it was simply not mentioned. The only core topic of this financial conference is “comprehensively strengthening infrastructure construction”. What really needs to be highlighted is that the “Party Central Committee” is leading the economic work.
On April 19, Xi Jinping also presided over the 25th meeting of the Central Committee for Comprehensively Deepening Reform. Xinhua News Agency reported that it is necessary to “strengthen the construction of digital government”; powers and expenditure responsibilities”, “straighten out the inter-governmental financial relations below the provincial level”; “promote and accelerate the construction of a unified national market”.
Li Keqiang, Wang Huning and Han Zheng also attended the meeting. The report also said, “We must adhere to the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee.”
Li Keqiang’s attitude is unclear
After the closure of Shanghai’s city led to a series of chaos, Li Keqiang publicly stated many times that “new downward pressure has further increased”, and pointed out that the supply chain and logistics system were artificially cut off, forcing the economy to shut down. On April 11, the State Council’s joint prevention and control mechanism for the novel coronavirus infection pneumonia epidemic issued the “Notice on Effectively Doing a Good Job in Freight and Logistics”, requiring “it is strictly forbidden to block or close expressways, ordinary roads, and waterway locks without authorization. “It is strictly forbidden to set up epidemic prevention checkpoints on the main lines and service areas of expressways,” and “it is not allowed to close expressway service areas, ports, railway stations, and airports without authorization.”
It is said that the State Council also issued a notice to prepare for pilot epidemic prevention in some cities, but it was quickly deleted.
On April 18, Liu He participated in a national teleconference on ensuring logistics flow and promoting the stability of the industrial chain and supply chain, requiring “to have the overall situation in mind”, “not to restrict access on the grounds of waiting for nucleic acid results”, and “focus on blocking points in a timely manner” Unblock and prevent short-term difficulties from turning into long-term trends”, “not to be dragged down by current problems.”
Liu He, a close associate of Xi Jinping, took over the logistics problem, and Li Keqiang should be happy to let it go. On April 20, Li Keqiang presided over an executive meeting of the State Council. The tasks deployed were agricultural production in spring, energy supply and supply, stable employment and prices, and no logistics.
On April 25, Li Keqiang presided over the fifth clean government work conference of the State Council, attended by Zhao Leji and Han Zheng. Xinhua reported that “Li Keqiang said that promoting economic and social development is the basic responsibility of governments at all levels, and it is also an inevitable requirement for the construction of a clean and honest party”; There are prominent problems such as politicism, bureaucracy, serious rectification, floating style, and simple implementation of policies. It is not allowed to shout slogans, report good news but not bad news, and do not use a ‘movement-style’ one-size-fits-all work.”
Li Keqiang seems to take advantage of the topic and continue to criticize the “zero” epidemic prevention. From Li Keqiang’s words, it seems that there is no sign of large infrastructure construction, and he continues to demand that “the government’s ‘to live a tight life’ is a normalized disciplinary requirement.” This is not in line with the idea of big infrastructure, which means that the government will spend again on a large scale, rather than “tight days”.
No matter what Li Keqiang’s attitude is, he may not be able to stop the “Party Central Committee” from pushing ahead with infrastructure construction in the last less than a year of his term. In addition to Li Keqiang, whether there will be other resistance, or whether the big infrastructure will become a “cooked meal” like the “internal circulation”, or whether it may even become the focus of a new round of infighting, we need to continue to observe.
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Responsible editor: Gao Yi#