Quarterly Chronicle and Documentation
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Quarterly Chronicle and Documentation (October–December 2001) Sources The principal sources of information on which this chronicle is based are British Broadcasting Corporation, Monitoring Global Newsline – Asia–Pacific Political and British Broadcasting Corporation, Monitoring Global Newsline – Asia–Pacific Economic. These sources are only available online and replace the former BBC Summary of World Broadcasts (SWB), which were previously available in hard copy. The current online versions no longer have reference numbers (as did each issue of SWB), and are only identifiable by date of publication of material. The inclusion of each of these dates would unnecessarily clutter the text and such dates have been omitted, except for the sources from which the BBC reports themselves are taken. Abbreviations XHNA —Xinhua (New China) News Agency CNA —Central News Agency (Taipei) ZTS —Zhongguo tongxun she (China Reporting Agency), Hong Kong ZXS —Zhongguo xinwen she (China News Agency), Beijing RMRB —Renmin ribao (People’s Daily) 1. Internal Developments (a) The 24th and 25th Sessions of the Ninth National People’s Con- gress (NPC) Standing Committee (b) Party and Political Affairs; Public and Social Order; Ideological and Legal Developments (c) Economic Affairs (d) Military Affairs (e) Minorities (Xinjiang; Tibet) (f) Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) (g) Obituary 2. Foreign Relations (a) Diplomatic Tours (b) Countries, Territories and Regions (c) International Organizations The China Quarterly, 2002 Quarterly Chronicle and Documentation 243 1. Internal Developments (a) The 24th and 25th Sessions of the Ninth NPC Standing Committee The 24th meeting of the the Ninth NPC Standing Committee opened in Beijing on 22 October. Delegates examined a draft law on government purchases, as well as a revised law on cultural relics protection. Consider- ation was also given to a draft law on electing delegates to the 10th NPC in the Hong Kong and Macau Special Administrative Regions (SARs) (XHNA, 22 October). On 26 October, Zhang Zuoji (Minister of Labour and Social Security) delivered a report on China’s social security system. He claimed that recent years had seen significant improvements, including the provision of a “living guarantee system” for laid-off workers from SOEs, and the institution of unemployment insurance and minimum living guarantee systems for urban residents. Improvements had also been made in extend- ing and enhancing old age and medical insurance (XHNA, 26 October). Dai Xianglong (Governor of the People’s Bank of China) reported to delegates on the impact of monetary policies in recent years. He spoke of their effectiveness in stimulating economic growth and combating inflationary and, more recently, deflationary pressures. Better financial supervision and management, and associated measures had also helped to reduce financial risks, equilibrate China’s balance of international pay- ments and maintain exchange rate stability. Dai noted that as of mid- October, China’s foreign exchange reserves stood at US$200.05 billion (ibid). In a report to delegates on the implementation of China’s Agricultural Law, it was revealed that “conspicuous problems” still constrained agri- cultural and rural economic development. Among these were farm input shortages, investment inefficiency, lack of agricultural infrastructural facilities, and weaknesses in combating natural disasters. Nor was sci- entific and technological education in agriculture adequate to meet the particular needs of farm development. Structural readjustment, including farm industrialization, was also proceeding too slowly. Overall, farm incomes remained depressed and financial burdens on farmers’ shoulders were excessive (ibid). The 24th session of the NPC Standing Committee closed on 27 October. Delegates passed decisions on the amendment of five laws: the laws on copyrights (for details, see XHNA, 27 October); on trademarks (ibid. for full text); on the prevention and treatment of occupational diseases; on the use of maritime space; and on trade unions (for the full text of the Trade Union Law of the People’s Republic of China, see XHNA, 27 November). They also endorsed a decision to submit to the parent NPC draft bills on electing delegates to the tenth NPC in the Hong Kong and Macau SARs, and on the date for the election of delegates to the next Chongqing Municipal People’s Congress. The meeting also approved a State Council bill on joining the International Convention on Preventing the Explosion of Terrorism, and the more recent Shanghai Convention on Combating Terrorism, Splittism and Extremism (ZXS,27 244 The China Quarterly October). Finally, authorization was given to the Harmonious Neighbour- hood, Friendship and Co-operation Treaty between the PRC and Russian Federation, signed by Jiang Zemin on 16 July 2001 in Moscow (XHNA, 27 October). At the closing session of the 25th NPC Standing Committee (29 December), delegates enacted important legislation on family planning and population. According to a new law to take effect on 1 September 2002, official policy would encourage couples to have a single child, but allow them to have a second child, if they met the relevant conditions and requirements (XHNA, 29 December). The decision followed the submission by the NPC Law Committee (27 December) of proposals to amend the draft population and family plan- ning law. These amendments sought to clarify existing relevant legis- lation and to “avoid misunderstanding that might lead to erratic family planning work.” To these ends: The state shall stabilize the existing child-bearing policy, encourage citizens to practise late marriage and later births, and advocate one child per couple. The state shall allow those couples meeting the legal requirements to apply for permission to have a second child; the specific measures shall be enacted by the provincial, autonomous regional, or municipal people’s congress or its standing committee. Ethnic minority people shall also practise family planning; the specific measures shall be enacted by the provincial, autonomous regional, or municipal people’s congress or its standing committee. The report noted that existing policies provided for couples who met relevant legal requirements to seek permission to have a second child. At present, all 31 provinces and other provincial-level units allowed couples to have a second child if their first child was born disabled and was not expected to work normally after growing up. Some 19 provinces also allowed rural couples to have a second child if their first child was a girl. These provisions were said to have been in force “for many years” (XHNA, 27 December). (b) Party and Political Affairs; Public and Social Order; Ideological and Legal Developments In further comment on the 15th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCPCC), a Hong Kong source noted that despite official endorsement of Jiang Zemin’s controversial statement on admit- ting entrepreneurs to the Party, Jiang had failed in his efforts to promote his prote´ge´, Zeng Qinghong, to the CCPCC Politburo. The same source speculated that the extension of Party membership to the entrepreneurial class highlighted the attempt of Party leaders to “balance capitalistic reform with the fight to legitimatize their leadership” (Hong Kong iMail, 1 October). Ding Guangen, Director of the CCP’s Central Propaganda Department, made it clear that the priority propaganda task was to publicize and to encourage the study and implementation of Jiang Zemin’s 1 July speech Quarterly Chronicle and Documentation 245 and the “spirit” of the subsequent Sixth Plenum of the 15th CCPCC. A Xinhua commentary stressed the importance of the Plenum’s CCPCC Decision on Strengthening and Improving the Building of the Party Style, arguing that it offered an original and comprehensive analysis of the new conditions and tasks currently facing the Party. The document had highlighted the importance of ideological and organizational construction, showing how, through Party-building and reform, the CCP could fulfil the demands of reform and opening-up, whilst also accommodating the “progressive trend” of globalization. It warned, however, that failure to improve the Party’s work style threatened to “erode the Party and harm the relationship between the Party and the masses and between the cadres and the masses” (XHNA, 2 October). The full text of the Decision of the CCPCC on Strengthening and Improving the Building of the Party Style, was published on 7 October (see XHNA 7 October). In the context of maintaining the momentum of economic development and reform, it called on CCP members to uphold Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory and to follow the “three representations.” In particular, it highlighted the following as core tasks that Party members must seek to fulfilin improving their work style: • to follow the principle of “emancipating the mind and seeking truth from facts” in order to combat self-satisfaction and to find new ways of pursuing their work; • to combine theory with practice, and avoid undue emphasis on book study; • to stay in touch with the people, and combat “formalism … bureau- cratism [and] hedonism;” • to uphold the traditions of democratic centralism (the “fundamental organizational and leadership system of the Party”), including the avoidance of arbitrary, despotic and lazy behaviour; • to abide by the Party’s disciplinary rules (especially political disci- pline) in order to prevent “liberalism;” • to pursue justice and