This is the edition of the newsletter China, Land of the Middle. Do you want to receive it every Friday in your email? Sign up below.
Follow the content about China on blog is on folha.com/china.
The start was given to choosing the politicians who will make up the new generation of leaders of the Chinese Communist Party. According to the People’s Daily, the official newspaper for the acronym, the head of the CCP Organization Department and Politburo member, Chen Xi, said that “qualified successors” will be selected for the highest positions in the Chinese political hierarchy (which does not include , of course, the leader post, which must be occupied by Xi Jinping).
Chen is quoted in the text as commenting on the need to find “young cadres with quality, skill and a sense of responsibility”, members who have a history of “progressive training, experience and capacity to further national development and stability”.
According to the newspaper, the current occupants of the position analyze profiles from various areas of knowledge and from different regions of the country to increase diversity in the Central Committee. They also hope to find candidates with “exceptional political standards”.
The head of the Organization Department, often seen as a kind of HR for the Communist Party, said China is experiencing a period of “prosperity and active innovation, with great economic and scientific strength”, which offers a “historic opportunity to find new talents”.
The new members of the Central Committee and Politburo will be unveiled in November next year.
Why it matters: Xi vows to pick young party members who demonstrate loyalty and support for so-called “Xi Jinping’s thinking on socialism with Chinese characteristics,” the ideological backbone that should guide policy decisions in China for years to come. Considering the low turnover in the past cycle and the political climate in the country, experts expect the biggest renewal of the Central Committee in more than 50 years.
what also matters
China has started to restrict the use of WeChat (a kind of local WhatsApp) among employees of state-owned companies. The app is under review by the government.
According to the Wall Street Journal, employees of companies such as China Mobile, China National Petroleum Corp. and China Construction Bank were instructed to close and delete groups created in the app for sharing messages and professional files.
Conversations should be transferred to other competing solutions, such as DingTalk, developed by the Alibaba group as an enterprise solution.
As the Sinocism newsletter reported, an application co-developed by Lanxin Mobile Technology with China Electronics Corp (CEC) was released this week with several security measures missing from WeChat.
The so-called Lanxin allows groups of up to 2,000 members, as long as everyone is registered with real names and verified identities. The app prohibits file sharing to external networks and the storage of prints (which can be tracked if they leak).
The WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) has announced the suspension of all competitions scheduled to take place in mainland China and Hong Kong. The move is in retaliation for the alleged silencing of tennis player Peng Shuai, who virtually disappeared from public life after accusing former Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli of sexual harassment.
Association president Steve Simon said he does not see “how to ask our athletes to compete where Peng Shuai cannot communicate freely and appears to be under pressure to deny her allegations of sexual abuse.”
The decision was immediately criticized by media linked to the Chinese government. On Twitter, the editor of the nationalist newspaper Global Times, Hu Xijin, said that “coercion [promovida pela] WTA deprived Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai of freedom of expression, forcing her to complain based on her own imagination and the expectations of Western public opinion.”
Keep an eye
China announced during the China-Africa Cooperation Forum that it will guarantee 1 billion doses of vaccines against Covid-19 for African countries. 600 million will be donated and 400 million will be manufactured on the continent itself, with Chinese assistance in infrastructure for production. Leader Xi Jinping promised technical training for African professionals, encouragement to use the yuan in bilateral trade with countries in the region, and US$10 billion in investment over the next three years.
Why it matters: at a time when a new variant discovered in Africa is a matter of global concern, China presents itself as a nation willing to solve the vaccine gap on the continent. The aid is loaded with some dose of self-interest — cut off from the rest of the world for nearly two years, China wants to see the international situation stable enough soon to reopen its borders. In addition, it represents another step in the country’s soft power strategy that has lasted for years.
to go deep
- This week, PUC Minas announced the creation of a specialization in Contemporary China, the first in Brazil in the area. Coordinated by Javier Vadell, Mariana Bomfim Burger and Samuel Spellmanm, the course will feature classes such as Chinese history, Chinese law governance, media and social media in China, and more. Classes start in April, and the investment is R$ 10,092. More information here. (paid, in Portuguese)
- Next week, the Federal University of Bahia will host the 2nd China Actual Webnário, with roundtable discussions on topics such as the Chinese presence in Bahia, Sino-African relations and Chinese rise strategies. All sessions will be streamed live via YouTube. More information here. (free, in Portuguese)
- ​Observa China held this Saturday (4) a chat with Sophie Hu, partner at AiNi – Artificial Intelligence for Natural Insights, KomraVision’s business consultant and mentor in the Masters in Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Global Leadership at Zhejiang University. Sophie will talk about the startup market in the country. The event has limited subscriptions on the link. (free, in English)
.
