Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol.64/No.50 i Beijing Review

December 11, 2021, marks the 20th anniversary of China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). Over the past 20 years, China has won widespread recognition for honoring its commitments to and obligations under the WTO, becoming a country that practices and defends globalization. Since 2001, China’s overall tariff rate has dropped from 15.3 percent to 7.4 percent, lower than that in most developing countries and on par with the opening level of developed countries. China has also continuously cut its negative list of foreign investment access, and opened up as many sectors as possible to international trade. Today, China has unlocked some 120 sectors to foreign investors, both exceeding the 100 it had guaranteed upon WTO entry as well as outnumbering the average 108 promised by developed countries. The…

Foreign Trade Total imports and exports of China expanded 22 percent year on year to 35.39 trillion yuan ($5.55 trillion) in the first 11 months of 2021, according to official data released on December 7. The figure, which has already surpassed the 32.16-trillion-yuan ($5.05 trillion) total for entire 2020, marked a 24-percent increase from the pre-pandemic level in 2019, according to the General Administration of Customs of China. Both exports and imports continued double-digit growth in the months, surging 21.8 percent and 22.2 percent from a year earlier, respectively. In the period, China’s trade with its top three trading partners—the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the EU and the U.S. stood at 20.6 percent, 20 percent and 21.1 percent, respectively. Private enterprises saw the fastest growth rate in imports and…

‘Pop!” The gavel in the hands of an Arab official wearing a white robe fell and applause rang out on November 10, 2001, marking China’s official accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) as its 143rd member. Looking back on this historic moment in Doha, capital of Qatar, Huo Jianguo, then a member of the Chinese delegation and now Vice Chairman of the China Society for World Trade Organization Studies, said his Chinese colleagues were excited but also breathed a sigh of relief. After 15 years of painstaking efforts, China finally saw the light at the end of tunnel in its endeavor to join the WTO. According to Huo, the whole process had been far too complicated. On the one hand, there was a huge gap between China’s economic system…

For a long time, many in the West have had a warped perception of what exactly has been going on in Hong Kong courtesy of misleading political narratives and media manipulations. In the context of ideological confrontation, Hong Kong is portrayed as a delicate princess violated by an overbearing and all-consuming dragon. The anti-China protesters dominating global headlines are often hailed as “freedom fighters” to garner empathy and serve up the moral high ground for external forces to interfere in China’s internal affairs—via the Hong Kong issue. The election of the seventh-term Legislative Council (LegCo) of China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) is set to take place on December 19, marking the first time they will unfold under the principle of “patriots governing Hong Kong.” For the city, a…

The U.S. doesn’t have democracy, it has politics. Democracy is about serving the people, giving them what they want and improving their lives. China doesn’t have career politicians, it has bureaucrats. Trained and skilled administrators who are elected from the bottom and selected from the top, but only if they are good enough. If they don’t measure up, they lose their job. Politics is about fundraising, marketing, promoting, serving self-interests and making promises. Actually delivering on those promises isn’t always an option in the playbook, so then it becomes about deflecting blame to the opposition so that voters in a few years get another opportunity to vote for their least-disliked politician. U.S. election campaigns on the whole are less about what a politician will do and more about what the…

Biweekly consultative forums convened by the CPPCC National Committee constitute an important innovation in China’s consultative democracy. Forums on specific topics are the standard model, attended by specific participating groups and relevant Party and government departments. They integrate consultations on specific subjects, consultations on the handling of proposals, and consultations with relevant Party and government departments and with specific social groups. The biweekly consultative forums are designed to solicit advice and proposals on major economic and social development issues, leveraging the role of the CPPCC as an important channel and a specialized body for socialist consultative democracy. In total, 132 such forums were held between October 22, 2013 and November 6, 2021.…

Legislative information offices collect public views and send them directly to legislative organs, contributing to progress in targeted, sound legislation. They are also developing new functions such as overseeing law enforcement, promoting observance of the law, and educating the public on legal matters. The first legislative information offices opened for service in 2015. By October 2021 the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee had set up 22 such offices in 21 provinces and equivalent administrative units, covering two thirds of the country. Nearly 7,800 suggestions have been made on 127 legislative drafts and plans through these offices.…

On May 28, 2020, the Third Session of the 13th NPC adopted the Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China, which took effect on January 1, 2021. The first law defined as a code in the PRC, the Civil Code consists of seven Books—General Part, Real Rights, Contracts, Personality Rights, Marriage and Family, Succession and Tort Liability, in a total of 1,260 articles. The Civil Code embodies the principle of people-centered development, in full consideration of the people’s expectation for a better life, and provides clear stipulations on citizens’ rights, including personal rights, property rights and personality rights. It reflects China’s efforts to fully protect the rights of the people.…

Government service commitments such as “enforcement departments responding immediately to the call of grassroots communities,” “zero-delay response” and “immediate response upon receipt of complaint” have been set up to address public concerns in many places of China. They form a rapid, efficient work process that involves listening to and categorizing suggestions and complaints, assigning them to the appropriate departments, giving feedback, and conducting supervision. In this way, governments at all levels truly respond to public demands and address the issues and problems that directly concern the public. The 12345 government service hotlines are public service platforms run by municipal governments in China. The platforms integrate channels such as the 12345 call center, “mayor’s mailbox,” short messaging service, mobile app, Weibo, and WeChat to allow the public to voice their demands,…

Industrial history of a century and a modern lifestyle create a romantic integration on the former site of the Shougang Group, with the Olympic elements adding more vitality to the new landmark in China’s capital city. The year 1919 saw the establishment of the steel-producing conglomerate in Beijing. As one of the earliest modern iron and steel enterprises in China, the state-owned company accounted for a quarter of the city’s tax revenue during its heyday. In 2005, the company was relocated to Hebei Province to improve the capital’s ecological environment. Today, its “industrial remains” have been transformed into the Beijing Winter Olympic Park. Big Air Shougang, a steep snow ramp constructed inside the old steel mill, will serve as the venue for freestyle skiing and snowboarding events at the Beijing…

I ran is serious, acts in good faith and considers the practical and tangible result to be the removal of sanctions. The path traveled The path taken during six rounds of intensive negotiations in Vienna did not lead to success due to the excessive demands and unrealistic stances on the part of the United States. Now we are starting a new round of talks. The main goal of these negotiations is the restoration of the rights of the Iranian nation and the removal of all sanctions imposed unilaterally and extraterritorially on Iran by the U.S. which is no longer a party to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a 159-page agreement with five annexes reached by Iran and the then P5+1 (the U.S., China, France, Russia, the UK, and…

Preamble Democracy is a common value of humanity and an ideal that has always been cherished by the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese people. This year marks the centenary of the CPC. Since its founding in 1921, the Party has taken wellbeing for the Chinese people and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation as its abiding goals, and has made continuous efforts to ensure the people’s status as masters of the country. China is a country with a feudal history dating back several thousand years that descended into a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society after the Opium War of 1840. Over the past hundred years, the Party has led the people in realizing people’s democracy in China. The Chinese people now truly hold in their hands their own…

In the early 1960s, the officials and citizenry of Fengqiao Town in Zhejiang Province began a drive to solve problems in situ rather than passing them up to higher authorities. As a result, social order was well maintained and people lived in peace. The practice has developed over the intervening decades, and is now a model for promoting community-level governance and social harmony. What is commendable is that the local people, under the leadership of the Party, are able to solve small problems within their village, and serious ones within the town, so as to maintain social stability and promote development.…

Since COVID-19 hit China, China’s grassroots self-governance organizations have worked closely with the government to fight the virus, creating a strong line of defense at the community level. Some 650,000 urban and rural communities with more than 4 million community workers mobilized all forces available, including volunteers, officials and Party members sent to work in communities, and members from local enterprises and public institutions, to conduct screening for infection, stand guard, carry out disinfection, and provide care and assistance to local residents. They made an important contribution to safe-guarding public health and the fight against COVID-19.…

Orphan drugs usually are defined as drugs that are developed by the pharmaceutical industry not for economic reasons, but respond to public health need. These medicinal products are intended for the diagnosis, prevention or treatment of very serious and rare diseases or disorders. As a latecomer in their development, China largely relies on foreign pharmaceutical companies to treat its patients. Late November saw China’s National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA) formally announce the renewed catalog of medicines covered by the national medical insurance system. Seventy-four medicines have been added to the list, with seven of them orphan drugs. The new catalog is to become effective on January 1, 2022. Previously, a lot of patients had to abandon treatment due to the sky-high prices of orphan drugs, so when the news was…

During the Third Ministerial Meeting of the Forum of China and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (China-CELAC Forum), held via video link on December 3, President Xi Jinping called for joint efforts to create a blueprint for cooperation between China and Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries to promote people’s wellbeing and human progress. The China-CELAC Forum was first launched in 2014 during President Xi’s visit to the region. In the spirit of strengthening partnership and pushing forward South-South cooperation, China and the LAC countries have developed the forum into a major platform that pushes their relationship into a new era featuring equality, mutual benefit, innovation, openness, and tangible benefits for the people. The aim of the third ministerial meeting was to increase communication and promote in-depth…

China has recently consolidated the theories and practices associated with its whole-process people’s democracy, which was first named formally in 2019, and more clearly expressed this year. As a recent white paper on the subject clarifies, it reflects the longstanding effort to build and advance a socialist people’s democracy in China, one century in the making. Released in early December, the white paper notes that people in China enjoy universal suffrage and do vote in elections with much higher turnout rates than seen in the U.S., with much higher trust in governance and satisfaction in policymaking as well. In fact, there is a multitude of democratic mechanisms in the Chinese system, but above all, it emphasizes that one cannot sacrifice the material needs of national development to the idealism promised…

Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, the CPC Central Committee has organized or entrusted relevant departments to organize more than 170 consultative forums. On these occasions, it has engaged in consultation with the other parties and the non-affiliates and solicited their opinions on matters of great importance such as the CPC Central Committee reports to CPC national congresses and the Political Bureau reports to plenary sessions of the CPC Central Committee. It has called for their advice on amendments to the Constitution, on the drafting of medium- and long-term plans for economic and social development, and on candidates for positions as leaders of the state. Its goal is to ensure more informed and democratic decision-making on major issues. Central committees of the other parties, together with the non-affiliates,…

The recommendations of the CPC Central Committee on formulating the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) were drafted following a number of seminars, open discussions, and collection of public opinion. General Secretary Xi Jinping chaired a symposium on the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta region, and seminars with entrepreneurs, scientists, grassroots representatives, and experts on economic and social development, education, culture, health, and sports, to hear their opinions and suggestions. The draft was circulated among a certain number of Party members and retired senior Party officials for suggestions, and opinions were also solicited from the central committees of the other political parties, heads of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and the non-affiliates. More than 1,000 suggestions were collated from a pool of some 1 million online messages. The…

Selected from the public through set procedures, people’s supervisors raise suggestions on public trials, public hearings, the service of legal instruments, evaluation of case handling, prison and detention house inspections, and inspections of standard judicial practices. They take part in judicial procedures in an orderly manner and oversee case handling by people’s procuratorates. Since 2003, procuratorial and judicial administrative bodies have selected and appointed 70,000 people’s supervisors, 23,000 of whom are currently in active service. More than 60,000 cases have come under their supervision.…

During the drafting of the proposals for the 14th Five-Year Plan, the CPC Central Committee solicited views and suggestions from people from all walks of life and set up an online platform for this purpose. A deputy secretary of a village’s Party branch submitted a proposal on mutual aid for the aged, which was incorporated into a document of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee. In early 2021, the NPC Standing Committee solicited public feedback on the draft law on food waste. The 15 community-level legislation liaison stations in Yiwu City, Zhejiang Province, held face-to-face meetings in catering business at the grassroots to collect comments and advice from owners of local restaurants, convenience stores, and small hotels. Their proposals were adopted and turned into stipulations in…