EU EV tariffs; Affordable housing; PLA rectification and political training; Russia-related sanctions; Third Plenum
Summary of today’s Essential Eight:
1. European Commission adds tariffs to PRC EVs - The European Commission announced that starting in July it will provisionally add incremental tariffs on top of the current 10% of between 17.4% and 38.1%. PRC firms that cooperated with the anti-subsidy investigation face lower new tariff rates, those that did not face the highest. BYD cooperated and so will see an additional 17.4%, which they can afford and still make money selling at competitive prices in the EU market. Now we wait for the PRC response, after many signals and threats of retaliation since the investigation was launched. Germany is already against the new tariffs, so penalizing German products seems counterproductive. Targeting French products, and especially ones in sectors that may hurt Macron politically in the upcoming parliamentary election vote, would be an interesting response. The PRC side has to do something after all the threats and condemnations, but they may feel the need for some restraint.
2. Implementation work for affordable housing re-lending - Yicai reports that the People's Bank of China (PBOC) and the National Financial Regulatory Administration will soon issue specific implementation regulations for re-loans for affordable housing, as discussed at a work promotion meeting on re-loans for affordable housing in Jinan, Shandong Province that the PBoC convened June 12. , Financial regulators, bankers and officials from more than 200 cities participated. The PBoC readout from the meeting said that “the meeting emphasized that financial institutions and relevant units must thoroughly implement the deployment of the Central Committee and the State Council, deeply understand the people's and political nature [人民性、政治性] of real estate work, and both liberate their minds and broaden their thinking while advancing steadily and prudently”. It also said they must “strictly avoid new implicit local government debts, and effectively prevent moral hazards”.
3. PLA rectification and political training - As I noted in the June 11 Sinocism, the June 11 PLA Daily had a full page 5 article on political training and rectification underway in the PLA titled “Always Maintain Purity and Honor, Strive to Build a Century-Old Army | Climbing New Heights Again” that talks about the “New Era Struggle Outlook 新时代奋斗观" campaign being carried out throughout the military. The PLA Daily also has a new series on "Implementing the Spirit of Rectification and Promoting Political Training", so it appears there is a rectification and political training campaign underway in the PLA.
The first installment in that PLA Daily series - Adhering to Ideological Leadership and Theoretical Precedence 坚持思想打头、理论先行 - places the current efforts in historical context by opening with “political training is fundamentally political, with the core task of forging political loyalty through scientific ideological theory. Major training activities such as the Xinquan Training, the Gutian Conference, and the Yan'an Rectification all adhered to ideological leadership and theoretical precedence, widely conducted Marxist education, and promoted ideological alignment and unity of action through theoretical learning, forming a high degree of unity and cohesion on a new starting point”.
It goes on to mention “"pathogens" of political disloyalty and ideological impurity”, saying
only by abandoning impulsive decisions, slackness and fatigue, and complacency, and by continuously deepening political training with clarity and determination, using the Party's innovative theory to unify thoughts, will, and actions, can we thoroughly eliminate the "pathogens" of political disloyalty and ideological impurity, further gathering the powerful force to forge ahead towards excellence.
This first installment makes it sound like there have been continuing ideological and corruption problems with statements like
Adhering to ideological leadership and theoretical precedence requires deeply eliminating corrupt thoughts. Currently, some erroneous views such as "loyalty and corruption are not contradictory," "officialdom and wealth can coexist," and "power and personal gain can be exchanged" are essentially manifestations of feudal bureaucratic thoughts.
The second installment is titled “Persist in focusing efforts on preparing for war and combat 坚持向备战打仗聚焦用力” and is a bit more ominous. It says
the rusting of thoughts is more terrible than the rusting of guns. To prepare for war, we must resolutely cut off the rust in our thoughts and strengthen the urgent awareness that war can break out at any time. In today's world, changes and chaos are intertwined, the great changes unseen in a century are accelerating, international political disputes and military conflicts are erupting in multiple places, and the instability and uncertainty of our country's security situation are increasing. This requires all levels to use political training to strengthen fighting spirit and bravery, educate and guide officers and soldiers to strengthen the awareness that threats are right in front of us.
思想的锈蚀比枪炮的锈蚀更可怕。为战而整，必须坚决向思想上的锈蚀开刀，强化战争随时打响的紧迫警醒。当今世界变乱交织，百年变局加速演进，国际政治纷争和军事冲突多点爆发，我国安全形势不稳定性不确定性增大。这就要求各级用好政治整训强斗志、强血性，教育引导广大官兵强化威胁就在眼前的意识
Is this campaign a reaction to whatever happened with the PLA Rocket Force and former Defense Minister Li Shangfu last year, and a realization that the PLA still had corruption and ideological issues that affect its combat capabilities? Is this campaign building up to an official announcement of what happened with Li Shangfu and others?
4. Hong Kong revokes passports of 6 wanted for alleged NSL violations - The six are Nathan Law, Christopher Mung, Finn Lau, Simon Cheng, Johnny Fok and Tony Choi.
5. G7 and new Russia-related sanctions - The US issued more sanctions related to support for Russia. Seven PRC firms made the list, including defense SOE Poly Technologies.
6. Qu Qingshan on Xi Thought on Culture - Qu Qingshan, president of the Institute of Party History and Literature of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, has an article on the page 9 theory page of the Thursday, June 13 People's Daily titled "Xi Jinping Thought on Culture Enriches and Develops Marxist Cultural Theory". It is part of the "In-depth Study and Implementation of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era" series the paper is running. Qu is a very important person in the theoretical complex, and I am willing to bet we will hear about Xi Jinping Thought on Culture and its role in Chinese modernization at the upcoming Third Plenum. The April 30th Politburo meeting readout that announced the date for the Plenum said “according to the main agenda of the session, the Political Bureau will report its work to the Central Committee, and the session will primarily study issues concerning further comprehensively deepening reform and advancing Chinese modernization”, so the agenda is much broader than just “economic reforms”.
As Qu writes in this article extolling Xi Thought on Culture:
"creatively proposing that Chinese modernization is the modernization of the coordination of material and spiritual civilizations clarifies the development direction of cultural construction in the new era. Xi Jinping emphasized, “Chinese modernization must not only achieve great material wealth but also great spiritual wealth.” We must adhere to both hands, promoting the coordination and mutual promotion of material and spiritual civilizations. We must vigorously develop socialist advanced culture, strengthen education in ideals and beliefs, inherit Chinese civilization, and promote the comprehensive enrichment of material and human development. Only when both material and spiritual civilizations are well developed can we achieve socialism with Chinese characteristics.
7. Shanghai grants for disruptive technology - The Shanghai government has issued a plan to grant subsidies up to 10 million RMB for “disruptive technologies”. The fields listed include: integrated circuits, intelligent technology, life and health, low-carbon energy, high-end equipment, advanced manufacturing, marine technology. micro-nano photonics and sensing, gene and cell regulation, biosynthetic materials, high-end medical devices, advanced robotics, the metaverse, blockchain, autonomous driving, cross-scale life analysis, brain science, humanoid and bionic systems, organ medicine, bio-manufacturing, quantum computing and communication, and future energy technologies.
8. The Chinese Computer - The Chinese Computer: A Global History of the Information Age, a new book by Professor Thomas Mullaney, sounds fascinating. I am a fan of his previous book The Chinese Typewriter.
On June 15th I will raise the monthly price for Sinocism from $15 to $20 and the yearly price from $168 to $218. The yearly rate for groups of five or more people will increase from $135 to $175. Prices will NOT INCREASE for existing paid subscribers as of June 15, so as long as your account remains in good standing you will remain on the rate you are currently paying, and any new subscribers who sign up before then will lock in the current rate.