Do not doubt state-owned enterprises!
This is a brief summary of only the top stories on Chinese central state media today. Would you like a short summary like this every day? Please let me know by email at jeremy@thechinaproject.com.
- “Xí Jìnpíng: All thinking and talking that doubts or slanders state-owned enterprises (SOEs) is incorrect” is the headline of the top story on Xinhua News Agency and the People’s Daily homepages (习近平怀疑、唱衰国企的思想和言论都是错误的 Xí Jìnpíng: huáiyí, chàngshuāi guóqǐ de sīxiǎng hé yánlùn dōu shì cuòwùde). Xi made the remarks during an inspection tour of a petrochemical plant in Liaoning Province.
- The word “chàngshuāi 唱衰” is interesting: it means to cast aspersions on, or to give negative press to something. Literally meaning “singing down,” Baidu’s encyclopedia says (in Chinese) it is a derogatory, Cantonese word. In Hong Kong in the 1990s, actors and pop stars who had been humiliated by paparazzi began to repeatedly express their dissatisfaction and contempt for certain media. This behavior became known as “chàngshuāi 唱衰.”
- The People’s Daily used the same headline for the story, but added “the Party Central Committee unswervingly supports the development of the private sector economy (党中央毫不动摇地支持民营经济发展 dǎng zhōngyāng háobù dòngyáo dì zhīchí mínyíng jīngjì fāzhǎn).
- The Global Times emphasized the business-friendly side of Xi’s speech: China to unswervingly support private sector: Xi. The article quotes the Party Secretary: “We will unswervingly develop the public sector and will unswervingly encourage, support, guide and protect the development of the private sector.”
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Xinhua’s English website is headlined with this story: Xi calls for building world-class new mainstream media. The Chinese version is not featured prominently on Xinhua’s home page: 习近平致信祝贺中央电视台建台暨新中国电视事业诞生60周年 (xí jìnpíng zhìxìn zhùhè zhōngyāngdiànshìtái jiàntái jìxīn zhōngguó diànshì shìyè dànshēng liùshí zhōunián).
The president, who — Xinhua reminds us — is also the general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, wrote a congratulatory letter on the 60th anniversary of China Central Television (CCTV), which is now part of China Media Group or CMG, created in March 2018 by merging China Central Television, China National Radio, and China Radio International.
Xi called on “CMG and people working in the television circle nationwide…to strive for building world-class new mainstream media with strong guidance, coverage and influence.” Good luck with that.
