China's strategy of 2 'eyes', 4 'comprehensives' and '8 rules'

Cabinet members, he declared, could do a better job in keeping the economy healthy by observing how a Go player must use two “eyes” to keep its formations alive: As the country’s economic pace slows, the government’s top priority is to keep growth stable to prevent unemployment from rising. At the same time, it’s also imperative to optimise the structure for the long-term sustainability of the economy.

The challenge, in other words, is how to strike a balance between managing the “new normal” of growth reduced from 10 per cent-plus to 7 per cent or less, and ensure stability in the long term.

But then there are the “Four Comprehensives” laid out by President Xi Jinping as the main principles upon which he plans to govern the country: Comprehensively building an overall “moderately well-off” society, comprehensively deepening reform, comprehensively governing the country in accordance with the rule of law and comprehensively supervising the Communist Party of China. 

Obviously, Xi is trying to put his own stamp on his reign – former president Jiang Zemin had his “Three Represents”, and after him Hu Jintao declared “Scientific Outlook on Development” as his political blueprint.

Li Keqiang insisted that the Chinese government has more weapons in its arsenal to boost the world’s second-largest economy, but he admitted that despite the “new normal” of GDP growth rate, “in reality achieving this target [of 7 per cent] will not be easy”.

He said the authorities would do what they could to keep growth “within a reasonable range”, denying any assertion that China was exporting deflation.

But he took pains to dismiss the theory that China’s boom has seen it overtake the US to become the world’s No 1 economy, describing such purchasing power parity calculations as a “misleading exaggeration”. He insisted that China is still the second-largest economy in the world and that in terms of per capita GDP, China is still “behind 80 countries in the world”.

In many ways, China remains poor, especially in the rural areas. The Chinese premier recalled a recent visit he paid to rural families in the remote west. He met a man in his 40s who could not afford to marry his girlfriend. He also came face to face with a college student who told him he had to rely on his younger sister’s income as a migrant worker in the cities to pay for his tuition fees.

“It truly pains me to see our people living in such distress, and I’m sure that there are many more such families in the vast land of China,” he said.

Li Keqiang reminded reporters that according to World Bank standards, almost 200 million Chinese remain in poverty. China can’t become a superpower if its number of poor people remains so high.

He impressed observers with new “people-friendly” language in his keynote policy speech at the annual National People’s Congress. He even used an Internet buzzword, “renxing”, saying: “It goes without saying that powers should not do just whatever you want them to.”

Renxing, which has gone viral among China’s Netizens, refers to a person who carelessly squanders money and power. The premier’s use of the word was met with applause and laughter from the 3,000 deputies in the Great Hall of the People. Such “modern” language is rare in official documents and speeches. Li chose to depart from the beaten path to impress upon the public that he isn’t one of those old-style leaders.

Interestingly enough, Lu Xinhua, spokesman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the top political advisory body, had earlier followed suit, using renxing to describe the campaign against corruption.

Xinhua News Agency remarked in a commentary: 

“Li and Lu’s use of renxing can be taken as a sign that unruly officials will not be tolerated and that the public are integral to the anti-corruption campaign.”

And if “two eyes” and “Four Comprehensives” aren’t enough, there are the “Eight Rules” issued by the Party to improve its working style in line with the intensive anti-corruption campaign to establish a healthy political environment.

I am not sure whether the majority of Chinese remember all the numbered rules, but they certainly can’t ignore the fact that the leadership is dead serious about renxing (“human nature”) in their campaigns to galvanise China’s new generation, especially the 640 million Internet users.