President Xi Jinping chaired the 2 day meeting of the top political leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC,) which ended yesterday, to review the effectiveness of anti-corruption measures which were first instituted in 2012, and to assess the country’s 2020 economic performance and prospects for the recently released Five Year Plan. Xi stressed that members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee must cultivate their self-discipline, and take a lead in promoting clean governance and opposing privileges. The 2012 sweeping measures against corruption and extravagant personal graft by Party leaders famously specified “no welcome banner, no red carpet, no floral arrangement or grand receptions for officials’ visits.” Aggressive enforcement has, in fact, hit the cigarette, alcoholic beverage and restaurant sector hard
President Xi reviewed the current Five Year Plan (2021-2025) — see upcoming article in the Jan.1, 2021 EIR — which specifies an economy to be guided by a “science driver” of innovation in fundamental science and in hard infrastructure construction, coupled with the massive expansion — up to 10 percent of GDP — of soft infrastructure. which is what the Chinese refer to as “the culture industry,” including museums, libraries, student aesthetic education, concert halls, films, literature, sports, etc.
