Issue No. 183 | Jan. 16, 2020
Dedicated to the development of the future stewards of U.S.-China relations
Call for Applications
American Mandarin Society 2020 Fellows Program
AMS welcomes qualified members to apply to our 2020 Fellows Program.

What : A week-long program conducted entirely in Chinese designed to develop a more nuanced understanding of the Chinese policy environment through engagement the same experts who train rising Chinese leaders.
Who : Fellows are mid-career American professionals who are proficient in Chinese and are seeking to learn from Chinese policy educators not accessible through their normal courses of work.
When : May 30 – June 7, 2020
Where : Shanghai Academy of Governance
俗语 from Xi Jinping's Speeches
阳奉阴违

Meaning: outward devotion but inner opposition; to pay lip service / to agree overtly, but oppose in secret ( MDBG , 造句 )

Original: "这次主题教育把开展专项整治作为增强实效的重要抓手，对突出问题进行大排查、大扫除，坚决整治落实党中央决策部署 阳奉阴违 、不担当不作为、违反中央八项规定精神...."

Source: 习近平在“不忘初心、牢记使命”主题教育总结大会上的讲话, 人民网 , January 8, 2020.
Phase 1 Trade Agreement (中英)
12 hours after the U.S. released the full Phase 1 Trade Agreement , China released the Chinese text of the agreement . NPR's analysis of the translation is that "it is exactly what's in the U.S. text," with the same commitments to things like no technology theft and no currency manipulation.

So how is the Chinese official media describing the trade agreement? In short, by emphasizing how the provisions strengthen the Chinese economy and are part of China's ongoing long-term reforms.
AI Industry Report (中英)
Another interesting side-by-side reading this week is an English translation of a business analysis of China’s AI industry by the Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology.

"The document analyzes the current supply chain, market development and investments in China’s AI industry. It also assesses the outlook and trends for the future of the industry."

  • Qianzhan 2019 AI Industry report (English translation)
  • 2019年人工智能行业现状与发展趋势报告 (中文原版)
Party ideology
The AMS Fellows Program is a unique opportunity to take a look inside the Party School and, in part, better understand the ideological dimension of how many Chinese officials think about China's past history, present policies, and future goals. Ideology is only part of the picture, but without it can you really claim to understand the party?

A good example of core ideology central to the education of Chinese officials at the Party School is this  Xi speech from 2013  on the importance of historical materialism, re-published yesterday in 求是.

Xi quotes a comrade at the Party school, “学习理论，最要紧的，是把思想方法搞对头。因此，首先要学哲学，学习正确观察问题的思想方法。如果对辩证唯物主义一窍不通，就总是要犯错误。”

A good supplementary reading to this speech is the Jamestown Foundation's " The CCP’s Renewed Focus on Ideological Indoctrination, Part 1: The 2019 Guidelines for 'Patriotic Education' ” by John Dotson.
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