Month in focus

'the Qian Xuesen question' 钱学森之问 Qián Xuésēn zhī wèn

‘Why do our schools fail to produce outstanding scientific and tech talent?’ That is ‘the Qian Xuesen question’. It was reportedly put to then-premier Wen Jiabao 温家宝 in 2005 by Qian Xuesen 钱学森. An engineer and rocket scientist, Qian was born in Shanghai in 1911, leaving in 1935 to study in the US. Graduating from MIT and CalTech, he returned to the now-Communist regime in 1955, pioneering applied mechanics. After retirement, he served as senior adviser to the National Defense Science and Technology Commission.

unveiling the list and assuming control 揭榜挂帅 Jiēbǎng guàshuài

‘Unveiling the list and assuming control’ is a scitech funding method to raise efficiency. A two-step selection protocol, it alludes to Chinese traditional knight-errantry, which featured

jiebang 揭榜, drawing up a public list of challenges
guashuai 挂帅, identifying a captain via open competition between champions

The point is to drive scitech via open competition, setting challenges and rewards. To take part, teams sign 'military oaths’, define milestones, and commit to prioritising the challenge. Under the motto ‘let whoever can, do’ (谁能干就让谁干), there are few formal limits. Projects are evaluated by ‘real end users’, and rewarded based on practical results (curbing the ‘entry’ focus, in favour of ‘output’).

Raised by Xi Jinping 习近平 in 2016 (and again in early 2020 in relation to COVID), the term’s inclusion in the 14th 5-year plan made it a Party buzz-phrase. Forty ‘National Key R&D Projects’ called for by MoST (Ministry of Science and Technology) in 2021 initiated a subcategory for such ‘open competitions’, awarding C¥2 bn, some 11 percent of the total amount.

disorderly expansion of capital 资本无序扩张 zīběn wú xù kuòzhāng

Typically targeting monopoly behaviour, this buzz-phrase was flagged at a December 2020 Politburo meeting, then listed by the Central Economic Work Conference among eight key tasks for 2021. A euphemism for ‘high-risk’, firms are deemed ‘disorderly’ when their scale stifles innovation, harms consumer interests and swings public opinion via social media subsidiaries.

Warnings against 'disorderly expansion' were reiterated by the Central Discipline Inspection Commission at the 20th National Party Congress (October 2022). There was a marked switch in focus from entrepreneurs (e.g. Alibaba's Jack Ma) to senior Party cadres. The illustration depicts an unidentified capitalist driving unruly horses labelled 'investment', 'consumption' and 'exports' (of capital).

loyalty 忠诚 zhōngchéng

Political loyalty is even more of a refrain for the Xi administration than its predecessors. With the crucial 20th National Party Congress mere weeks away, the credo of boundless 'absolute' loyalty was by October 2022 aired at ever larger mass performances. Some sceptics invoke Confucian tradition, for which loyalty was ideally to a set of institutions, not to individual rulers. The illustration, which is recent, recalls the stiff, militaristic poses that symbolised loyalty to the Party in the early years of the PRC.

game of interest 利益博弈 lìyì bóyì

'Game of interest' is a widely-used descriptor—a byword for disguised political conflict linked both to rent-seeking and outright corruption. Mao Zedong introduced the term 'contradictions among the people' to explain why conflict persisted, despite classical Communist Party claims to have ended class, etc., division. Under the socialist state, all interests would be resolved by the Party. The 'game' motif borrowed from game theory has a connotation of divided agendas lingering in the background. In the illustration, masked figures cut mercenary deals oblivious of, and injurious to, public interest.

rotten tail 烂尾 làn wěi

‘Rotten tail’ is slang for a project falling short in its final phase. A mortgage boycott movement in spring and summer 2022, potentially ruinous for the housing sector, was triggered by ‘unfinished’ residential apartments. In the cartoon, the homebuyer stretches to take possession of his unit, located in a toppling ‘rotten tail housing’ project. The developer, meanwhile, slinks out of the back of the building with a bag of ‘pre-sales funds’ which he is intent on ‘embezzling’.

hukou 户口 hùkǒu

Official document entitling residence in a given locality, with the accompanying benefits of housing, education, and medical services. Traditionally a statistical term for registered permanent residents (hu referred to households, kou to individuals), it now indicates the control system tying both rural and urban people to their mother’s place of birth, preventing them accessing social services when they ‘migrate’ to work in larger, more developed cities. ‘The city welcomes you’, says the sign in the picture. The approaching migrant family (and any ambitious talent) must, however, cross a chasm over a plank marked ‘accumulate points to gain hukou entitlement’ in the city.