Summary: Remember when China was a country run by economic and political pragmatists? Remember the days of "practices is the sole criterion for truth," as the saying went throughout much of the 1980s when the CCP under Deng Xiaoping was looking to cast off the ideological straightjacket imposed by Mao Zedong? The return of ideology has been apparent since the beginning of Xi Jinping's tenure two years ago, but any restraint he showed in the early days is now gone. Case in point is the above-the-fold headline from Saturday's edition of The People's Daily, declaring the importance of dialectical materialism for the economic reform process. Reading the article, it's not clear how exactly dialectical materialism will help sort out the thorny issues of reform, but one suspects the piece was never meant to help. The return of this type of ideological framing for pressing issues should not be brushed aside as meaningless Apparatchik-speak, as many of the most important battles in China have been fought in the realm of ideas.

Excerpt from the story: "Xi Jinping pointed out that we must study and grasp the basic tenets of the movement of material contradictions, incessantly strengthen our consciousness of problems, and vigorously face and analyze contradictions we meet during our progress. Problems are the forms in which material contradictions manifest themselves, when we stress that we must strengthen our consciousness of problems and persist in a problem-guided orientation, this is to recognize the universality and objectivity of contradictions, and means that we must be good at making understanding and dissolving contradictions into a breakthrough point for beginning our work."

Source: 新华网

Summary: Despite some gloomy economic news coming from China, Premier Li Keqiang has been on a public relations offensive, boasting of the economy's job-creating potential. As China Daily recently reported, Li said 10 million new jobs would be created in the coming 12 months, even as China's GDP growth is expected to show further signs of slowing. As Li told attendees of the recent World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, "The Chinese economy will face downward pressures in 2015 but the Chinese economy will not head for a hard landing."

Excerpt from the story: "Among the 22 provinces and regions that have released macroeconomic statistics for 2014, only the western region of Tibet managed to meet its target of 11 percent growth. Chongqing, in the southwest, also managed double-digit growth, of 10.9 percent, but fell short of its 11 percent goal. The coal-rich northern province of Shanxi was among the worst performers in terms of GDP growth, reporting expansion of 4.9 percent, 4.1 percentage points off its target. Coal production in the country fell by 2.1 percent year on year to 3.52 billion tons in the first 11 months last year, the Security Times reported on Jan. 23, citing data from the China National Coal Association."

Source: 财新《新世纪》