月度归档： 2025 年 9 月

　　On June 26th, according to the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Team of the State Commission for Discipline Inspection in the Ministry of Education of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Supervision Committee of the Beijing Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection, Cai Xiang, former member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee and vice president of China Communication University, was suspected of serious violation of the law and was currently under disciplinary review and supervision investigation.

　　Cai Xiang, former member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee and Vice President of China Communication University (data map)

　　In recent years, discipline violations and corruption have occurred from time to time in colleges and universities. According to the reporter’s incomplete statistics, before Cai Xiang was notified, there were more than ten people who were notified by the website of the Supervision Committee of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection this year, and most of them were "key minorities" at the level of principals, deans and party Committee secretaries. (among them, nine people are undergoing disciplinary review and supervision investigation, and three people are expelled from the party. )

　　On June 24th, Deng Xinhua, former member of the Standing Committee of Huangshi Municipal Committee, former Secretary-General and former Party Secretary of Hubei Institute of Technology, was suspected of serious violation of discipline and duty, and is currently under disciplinary review and supervision investigation.

　　On June 21st, Li Jin, secretary of the Party Committee of Sichuan Vocational and Technical College of Chemical Technology, surrendered himself on suspicion of serious violation of discipline and law, and is currently under disciplinary review and supervision investigation. The reporter noticed that it was only half a year before Li Jin became the party secretary of Sichuan Vocational and Technical College of Chemical Technology. (In November 2018, Li Jin became the director of the Metallurgical Building Materials Division of the Sichuan Provincial Department of Economy and Information Technology, and from the following month, he also served as the party secretary of Sichuan Vocational and Technical College of Chemical Technology. In February 2019, Li Jin no longer served as the director of the Metallurgical Building Materials Division of the Sichuan Provincial Department of Economy and Information Technology, and continued to retain the post of Party Secretary of Sichuan Vocational and Technical College of Chemical Technology. )

　　On May 28th, Zhang Xinyi, former member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee and Vice President of Chongqing University of Technology, was suspected of serious violation of discipline and law, and is currently under disciplinary review and supervision investigation.

　　On May 15th, Teli, former deputy secretary of the Party Committee and president of Xilin Gol Vocational College, was even more suspected of serious violation of the law, and is currently undergoing disciplinary review and supervision investigation.

　　On May 7, Shu Weilin, former Party Secretary of Sichuan Business Vocational College, was expelled from the Party and public office.

　　On April 25th, Deng Fuqing, former Party Secretary and Dean of Harbin Institute of Finance, was expelled from the Party and his retirement benefits were cancelled.

　　On April 11th, Sun Yongli, deputy secretary of the Party Committee of baicheng normal College, Jilin Province, was suspected of serious violation of discipline and law, and is currently under disciplinary review and supervision investigation.

　　On April 8, Jason, member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee of Hubei Institute of Technology, vice president, president and secretary of the Party Committee of Erdong Medical Group, was suspected of serious violation of discipline and duty, and accepted disciplinary review and supervision investigation.

　　On February 26th, Yang Yandong, former deputy secretary of the Party Committee and president of bohai university, was suspected of serious violation of discipline and law, and is currently under disciplinary review and supervision investigation.

　　On February 21st, Zhang Hanrong, member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee and Vice President of Xi ‘an Jiaotong University, accepted the disciplinary review and supervision investigation.

　　On January 24th, Zhang Guomin, former vice president of Gansu Agricultural University, was expelled from the Party and public office.

　　It is not difficult to see from the above cases that have been investigated and notified that the current anti-corruption work in colleges and universities is great. However, compared with the achievements, the problems behind it are more thought-provoking. It is shocking to sort out the cases of power rent-seeking in colleges and universities in recent years, especially the cases of "key minority" using power rent-seeking.

　　In September 2015, the Intermediate People’s Court of Heze City sentenced Xu Tongwen, former party secretary of Qilu University of Technology, to 13 years in prison for accepting bribes and corruption.

　　Xu Tongwen was sentenced to 13 years in the first instance (video screenshot)

　　According to media reports, in Qilu University of Technology, Xu Tongwen, who calls himself the "father of the university", is often arbitrary and arrogant. He believes that "the successful preparation of this university has contributed a lot to himself. Seeing that the surrounding developers and construction units have become rich in a short time, their psychology has become unbalanced, and they have gradually begun to think about private affairs and seek personal gain, and they have more desire for money. Later, whenever I heard someone send money to my family, I would feel a sense of accomplishment from my heart. "

　　In this way, in 14 years, Xu Tongwen accepted bribes for 117 times, totaling more than 4 million yuan. The hand of collecting money extends to almost all aspects of college work, such as enrollment, project bidding and material procurement. A few days before the investigation, there were still three bribery acts.

　　On November 22, 2018, the Intermediate People’s Court of Tonghua City, Jilin Province publicly pronounced the bribery case of Ren Fengchun, the former party secretary of baicheng normal College. Ren Fengchun was sentenced to 7 years in prison for accepting bribes and fined RMB 1 million.

　　Ren Fengchun, former Party Secretary of baicheng normal College (data map)

　　Similar to Xu Tongwen, during his tenure, Ren Fengchun also regarded himself as the "parent" of the college, "grasping major issues and minor feelings", "making decisions in one word", "spending money in finance" and "selecting and employing people". The college’s major decision-making, appointment and dismissal of important cadres, major project investment, and the use of large amounts of funds were all decided by him before the meeting. The college became his exclusive territory. In order to "provide better conditions for his daughter abroad and make himself and his wife have a more comfortable life after retirement", Ren Fengchun made great efforts to gain power and seek personal gain.

　　It was found through trial that from 2008 to 2014, Ren Fengchun took advantage of his position as Party Secretary of baicheng normal University to seek benefits for others in terms of project contracting, goods procurement and project payment, and illegally accepted property from others several times, amounting to more than 12 million yuan. After the incident, all the stolen money was refunded.

　　All the above cases show that colleges and universities are not pure land, and they are no longer "ivory towers" far from reality, but they should never become "private plots" for some "key minorities". Violation of discipline and corruption in colleges and universities not only pollute the campus atmosphere, but also endanger the long-term development of education.

　　It should be a pure land for teaching and educating people. Why has it become a high-incidence area for violations of discipline and corruption?

　　Some experts have analyzed the causes of corruption in colleges and universities from many aspects:

　　On the one hand, colleges and universities are relatively closed and easy to form "small circles"; On the other hand, the level and location of many colleges and universities are even higher, which is easy to cause supervision difficulties, that is, people often say that "the visible can’t be managed, but the managed can’t be seen". From the perspective of the school, the administration is serious and the power is centralized, which lacks strong constraints and supervision on the operation of power, especially in important positions and important fields; From outside the school, some people think that colleges and universities are "pure land" and "ivory towers". The leaders and teachers of colleges and universities are knowledgeable, highly cultivated and strict in self-discipline. They don’t know clearly about the severe and complicated situation of anti-corruption in colleges and universities, and they don’t pay enough attention to the supervision of college cadres.

　　In addition, behind the dust and pollution of the "ivory tower" is the trend of accelerated enrollment expansion and infrastructure growth in colleges and universities in recent years, which objectively provides more power rent-seeking space for some leading cadres in colleges and universities with selfish distractions. The fundamental problem is the expansion of selfish desires and poor supervision.

　　Then, how should the corruption in colleges and universities be governed? How can we create a good environment in colleges and universities?

　　The main person in charge of the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Team of the State Supervision Commission of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection in the Ministry of Education once said in an interview:

　　First, insist on keeping a close eye on old problems and paying attention to new trends. Keep a close eye on hedonism and extravagance, seize the time nodes such as entrance examination, graduation defense and holidays, and resolutely investigate and deal with violations of discipline; Pay close attention to the invisible variation problems such as making flexibility through academic activities and giving gifts from a distance in electronic red-envelope, and resolutely prevent the resurgence of "four winds". We will make greater efforts to oppose formalism and bureaucracy, focusing on correcting and investigating problems such as high-sounding statements, poor implementation, cherishing feathers, avoiding problems, inaction, chaos, and cold and hard appeals to teachers and students, which will form a powerful shock.

　　The second is to insist on investigating accountability and reporting exposure together. Firmly grasp the "key minority" of the leading bodies at all levels directly under the education system, persist in attacking the spiritual problems that violate the eight central regulations, and never be soft. Not only should we seriously deal with those directly responsible, but we should also investigate the main responsibility and leadership responsibility according to the situation, and conduct pressure at all levels. The typical cases should be notified by name, and the strong signal that the discipline will be stricter in the future will be continuously released, so as to consolidate the overwhelming situation of Zhi Zhi’s shame and stop.

　　Third, adhere to ideological education and system construction. In the process of investigating and handling violations of discipline, ideological and political work is always carried out, so that party member cadres who violate discipline can truly know their mistakes, admit their mistakes, regret their mistakes and correct them. In terms of system construction, combined with the reality of educational work, in view of the different manifestations of the "four winds" problem in ministries, institutions directly under the Central Committee and universities directly under the Central Committee, the specific measures to implement the spirit of the eight central regulations are revised again, a more targeted, scientific and effective system is formulated, and the stubborn style of work is solved with reform ideas and methods, so as to fundamentally control and prevent unhealthy trends.

　　Can you understand my "language"? Photo courtesy of vision china

　　In-depth study and implementation of the spirit monograph and education article of the Sixth Plenary Session of the Nineteenth CPC Central Committee

　　The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China’s Resolution on the Great Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party’s Hundred Years’ Struggle adopted by the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee (hereinafter referred to as the Resolution) summarizes the great achievements made by the Party and the state in the new era from 13 aspects, and points out in the part of "social construction" that "the education and teaching of the national common language and characters should be fully implemented". The important conclusion of the Resolution fully shows that the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core attaches great importance to language and writing education. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the General Secretary of the Supreme Leader has made many important instructions on strengthening the national common language, which has pointed out the direction and provided fundamental follow-up for the high-quality popularization of the national common language in the new era.

　　Why popularize the national common language with high quality?

　　It is of great historical, practical and strategic significance to popularize the national common language with high quality.

　　It is of historical significance to popularize the national common language with high quality. In 2021, it is the intersection of two hundred-year goals. In the first century, the Communist Party of China (CPC), as an advocate, promoter, leader and practitioner of the development of language and writing, promoted profound changes in China’s language and writing life and led the great changes in China’s language and writing in the past century. During the period of new-democratic revolution, our party actively launched education and literacy campaigns in revolutionary base areas and liberated areas, and at the same time proposed to learn languages from the people. These efforts ended the history of the separation of spoken and written languages in China for more than 2,000 years, broke down the class barriers of spoken and written languages, played a great role in publicizing and educating the masses and uniting the masses, and made extensive and in-depth exploration and accumulation for the policies and practices of spoken and written languages of the Party after the founding of New China. During the period of socialist revolution and construction, the CPC Central Committee grasped China’s basic national conditions, language situation and the needs of economic and social development, and deployed and promoted three major tasks: simplifying Chinese characters, popularizing Putonghua, and formulating and implementing the Chinese Pinyin scheme, which improved the scientific and cultural quality of hundreds of millions of people and eliminated language communication obstacles, laying a solid foundation for promoting economic and social development. In the new era of reform, opening up and socialist modernization, our party has promoted the development of language and writing with the times, pioneering and innovating around the goal of promoting the standardization, informationization and legalization of language and writing. The state promotes the inclusion of Putonghua, which is commonly used in the whole country, in the Constitution, the promulgation and implementation of the Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC) on National Common Language and Characters, and vigorously promotes the information construction of language and characters, etc.It has played a role in boosting and safeguarding the reform, opening up and socialist modernization. During this period, the work of popularizing the national common language was mainly based on quantity, and it was also a process of gradually improving quality. Since Socialism with Chinese characteristics entered a new era, the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core has attached great importance to the work of language and writing, unswervingly popularized the national common language and writing, and achieved the historic goal of basically popularizing the national common language and writing throughout the country. During this period, the focus of popularizing the national common language changed from quantity to both quantity and quality. In the second century, in order to achieve the grand goal of building a socialist modern power in an all-round way, we must take high-quality popularization as the primary and core task at present on the basis of consolidating the number of popularization.

　　It is of practical significance to popularize the national common language with high quality. At present, we are faced with "two spaces", namely, real space and virtual space composed of information technologies such as network, artificial intelligence and network digitalization. In the real world, the basic popularization of the national common language has been realized in the first hundred years. However, in the virtual (network) space, the popularization of national common language is still unbalanced and insufficient, especially the innovation of language information technology can not fully meet the needs of information development, which directly affects the efficiency and effect of human-computer interaction. Therefore, only by popularizing the national common language with high quality can we adapt to the arrival of the intelligent age, the needs and development of the intelligent society.

　　It is of strategic significance to popularize the national common language with high quality. Language and writing work should serve both domestic and international situations. Only by popularizing the national common language and writing with high quality can we better build the consciousness of the Chinese nation community; Popularizing Putonghua with high quality and standardizing Chinese characters can lay a solid foundation for teenagers to grow into talents and button their first buttons in life. At the same time, to build a community of human destiny, we need to deepen cultural exchanges and cooperation with other countries and have a high level of national common language and writing.

　　How to do a good job in popularizing the national common language with high quality

　　To do a good job in popularizing the national common language and writing with high quality, we must adhere to the guidance of the supreme leader Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought in the new era, take the new development concept as the guide, and always run through the theme of high-quality development to create a new pattern of popularizing the national common language and writing with high quality.

　　Carry out the concept of innovation and development. Innovation is the inexhaustible motive force and source of high-quality development, and the national common language and writing work also needs continuous innovation to achieve high-quality development. Many innovations can be seen in the Opinions on Comprehensively Strengthening Language and Writing Work in the New Era (hereinafter referred to as the Opinions) issued by the General Office of the State Council. For example, the Opinions firmly established the dominant position of the national common language and provided policy support for the popularization of the national common language in ethnic areas; Innovation puts forward the policy of popularizing in the new era, "focusing on key points, popularizing in an all-round way, consolidating and improving"; Put forward to study and formulate the national language development plan, and make unified planning and deployment of the national common language and writing work; Clearly put forward to promote the innovation and development of language information technology, and broaden the field for high-quality popularization of national common language.

　　In addition, innovation and development have also opened up a new situation in the work of national common language and writing. For example, by popularizing Putonghua and standardizing Chinese characters with high quality, the level and quality of language services for rural revitalization strategy, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, free trade pilot zone and "One Belt, One Road" initiative will be improved.

　　Carry out the concept of coordinated development. High-quality development itself is the result of coordinated development. At present, the popularization of the national common language is still unbalanced and insufficient, and it is urgent to coordinate the development of all ethnic groups, regions, fields and industries and popularize the national common language with high quality. To coordinate the development of all ethnic groups and regions, it is necessary to increase the promotion of the national common language and characters in ethnic areas and comprehensively strengthen the education and teaching of the national common language and characters in schools at all levels and in ethnic areas. At the same time, it is necessary to improve the popularization level of the national common language in rural areas, consolidate and expand the achievements of poverty alleviation, and implement the plan of popularizing and helping rural revitalization. It is also necessary to strengthen assistance and support to areas with low Putonghua popularization rate and weak popularization foundation.

　　The coordinated development of the national common language is also a manifestation of high-quality development. In the process of coordination, all parties will learn from each other’s nutrition, so as to promote the popularization and development of Putonghua and standardized Chinese characters with vitality and vitality, and promote the continuous and high-quality development of the national common language and writing cause.

　　Implement the concept of green development. The civilization and health of language ecology is the pursuit of high-quality development. To popularize the national common language with high quality, it is necessary to create a good language ecological environment and make it develop in a harmonious, civilized, safe and healthy way. It is necessary to strengthen the publicity and interpretation of the legal system and norms of the national common language and writing, strengthen the supervision and management of the use of language and writing, and resolutely curb the vulgar and violent spread of online language to create a clear cyberspace.

　　At the same time, green development should consolidate the rule of law foundation of language and writing work. It is necessary to guide local governments to improve relevant local laws and regulations according to the provisions of the Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC) on National Common Language and Characters, and incorporate the standardization requirements of language and characters into relevant industry regulations, rules and standards.

　　Carry out the concept of open development. Serving the national strategy and persisting in open development put forward high-quality requirements for the popularization of the national common language. General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out that language is the best key to understanding a country. We should open up to history, actively promote the inheritance and development of Chinese excellent language and culture, and inherit and carry forward Chinese excellent traditional culture with language as the carrier. Open to different regions and deepen language and cultural exchanges and cooperation with Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Open to the international community, strengthen exchanges and cooperation with language and writing institutions of relevant countries and international organizations, strengthen international Chinese education, and strengthen brand building such as international Chinese proficiency test, international Chinese teacher scholarship, Chinese Bridge and new Sinology.

　　Implement the concept of shared development. Let the people share the fruits of development is the purpose of high-quality development. The national common language is the basis and condition for the broad masses of people to share information and the achievements of national reform and development. To popularize the national common language with high quality, we must implement and embody the people-centered development thought and meet the diverse language needs of the people.

　　Shared development requires us to speed up the standardization and informatization construction of sign language and Braille, so that people with disabilities can share the fruits of high-quality development of the national common language. Shared development requires us to inherit and carry forward the excellent Chinese culture with the language as the carrier, and provide high-quality national common language works of art for the people. In addition, shared development also requires us to provide better language services for international friends coming to China.

　　How to ensure high quality and popularize the national common language and characters?

　　To popularize the national common language with high quality, we must uphold the leadership of the Party, the supremacy of the people, strengthen the construction of the rule of law, take schools as the basic position of education, and persist in consolidating, improving and developing in an all-round way.

　　We must uphold the leadership of the party. By improving the management system of "Party Committee leadership, government leading, Language Committee overall planning, departmental support and social participation", we will compact the main responsibilities of governments at all levels, strengthen the overall management responsibilities of language and writing departments at all levels, give play to the responsibilities of language Committee members in this field, and innovate the participation mechanism of social forces. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen the construction of the language and writing work team.

　　We must uphold the people first. Adhering to the people-centered principle and making the achievements of popularization benefit the people is the fundamental purpose of popularizing the national common language with high quality. When implementing the new development concept, we should fully consider the actual needs of the people. It is necessary to focus on ethnic areas and rural areas, popularize the national common language with high quality, and meet the language and cultural needs of the people.

　　It is necessary to strengthen the rule of law. The purpose of the construction of the rule of law is to make the national language work have laws to follow, to protect citizens’ right to learn and use the national common language, to promote the standardization, standardization and healthy development of the national common language, and to ensure the main position of the national common language. The construction of the rule of law also includes the construction of the system and mechanism of the national common language and writing work, and the modernization of the language and writing work governance system and governance capacity. To lay a solid foundation for the rule of law in language and writing work, it is necessary to implement the Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC) on National Common Language and Writing. Promote the improvement of the legal system of language and writing, formulate relevant supporting regulations, and strengthen management according to law.

　　We should persist in taking the school as the basic position of education. It is necessary to strengthen the work of language and writing in schools, and regard the full implementation of the national common language and writing as the legal requirement for the use of words as the basic language of education and teaching. It is necessary to comprehensively strengthen the education and teaching of the national common language in schools of all levels and types in ethnic minority areas, strengthen the training of the national common language for rural primary and secondary school teachers and migrant workers, and strengthen the international Chinese education and teaching.

　　We must persist in consolidating, improving and developing in an all-round way. Based on China’s basic national conditions, language situation and the new development stage of language and writing, we should not only grasp the main industries, but also grasp the weak links; We should not only ensure quantity, but also pay attention to quality; It is necessary to highlight the key points and fill in the shortcomings. We must persist in striving for progress in stability, improving quality and increasing efficiency, and ensure high-quality popularization of the national common language.

　　Entering the new journey of the second century of struggle, the development of national language and writing work has entered a new stage. We must adhere to the guidance of the Supreme Leader Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought in the new era, unswervingly implement the new development concept, take the promotion of the high-quality development of the national common language as the theme, and take the high-quality popularization of the national common language as the core task, so as to comprehensively improve the popularization level and quality of the national common language and provide strong support for building a socialist modern power in an all-round way.

　　(The author is an advisory member of the State Language Committee)

Recently, some media reported that the United States and Russia reached an agreement in principle to freeze their respective nuclear warhead inventories, and the United States also hopes to set an upper limit on the number of nuclear warheads. However, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov responded on 14th that Russia could not accept the US position on freezing nuclear arsenals. What is the purpose of the United States to set a ceiling on the number of nuclear warheads? What impact will this move have on the future fate of the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty?

American intercontinental missiles are equipped with nuclear warheads.

During the Cold War, there was a nuclear arms control with a ceiling.

It is no stranger to voluntarily freeze the size of nuclear arsenals and set a ceiling. This kind of move occurred during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. The first stage of negotiations on the limitation of offensive strategic weapons (SALT-I) between the United States and the Soviet Union contained the content of limiting the upper limit of their respective strategic weapons. For example, the United States has 1,054 intercontinental ballistic missiles (when SALT-I negotiations were concluded), and the Soviet Union has 1,398 intercontinental ballistic missiles, which are limited to 1,618. There are 600 submarine-launched ballistic missiles in the United States, limited to the upper limit of 710, while the Soviet Union has 950, and the upper limit is 950. There are 37 strategic missile nuclear submarines in the United States, and the upper limit is limited to 44, while the Soviet Union has 63. Instead, it is necessary to cut one and limit it to 62. The United States and the Soviet Union did not impose restrictions on strategic bombers. At the same time, the negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union at this stage also restricted and restrained strategic defensive weapons, and the ABM Treaty signed during the SALT-I negotiations made some positive contributions to maintaining strategic stability between the United States and the Soviet Union.

However, SALT-I is not a disarmament agreement in a positive sense. The United States and the Soviet Union aim at limiting each other’s arms expansion, with emphasis on control and restriction. As far as the United States is concerned, the achievement of SALT-I provides space for the United States to spare time and energy to improve the quality level of strategic deterrence. For example, the existing Trident missile and B-1 bomber in the United States are all developed during the relaxation period after the conclusion of SALT-I by the United States and the Soviet Union. As far as the Soviet Union is concerned, the number of nuclear weapons in the Soviet Union in the late 1960s was basically equal to that in the United States, and the use of the salt-I relaxation period can also improve the quality of nuclear weapons for the Soviet Union and accumulate capital for future confrontation with the United States.

Russian "Jarls" road mobile intercontinental missile.

During the three years from 1977 to 1979, the United States and the Soviet Union continued to negotiate the second stage of strategic offensive arms limitation (SALT-II). The main purpose of SALT-II was to implement the temporary agreement and related temporary constraints reached in SALT-I negotiations before, and form a real strategic arms limitation treaty. The negotiation result was that the United States and the Soviet Union signed the Treaty on Strategic Offensive Arms Limitation. As can be seen from the name, the arms control agreement reached by the United States and the Soviet Union at this stage is still based on restrictions, rather than real disarmament and reduction.

For example, according to the content of the treaty, when the United States and the Soviet Union negotiated, the United States owned 2,142 strategic projection weapons, including land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, sea-based submarine-launched ballistic missiles and strategic bombers, and the Soviet Union owned 2,318, and the United States and the Soviet Union were unified and limited to 2,250. The emergence of multi-warhead technology was the focus of technical attention between the United States and the Soviet Union in that period. The land-based multi-warhead missiles and sea-based multi-warhead missiles of the United States and the Soviet Union have also been restricted. At the time of negotiation, the United States had 1,046 land-based and sea-based submarine-launched missiles capable of carrying multiple warheads, and the Soviet Union had 588 land-based and sea-based submarine-launched missiles capable of carrying multiple warheads, which was limited to 1,200 according to the treaty. The technological capabilities of the United States and the Soviet Union, including the number of nuclear weapons, reached a peak in the Cold War before and during the SALT-II negotiations. The two countries were aware of the restrictions on strategic offensive weapons, but this restriction set an upper limit. Specifically, both SALT-I and SALT-II set an upper limit on the number of strategic offensive weapons of the other side, such as multi-warhead missiles. The upper limit set by SALT-II gave the Soviet Union room to continue to develop and increase multi-warhead missiles.

Russia has accelerated the modernization of nuclear weapons in recent years. The picture shows the newly developed "sarmat" liquid intercontinental missile.

What are the considerations for the United States to set a nuclear ceiling?

There are certain historical reasons for the SALT-I and SALT-II negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. For example, the United States was mired in the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s, and its domestic economy was dragged down to some extent. In order to confront the United States in the Cold War, the Soviet Union neglected the livelihood economy, and the problems of the livelihood economy emerged in the early 1970s. In 1971, the ninth five-year plan for the Soviet economy formulated at the 24th Congress of the CPSU was not completed, and the production efficiency of consumer goods for the people’s livelihood was low. The domestic economic situation of the United States and the Soviet Union is not optimistic, and the two countries need to reduce the negative impact of the arms race on the economy. In addition, the technical level of strategic weapons of the two countries has been continuously broken, and both countries have strategic intentions to restrict the development of their opponents. However, the strength of the two countries is equal, and it is difficult to reach a mutually acceptable reduction agreement in a short time. Therefore, under the circumstances that it is difficult to achieve arms reduction in a short time and the prospect is uncertain, setting an upper limit and voluntarily freezing can not only achieve some restrictions on the other side, but also leave room for the development and operation of armaments. Restricting nuclear armaments has become the main manifestation of nuclear arms control behavior in the pre-cold war period between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Salt-I and Salt-II didn’t help to reduce armaments, but to a certain extent put a brake on the strategic arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union. The confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union still drives them to expand their strategic arms capabilities. It was not until the middle and late 1980s that the nuclear arms control between the United States and the Soviet Union began to transform into real reduction.

Now the United States and Russia are discussing freezing the number of nuclear warheads, and the United States proposes to set the upper limit of nuclear warheads, which is actually similar to the consideration of the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. On the one hand, both the United States and Russia have increased their investment in the development of strategic weapons in recent years. A series of new types of strategic weapons have been put into use in Russia, and the United States is also upgrading the modernization level of its nuclear arsenal and implementing nuclear expansion. The continuous withdrawal and breach of the contract by the United States has also undermined the strategic stable relationship between the United States and Russia. The prospect of the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty is worrying. Since it is difficult to reach an effective consensus on further reductions in the future, trying to freeze and set a ceiling is a move to build minimum mutual trust and ease the tension in strategic competition between the United States and Russia.

American B-61 nuclear bomb.

In addition, the US election is approaching. If the Trump administration throws out the idea of limiting and freezing the number of nuclear weapons at this time, it does not rule out that it is a consideration to alleviate its overly radical unilateralist security policy in the past four years and improve the image of Trump’s arms control saboteur. It is less than a month before the US election. If Trump wins the re-election, the upper limit of the number of nuclear weapons between the United States and Russia envisaged by the United States will actually provide flexible space for the United States to upgrade its nuclear arsenal and adjust the number of different nuclear weapons in the future. This is quite similar to the fact that although the United States and the Soviet Union conducted nuclear arms control in the middle period before the Cold War, the number of nuclear weapons became more and more controlled, and the nuclear weapons and equipment became more and more advanced. The United States intended to set a ceiling, which was tantamount to providing development space for the US nuclear arms expansion in disguise.

With the approach of the general election, the policy ideas of the two presidential candidates in the United States have gradually become clear, and Trump and Biden have different attitudes towards arms control. Trump, as always, emphasized "withdrawing from the treaty" for nuclear arms expansion, while Biden said that if elected, he would extend the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, reconsider returning to the Iranian nuclear deal in full compliance, shrink the Trump administration’s nuclear arms expansion plans, such as developing new nuclear warheads and new nuclear vehicles, and carefully consider the role of nuclear weapons. No matter who dies in the final US election, whether Trump continues to spoil the game or Biden makes up for it, the negative impact of the Trump administration’s destruction of international social security and stable relations between major powers in the past four years will be difficult to eliminate in a short time.

(The author is a postdoctoral fellow at Tsinghua University Institute of Social Sciences, studying arms control and national security.)

CCTV News:There are two veterans in the flood fighting team in Furong Dun Town, pengze county City, Jiangxi Province. One is from Shenyang, Liaoning Province, and the other is from Zunyi, Guizhou Province. They had all retired from the army at home, but when they saw the news of the flood in Jiangxi, they came to Jiangxi for flood fighting.

Wang Xiyuan, 69, from Shenyang, Liaoning Province, has more than 20 years of military career. Wang Fei, 34, is also a retired soldier from Zunyi, Guizhou. After watching the news of floods in Jiangxi on TV, the two men made a decision — — Come to Jiangxi to support flood fighting.

Wang Xiyuan, a 69-year-old veteran with more than 20 years of military career.

Wang Fei, a 34-year-old retired soldier.

After they met in Hukou County, Jiangxi Province, they learned that the flood in Pengze was very serious, so they took a bus to Furong Dun Town in Pengze. The night they first arrived, they encountered a piping emergency.

Furong Dun Town is one of the worst-hit places in Pengze this time. They have been guarding the levee with local cadres and masses to participate in emergency rescue, plugging and strengthening the dam.

Now, although the local flood control situation has eased, they have not left. When the reporter asked about their next plan, they all said that the flood would not retreat and they would never retreat.