Information Memorandum V2

Current Information#

Time period: 24/12/09-17

Keywords: Workers' rights, rights protection, international politics, Syria, elderly care, pensions, nursing homes, Xinjiang, academia, academic cliques, writing ability, OpenAI, Musk, AI, business

Table of Contents#

#1 [Can annual leave be reset at the end of the year? Who decides whether to take annual leave?]#

Excerpt#

Enjoying annual leave is a legal right of workers. Annual leave is not a benefit, but a legal right of employees. "If the employer does not arrange for annual leave in accordance with the law, the worker should promptly safeguard their legal rights. Workers should retain all evidence related to annual leave, such as proof of work years, labor contracts, pay slips, leave records, etc., for use as evidence in disputes."
According to the "Implementation Measures for Paid Annual Leave for Employees," employers are required to arrange annual leave for employees, but if an employee voluntarily and in writing requests not to take annual leave for personal reasons, the employer may only pay the employee their normal salary during the working period. "From the aforementioned provisions, it can be seen that the 'waiver' of annual leave must be done in writing (actively), and using the employee's 'not applying for annual leave' as a standard for waiving annual leave not only clearly excludes the legal rights of workers but also contradicts current legal provisions."
The "Regulations on Paid Annual Leave for Employees" stipulate that workers are entitled to annual leave according to the law, and for the number of annual leave days that workers should have taken but did not, the employer must pay annual leave wages at 300% of the employee's daily wage income.
Additionally, according to the "Implementation Measures for Paid Annual Leave for Employees," if an employer, with the consent of the employee, does not arrange annual leave or arranges fewer days than the employee is entitled to, they must pay the employee for the unused annual leave days at 300% of their daily wage income, which includes the salary paid to the employee during normal working hours. "The daily wage income for calculating the unused annual leave wage is converted from the employee's monthly salary divided by the monthly calculation days (21.75 days). The monthly salary refers to the average monthly salary of the employee in the 12 months prior to the employer paying the unused annual leave wage, excluding overtime pay."
The "Implementation Measures for Paid Annual Leave for Employees" stipulate that employers should arrange annual leave based on the specific circumstances of production and work, considering the employee's own wishes. If the employer cannot arrange annual leave due to work needs or arranges annual leave across one fiscal year, they must obtain the employee's consent. It is stated that if the number of annual leave days stipulated in the labor contract, collective contract, or the employer's regulations exceeds the legal standard, the employer must comply with the relevant agreements or regulations. "In other words, if the employer's regulations exceed the legal standard, workers can demand to enjoy annual leave according to the employer's standard or request the employer to pay for unused annual leave wages."

Notes#

Whether China can truly become a so-called "high-income economy" or "developed country" depends on whether the proletariat's wage income and right to rest, these basic economic human rights, can be guaranteed. If this cannot be achieved, there is no talk of "high income" or "development."

#3 [Comprehensive implementation of the personal pension system]#

Excerpt#

The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Finance, the State Taxation Administration, the Financial Regulatory Administration, and the China Securities Regulatory Commission issued a notice on the comprehensive implementation of the personal pension system. The notice clarifies that starting from December 15, 2024, workers participating in the basic pension insurance for urban employees or the basic pension insurance for urban and rural residents in China can participate in the personal pension system. The scope of tax incentives will be expanded from 36 pilot cities (regions) to the entire country. The notice specifies that participants can apply for early withdrawal of personal pensions under certain conditions, such as reaching the age for receiving basic pensions, completely losing labor ability, or settling abroad, as well as suffering from major illnesses, meeting certain conditions for receiving unemployment insurance, or currently receiving minimum living security. Specific methods will be formulated separately. Participants who meet the withdrawal conditions can apply through social insurance agencies at all levels, a nationwide unified online service portal, and commercial banks, and after verification, commercial banks will disburse personal pensions to the participant's social security card bank account.

Notes#

The overall pension pool in society seems to be nearing depletion, hence the opening of personal pension channels as an emergency measure. However, the effect is likely minimal.

#4 [What I saw about the current situation and future of elderly care in a nursing home in a county]#

Notes#

Elderly care models are mainly divided into home care, community care, and institutional care. Nursing homes belong to institutional care, which currently accounts for a small proportion. Nursing homes can be public or private. Public facilities require more investment and charge lower fees, making them hard to come by.

The elderly admitted to nursing homes fall into two categories: fully self-sufficient and those needing passive care. Different nursing homes have different admission criteria. Some accept "active seniors" who can take care of themselves, while others accept those who require care. The sources of residents in nursing homes are primarily elderly individuals and middle-aged people suffering from "elderly diseases." The industry principle is not to accept elderly individuals with infectious diseases or mental illnesses. The normal admission targets show a clear polarization trend, which may hint at the life expectancy and future elderly life of modern people, observable through the current situation of the middle-aged and elderly population.

Currently, elderly individuals who can take care of themselves in China prefer home care, partly due to economic reasons, such as low retirement pensions or the financial difficulties of their children in paying for care. There are indeed instances where children stop paying for care. On the other hand, there is a lack of trust in nursing homes, such as fears of abuse. Some elderly individuals, after a lifetime of hard work, resist moving into nursing homes, feeling "abandoned" by family and society. Some would rather go to the hospital when they fall ill than stay in a nursing home that combines medical and nursing care, fearing they won't be able to return home.

Currently, the demand for elderly care and service supply is imbalanced. While nursing homes are said to be a sunrise industry, the industry is not mature, and many nursing homes have low occupancy rates, unbalanced income and expenditure, and lack of transparency; society generally does not recognize them. The professional identity of practitioners is often seen as lacking "future" and dignity, leading to few willing to work long-term in the field. There is a need to improve the public image of nursing homes and enhance public confidence in institutional care.

To evaluate the service effectiveness of a nursing home, one must look beyond hardware facilities to the quality of human service. The quality of human service reflects on the mental state of the elderly residents; if they appear dull and close to despair, lacking hope and anticipation for life, that is not good. Smiling service and joyful service are the requirements for good nursing home service. A nursing home is essentially a small society where elderly individuals should have collective activities, participate together, and engage their interests and hobbies to bring joy.

The future elderly care service model needs to be diversified, which is a historical trend. Community care needs to enter the homes of elderly individuals, especially those living alone!

For many, as they age, their children provide a sense of security, as they can help them in times of need. Many parents hope their children will have a home, "so that someone is there to accompany them during holidays." Conversely, some elderly individuals lacking family companionship may have suicidal thoughts during family reunions on holidays. The demand for "companionship during medical visits" also arises from the spatial separation between parents and children.
In nursing homes, there are elderly individuals who suffer from serious illnesses or pass away, and there is palliative care (including end-of-life care; helping patients leave this world comfortably, peacefully, and with dignity, ultimately achieving tranquility for the deceased, peace for the living, and order for the observers). When an elderly person passes away, it is the relatives and survivors who suffer. End-of-life care focuses more on the psychological support for family members, including avoiding moral accusations of "unfilial" behavior and guiding grief.

Traditional filial piety concepts can impose varying degrees of constraints on children, such as giving up opportunities to work in big cities or even abroad. Whether to let children live their ideal lives or stay nearby to be filial depends on parents' expectations of their children. Historically, loyalty and filial piety have been difficult to balance. In modern society, children should not be judged or bound by past concepts.

Perhaps our worries about love, marriage, and elderly care issues are unnecessary. Some children do not want to settle for a relationship or marriage. Some children are completely unwilling to marry and even refuse to date. In the future, perspectives may suddenly change, or society may adapt to the thoughts of the people.

In collective activities, elderly individuals sing:
"To speak from the heart, I also have a home..."
"Voices cannot express the suffering of the world..."
"The sun sets behind the western mountains, red clouds fly..."
"Follow Chairman Mao, hi! Follow the Communist Party, hi..."

Extended Discussion#

China's elderly care issues are closely related to love and marriage issues.

The traditional Chinese view of elderly care is "raising children to prevent aging." Due to the large population and significant social wealth accumulation, this can mitigate the problem of losing the ability to work and having no stable income in old age. Currently, the retirement pensions and pensions of private enterprise employees are unlikely to support an elderly person living independently with savings for emergencies.

The traditional concept of filial piety can be seen in "Mencius": "There are three unfilial acts, the greatest of which is to have no descendants. Shun did not announce his marriage, which was for having no descendants; a gentleman considers it as announcing."

"Filial piety has three aspects," referring to "The Book of Rites": "Filial piety has three aspects: the greatest is to respect parents, the next is not to disgrace them, and the least is to provide for them."

In marriage, there is an emphasis on "matching social status," "talented men and beautiful women," and "establishing a family and career."

Of course, many contemporary young people have already freed themselves from the constraints of traditional concepts, actively choosing to "not date," "not marry," or "not have children," or even all three. The social trends of these young groups are the result of various social factors, including unequal distribution of social wealth and high costs of married life. Each person's social situation varies, leading to diverse views and practices regarding these issues.

In the future, reliance on "raising children to prevent aging" will no longer be feasible; China is not an immigrant country like the United States. Young people, as only children, face immense pressure. National policies and social resource distribution will inevitably lean towards socialized and market-based solutions. Relying solely on state power or family strength cannot solve the elderly care problem. The elderly care issue is a challenge that society as a whole must face, and different social groups—mainly the three lowest income quintiles—must work together to weave a social mutual aid network for elderly care, using collective strength to address collective issues. The elderly care issues of the wealthy are not within the public's view and do not need to be discussed; they have their own means due to their political and economic advantages.

I have also rediscovered that young and middle-aged people are the dominant groups in social discourse, while the elderly are often voiceless and overlooked.

#6 [Rather than publishing 40 papers in C journals every year, it's better to write public accounts regularly]#

Excerpt#

Therefore, publishing 40 papers a year is a public matter, not just a personal one. In contrast, I often write public accounts, which is much better because I do not occupy public resources; anyone can set up a public account without barriers. Of course, I also face the issue of feeling embarrassed under many gazes, as frequent writing may lead people to have thoughts about me; at least my titles are seen by others, and if they are attractive, they may open them for a glance and then feel disappointed, which makes them unhappy. I think they might block me or even delete me on WeChat, which is their legal right, and I completely understand. Our rights are equal; I have the right to write anything I want, and you have the right not to read, block, or delete me. I have invisibly lost some acquaintances while also recently meeting some resonators. Anyway, whether I write or not, there will still be people who affirm or deny me—whether I achieve something or not, the outcome is the same. I present myself in the way I choose, and regarding others' interference or involvement in public affairs, my so-called "privilege" as an old scholar is of no use because public accounts face the public directly, and the vast majority of readers do not know who I am. I compete fairly and freely with all public account authors, which aligns with Hayek's principles of free market competition. In this sense, my interference with public order is slightly greater than the aforementioned 40 papers a year because public accounts themselves are not resources; anyone can set them up and write at any time—this is a test of my future survival ability.
……
How to be reasonable? This involves which of the basic skills already possessed by humanity is permanent and even impossible to be completely replaced by AI. Many may not think of it, but I believe it is writing ability! This is why I said, "This is my future survival ability test." In the future, certain liberal arts majors may face precarious prospects or even be canceled due to insufficient funding for education. The first priority will be to retain majors with practical value in society, even if it is car repair. In the future, if the climate changes, you may "study ideological and political education," you may "study Marxist philosophy," but people in society may not want to listen; it would be better to be clever like a food delivery person or to fix a car that breaks down on the highway. But this is only the material aspect of survival ability. Since humans are not animals, they have spiritual needs and require spiritual products. These products are not like "Marxist philosophy" and "ideological and political education," which are products of planned economy, but rather the ability for spontaneous, humorous, and creative thinking similar to "stand-up comedy." It is an art of thought that is needed by both Chinese and foreigners; movies, dramas, and even social activities all depend on such independent and free imaginative abilities, all of which require some "draft," and this "draft" is writing ability.

Notes#

There is also supplementary material that illustrates how terrifying monopolies in information, knowledge, and academia can be. Those who possess real materials and data can choose to remain silent and not disclose the truth, while those who do not have real information can only rely on speculation to reconstruct historical truths.

Source: Jin Chongji: How did Hu Qiaomu and Hu Sheng compile the history of the Communist Party of China?

Discussing "unofficial" party history: Some materials they cannot see and can only guess.
The Paper: Your compilation can be said to be "official" party history, so how do you view other party history scholars who are also very active in society?
Jin Chongji: I once chatted with Gao Hua for half a day in Shanxi. In terms of age, I am almost a generation older than him. His father was part of the underground party at Xiamen University, while I was part of the underground party at Fudan University, so we could relate many experiences. His father was labeled as a rightist, which I think does affect one's perspective on issues.
After Gao Hua's book was published, he sent it to me. At that time, due to other reasons, I did not read it all, but I heard from others about its general impression. Regarding the Yan'an Rectification Movement, he used publicly published materials. The core materials of the Yan'an Rectification Movement are meeting minutes, especially the minutes of the Politburo meetings in September 1941 and September 1943, which are crucial, and he cannot see them. If he had systematically reviewed them, he would know that there are some things he is still relatively disconnected from, and much is based on guesswork. Around 2008, I went to France, and there was a German professor discussing Mao Zedong. I told him that he was wrong about several points, and I based my arguments on meeting minutes and telegrams, explaining them one by one. During the break, he came over and said, "Yes, the meeting minutes and archives you mentioned are things we cannot see; we can only guess." This is indeed the truth. There are many issues within the Yan'an Rectification Movement, especially regarding the rescue movement. However, from the meeting minutes, the central issue is opposing subjectivism, and the principle of seeking truth from facts was also proposed at this time. Chen Yun also mentioned that during the Yan'an Rectification Movement, he systematically reviewed the telegrams and documents drafted by Chairman Mao, and what impressed him the most was "seeking truth from facts."
The Paper: Mr. Yang Kuisheng's research is excellent and has a significant impact on readers; what do you think?
Jin Chongji: Of course, I read Yang Kuisheng's work; he has sent me his books. His first book was prefaced by me, "Mao Zedong and His Relationship with Moscow." He has many strengths and is very diligent in gathering materials. It should be noted that they do not have the convenience we have in gathering materials; they often have to run to archives in different provinces, and he has always been thinking about issues. So when Yang Kuisheng became a professor at Peking University, I wrote a recommendation letter for him. The recommendation letter had to be comprehensive; I first mentioned many of his strengths and also noted that sometimes he has a one-sided perspective.

#7 [OpenAI debates Musk]#

Excerpt#

You can’t sue your way to AGI. We have great respect for Elon’s accomplishments and gratitude for his early contributions to OpenAI, but he should be competing in the marketplace rather than the courtroom. It is critical for the U.S. to remain the global leader in AI. Our mission is to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity, and we have been and will remain a mission-driven organization. We hope Elon shares that goal and will uphold the values of innovation and free market competition that have driven his own success.

Notes#

OpenAI represents American interests and ultimately belongs to the power structure of the nation-state. The conflict between OpenAI and Musk is an internal struggle among the bourgeoisie.

#8 [Don't easily step into AI Native]#

Excerpt#

However, by 2024, if there is one thing that can be determined about the practice of AI in applications, it is that the vast majority of AI is not a product but merely a function.
If we accept this model, we will find that there are some products in the current AI application field that are clearly inflated, such as Perplexity, which is seen as a disruptor to Google. As of now, Perplexity's search results come from Bing and a portion of self-built indexes. Its contribution to AI search is based on the engineering improvement of results returned by existing search engines. This means that traditional search engines are the key upstream providers of products delivered by Perplexity to users, and if you have any IT knowledge, you will know that search engine technology is not as easy as it seems. For example, despite years of catching up, Microsoft's Bing still does not provide a search experience that is as good as Google's. Even if we do not consider the technical difficulties of traditional search technology, the cloud resources (including computing power, storage, and network bandwidth) that Google invests to maintain its traditional index (which you can understand as needing to record an answer before you can find one) may exceed the total cloud resource consumption of all AI applications in the world combined. The reason AI search is effective is that it utilizes these achievements rather than negating them.