On March 5th, Li Keqiang, Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China expounded the general requirements for economic and social development in 2021 in his government work report. On the whole, the report presents three characteristics:

　　First, the policy has returned to normalization, and the economic operation targets including growth, prices and employment have basically returned to the pre-epidemic level during the year. The policy implication lies in diluting the goal of "quantity" of economic growth and guiding all aspects to concentrate on promoting reform and innovation and promoting high-quality development.

　　Second, the policy is closer to the actual needs. For example, extending the policy of extending the repayment of principal and interest of loans for small and micro enterprises, increasing the re-discounting support for inclusive finance, extending the policy of reducing fees and awards for financing guarantees for small and micro enterprises, strengthening credit support for small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises, raising the threshold of value-added tax for small-scale taxpayers from 100,000 yuan to 150,000 yuan for monthly sales, and halving the income tax for those small and micro enterprises and individual industrial and commercial households whose annual taxable income is less than 1 million yuan on the basis of the current preferential policies.

　　Third, the macro policy emphasizes continuity, stability and sustainability. Policy continuity has been maintained in solving the outstanding housing problems in big cities and standardizing the development of the third pillar endowment insurance.

　　Specifically, there are 10 points worth focusing on. Grasping these key points is of great guiding significance for doing a good job in the whole year.

　　1. The proactive fiscal policy is more sustainable by improving quality and efficiency.

　　The proactive fiscal policy is still strong, and the policy focus is adapted to the adjustment of economic development goals. On the one hand, the GDP growth rate of more than 6% is obviously lower than the general expectation; On the other hand, the budget deficit of 3.2% and the arrangement of new local government special debt of 3.65 trillion yuan all exceeded the general expectation of the outside world to some extent. Under the tone of returning to normal, such a set of expected differences actually reflects the structural changes of economic development goals in 2021 and the corresponding adjustment of the focus of fiscal policy. The focus of fiscal policy will shift from directly stimulating economic growth through infrastructure investment to public consumption and services with higher efficiency, more flexible structure and more prominent focus.

　　Specific performance, first, promote innovation and promote the high-quality development of the real economy. It is mainly manifested in increasing investment in science, technology and education, adding and deducting R&D expenses of enterprises, introducing tax incentives and subsidy mechanisms, and encouraging R&D and innovation of enterprises. The second is to optimize and implement the tax reduction policy and continue to help market players enhance their vitality. The third is to support the expansion of domestic demand and tap the potential of the domestic market. In 2021, financial funds will continue to expand effective investment and play an active role in promoting regional coordination of major projects, "two new and one heavy" construction, infrastructure shortcomings, information networks, modern service systems and related projects that are conducive to safeguarding and improving people’s livelihood. The fourth is to promote the full implementation of the rural revitalization strategy and improve the supply guarantee capacity of grain and important agricultural products. Fifth, vigorously support pollution prevention and ecological construction, and do a solid job in peak carbon dioxide emissions and carbon neutrality.

　　2. A prudent monetary policy should balance the needs of economic recovery and risk prevention.

　　The report pointed out that monetary policy should be flexible, accurate, reasonable and moderate; The report also makes it clear that the relationship between economic recovery and risk prevention should be properly handled. In 2021, domestic economic growth will return to the potential output level, so the goal of annual money supply and social financing growth rate is to basically match the nominal economic growth.

　　The report pointed out that the real loan interest rate will be further reduced. It is unlikely that LPR will be further lowered this year, but there is room to further reduce the financing cost of the real economy through LPR reform.

　　The report pointed out that the policy of extending the repayment of principal and interest for loans to small and micro enterprises will be continued. This shows that the application time of the policy of delaying the repayment of principal and interest will continue to be extended. Domestic macroeconomic growth has returned to the pre-epidemic level, but at the micro level, some enterprises still face certain difficulties. In the first two months of this year, the default scale of domestic corporate bonds exceeded 25 billion yuan, significantly higher than last year and the year before. For some small and micro enterprises, the operating pressure is still relatively high, so the monetary policy tools that go directly to the real economy will continue to be used. This is also the embodiment that macro policies continue to bail out market players, maintain necessary support and not make a sharp turn.

　　The report proposes to continue to guide the financial system to make profits to the real economy. In 2020, the financial system will make a profit of 1.5 trillion yuan to the real economy, mainly through four ways: first, deepen the LPR reform and guide the decline of loan interest rates to make a profit of 590 billion yuan; Second, refinancing and rediscounting support the issuance of preferential loan interest rates to benefit 46 billion yuan; Third, the bond interest rate will be reduced to 120 billion yuan for bond issuers; Fourth, two monetary policy tools that go directly to the real economy make a profit of 120 billion yuan. In 2021, the interest rate of corporate bond financing is higher than that in 2020, which makes it difficult to make profits. The other three ways can still continue to benefit the real economy in 2021.

　　3. Strengthen financial support entities and strictly observe the bottom line of financial risks.

　　The report makes it clear that it is necessary to continue the policy of extending the repayment of principal and interest of loans to small and micro enterprises in Pratt & Whitney, and increase the efforts of re-discounting loans to support inclusive finance. The extension of the two direct tools of monetary policy is mainly based on the fact that although the current economy is in the process of recovery, there are still certain uncertainties in the domestic and international economic environment, and market players such as small and micro enterprises still need to "give another hand" to recover their vitality and enhance their vitality. However, because the current main purpose is not "emergency", the intensity and rhythm may change compared with last year, depending on the macroeconomic trend in the second quarter and the second half of the year and the operation of related enterprises.

　　The report sets the growth target of large commercial banks’ loans to benefit small and micro enterprises at more than 30% this year, while the growth target of large commercial banks’ loans to benefit small and micro enterprises proposed in last year’s Government Work Report is more than 40%. In fact, in 2019, the central and regulatory authorities set a target of more than 30% for the loan growth of large commercial banks to benefit small and micro enterprises. Under the special background of the COVID-19 epidemic in 2020, in order to support small and micro enterprises to tide over the difficulties, the central government and the regulatory authorities have raised the requirements of banking institutions for the growth target of loans for small and micro enterprises. With the basic control of the epidemic situation in China, the economy is improving steadily, and the business recovery of small and micro enterprises is uneven, and there are structural differences inside. This year, the target of loan growth for large commercial banks to benefit small and micro enterprises is set at more than 30%, which is a return to normal management.

　　In response to the disposal of financial risks, the report emphasizes that the responsibilities of all parties should be compacted and the bottom line of no systemic risks should be firmly held. Since 2014, the regulatory authorities have successively established evaluation and identification mechanisms for global systemically important banks and domestic systemically important banks, further consolidating China’s financial risk regulatory framework. After the establishment and improvement of global systemically important banks and domestic systemically important banks, it is suggested that all parts of China can also start to establish corresponding local systemically important banks’ supervision frameworks in the next step. Local banks have long been rooted in local areas, and they are the main force of credit to support major local projects and serve private enterprises, small and micro enterprises and "agriculture, rural areas and farmers". Some relatively large local banks, especially provincial corporate banks, may cause major regional financial risks once problems occur. Compared with large state-owned banks, the shortcomings of local banks such as imperfect corporate governance and imperfect risk control system are more obvious, and the probability of future risks is far higher than that of large banks. After bringing local important banks into special supervision, local governments and local financial supervision departments should not only further strengthen supervision and risk monitoring and early warning of relevant banks, but also urge them to continuously improve their internal governance; At the same time, within the scope permitted by the policy, we can also concentrate local superior resources and give greater support to local important banks in promoting domestic and overseas listing, allocating powerful countries with shareholders and accelerating capital replenishment in accordance with the principle of equal contribution.

　　4. Policies support scientific and technological innovation, and the transformation of manufacturing industry is intensified.

　　There are more highlights in the report on developing and supporting scientific and technological innovation. First, it is clearly pointed out that we must rely on innovation to promote the high-quality development of the real economy and combine innovation with the real economy and high-quality development; The second is to raise the ability of scientific and technological innovation to the height of national strategy, and plan to promote "scientific and technological innovation 2030— Major projects "; The third is to give the growth rate of basic research for the first time — — The expenditure on basic research at the central level increased by 10.6%; Fourth, support for manufacturing enterprises is further strengthened, including increasing the deduction ratio of manufacturing enterprises to 100%, fully refunding the incremental VAT tax allowance for advanced manufacturing enterprises on a monthly basis, increasing the proportion of manufacturing loans and expanding investment in manufacturing equipment renewal and technological transformation; The fifth is to determine industrial Internet, 5G network and Gigabit optical network as the key development directions in 2021; Sixth, it is proposed to carry forward the spirit of artisans and improve the quality of China’s manufacturing by meticulous work.

　　The above highlights show that the government attaches more importance to scientific and technological innovation, especially manufacturing innovation than before. Scientific and technological innovation is the first driving force to lead the transformation and development, and the core of scientific and technological innovation is research and development. Compared with the manufacturing powers, China’s R&D investment is still insufficient at this stage, and the proportion of R&D in GDP is currently around 2.2%, which still has obvious room for improvement compared with the United States’ 2.8%, Japan’s 3.3% and Germany’s 3.1%, and the transformation rate of scientific and technological achievements in China is also low. The relevant policies in this year’s report will effectively play an innovation-driven incentive role, stimulate innovation-driven endogenous power, promote market reform and innovation-driven co-frequency resonance, promote the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation and the real economy, and better play the role of innovation-driven development. At the same time, the spirit of craftsmanship and the wording of improving quality also reflect the government’s determination to change the current status of China’s manufacturing products in the middle and low end of the world.

　　5. Expanding domestic demand has become the strategic basis for economic recovery.

　　Compared with the previous two years, the importance of expanding domestic demand has been further strengthened under the new development pattern. This report has raised the expansion of domestic demand to a strategic level, highlighting the importance of persisting in expanding domestic demand for stabilizing the current economy.

　　For expanding domestic demand, the highlight of the report lies in expanding demand closely around improving people’s livelihood, promoting the effective combination of consumption and investment, and achieving a higher level of dynamic balance between supply and demand, rather than simply forcing demand through flooding and adding more leverage. When deploying stability and expanding consumption, we first emphasize "increasing residents’ income through multiple channels", grasping the key point of promoting the double cycle, and also matching the previous goal of "steady growth of residents’ income in 2021". Secondly, it is mentioned that "expanding county and township consumption" shows that rural villages and towns are also an important part of China’s domestic demand market. Thirdly, it is proposed for the first time that "unreasonable restrictions on second-hand car trading should be lifted" in automobile consumption, which indicates that the second-hand car market will play an important role in promoting automobile consumption in China. Finally, under the severe impact of the epidemic in 2020, the online consumption pattern occupies a larger space in the report than before, which also shows that the government’s support for online consumption will be further increased.

　　In terms of expanding effective investment, "it is planned to arrange 3.65 trillion yuan of special bonds for local governments" is consistent with the statement in the report that the macro policy should continue to bail out market players, maintain necessary support, not make a sharp turn, adjust and improve in time according to changes in the situation, and further consolidate the economic fundamentals.

　　6. Ensure the housing needs of the masses and solve the housing problem in big cities.

　　The main tone of housing policy this year is to improve the relationship between housing supply and demand. On the basis of "staying in houses without speculation" and "three stables", while curbing speculative demand through the "three red lines" and housing loan concentration management system, we will increase land supply, arrange special funds, focus on construction, etc., and increase housing supply, especially for the just-needed housing supply of farmers in cities and the supply of rental housing in big cities, so as to promote the healthy development of the real estate market. To solve the problem of insufficient housing supply in big cities, we should first give priority to the land market (supply), increase the land supply of rental housing in big cities, including developing idle land in stock and improving land use efficiency. The current real estate control policy is more targeted than before.

　　At present, high housing prices in big cities have set a high threshold for young people to enter cities. If they are not alleviated, there may be a staged "reverse urbanization" situation, which will have a negative impact on employment, production and consumption in cities. The report proposes to standardize the development of the long-term rental market, reduce the burden of taxes and fees on rental housing, and do our utmost to help new citizens and young people to alleviate housing difficulties. Last year, the problem of mine explosion in long-term rental apartments was largely due to the management and operation of middlemen, so in the short term, it is necessary to standardize the housing rental market order; In the long run, cities should be encouraged to increase various types of rental housing, promote the "equal right to rent and purchase" and promote the healthy development of the rental housing market. At present, the housing rental population in China is about 150 million, and the rental population in big cities accounts for about one third, most of which are migrant workers and young people. Therefore, it is necessary to speed up the development of the housing rental market and solve the housing problem in some big cities with large net inflow of population, high housing prices and large rental demand gap.

　　7, optimize the regional economic layout, new urbanization to a new height.

　　The report proposes to further promote the new urbanization strategy with people as the core, accelerate the urbanization of agricultural transfer population, increase the urbanization rate of permanent population to 65%, and develop and expand urban agglomerations and metropolitan areas. In the future, the transition from rural population to urban population will become the main theme of population circulation in the process of new urbanization. According to the target of urbanization rate of permanent population, it is estimated that the urban population will increase by about 10 million to 11 million every year during the Tenth Five-Year Plan period, and the urbanization rate of registered population may rise faster than that of permanent population, and the flow of urban and rural labor factors will be accelerated. Under the background of market-oriented allocation of factors, the restrictions on the realization of farmers’ land property rights in the past will gradually loosen, rural land reform will pave the way for farmers to transfer to urban household registration, and it is expected to establish and improve a unified urban-rural construction land market in the future. The new land acquisition system will raise the compensation standard and solve the resettlement problems of land-expropriated farmers, including housing, social security, employment and other issues, ensure farmers’ long-term livelihood, contribute to the further transfer of rural labor force, increase housing demand in the process of new urbanization, and expand the construction of urban agglomerations and metropolitan areas.

　　The report proposes to optimize the regional economic layout and promote coordinated regional development. In-depth implementation of major regional strategies, regional coordinated development strategies, and main functional area strategies, and construction of a high-quality regional economic layout and land space support system. It is estimated that the Yangtze River Delta will still be in the leading echelon by 2025, and the net inflow of urban population will reach 13.5 million. The urban agglomerations in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River will begin to take on more important tasks, and the net inflow of urban population will be about 10 million. Both the Pearl River Delta and Chengdu-Chongqing regions will carry about 8 million new urban population, ranking relatively in the front of the second echelon. In the future, China’s economy will not only be limited to the three economic growth poles of Yangtze River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, but also the newly-built urban agglomerations such as Yangtze River Economic Belt and Chengdu-Chongqing may become the key areas for the inflow of labor, production and capital factors.

　　8. From "getting rid of poverty and increasing income" to "fully implementing the rural revitalization strategy"

　　Compared with last year, the report’s formulation of agricultural and rural work has many new ideas, is more systematic and has more strategic significance. The report puts forward that "fully implementing the rural revitalization strategy, promoting the stable development of agriculture and increasing farmers’ income" is not only to raise the agricultural and rural issues to the height of national strategy, but also to systematically and comprehensively solve the fundamental problems of China’s agricultural and rural development.

　　In terms of rural reform, the report clarifies the major and institutional arrangements concerning the basic rural management system and land contract relationship that are generally concerned by the peasants. It puts forward the requirements for deepening the reform of rural state-owned and collective ownership management forms such as supply and marketing cooperatives, collective forest rights, state-owned forest farms and agricultural reclamation. In rural construction, first of all, it points out the direction for the acquisition of construction funds. From last year’s "increasing investment in special bonds" to this year’s "increasing the proportion of land transfer income used in agriculture and rural areas", the source of funds for rural construction has changed from financing to revitalizing rural assets. Secondly, "strengthening rural basic public services and public infrastructure construction, and promoting the integrated development of urban and rural areas within the county", its focus is no longer "improving farmers’ production and living conditions" as proposed last year, but only meeting the promotion and improvement of traditional agricultural production methods. If we combine the formulation of "improving urban and rural circulation system, speeding up e-commerce and express delivery into rural areas, and expanding consumption in counties and townships" in expanding domestic demand, we can vaguely see the determination of the central government to rely on urbanization to develop new rural economy such as service industry.

　　9. Develop a green and low-carbon economy and promote sustainable economic and social development.

　　The report puts forward that "the energy consumption per unit of GDP and carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced by 13.5% and 18% respectively by promoting high-quality economic development and high-level protection of ecological environment", which is compared with China’s clear statement at the United Nations General Assembly on September 22, 2020 that "China will increase its national independent contribution, adopt more powerful policies and measures, and strive to reach the peak of carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060". Peak carbon dioxide emissions’s carbon dioxide emissions will peak before 2030 and then gradually decrease; Carbon neutrality means that by 2060, all the carbon dioxide emitted will be offset by planting trees, saving energy and reducing emissions. This also means that China’s economy and society will usher in a comprehensive low-carbon change.

　　Doing a good job in peak carbon dioxide emissions and carbon neutrality not only inherits the development concepts of "innovation, coordination, green, openness and sharing" and "Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" since the 18th National Congress, but also consolidates the staged achievements of the battle against pollution and the battle against the blue sky, and also injects new connotations into achieving high-quality development and building a community of human destiny. The goal of "peak carbon dioxide emissions" and "carbon neutrality" in the report will help China to strengthen the construction of ecological civilization, accelerate the adjustment and optimization of industrial structure and energy structure, and realize a green and low-carbon production and lifestyle at an early date.

　　Therefore, at the macro-institutional level, it is necessary to work out an action plan for carbon emission peaking before 2030 and support qualified places to take the lead in peaking; In terms of national industrial policy, we should speed up the adjustment and optimization of industrial structure and energy structure, vigorously develop renewable energy, and promote the peak of coal consumption as soon as possible; In terms of financial market construction, it is necessary to speed up the construction of a national market for energy use rights and carbon emission rights.

　　In order to realize peak carbon dioxide emissions in 2030, non-fossil energy will become the main force of energy increment for the first time, which will bring profound changes to China’s economic and social development. It is estimated that from 2020— In 2030, China’s total energy consumption will increase by 20%; The proportion of non-fossil energy in primary energy will increase from 16.4% to 26.0%, among which photovoltaic and wind power have the greatest potential; The proportion of fossil energy will drop from 83.6% to 74.0%. At the same time, in terms of carbon trading and green economy, new energy vehicles, low-carbon technologies and clean energy materials have broad opportunities.

　　10. Deepen the promotion of key areas and stimulate the vitality of market players by means of reform.

　　The report puts forward more specific and clear requirements from four aspects: further transforming government functions, promoting the reduction of production and operation costs of enterprises by reform methods, promoting the common development of diversified ownership economies, and deepening the reform of fiscal, taxation and financial systems.

　　First of all, handle the relationship between government and market well, and promote a better combination of effective market and promising government. By transforming government functions, we will do a better job in the service functions such as registration, operation, approval and cancellation of enterprises, and strive to create an international business environment. At the same time, strengthen effective supervision, classify and refine supervision policies, use the Internet and digital to enhance supervision capabilities, and promote the expansion of the coverage of electronic licenses.

　　Secondly, reform a number of non-tax revenue systems to effectively reduce the cost of enterprises. Mainly from energy, transportation, telecommunications, rent and other aspects. In terms of energy, open the electricity market, clean up unreasonable price increases and reduce the general electricity price. In terms of transportation costs, the port construction fee will be cancelled, and the standard for airlines of the Civil Aviation Development Fund will be reduced by 20%. In terms of telecommunications, the average tariff of broadband and private lines for small and medium-sized enterprises will be reduced by 10% on the basis of a 15% reduction in 2020. Encourage local governments to reduce or exempt rents for small and micro enterprises and individual industrial and commercial households that lease state-owned enterprises.

　　Thirdly, promote the common development of multi-ownership economy and emphasize equal treatment. It is necessary to strengthen and improve state-owned capital and state-owned enterprises, continue to deepen the reform of mixed ownership of state-owned enterprises, and break down various barriers to the development of private enterprises. In particular, it is proposed to promote entrepreneurship, support the innovation and development of platform enterprises, strengthen anti-monopoly and prevent the disorderly expansion of capital.

　　Finally, it is to deepen the reform of the fiscal and taxation financial system and support the high-quality development of the market. In terms of finance and taxation, we will implement the reform plan for the division of powers and expenditures between the central and local governments. In terms of financing channels, we should supplement the capital of small and medium-sized banks, enhance their ability to serve small and medium-sized enterprises, promote the reform of classification and accounting of policy banks, and enhance insurance protection and service functions. It is emphasized that strengthening the supervision of financial holding companies and financial technology corresponds to the above-mentioned anti-monopoly and prevention of disorderly expansion of capital.

　　The report mobilizes all the positive factors that can be mobilized, promotes reform, stimulates the vitality of market players and social creativity to a greater extent, and solves the problem of insufficient development imbalance by means of development. In the coming period, various reform rules and supporting measures may be gradually implemented, which will further enhance the vitality of market players.

　　(The author Lian Ping is the chief economist and dean of the research institute of Zhixin Investment. Also participating in the writing of this article are: Liu Tao Deng Zhichao Wang Hao Liu Hong Luo Han Ma Hong Zhang Bingwen Guo Jianfeng Huang Chunhua Dong Chengxi Source: Economic Daily-China Economic Net)

Original stories FM stories FM included in topic # 61 career stories

Aizhe press:

My friend Theo is an eccentric person. He always studies some particularly obscure knowledge. Once, I heard that he bought a title in an online shop in a country.

Theo: I’m Theo, from the north of China, and now I live overseas.

At that time, it was 2014, and only three titles were sold: one was called Lord, which is generally translated as "Lord" in our country; One is Baron, or "Baron"; There is also a man named Count, that is, the Earl.

At that time, I was surprised: this kind of thing can still be bought? As a Chinese, the word that comes to mind is "selling officials and titles".

I picked and chose, and felt that Lord (Lord or Lord) was a little low in status and Count was a little expensive. So I decided and bought the title of Baron.

■ Theo title certificate bought by Theo.

What kind of country is it that actually sells titles on the Internet? This aroused my strong curiosity.

Baron Theo told me that the name of this country is the Principality of Ceylon, so I went to Google. The moment I saw the photo, I was shocked.

■ Panorama of the "Principality of Silan"

Theo: The Principality of Sealand is located on the sea in the southeast of England. It was founded on a British naval fortress during World War II. Its founder was Roy Bates, who declared the sovereignty of this place.

From the photos, it seems that saying it is a "fortress at sea" is a bit flattering. I think it’s like two huge concrete pillars supporting an iron plate, and the area of this iron plate is not much larger than that of a basketball court.

But let’s call it a fortress for the time being, because people used to be a fortress. During World War II, Germany often sent bombers to bomb London. At that time, the plane didn’t have a GPS positioning system, so how did the Germans find London?

-just by the naked eye. The pilot first found the mouth of the Thames, then went up the Thames and found London.

When the British see it, since you always come to the mouth of the Thames, I’ll just build some anti-aircraft guns at the mouth of the Thames and wait for you to come.

So Britain bombed and sank several berthed ships at that time, built a fortress on each sunken ship and set up anti-aircraft guns on it.

■ Fort at sea

But after World War II, the battery was demolished, leaving only one deck and abandoned at sea.

Among them, the deck called "Stormy Castle" was spotted by Roy Bates in the 1960s.

Theo: Roy Bates believes that since this place used to be a base and was in the sea, not only did Britain not declare it as its territory, but no country declared its occupation right, then it was an ownerless territory. Theoretically, the ownerless territory is the sovereign owner who occupies it first.

So he found a group of people, rented a boat, arrived at the sea fortress and occupied it. He announced the establishment of the "Principality of Ceylon" and designed his own national flag and emblem. He also established a national motto: E mare libertas (Latin: freedom comes from the sea), and even wrote the constitution of the Principality of Siland.

Knowing this, I am still a little confused. Find an unwanted deck at sea and you can build a country? Can the founding of the country be so casual? Moreover, this is on the coast of Britain. How can the British government tolerate such treason? How did the Principality of Sealand exist today? I am very curious and especially want to interview them.

But I did a little research and found that Roy Bates died in 2012 and his wife died in 2016. The current monarch is Prince Michael Bates (Michael Bates). I sent an email to the prince with a try attitude. I didn’t expect the prince to reply soon and accepted my interview with pleasure.

This makes me a little nervous, after all, it is the first time in my life to interview the head of state.

Just to be clear, considering that many listeners may have a little trouble listening to English, I asked Peng Han to give Prince Michael a voice.

-1-

Say hello to the prince

Edgar: Should I call you Your Highness, Prince Michael, or Michael?

Michael: Brother, just Michael. It’s no big problem. You can call me whatever you want, but you have to bear the consequences, you know.

The prince is very approachable, and he is quite joking. Is his last sentence a joke? )

The prince introduced me to the historical background. It turned out that his father had occupied other fortresses before "Nu Tao Bao".

-2-

The history of pirate radio

Michael: Before that, my father built a radio station on another fort called pirate radio. Because in Britain at that time, if people wanted to listen to songs on the radio, they had to listen to the BBC. On the other hand, the BBC only arranges an hour for children to play pop songs (such as Top 20 charts) at around 6 pm every Sunday.

At that time, there was a great demand for pop music, and the BBC broadcast time was too short, so some people moved radio stations to ships and decks-places where they could broadcast in the sea three miles away from the shore, and broadcast pop songs to the whole UK. Because according to the British law at that time, the government had no right to manage these radio stations more than three miles offshore.

These radio stations are so popular that they can even sell advertising space to make money. Later, the British government amended the law and declared these pirate radio illegal. So my dad found a new place-here now.

-3-

declare independence

Michael: On September 2, 1967, on my mother’s birthday, my father made my mother a princess in a very romantic way, and then declared independence here.

■ Old Bates and his wife Joan raised the flag of the Principality of Silan for the first time.

Michael’s father Roy actually consulted a lawyer before doing this, and the lawyer told him directly that you can’t do this.

Roy asked him, why not?

Michael: The lawyer said to my father, I don’t know why you can’t do this, but you really can’t.

My father still refuses to accept, "Why not?"

The lawyer said, "They will put you in a prison in London, convict you of treason, and then cut off your head.". (Laughter)

However, my father finally did it.

Seeing that someone dares to make independence when they occupy a platform, the British government is in a hurry: what if someone else follows suit? It seems that something must be done.

Michael: At that time, there was another fortress. After the British government sent a boat to blow it up, it passed us and warned that "you are next".

However, things didn’t develop like that.

-4-

Have a conflict with my father’s friend

As we all know, there are few peaceful and independent countries in history. Usually accompanied by war. Although the principality of Silan is small, local conflicts to defend the country have been constant.

The first opponent the Bates family met was Roy Bates’ partner. Because the two of them originally occupied this platform together to run pirate radio, but Roy Bates actually abandoned his partner and became king on his own. The partners are very dissatisfied.

Michael: When we came here, there was actually another pirate radio family here. We drove them away by non-violent means. But then these people came back and attacked seven or eight times.

I was 14 years old. I made a shotgun out of a steel pipe, searched for materials on the deck, pieced together incendiary bottles, and ran around the ship, looking for cover to launch an attack … Now I think about it, these experiences are quite interesting.

■ Michael and Old Bates as children.

-5-

First clash with the police

It is not enough to repel the partners, and the British government has not given up its attempt to overthrow Bates’ regime. Once, while old Bates was away, a naval ship came to Fort Nu Tao.

Michael: Once, they sent a navy ship here with two policemen besides the navy. At first we thought it was an ordinary policeman, but later we found out it was a military police.

They offered to talk to us on the deck, so we threw a rope down as a rope ladder.

I was young at that time, facing the police, so I trusted them. I said, "Don’t come up, I’ll go down. My mother stayed on it. "

One of the policemen said to me, "Your father has sold us this fortress. We’ll send two marines up, so you don’t have to come down. "

I was a little skeptical when I heard it. So I came down and asked me to see my dad before I could let them go up.

But they said that they must go up anyway.

At this time, they found that it was too dark under the deck to stop the ship. So I offered to help them stop the boat.

But the captain was a little anxious, and with a wave of his hand, he said, "Stop sailing! You two go straight up! 」

The two policemen were ordered to climb the rope ladder at once.

If the rope ladder is put on the boat, it is no different from the general ladder and is easier to climb; But this rope ladder is hanging, so it is not easy to climb, and it has to be clever. In a word, the "James Bond" sent by these two governments climbed no more than one meter and gave up.

I was a little nervous, so I started to walk next to the rope ladder and said to the captain, "Brother, I have to go up. 」

Hearing this, the captain immediately ordered the navy soldiers to climb the rope ladder.

As soon as I saw this posture, I immediately shouted at my mother, "Mom, if they climb up, you can shoot them!" When my mother heard this, she immediately took out an automatic pistol.

When the captain saw it, he waved his hand again: "Navy! Get off the rope ladder! 」

At this moment, I felt that if I didn’t leave again, I might not be able to walk away, so I walked to the rope ladder carelessly and climbed up quickly.

In retrospect, this thing is quite interesting. Even later, the captain shouted at my mother, "I want to get your son a job in the navy. Let him be a navy!" "(Laughter)

-6-

Store materials for six months

It is not easy to defend the territory. Apart from external troubles, there are also internal worries. Think about it, living on the sea 10 kilometers away from the coast, without water, electricity and food. The Bates family must ensure that there is always a six-month material reserve on this platform. All materials have to be shipped from land, which is quite expensive.

So they also studied how to fish by reading books and made use of all kinds of resources they could find to survive on it.

In 1968, a British naval patrol boat entered the territory of the Principality of Sealand. Old Bates and Michael fired warning shots at them and threw incendiary bottles at the boat. As a result, they were later ordered to stand trial by a British court.

But in the end, the court declared that they had no right to intervene in the incident because it happened outside British territorial waters.

This case demonstrates Britain’s non-intervention attitude towards the Principality of Sealand, which allowed the Bates family to spend the next nine years peacefully.

Until a sunny morning in August 1987.

-7-

coup

Michael: At that time, my dad was talking about business in Salzburg, Austria. He planned to build a leisure island, but it hasn’t been done yet. So I stayed alone in the principality of Ceylon.

Suddenly, a huge Dutch Airlines helicopter flew in with a cameraman holding a camera on the door. They couldn’t land because there was a flagpole under us, so they hung two people down with a rope.

Seeing the man hanging from the rope, Michael began to understand what was going on.

Over the years, old Bates has conferred some titles on officials. In fact, they are all friends or partners, half-jokingly conferring titles. Among them, a foreign minister was appointed. He was a West German named Alexander Achenbach. This time, old Bates went to Austria to talk business, which was fooled by this foreign minister.

But he was tricked by the foreign secretary. After the foreign minister cheated him away, he sent several German and Dutch mercenaries to take the opportunity to occupy the Principality of Sealand. Therefore, this is an out-and-out coup.

Why did Michael begin to understand at this time? Because one of the people who got off the helicopter was Winfred Brings, who was the attendant of the Foreign Minister.

Michael: To make a long story short, after an operation, I was put in a very airtight iron room with only two windows for four days.

The next morning, the gang gave me three choices, either to stay in this iron house; Either follow the fishing boat, they will send me to London; Or send me to the Netherlands-look at this posture, our country has been controlled.

At that time, I thought, if my dad didn’t know the situation here and came back from Austria, wouldn’t he die?

So I chose to go to England. As a result, the captain of the Dutch fishing boat said that he would not go to England for the time being. So I said, Holland can do it.

After several twists and turns, I returned to London from Holland. By the way, when I flew back to England from Holland, I didn’t bring my passport with me, but I found a big brother to help me with it.

Back in London, I finally met my dad. He didn’t know exactly what happened, but he felt something was wrong. So after we met, we began to discuss how to take back our country.

We had a rubber inflatable boat at that time, so we thought about making a fire escape and putting it on the boat. After we drove past, we rushed up with the ladder, just like soldiers attacked the castle in the Middle Ages.

I called a good friend, who is the owner of a helicopter company. We have a very good relationship and used to go to his house for dinner.

This guy is very unusual. He has participated in several James Bond movies, such as flying a helicopter indoors. He is very professional. I asked him for help, and he said, "OK, Lao Tie, no problem. 」

We’ll buy ropes, think of various ways and do all kinds of research. Because there was no movie like Black Hawk Down at that time, we had never seen the picture of people sliding down from helicopters, so we all figured it out by ourselves …

Old Bates called a few more friends, plus his son, to form a five-person action team.

By the way, old Bates fought in North Africa, Italy, Iraq and Lebanon during World War II. He was a brave and hard-core veteran. Therefore, this kind of offensive and defensive warfare has not been played less. For him, retaking the Principality of Sealand is a small case.

Michael: In a word, we were fully prepared. We went to the airport at three o’clock in the morning and tied the rope to the seat. My dad is sitting opposite me, wearing a helmet, where he can talk to the captain. We flew over.

Later, a man who was on the deck of the Principality of Silan described to us that he saw the helicopter flying from the ground, and my father and I grabbed the rope on the doors on both sides, which looked cool.

At that time, the captain agreed with us that when the plane was pulled up, we would let go and jump, because he had to keep flying and avoid obstacles.

I had planned to fold the middle mast after landing so that the helicopter could land. But after landing, I thought that the Germans would definitely run out of the house. So I ran across the tarmac, grabbed my shotgun and rushed to the door. As soon as I saw someone running out, I slammed it with the butt of my gun.

Brother, this is the battle of Westland.

Without causing casualties, Bates’ team easily captured the Principality of Silan, and later they released most of the prisoners. Only a German lawyer named Herr Putz was left, because he held a passport of the Principality of Siland. Old Bates thought he had committed treason. It is reasonable to say that it can be shot.

■ Prisoners caught after the coup

Michael: We don’t know the background of this man, but the Germans seem to have the habit of invading other people’s territory.

Later, when the West German government heard that one of its nationals was detained, it quickly contacted the British government and said that it was on the British coast, so you should take care of it. The British government quoted the court case in 1968, saying that Sealand was not within our jurisdiction and we could not control this.

The west german government had no choice but to send a diplomat to mediate.

-8-

"indirectly recognized" by the German government.

Michael: Later, the German ambassador to Britain arrived at South London Airport and took a helicopter with my mother at his own expense to the Principality of Siland.

Before taking off, my mother asked him to be searched. He was so angry that he waved his diplomatic passport and refused to agree.

After some pulling, he finally agreed to search him. But my mother found a new problem at this moment: who will search him?

She looked around and found two handsome young policemen at the airport. So she ran over and asked politely, "Excuse me, young man, can you search this diplomat for me? 」

It’s also interesting to recall. (Laughter)

When he got to the Principality of Ceylon and got off the plane, we searched him again.

He was mad with anger. "What are you searching for? 」

We replied, "Search for weapons. 」

He said, "Don’t you all have weapons? 」

So I went back and said, "If you had managed your people well, none of this would have happened, right? 」

Later, we had a negotiation, but he didn’t take the prisoner away as he wished.

But that negotiation meant a lot to us. Brother, a German diplomat negotiated with us, which means that the German government indirectly recognizes the existence of the Principality of Silan.

After all, the appearance of West German diplomats represents the first time that the Principality of Silan is on an equal footing with sovereign countries, which is a milestone. The Bates were so happy that they released the German lawyer soon afterwards. This coup ended.

By way of digression, the German lawyer and the foreign minister Achenbach later set up a government in exile in Germany. The government in exile is also good at doing business. They sold many passports of the Principality of Ceylon, which were later involved in some international crimes. In 1997, the Bates family simply declared all passports of the Principality of Sealand invalid.

As mentioned earlier, in 2012, old Bates died, and in 2016, Michael’s mother died. Michael succeeded to the throne and became the monarch of the principality of Ceylon. Until today.

-9-

Princess sealand

But after so many years, what good is it to go through all kinds of hardships just to keep an iron plate?

I don’t know anything else. I only know that this is very helpful for "chasing girls."

Shi Dongmei: My name is Shi Dongmei, and now my name is Dong Mei Bates.

I’m 49 years old. I’m Michael’s wife. After I got married, my name was "Princess Ceylon".

Yes, the princess is Chinese. It’s called … What winter plum? Yes, Dongmei Bates, married with the chicken, married with the husband’s surname. However, considering our understanding habits of Chinese, we still call her by her real name, Shi Dongmei.

Shi Dongmei went to England in 1999 and worked in a casino near Chinatown in London. Then I met Michael on the dating website. But because Shi Dongmei’s work is very busy, they have never had a chance to meet.

Shi Dongmei: Michael once gave a radio interview to the BBC. He said that after the interview, he would come to see me at my workplace. I was so busy that day that I almost forgot. When I was free, we sat together and chatted, and he told me his story.

As soon as we met, Michael told Shi Dongmei that I really wanted to associate with you. I am a prince, and my country is called the Principality of Ceylon.

Shi Dongmei: He said that he was writing a book, Hollywood was going to make his film, and so on.

I looked at him for a long time, puzzled, and didn’t understand what this man was saying. I even thought he was joking with me, and I felt like a bird in the sky.

Later, I found out that he read my information on LinkedIn website. When I got home, I also went online to check his information, and I gradually learned about his stories.

Shi Dongmei and Michael met in 2016. Less than a year later, Michael proposed to Shi Dongmei. Shi Dongmei became a happy Dongmei Bates.

Shi Dongmei: I have a similar background to him. Because I was a soldier at the age of 13, and when he was 13, he was taken to the Principality of Silan by his father, so we hit it off, we both have stories and a lot in common.

Now, as soon as my friends see me, they joke about "seeing the princess". I am speechless, but it is also quite fun.

■ Prince Michael and Princess Sealand are attending a beauty contest.

-10-

The Princess’s Two Visits to the Principality of Ceylon

Shi Dongmei: I have been to the Principality of Ceylon twice. Last year, the Daily Mail was going there for an interview, so I followed.

We went there by boat and were very excited. Because when we went up, we were hung up with something similar to a hanging basket, so it was very exciting.

When I first went there, I had just finished the August 1st Army Day. In Britain, we have a comrades-in-arms association composed of retired China soldiers, and I am the president. At that time, we had just held an activity, and there were many red flags. I insisted on taking the five-star red flag to take pictures, which is quite interesting to recall now.

In addition to catching up with girls, of course, another advantage of establishing a country is that, as mentioned at the beginning, you can make money by selling titles.

-11-

Idea selling knighthood

Michael: I thought about this before the internet age. It was not an easy thing at that time.

At that time, I saw the king of France in the 13th century. Because he was short of money for the war, he publicly sold his title to finance the war.

So I thought, our country doesn’t have any natural resources, and it has always been short of money. Why don’t you try it? Unexpectedly, the response was so enthusiastic.

I went to official website, the principality of Ceylon, and looked at their store. Shopping was quite convenient, and even Alipay supported it.

The most expensive earl title in the store now sells for 499.99. It is not cheap. My friend Theo bought the title of Baron, which is only 29.99, which is much more cost-effective.

But I think the most cost-effective thing is that you can buy a square foot of land for 19.99, which is much cheaper than Beijing’s house price.

I asked Michael how many titles he sold and how much money he earned after selling them for so many years. But he said he couldn’t tell me. It seems that the business is quite good, otherwise it would not be kept secret.

Moreover, Michael has signed a Hollywood film contract, and the copyright is estimated to have sold a lot of money.

■ official website Store in the Principality of Ceylon, with Chinese version.

-12-

Interesting things about other micro-countries

In addition to the Principality of Ceylon, there are actually many tiny countries that are self-reliant in this world. They are generally called micro-countries, or private countries. For these countries, my friend Theo has also done a little research.

Theo: There are many micro-countries in the United States, and some towns in Australia, with the support of the local government, announced the establishment of the "XX Kingdom" in order to develop tourism. The mayor also formally established himself as "King XX" and held grand ceremonies in local churches and town halls.

There are also some micro-countries, such as Italy, which has a micro-country called "Principality of Cyberport".

The villagers in this place found that their land had no lords after a certain year, which means that they don’t belong to any country now. So they declared their independence and established the Principality of Cyberport.

These private countries have also held several summits, such as the World Private Countries Conference. They will wear their own formal clothes and go to meetings, where they will establish diplomatic relations and sign various agreements.

Before that, some people wanted to establish the world’s first private space country. They made a website where people can become its citizens by signing up.

There is also a network private country, which is a network country based on all cyberspace and territorial disputes between countries.

There is another interesting story about private countries.

In the United States, there was a girl whose biggest dream was to be a princess, so her father searched online and found that there was a territory between Egypt and Sudan that was unoccupied. So he went there, announced the occupation of this territory and established the Kingdom of North Sudan. In this way, his daughter became a princess-the princess of northern Sudan.

■ Private National Summit

The existence of these private countries has actually added a lot of fun to the world. Like Theo, life has become colorful since he bought that title.

Theo: At that time, Game of Thrones was still a hit, and the Prime Minister was called "the hand of the king". I followed this example and made one of my friends my "Baron’s Hand", another my "Treasurer" and another my "Commander of the Army".

I bought a 1:1 replica of the sword used by the wizard Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings on the Internet, and used this sword to canonize the three of them.

I also bought a photo frame, mounted my knighthood certificate in it and kept it in the most conspicuous place in the living room. Everyone who comes to visit will run to see it and ask me curiously, "What is this?". I will give them a good introduction.

Now no matter where I go, I will take my folder and title certificate with me, because it is also my "property".

-13-

Succession of offspring

Prince Michael now lives with his family on land, 40 miles away from London by the sea. Their family is engaged in fishing business, mainly fishing and processing clams. The affairs of the Principality of Sealand are now mainly represented by sons.

Michael: I’m basically semi-retired now, and my son is taking care of everything. I have two sons, Prince Liam and Prince James, who are all involved, and my grandchildren Harry and Freddie, who I believe will take over in the future.

Many countries were born in history, and many countries died out. My wife and I got engaged in a restaurant on Burj Khalifa Tower in Dubai. At that time, I thought that when the Principality of Ceylon declared its independence, Dubai was not on the map, and the United Arab Emirates was not yet born.

* The national anthem of the Principality of Ceylon is played here (32’35”) in the audio.

After listening to today’s program, if you are moved, you also went to the Principality of Silan to buy a title, which can be indicated from the story FM. This way, if the prince is happy, maybe he can give me an official position.

-cover picture The Telegraph

The picture without source is provided by the narrator.

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Staff

Narrator | Theo & Michael Bates & Shi Dongmei

Anchor | @ Kou Aizhe

Producer | @ Kou Aizhe

Sound Design | @ Story FM Peng Han

Intern | Zhang Yizhou

Text finishing | rain and dew

Operation | Yichen

BGM List

01. StoryFM Main Theme-Peng Han (opening song)

02. Air Waltz-Peng Han (Baron Theo)

03. Sealand Part1-Peng Han (freedom from the sea)

04. nursery rhymes (Cover Alexandre Desplat)-Peng Han (nine years of peace)

05. Sealand Part2-Peng Han (Battle of Sealand)

06. Softly-Peng Han (May)

07. Air Waltz-Peng Han (support Alipay)

08. Sealand Part1-Peng Han (canonized)

09. seal and national anthem-basil simonenko (ending song)

Story FM

The story FM is a sound program told by the witness.

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Original title: "Story FM Interview with Head of State for the First Time | Story FM"

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