From December 5 to 7, 2003, the National Conference on Propaganda and Ideological Work was held in Beijing. In his speech, Hu Jintao called for staying close to reality, close to life, and close to the masses, and stated that the Party's control over propaganda and the Party's control over ideology must never waver at any time.
Liu Xiaoguang visited the Moon Lake in Alashan for the first time, discussed with over thirty entrepreneurs how entrepreneurs can keep themselves upright, and was moved by the desert scenery, sparking the idea of establishing an environmental organization.
Bai Yansong resigned from his positions as producer of News Meeting Room, China Weekly, and Time and Space Link because he felt that the producer role made his expression mediocre and led to self-censorship, while retaining his role as host.
After multiple rounds of supplementary investigations and legal defense, Liu Xiaoqing was granted bail on August 15, 2003, and walked out of the detention center the next day along with her sister Liu Xiaohong.
Mainland China and Hong Kong signed the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement, providing policy facilitation for Hong Kong co-productions to enter the mainland market, subject to requirements on the proportion of mainland actors and censorship.
After the Sun Zhigang case, on June 20, 2003, the State Council promulgated the Measures for the Administration of Assistance for Vagrants and Beggars with No Means of Support in Urban Areas, and the Measures for Custody and Repatriation were abolished as of August 1.
In 2003, Southern Metropolis Daily's reporting on the Sun Zhigang case directly contributed to the abolition of China's custody and repatriation system.
On April 20, 2003, the CCP Central Committee decided to remove Zhang Wenkang, Party Secretary of the Ministry of Health, and Meng Xuenong, Deputy Secretary of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee, from their posts. On the same day, Beijing's case figures were revised upward from 37 to 339 and changed to daily releases; Meng Xuenong subsequently resigned as mayor, and Zhang Wenkang was removed as Minister of Health on April 26.
Longtime FBI informant Katrina Leung and her handler James Smith have been arrested on suspicion of leaking classified technical operations and counterintelligence program information to Chinese intelligence officers.
On April 4, 2003, military doctor Jiang Yanyong learned that Health Minister Zhang Wenkang had claimed there were only 12 SARS cases in Beijing. He then told the real case numbers from military hospitals to CCTV and Phoenix TV, and the information was relayed out by foreign journalists.
On April 3, 2003, Health Minister Zhang Wenkang told a press conference in Beijing that Beijing had only 12 SARS cases and 3 deaths, and said it was safe whether or not you wore a mask; the next day, Jiang Yanyong disclosed higher figures from military hospitals.
Hubei youth Sun Zhigang was sent to a custody station in Guangzhou for not carrying a temporary residence permit and was beaten to death. The incident spread rapidly across the internet and eventually led the State Council to abolish the custody and repatriation system.
In January 2003, Cisco sued Huawei in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, alleging that it illegally copied Cisco's IOS software and source code, technical documentation, and other copyrighted materials, and infringed multiple patents.
In 2003, Li Wei obtained the development rights to 61,800 square meters of land at Taipingjiao in Qingdao. The project was nominally applied for under Capital Group, but in fact fell under Yichuang Real Estate, which was held in her name, and she later earned 84 million yuan from the transfer.
Li Jiating was investigated in 2001, and two years later was finally sentenced to death with a reprieve for accepting bribes of more than 18.1 million yuan; his son Li Bo and his mistress Xu Fuying were also successively sentenced.
Yu Xiaoping was transferred from the head office to serve as the president of the China Development Bank Shenzhen Branch. He ruled locally for seven years, leading massive and enormous policy-backed loans for projects such as the Shenzhen Metro.
Jia Qinglin served as a member of the CCP Central Committee Political Bureau Standing Committee and Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference for 10 consecutive years starting from 2003. During this period and thereafter, his son-in-law Li Botan managed the family's wealth through offshore companies and white-glove agents.
While the author's father was hospitalized at Zhongshan Hospital, the author met a fellow patient waiting for an organ transplant. The patient said they had a QQ group where many people were waiting for organs and mentioned that Shanghai had many sources of organs. The patient also said the organs they were waiting for might be "dry" and speculated that they could be related to executed drug traffickers, but the author expressed doubt, believing that the health condition of drug traffickers would not be suitable for transplantation.
The Changchun Municipal Government internally reported in 2003 that the incident of seizing Ms. Ma Yongtian's factory was illegal and wrong.
Sima Nan was elected as a deputy to the Dongcheng District People's Congress in Beijing. When voting on the list of the presidium at the first plenary session, he cast an abstention, and subsequently, after multiple conversations, he gradually changed his attitude and adapted to the system.
The Beijing municipal government invited entrepreneurs to discuss economic policy. While Pan Shiyi was speaking, Ren Zhiqiang took over the topic, criticized the policy, and demanded that officials uphold the credibility of the market.
Chen Jin's team ground off the markings on purchased Motorola chips and reprinted them as "Hanxin No. 1", announced it in February 2003, defrauding about 110 million yuan in research funding (over 60 million yuan received), and was exposed in early 2006.
In 2003, China began piloting the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme, with fiscal subsidies increasing year by year; by around 2010 it covered more than 800 million farmers.
In the summer of 2003, Jiang Peizhen, the boss of Golden Throat, paid $300,000 and a jersey to have Ronaldo take a photo with her while wearing a jersey printed with the Golden Throat logo. Subsequently, Golden Throat used his image for television advertising for four years, while Ronaldo himself was completely unaware of it.