Lying in a Beijing military hospital in 1990, General Wang Zhen told a visitor he felt betrayed. Decades after he risked his life fighting for an egalitarian utopia, the ideals he held as one of Communist China’s founding fathers were being undermined by the capitalist ways of his children — business leaders in finance, aviation […]
East Asia has witnessed the recent ascent of conservative leadership amid territorial tensions – signaling not a futuristic vision for international harmony but a return to past rivalries. China‘s new leader Xi Jinping has already vowed to strengthen its military, creating what U.S. Admiral Michael McDevitt identifies as a “security dilemma” in Asia. While China understandably wants […]
The overlapping power transitions in East Asia’s three main economies promise to mark a defining moment in the region’s tense geopolitics. After the ascension in China of Xi Jinping, regarded by the People’s Liberation Army as its own man, Japan’s swing to the right in its parliamentary election seems set to fuel nationalist passion on both sides […]
Unlike in democracies, where politicians vying for office first introduce themselves to their constituents, China‘s leaders take a rather different approach. Only after the Chinese Communist Party has chosen its top leader in secret does he begin the process of “introducing” himself to the people. The newly enthroned general secretary Xi Jinping has been busy firing corrupt officials, visiting […]
The new leaders of the Chinese Communist Party may have moved into office, but so far their new policies have not. Yet if these men at the top—led by party General Secretary Xi Jinping—are to resolve a daunting array of problems at home and abroad, they must move quickly to prevent bad situations from growing […]
Hu Chunhua, the second-youngest member of the Communist Party’s new Politburo, was appointed party boss of Guangdong, the southern manufacturing hub that has China’s biggest provincial economy. Hu, 49, replaces Wang Yang, a fellow Politburo member whose new post hasn’t been announced, the Xinhua News Agency said yesterday. Wang appeared publicly earlier this month when […]
China said it will seek a higher “quality and efficiency” of growth next year, signaling new leaders may accept a reduced pace of expansion in exchange for a more sustainable model. There was no mention of seeking “relatively fast” growth, a policy in place since 2006, in a report yesterday by the state-run Xinhua News […]
Washington‘s aggressive pursuit of containment of China and Beijing’s difficulty in launching major economic and political reforms will likely prove an explosive mixture. Meanwhile, Japan, India, and other Asian powers exploit the logic of “two ovens”. The 18th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party was to be the springboard for economic and political renewal in […]
With his trip to Shenzhen and other places in southern China, Xi Jinping, the new leader of China’s Communist Party, has all but declared himself to be a reformer in the vein of Deng Xiaoping. Chinese politics is always full of signs, symbols, and suggestions. After a year characterized by a confusing mix of “signs […]
For many years top Chinese politicians have lived a bit like rock stars, without the paparazzi. Never mind that few of the political elite have swagger like Jagger, China’s leaders have long enjoyed walking red carpets, waving before enthusiastic (if preorganized) crowds, traveling with large entourages, and speaking from stages adorned with crimson banners and […]
looking beyond borders 