Communist Party of China

Li Keqiang: China’s PM Back In The Limelight

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang last week urged a reported 100,000 local government officials to immediately take action to “stabilise” the situation in China amid upset and anger over the fallout from its commitment to ‘zero COVID’.Speaking over video link at a State Council executive meeting, Li said China’s economy was facing an even greater challenge than at the start of the pandemic in 2020, according to Xinhua, China’s state news agency, when employment, industrial production and consumption

1 June 2022
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China's Cardinal Sins In Hong Kong

Much of the world remains focused on the grisly developments in Ukraine, where Russian President Vladimir Putin’s army continues to commit war crimes against a sovereign country he claims is an inalienable part of Russia. Meanwhile, the story in Hong Kong has gone from very bad to even worse. In a farcical selection process dressed up as democracy, the Communist Party of China (CPC) recently installed a former policeman, John Lee, as the new chief executive of its puppet reg

27 May 2022
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China Sets Lowest GDP Target In Decades

China set its lowest annual gross domestic product (GDP) target in decades Saturday, as Premier Li Keqiang warned of a "grave and uncertain" outlook against the backdrop of the coronavirus, a property slump and uncertainty over the war in Ukraine.Li announced the unusually modest target of around 5.5 percent growth for 2022 – the lowest since 1991 – in his speech opening the annual session of China's rubber-stamp parliament.Addressing about 3,000 members of the National People&

5 March 2022
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Is China’s Xi's On A Dangerous Path?

Momentous changes are casting a long shadow on China. The country’s political system will soon undergo a profound reform, pending final approval (a quasi-formality) at next year’s congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC). President Xi Jinping, the Party chairman and the “navigator” of the country, has decided on a new course, abandoning the principle of collective leadership.

27 November 2021
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China's Journey Into The Unknown

China watchers have grown ever more anxious as President Xi Jinping has concentrated power in his own hands, and as the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) leadership has become more coercive, both at home and abroad. The so-called trade war with the United States (US), deterioration in relations with many foreign governments, and the COVID-19 pandemic have had far-reaching consequences for China.

23 October 2021
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China's Risky Business Crackdown

Is there a larger purpose to the Chinese government’s recent actions against the country’s largest corporations, and does its clean-up of the financial sector fit into its economic strategy? China has sought for at least 15 years to rebalance its growth from exports and fixed-asset investment to greater domestic consumption – efforts that have assumed a new urgency, owing to conflicts with the United States (US) and other countries. As long as its domestic market expands, Ch

30 September 2021
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Can Xi End China's Golden Age?

Within the span of a generation, a new super-rich class emerges from a society in which millions of rural migrants toiled away in factories for a pittance. Bribery becomes the most common mode of influence in politics. Opportunists speculate recklessly in land and real estate. Financial risks simmer as local governments borrow to finance railways and other large infrastructure projects.

22 September 2021
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Successes And Failures Of Chinese Communism

“Over the past hundred years, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has united and led the Chinese people in writing the most magnificent chapter in the millennia-long history of the Chinese nation,” President Xi Jinping declared at the CPC’s centennial celebration, in a speech that emphasized the Party’s role in driving China’s success, including its economic rise. But the CPC’s economic record is actually mixed, and even those who recognize this often overlook that its successes and f

17 July 2021
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China Is Killing Its Tech Golden Goose

United States (US) politicians from both congressional parties are worried that China is overtaking America as the global leader in science and technology. In a rare display of bipartisanship, the normally gridlocked Senate passed a bill in early June to spend close to US$250 billion in the next decade to promote cutting-edge research.

15 July 2021
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China's Diplomatic Makeover Backfires

For over a year they have whipped up outrage against the West, but as China's "wolf warrior" diplomats are told to tone down the fury, they face an unexpected source of opposition: nationalists at home.Under fire in recent years over issues ranging from human rights abuses to blame for the COVID-19 pandemic, Beijing unleashed a new breed of diplomat that became known as "wolf warriors" – a popular term for belligerent nationalism inspired by a Chinese blockbuster film

27 June 2021
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The Last Thing This Century Needs

This month’s G7 summit seemed to confirm what has long been apparent: The United States (US) and China are entering into a cold war similar to the one between the US and the Soviet Union in the second half of the 20th century. The West no longer views China just as a competitor and rival but as a civilisational alternative.

22 June 2021
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