Xi warns against Western “bullies”, to argue for one-party rule

Jul 3rd 2021 FOR ALL who believe that people are endowed with inalienable rights including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and that just governments derive their powers from the consent of the governed, it was alarming to hear the loud applause and cheers that greeted Xi Jinping on July 1st, the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party. Speaking at Tiananmen Square, China’s leader had just pledged that any foreigner who tried to bully China would “dash their heads against a Great Wall of steel, forged from the flesh…

China urges its people to struggle. Some say no

Jul 3rd 2021 HONG KONG TWO VEGETARIAN meals each day. A monthly budget of 200 yuan ($30). Working just one or two months a year. In April an internet user posted this brief description of his simple, stress-free life. He described his philosophy as tangping, or “lying flat”. “I can be like Diogenes, who slept in his wine cask in the sun,” he wrote. He included a photo of himself doing an appropriate job: playing a corpse in a film. Listen to this story Your browser does not support the…

China Will No Longer Be a Developing Country After 2023. Its Climate Actions Should Reflect That.

Advertisement China will graduate from a middle-income to a high-income country in a few years. Its GDP per capita has grown explosively from $150 in 1978 to $10,000 today and is on course to surpass the World Bank’s high-income country threshold of $12,536 in 2023. Though this may sound like a symbolic change, the impacts on China’s climate ambitions can be far-reaching. This is because global climate change efforts are rooted in countries contributing based on their income level, so becoming a high-income country adds pressure on China. In U.N.…

At 100, Chinese Communist Party in Renewed Drive for Legitimacy

Advertisement The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is riding high on a narrative of complete triumph as it marked its centenary on July 1 with pomp, pageantry, and propaganda. Internal discourse is brimming with commentary about the perseverance of the CCP, which has defied expectations of decay, democratization, and even demise in its 100-year journey. Even a recent manned space mission has been swept up in the patriotic extravaganza, with one astronaut saying the mission had “added a heroic chapter to the 100-year history of the struggle of the Party.” Despite its…