BEIJING — When China’s legislature opened its weeklong annual session on Saturday, Chinese leaders were eager to use the event to bolster confidence in the country’s economy. Beijing used the National People’s Congress to pledge that China’s economy, the engine of global growth, will regain momentum despite a punishing slump in housing, rising commodity prices, scattered lockdowns to control coronavirus outbreaks and widespread uncertainty over the war in Ukraine. Beijing’s ability to maintain political and economic stability is paramount as the ruling Communist Party prepares the ground for Xi Jinping,…
Day: March 4, 2022
China Outlines Plan to Stabilize Economy in Crucial Year for Xi
BEIJING — China’s premier, Li Keqiang, on Saturday announced a target for the country’s economy to expand “around 5.5 percent” this year, signaling the government’s emphasis on stabilizing growth in the face of global uncertainty from the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Premier Li laid out the goal in his annual policy speech at the opening in Beijing of a weeklong session of China’s Communist Party-controlled legislature. The target appeared aimed at maintaining political and economic stability as Xi Jinping, China’s leader, looks to secure another five-year term in…
Ukraine invasion: Can China do more to stop Russia’s war in Ukraine?
If you look back to the 5,000-word document signed off by Presidents Xi and Putin when they declared their deepening, unlimited alliance you’ll see that objection to Nato expansion unites them, though the agreement covers multiple areas of common ground and planned co-operation; in space, in the Arctic, on Covid-19 vaccines. BBC
As it happened: ‘Two sessions’ 2022 – China increases defence spending, sets GDP growth target of ‘around 5.5 per cent’
China’s top legislature, the National People’s Congress (NPC), starts its annual meeting on Saturday. The NPC meeting is part of the “two sessions” – one of the biggest events on the country’s political calendar – along with the meeting of the top political advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). The sessions, also known as the lianghui, are an important window into the central government’s policies but this year the meetings will also be a chance to take the political temperature before the Communist Party’s national congress this…
Foreign embassies in China puzzle over a diplomat’s detention
Mar 5th 2022 BEIJING FEAR IS A potent tool, but not always a precise one. In the foreign embassies of Beijing, there is no doubt that China’s secret police wished to send a chilling message when they detained a Japanese diplomat for some hours on February 21st, trampling the legal principle of diplomatic immunity. Envoys debate whether the operation was an attack on Japan, overreach by aggressive spooks or a calculated warning to foreign missions that even routine meetings with Chinese contacts are out of bounds, as national-security rules tighten…
Lithuania sees threats from two big powers: Russia and China
Mar 5th 2022 VILNIUS “CHINA SHOULDN’T get riled by Lithuania at all,” one of China’s best-known nationalist commentators, Hu Xijin, opined on his social-media account. “It’s a snotty little country—just not worth it.” The Chinese government is paying no heed. As Russia invades one European democracy, China is boycotting another. Ukraine’s offence was to be an independent country. Lithuania’s was to give Taiwan an opportunity to hint that it is. Listen to this story.Enjoy more audio and podcasts on iOS or Android. Your browser does not support the <audio> element.…
Fareed Zakaria Has a Better Way to Handle Russia — and China
ezra klein I’m Ezra Klein, and this is “The Ezra Klein Show.” [MUSIC PLAYING] It is eerie knowing that you have lived through the end of an era and that you’re now witnessing the birth of another. For most of my life, foreign policy has not been dominated by great power conflict. And that is a defining characteristic of that period. There have been crises. There have been wars. There have been horrors. But America was too strong and other countries too weak to really worry about world wars or…
China has little to gain but much to lose as Russia’s ally | George Magnus
In just a few days, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has upended decades of international relations thinking and practices. Nothing will be the same as before. Even the 5,000-word statement on “international relations in a new era” issued by China and Russia just a month ago in Beijing – to make the world safe for autocracy – has been overtaken by events. In this ugly Russian quagmire, China’s role and behaviour merit close attention, not least as we wonder whether Ukraine today may be Taiwan tomorrow. China and Russia have been…
How China’s Ambitious Belt and Road Plans for East Africa Came Apart
Advertisement As China draws back from large scale infrastructure investments in Africa, it is worth considering why so many major Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects in the region, unveiled with great fanfare, have ultimately struggled. A connecting thread across such cases has been China’s inability to manage the political complexities associated with infrastructure development. Within China itself, the context for infrastructure development is defined by political continuity, deep-pocketed state actors, state-controlled media, and a weak civil society. Authorities can plan and implement projects with few serious impediments. The BRI…
How China Embraces Russian Propaganda and Its Version of the War
Hours after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, the Chinese Communist Party tabloid, Global Times, posted a video saying that a large number of Ukrainian soldiers had laid down their arms. Its source: the Russian state-controlled television network, RT. Two days later, China’s state broadcaster Central Television Station (CCTV) flashed a breaking news alert, quoting Russia’s parliamentary speaker, that President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine had fled Kyiv. CCTV then created a related hashtag on the Twitter-like platform Weibo that was viewed 510 million times and used by 163 media outlets…