FOR FOUR decades China has defied received wisdom about the institutions that countries must build to become rich and strong. After the Communist Party’s bosses embraced market forces in 1979, many foreign observers predicted that political reforms had to follow, such as the emergence of more independent courts to sustain the rule of law and uphold property rights. In time, the optimistic foreigners ventured, most advanced economies realise that they need democratic—or at least accountable—political systems. Societies with such “inclusive institutions” enjoy both stability and broad-based prosperity, Chinese officials were…
Day: May 13, 2022
The pandemic has made life harder for China’s homeless
SPARE A LITTLE pity for a Chinese beggar called Mr Jiang. Last month he was blamed for a small covid-19 outbreak in the city of Haining. The media labelled him “patient zero”. The authorities noted his “super-strength infectiousness”. Samples from the public toilets and empty shops where Mr Jiang slept came back positive for the virus. He tested positive, too. The authorities are prosecuting him for allegedly not co-operating with contact-tracers. Listen to this story.Enjoy more audio and podcasts on iOS or Android. Your browser does not support the <audio>…
China’s Grand Canal is full for the first time in decades
WHEN KUBLAI KHAN tired of spending winters at his pleasure-dome in Xanadu, the Mongol overlord of China, who ruled during the 13th century, built a new capital in what is now Beijing. In order to feed the city, he launched a decade-long hydrological project, extending the Grand Canal, which already snaked through much of eastern China. The oldest sections of the waterway had been constructed centuries before. Kublai Khan was hardly the first ruler to demand that China’s waters do his bidding. Nor was he the last. “To rule a…
China is wary of Hong Kong’s bureaucratic elite
HAVING TAKEN 99.2% of the vote as the sole candidate in an election from which an even higher proportion of Hong Kong’s people were excluded, the territory’s next chief executive, John Lee, made clear why China’s Communist Party engineered his victory. “Protecting Hong Kong from internal and external threats and ensuring its stability”, he said, would be of “paramount importance” under his leadership. Mr Lee is a former policeman. The party trusts him to keep Hong Kong in line. Trust is something that the party does not have in abundance…
Your Friday Evening Briefing
(Want to get this newsletter in your inbox? Here’s the sign-up.) Good evening. Here’s the latest at the end of Friday. 1. Sanctions hit President Vladimir Putin’s former wife and his rumored girlfriend. Britain added Putin’s former wife, Lyudmila Ocheretnaya, and the woman long considered to be his mistress, Alina Kabaeva, to its sanctions list as the West deepened its efforts to combat Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A former K.G.B. operative, Putin has kept his personal life shrouded in secrecy, but the sanctions are lifting that veil. On the battlefields,…
How Long Can Xi Prioritize ‘Zero COVID’ over the Economy?
Advertisement China’s fight with COVID-19 has entered a new round. Following the country’s most severe outbreaks since the start of the pandemic, President Xi Jinping has instructed officials to double down on his signature “zero COVID” policy of strictly testing, tracing, and isolating positive cases. Drawing on Mao-era terminology, Xi declared that “perseverance is victory” in what he has dubbed a “people’s war” against COVID-19. Xi’s latest words also signal an unprecedented level of political sensitivity around his maximum suppression strategy. In a warning against dissent, Xi called on officials…
Why the Soviet Union’s 20th Party Congress Continues to Haunt China
Advertisement In the prolific number of analytical articles on China’s harsh response to COVID-19 this year, most have attributed Beijing’s zero-COVID policy to concern about political security in the face of the upcoming 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). But few essays answer this question by going into detail about where those fears come from: the historical perspective of Chinese political development and foreign policy during the Maoist era. In retrospect, the consequences of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1956…
It’s unprecedented for Dutton to label a Chinese spy ship sailing outside Australia’s territory an ‘act of aggression’ | Daniel Hurst
The defence minister, Peter Dutton, has called the presence of a Chinese spy ship off the coast of Western Australia “an aggressive act” but his department was far more sober in its assessment and international law experts have poured cold water on the claim. It is not the first time such Chinese vessels have been in Australia’s exclusive economic zone. So, given we are a week out from an election and the Coalition wants the narrative refocused through a “we live in uncertain times” lens, let’s put the politics aside…
Latin America’s Choice and the Cross-strait Diplomatic Battle
Advertisement On December 9, 2021, the first day of the Biden administration’s Summit for Democracy, Nicaragua severed its diplomatic ties with Taiwan and resumed relations with China. It is hard not to believe that the timing of the announcement was China’s riposte to the U.S. invitation for Taiwan to participate in the summit. A week before the summit, it was speculated that Honduras would be the next Central American state to flip from Taiwan to China, following the victory of the leftist candidate Xiomara Castro in the Honduran presidential election. Castro…
The World Tries to Move Beyond Covid. China May Stand in the Way.
As the rest of the world learns to live with Covid-19, China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, wants his country to keep striving to live without it — no matter the cost. China won a battle against its first outbreak in Wuhan, Mr. Xi said last week, and “we will certainly be able to win the battle to defend Shanghai,” he added, referring to the epicenter of the current outbreak in China. But pressure is mounting for a change to the zero-Covid strategy that has left Shanghai at a standstill since…