Chinese authorities are ratcheting up nationalistic sentiment in the run up to a key meeting of the country’s ruling party where party leader Xi Jinping is expected to gain an unprecedented third term. In recent weeks, state media has amplified the patriotic themes of “struggle” and “red heritage” while warning of internal and external threats ahead of the Chinese Communist party’s most important political meeting. On Monday Xi was quoted in a front page article by the People’s Daily newspaper as saying, “we must continue our ‘red blood heritage,’ inspire…
Day: October 5, 2022
Policy docs show China plans to end support for Tibet after Dalai Lama’s death
UPDATED AT 2:57 p.m. EST on 10-6-2022 Chinese authorities have developed an elaborate public relations strategy to end international support for Tibet after the death of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama that includes installing a puppet leader in his place, according to a new report by the International Tibet Network (ITN). In the 30-page report, entitled “Tibet, the Dalai Lama, and the Geopolitics of Reincarnation,” ITN found evidence of China’s plans to use the Dalai Lama’s passing as a “strategic” and “historic” opportunity to firm up its control of…
The farmers caught up in Taiwan’s tensions with China
Christina Lai, a junior research fellow at the Institute of Political Science at Academia Sinica, Taiwan’s top research institution, says that Taiwanese farmers are looking for new buyers in Japan, Australia and the Middle East, but that this will take time. BBC
Lao military releases five land dispute protesters on condition of silence
The Lao military arbitrarily detained five land dispute protesters for three months, then threatened them with further punishment if they were to talk to the media after their release, RFA has learned. In April, authorities violently detained Nang Boumy, 55, Ngad, 58, Bounthavy, 36, Khamphout, 49, and Tou Oun, 72, as they destroyed signs and argued with military personnel at a newly built camp in their village of Houay Nam Yen in Naxaithong district, north of the capital Vientiane. The five detainees were sent to a military facility in Nong…
What to Watch for at the 20th Party Congress: The Leadership Shuffle
Advertisement On October 16, China’s biggest political event – the 20th National Party Congress of the Chinese Communist Party – will officially open. The 20th Party Congress has been the subject of speculation since the 19th iteration closed on October 24, 2017, without naming an heir apparent to CCP General Secretary (and, separately, Chinese President) Xi Jinping, as would have been expected following recent precedent. Each Party Congress is closely watched for the big leadership reveal at the end, when the new members of the Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) come…
U.S. Aims to Turn Taiwan Into Giant Weapons Depot
WASHINGTON — American officials are intensifying efforts to build a giant stockpile of weapons in Taiwan after studying recent naval and air force exercises by the Chinese military around the island, according to current and former officials. The exercises showed that China would probably blockade the island as a prelude to any attempted invasion, and Taiwan would have to hold out on its own until the United States or other nations intervened, if they decided to do that, the current and former officials say. But the effort to transform Taiwan…
The Chinese Communist Party’s Ride-or-Die Moment
Advertisement Xi Jinping, the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since 2012, is widely expected to sail into a third five-year term at this month’s 20th Party Congress. This will make him the longest-serving party chief since founding leader Mao Zedong. It will also represent a risky departure from a system of collective leadership and orderly succession that had given the Chinese regime an important advantage over its less stable authoritarian peers. Paradoxically, the party’s renewed commitment to its “core leader” is coming at a time when the…