Category: The Diplomat

In the quest for modern governance solutions, China continues to explore innovative methods to ensure local accountability without adopting Western-style democratic elections. This trend has been particularly notable during Xi Jinping’s tenure, marking a significant deviation from the methodologies preferred by his predecessors. Under Xi, the once-promoted enthusiasm for local elections has significantly waned.  A key initiative in this shift is the revival of the “Fengqiao Experience,” a concept originating from Mao Zedong’s era. This strategy focuses on resolving local disputes and grievances through community mediation and self-regulation, thereby reducing…

Much has been made of the importance Russian President Vladimir Putin has placed on historical factors in justifying the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In the wake of Putin’s interview with Tucker Carlson, the Cold War historian Sergey Radchenko made the assessment that while Putin’s version of history is “clinically insane,” the fact that “Putin clings to this version of history – again, and again, again – means that we have to take it seriously… It’s not just propaganda.” Using history to justify policy has long been a fruitful resource for…

In January, the vice president of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), William Lai was elected the next president of Taiwan. His inauguration will be held on May 20. Lai’s election victory has put the focus on what the incoming president has said about Taiwan’s relations with China and how to frame the 1992 Consensus, which China repeatedly has asked Taiwan to affirm. In Taiwan, 60 percent of the population wants to maintain the status quo, and less than 10 percent favors reunification with China. The point of contention for the…

It’s been a month since Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won Taiwan’s presidential election. Since then, there have been a number of cross-strait developments – even though much of that time was taken up by the Lunar New Year, one of the most significant holidays for Taiwan and China.  China was, unsurprisingly, quick to denounce Lai’s victory, continuing to frame him as a dangerous cross-strait provocateur. At the same time, analysts noted that China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) emphasized that the Chinese government would work with supportive…

Hardly anyone in China wants to talk about COVID-19 or the zero-COVID policy that the authorities stubbornly pursued throughout most of the pandemic. Zero COVID was abruptly abandoned at the end of 2022, causing more than an estimated million deaths in the subsequent months. The authorities then brazenly declared in March 2023 that the country’s management of the pandemic was “completely correct,” even as they scrubbed references to the policy that had traumatized the economy – and people’s lives – for more than two years. The initial success of zero…

Italian policymakers have echoed other Western voices in calling for “de-risking,” especially avoiding economic overreliance on China. Italy, like fellow European governments, insists that de-risking is distinct from decoupling; indeed, de-risking has been largely fashioned to avoid the decoupling debate.  Discussion on these issues began in Italy in the aftermath of the Giuseppe Conte government’s decision to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Italy in March 2019. Calls to reduce risky ties with Beijing were initially…

China’s President Xi Jinping and and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, entered the Year of the Dragon by exchanging greetings and affirming their bilateral ties on February 8, just two days before the start of the Lunar New Year. Beijing and Moscow’s mutual resentment and suspicion of the Washington- and Brussels-led alliance of democracies continues to provide shared political purpose. Economic complementarities, meanwhile, led bilateral trade to reach an eye-popping $240 billion in 2023 – itself a significant undercount, as China is almost certainly exporting billions of dollars worth of…

The dissemination of propaganda across Latin America by “anti-Western” nations, including Russia, Venezuela, and Iran, is the topic of much research. Local citizens are exposed to messages in their native language, which try to appeal to local concerns, amplify useful narratives, and relativize the success of the propagandist regimes while underestimating and criticizing the performance of democracies.  China is no exception to this trend; it operates several channels under the umbrella of the China Media Group (CMG). Beijing has invested significant resources in enhancing its traditional and digital presence in…

The China Central Television (CCTV) annual Spring Festival Gala, the most-watched TV program in the world, attracts a viewership that approaches at least a third of China’s total population of 1.4 billion, far exceeding similar extravaganzas such as the Eurovision Song Contest. Since its inception in 1983, the Gala has become a defining element of the contemporary Chinese Spring Festival experience.  The hours-long program, running from early evening to midnight, involves thousands of people in the production crew and has become a central activity for many Chinese families on Lunar…

The organizer of a much-hyped soccer match that intended to showcase Lionel Messi in Hong Kong said Friday it would offer a 50 percent refund following days of backlash from angry fans and the government over the absence of the World Cup winner. Hong Kong fans were frustrated after Messi stayed on the bench for the full 90 minutes in a game against a local team due to a groin injury. The grievance spread to mainland China after the Argentina star put in a 30-minute appearance in a game in…