Tag: Communist Party of China

Chinese Activist Camps Out at Airport in Taiwan in Bid for Asylum

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chinese activist camps out at airport in taiwan in bid for asylum

Chen Siming, an activist who fled China, has been camped out at an airport in Taiwan for nearly a week, hoping to gain asylum in the West. He is willing to wait for much longer, as long as he is not forced to board a plane back to China. Mr. Chen, 60, is among a wave of activists and human rights defenders who have recently attempted bold and hazardous escapes from the country as a crackdown on civil society has widened. In July, a Chinese human rights lawyer fled to…

China Flies Record Number of Military Planes Near Taiwan

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china flies record number of military planes near taiwan

The News China sent a record number of military aircraft toward the self-governed island democracy of Taiwan, prompting the island’s defense ministry on Monday to warn against what it called “destructive” harassment. The previous daily record of Chinese military flights near Taiwan was 91 planes, on April 10. Taiwan said it tracked 103 People’s Liberation Army aircraft entering its air defense identification zone in the 24 hours leading up to Monday morning. None entered Taiwan’s airspace. That tally included 40 aircraft that crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait,…

U.K.’s Arrest of Suspected Spy Fuels Calls for Tougher Stance on China

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u k s arrest of suspected spy fuels calls for tougher stance on china

Even by the prolific standards of China’s foreign influence operations, it would represent a sensational case of infiltration. A 28-year-old British man who worked as a researcher deep inside Britain’s Parliament was arrested in March on suspicion of working for the Chinese government. The man, who denies being a spy, worked with prominent lawmakers on China policy, raising fears of possible security breaches and widening a rift within the governing Conservative Party over how London should engage with an increasingly assertive Beijing. “The Chinese are infiltrating across the board; they…

Paul Krugman’s Economic Advice to China: ‘Live a Little’

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paul krugmans economic advice to china live a little

China’s economic problems are growing: a real estate sector that’s going bankrupt, too many unemployed young workers and, remarkably, people saving too much. And, as the Nobel Prize-winning economist and Opinion columnist Paul Krugman argues in this audio essay, the Chinese government’s reluctance to encourage spending could make things worse. How did one of the world’s largest economies get here? And what’s next? (A full transcript of this audio essay will be available midday on the Times website.) The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the…

China’s Economic Pain is a Test of Xi’s Fixation With Control

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chinas economic pain is a test of xis fixation with control

In Xi Jinping’s strategy for securing China’s rise, the Communist Party keeps a firm grip on the economy, steering it out of an old era dependent on real estate and smokestack industries to a new one driven by innovation and consumer spending. But he may have to relinquish some of that control, as that strategy comes under pressure. Consumers are gloomy. Private investment is sluggish. A big property firm is near collapse. Local governments face crippling debt. Youth unemployment has continued to rise. The economic setbacks are eroding Mr. Xi’s…

China’s Leader, Xi Jinping, Set to Skip G20 Summit in Snub to India

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chinas leader xi jinping set to skip g20 summit in snub to india

China indicated on Monday that its top leader, Xi Jinping, will skip the Group of 20 summit meeting in New Delhi this weekend, dealing a blow to India, the event’s host nation, and raising questions about Mr. Xi’s profile as a global statesman. China will send the premier, Li Qiang, to the event, said Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for China’s Foreign Ministry, at a news briefing. Ms. Mao declined to explain the reason for the decision and refused to answer questions about Mr. Xi. The Chinese leader has never missed…

China to Its People: Spies Are Everywhere, Help Us Catch Them

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china to its people spies are everywhere help us catch them

Beijing sees forces bent on weakening it everywhere: embedded in multinational companies, infiltrating social media, circling naïve students. And it wants its people to see them, too. Chinese universities require faculty to take courses on protecting state secrets, even in departments like veterinary medicine. A kindergarten in the eastern city of Tianjin organized a meeting to teach staffers how to “understand and use” China’s anti-espionage law. China’s Ministry of State Security, a usually covert department that oversees the secret police and intelligence services, has even opened its first social media…

How Xi Returned China to One-Man Rule

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how xi returned china to one man rule

Like his predecessors, Xi wields power through his control of the Communist Party, the military and the government. But Xi has expanded his power beyond previous limits. He has concentrated decision-making around himself. He has intensified the power of the party over society. His name, his image and his words fill the media. To many, this wasn’t supposed to be the path that China would take. After decades of reforms, the country showed signs of moving toward collective leadership, preventing the re-emergence of autocratic rule. Here’s how Xi dismantled those…

The Scientist Who Foresaw China’s Stagnation

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the scientist who foresaw chinas stagnation

Adam Posen, the president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, described China as suffering from a case of economic long Covid. In an article in the September-October issue of Foreign Affairs, he wrote: Like a patient suffering from that chronic condition, China’s body economic has not regained its vitality and remains sluggish even now that the acute phase — three years of exceedingly strict and costly “zero Covid” lockdown measures — has ended. The condition is systemic, and the only reliable cure — credibly assuring ordinary Chinese people and…

Isabel Crook, Whose Life in China Spanned a Century of Change, Dies at 107

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isabel crook whose life in china spanned a century of change dies at 107

Isabel Crook, a China-born daughter of Canadian missionaries who became one of her adopted country’s most celebrated foreign residents, beloved as an educator, anthropologist and articulate advocate for the Communist state, died on Sunday in Beijing. She was 107. Her son Carl Crook said the cause of death, in a hospital, was pneumonia. Mrs. Crook was among the last of a generation of Westerners born to missionaries in China in the decades before the Japanese invasion, World War II and the subsequent Communist revolution. The experience defined them. Some, like…