What to Expect at China’s National People’s Congress as Xi Tightens Grip

China’s leaders are set to use a gathering of the top legislature starting Sunday to outline plans to restore public confidence and bolster economic growth after a year of uncertainty, disruption and discontent around the government’s Covid restrictions. The annual session of the largely ceremonial National People’s Congress is aimed at conveying the ruling Communist Party’s confidence and inspiring national unity. For the country’s top leader, Xi Jinping, this year’s event will also be key to reinforcing his authority after his signature “zero Covid” policy, now abandoned, drew widespread protests…

Foreign Efforts to Subvert Canada’s Last 2 Elections Failed, Report Says

OTTAWA — Foreign governments tried to interfere with the last two federal elections in Canada, but they did not succeed in “impacting” the voting results, according to an independent review released on Tuesday. That conclusion comes as opposition politicians and others are pressing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to open a separate, public inquiry into allegations of election interference by Chinese diplomats based in Canada, as well as by informal agents of the Chinese government — a move that Mr. Trudeau has rejected. The report released on Tuesday was a review…

China Moves to Erase the Vestiges of ‘Zero Covid’ to Deter Dissent

This is how China’s ruling Communist Party wants people to remember how it handled the Covid-19 pandemic: It was a “miracle in human history.” Every measure the government imposed was rooted in science, supported by the masses — and, ultimately, “completely correct.” The party is waging an ambitious propaganda campaign to rewrite the public’s memory of “zero Covid,” a signature policy of China’s leader, Xi Jinping, that helped contain the virus for almost three years — but went to such extreme lengths that it smothered the economy and set off…

China’s Top Airship Scientist Promoted Program to Watch the World From Above

The balloon that was launched in July 2019, Professor Wu said then, was a “big guy,” nearly 330 feet in length and weighing several tons, which appears to be bigger than the balloon that was shot down off the coast of South Carolina by an American fighter jet this month. “This is the first time that an aerodynamically controlled airship has flown around the world in the stratosphere at 20,000 meters,” or about 65,000 feet high, Professor Wu told an outlet of the Southern Daily newspaper of Guangdong Province. The…

Master Hsing Yun, Monk Who Spread Buddhism in China, Dies at 95

The Venerable Master Hsing Yun, a Buddhist monk who built a global network of temples that extended to mainland China, putting him at the vanguard of popularizing Buddhism in a country whose government had long been hostile to religion, died on Feb. 5 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. He was 95. His death, at the Fo Guang Shan Monastery, was announced by his organization, Fo Guang Shan. No cause was given. Master Hsing Yun was criticized for his political ties, especially for his support of China’s authoritarian leader, President Xi Jinping. But…

China, Still Trying to Play Down Balloon, Finds It’s Getting Harder to Do

BEIJING — Since the spy balloon saga started, China has tried to play down the incident and prevent it from further inflaming relations with the United States. But as American alarm and accusations have mounted, that strategy is increasingly coming under strain — forcing China into an awkward, at times self-contradictory position. Beijing has continued to maintain that the United States is overreacting to what China called a civilian vessel gathering mainly meteorological data, though the US says it has found evidence of surveillance equipment. But as Washington has begun…

House Votes Unanimously to Condemn China Over Balloon

WASHINGTON — The House on Thursday issued a bipartisan condemnation of the Chinese Communist Party for flying a spy balloon over the United States last week, unanimously approving the move after Republican leaders rebuffed a right-wing faction that had pressed to rebuke President Biden personally for how the incident was handled. The Chinese surveillance balloon, which was shot down by a missile from an F-22 fighter jet over the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday, was part of a fleet of such devices that have flown over 40 countries on five continents.…

China Finds Itself With Limited Options After U.S. Shoots Down Balloon

After an American fighter jet shot down the Chinese balloon that had floated across the United States, the reaction from Beijing — defensive, angered, yet hedging its options — illustrated the challenges facing China’s leader, Xi Jinping, as he tries to stabilize relations while giving little, if any, ground. Hours after the balloon was struck by a Sidewinder missile and crumpled into the waters off South Carolina, the Chinese foreign ministry declared its “strong discontent and protest” and doubled down on its position that the balloon was a civilian research…

What to Know About the ‘Hong Kong 47’ Trial and the National Security Law

Vaguely worded and broad in scope, the law was crafted and enacted from Beijing. It quickly transformed life in Hong Kong. Boisterous demonstrations all but disappeared. Newsrooms were raided and shuttered. Labor unions, pro-democracy coalitions and other civil society groups disbanded, one after another. Chinese officials have used the national security law, as it is called, to crack down on dissent in Hong Kong, essentially discarding the “one country, two systems” pledge that guaranteed the city a high degree of autonomy after Britain gave it back to China. In the…

Blinken Postpones Trip to China After Balloon Is Detected Over U.S.

China’s Ministry of National Defense, which usually comments on military issues, did not comment. “China is a responsible country, always strictly abides by international law, and has no intention of violating any sovereign country’s territory or airspace,” Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for the foreign ministry, told a regular news briefing on Friday afternoon. But she said then that the authorities needed to check the reports. The Global Times, a Communist Party-run newspaper that has become a vehicle for pugnacious, sometimes quasi-official reactions from Beijing, suggested that the balloon reports were…