Tag: Communist Party of China

China Appears to Loosen Covid Rules After Protests

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In the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, residents returned to work on Thursday for the first time in weeks after Covid-19 lockdowns were lifted. In Chongqing, in the southwest, some residents were no longer required to take regular Covid tests. And in Beijing, a senior health official played down the severity of current Omicron variants, a rare move for the government. The developments suggest that the ruling Communist Party may be starting to back down on unpopular Covid restrictions in response to a wave of mass protests that have been…

Jiang Zemin, China’s Leader After Tiananmen Square Protests, Dies at 96

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The feral capitalism that Mr. Jiang and Mr. Zhu fostered created a wide rich-poor divide even as it lifted vast numbers from poverty, and it nurtured a culture of official corruption and cronyism. “In some ways, that was the start of this live-and-let-live attitude toward corruption that Xi Jinping now finds himself attacking,” said Joseph Fewsmith, a professor at Boston University who studies Chinese leadership politics. Wielding Influence By the time Mr. Jiang retired from the party leadership in 2002 and from the presidency in 2003, his influence and self-regard…

The Long Odds Facing China’s Protesters

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Still, without some of China’s elite breaking with Mr. Xi to support the protesters, William Hurst, a Northwestern University scholar, wrote on Twitter, “the most likely scenario I can see is that the protests fizzle out (as most such movements do in most countries).” Understand the Protests in China “Having erupted spontaneously in a short period,” predicted Mr. Hurst, who studies Chinese social movements, “they will fade away without reaching any climax or denouement.” Protests’ Waning Power Throughout most of the 20th century, mass protests seeking a change in government…

Protests Stretch China’s Censorship to Its Limits

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He too shared videos of the protest on WeChat, though he deleted them after 24 hours in an effort to evade the authorities, who had begun to go after some demonstrators. Though only up shortly, his videos changed the minds of two people he had thought would be unreceptive: his parents. “My parents, like many Chinese parents, used to think what I’m doing is meaningless and childish, but they have changed dramatically in the past two days,” Mr. Qu said. His parents now understand why he would participate in such…

China Regroups to Snuff Out a Wave of Covid Protests

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After China experienced its boldest and most widespread protests in decades, defying Xi Jinping, a Communist Party leader who prizes his reputation for ironclad authority, his security apparatus is scrambling to reassert control. Public security personnel and vehicles have blanketed potential protest sites. Police officers are searching some residents’ phones for prohibited apps. Officials are going to the homes of would-be protesters to warn them against illegal activities and are taking some away for questioning. Censors are scrubbing protest symbols and slogans from social media. On Monday, the demonstrations were…

Deadly Blaze in China Fuels Defiance Against Xi’s Covid Policies

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The fire began with a faulty power strip in a bedroom on the 15th floor of an apartment building in China’s far west. Firefighters spent three hours putting it out — too slow to prevent at least 10 deaths — and what might have remained an isolated accident turned into a tragedy and a political headache for local leaders. Many people suspected that a Covid lockdown had hampered rescue efforts or trapped victims inside their homes. Officials denied that happened. Still, many remained unconvinced, flooding social media with angry comments…

Protests Erupt in Shanghai and Other Chinese Cities Over Covid Controls

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Protests spread to cities and campuses in China on Saturday night amid rising public anger at the country’s strict but faltering controls against the spread of Covid, with a crowd in Shanghai going so far as to call for the removal of the national leader, Xi Jinping. The demonstration occurred after an outpouring of anger online and after a street protest erupted on Friday in Urumqi, the regional capital of Xinjiang in western China, where at least 10 people died and nine others were injured a day earlier in an…

Outbreaks Test China’s Efforts to Limit the Cost of ‘Zero Covid’

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Barely a week after no longer requiring residents to show a negative Covid test to use mass transit, the authorities in the northern Chinese city of Shijiazhuang have locked down much of the city for five days as infections surge. In Shanghai, many neighborhoods have begun requiring frequent Covid tests again only days after telling residents that the tests were seldom needed. And across much of Beijing, officials have ordered schools and many businesses to close as daily cases rose over the past week to more than 1,400 and the…

Bao Tong, 90, Dies; Top Chinese Official Imprisoned After Tiananmen

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Mr. Bao’s wife, Jiang Zongcao, died on Aug. 21 at 90. Their deaths have been widely mourned by friends and supporters in China, although official media have not mentioned the deaths and social media sites have tried to stifle the news. Bao Tong was born on Nov. 5, 1932, in Haining, Zhejiang Province, in eastern China, the third of six children. His father, Bao Peiren, a manager in an enamel products factory, and his mother, Wu Heng, a homemaker, immersed their children in learning. The family fled the Japanese invasion…

World of Warcraft and Other Blizzard Games Will Be Pulled From China

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The fallout is unlikely to have a strong impact on the two companies’ bottom lines, said Chenyu Cui, an analyst at the research consultancy Omdia. “NetEase’s online games business has generated more revenue from mobile games,” she said. Other games, such as Naraka Bladepoint, the Westward Journey series and Justice, are its most lucrative products. The company reported that the percentage of total income in 2021 from Blizzard games was in the “low single digits.” The impact on Blizzard also appeared to be limited. Its biggest revenue generator, Diablo Immortal,…