The disappearance of former state councilor and foreign minister Qin Gang 秦刚 in June 2023, and the former defense minister General Li Shangfu 李尚福 in August, raises questions about the supreme leader Xi Jinping’s personnel management. A score of senior officers from the Rocket Force and departments in charge of weapons procurement also got the … more
In April 2023, videos featuring uniformed rural enforcement teams known as nongguan 农管 forcefully confiscating farmers’ livestock or taking down trees went viral on Chinese social media. ‘The nongguan are coming!’ 农管来了 became a trending topic, often followed by the phrase ‘the peasants are panicking’ 农民慌了. Nongguan is the unofficial name for the rural comprehensive … more
Xi Jinping boosted the prominence of rural affairs when he came to power in 2013 and outlined his vision for China’s future development. That vision was built around the ‘Two Centennial Goals’—first, that China would become a moderately prosperous country by 2021, the year of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC, and … more
In Nanjing in 1946, the government of the Republic of China (ROC), in the midst of a civil war, decided to delineate the territory of the Republic so that it could reconstruct the country after the expected successful conclusion of the war against the Communists. ROC officials studied old documents and records that suggested the … more
Standing in front of two Australian flags on 11 August 2016, Scott Morrison, then federal treasurer, declined to answer a reporter’s question about the nature of the national security threat that had stopped him from agreeing to let the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) buy a ninety-nine year lease for 50.4 per cent of … more
In Moscow on 22 March 2023 Chinese President Xi Jinping told Russian President Vladimir Putin that ‘Right now there are changes — the likes of which we haven’t seen for 100 years — and we are the ones driving these changes together.’ Leaving the hyperbole aside, there is evidence that many of certainties of the Western-led … more
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, a curtain has risen on an engrossing theatre of international relations. The spotlight has swivelled towards China. In May, China cast a surprising vote in the UN General Assembly, supporting a resolution that described Russia as the aggressor in the conflict—a term that China had previously … more
Informal economic sanctions reinforced by state-sponsored consumer boycotts have made the Chinese market volatile for multinational corporations (MNCs) over the past decade. MNCs must be careful not to offend Beijing and nationalists in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Nonetheless, a definition of what it means to ‘offend China’ 辱華 is rather elusive. Examples range … more
At the Communist Party of China (CPC) Congress in October 2022, Xi Jinping was confirmed for a third term as the Party’s General Secretary. The Party had already passed a historic resolution the year before — only the third in its 100-year history — establishing Xi as the ‘core of the central committee and of … more
The Party Congress 中国共产党全国代表大会 is the most important meeting in the calendar of activities of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Since 1977, one has been held every five years. Before that, they were less regular. Delegates to the congress formalise changes to the Party’s leadership, review the previous five years, and set policy directions … more
