AI
Sunday, October 23, 2022 10:46:12 PM
Xi Jinping's iron grip over China and his party has grown over the past decade, changing the face of the country forever
"China's Xi further cements power as party congress closes
"Xi Jinping Has Critics in China. They Have Paid a Steep Price.
"Xi Jinping the gambler’s greatest fear isn’t war
[...]China just set its lowest target for economic growth in 30 years. It still looks ambitious"""
By East Asia correspondent Bill Birtles
6 hours ago, updated 2h ago
Former Chinese president Hu Jintao (centre) was escorted out of congress on Saturday, just one move which shows
the power behind Chinese President Xi Jinping (right). (Reuters: Tingshu Wang)
Xi Jinping's extraordinary accumulation of personal power at the 20th Communist Party Congress over the weekend has gone beyond most observers expectations, with some suggesting his control is now greater than in Chairman Mao Zedong's day.
And his warning of dark times to come and obsession with security is foreshadowing a difficult period ahead.
It wasn't his precedent-busting third, five-year term .. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-23/chinese-leader-xi-jinping-named-to-third-term/101567072 .. at the helm of the world's most-powerful political party that shocked analysts, as that was on the cards for the past four years, ever since he scrapped State Presidential term limits.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping is named to a new term
Chinese leader Xi Jinping is named to a new term as head
of the Communist Party, increasing his political dominance.
Read more > https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-23/chinese-leader-xi-jinping-named-to-third-term/101567072
Rather, two moments over two days helped crystallise just how much of an iron grip he's managed to secure over both the Party and China as a whole.
The first was a moment on Saturday that, even with the most sympathetic explanation, still involved the incredibly undignified act of a former Chinese leader being manhandled off stage.
Just moments after journalists were allowed to enter the Great Hall of the People, Hu Jintao, Xi's predecessor, was filmed in some sort of dispute or distress .. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-22/hu-jintao-chinese-ex-president-escorted-out-of-party-congress/101566426 .. involving the documents in front of him.
Sitting between Mr Xi and Xi loyalist Li Zhanshu, who both spoke to him, Mr Hu looked confused and upset, and then was forced to his feet by an aide of Mr Xi who led him off stage.
Most of the other top leaders sat stone-faced and largely ignored this luminary of Chinese politics as he was led away.
Chinese state media has censored discussion of the incident but has allowed the video, filmed by foreign media, to continue to circulate on the main messaging app, WeChat.
Only in English on a platform blocked in China, Twitter, has the state newsagency said the 79-year old former leader was feeing unwell.
It's an explanation many analysts believe is credible.
Mr Hu's image and attendance wasn't scrubbed from state TV reports of the Congress closing ceremony, so the likelihood he was purged is very low.
VIDEO - 1 minute 4 seconds - The moment former Chinese president Hu Jintao is escorted out of party congress
However, his forced, unhappy exit stage right, with a pat on the shoulder to protege Li Keqiang on the way out was, at the very least, extraordinary timing because it came just after the Party delegates all voted to approve a new group of leaders that cut Mr Li and all other factional associates of Hu Jintao from top positions.
[Noted it looked like he wanted to take the documents with him, but was refused. ]
"It's clear that he either had some sort of medical issue or this was a deliberate attempt to humiliate him, as his allies inside the Chinese Communist Party were being removed from all positions of power," said Alex Joske, a senior China analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and the author of a new book on China's covert operations, Spies and Lies.
--
"It's a reflection of the sort of opaque, medieval workings of the Chinese Communist Party that
something as simple as a man being led off stage can spark so much speculation," he said.
--
The second moment putting Xi's power play into clearer view came on Sunday, when he led six men out on to a stage as his new cabinet.
Expectations were high that Mr Xi would try to fill the positions with loyalists, but few predicated a straight flush.
All six of the men are regarded as Xi associates, especially his new Number 2, Li Qiang, a politician without national-level experience, best known for overseeing a draconian COVID lockdown in Shanghai this year that led to food shortages and tanked the economy.
[ Insert: First time in 25 years, no women in Chinese Communist Party's new cabinet
For the first time in 25 years, China will not have a woman sitting on its Politburo.
https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/first-time-in-25-years-no-women-in-chinese-communist-partys-new-cabinet-2288667-2022-10-23 ]
It won Xi Jinping's approval though because it eradicated the virus from the city as new cases dropped to zero.
Temporarily.
Now parts of Shanghai are back in lockdown as COVID-19 cases have returned.
Politburo tightening Xi's grip
The Shanghai shutdown .. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-10/shanghai-mass-testing-june/101144652 .. contributed to a yearly quarter of almost stagnant national economic growth.
However, despite that, Mr Li will likely takeover management of the world's second-largest economy as the new Chinese Premier next year.
If there are any doubts about his credentials, there are none about his loyalty to the one man who counts.
"The way I read it, Xi Jinping for the past decade has been trying to transfer the [Politburo Standing Committee] from a board of directors, where there is some institutional means of power-sharing, into a team of division managers," said Dr Fengming Lu, a lecturer on Chinese politics at the Australian National University.
While the tea leaf reading of elite Chinese politics is fascinating to some, a more general steer on where Xi's China is going next is more relevant to most.
And optimism is in short supply.
Xi Jinping, who first took power in 2012, will serve a third five-year term as General Secretary of the CCP.
(Reuters: Thomas Peter)
Xi's defence of his COVID-zero policy and his promotion of Li Qiang leaves little room to imagine China opening its borders any time soon.
His defence of the country's economic fundamentals and repeat of an oft-used line about China "opening the door wider" clashes with the reality of the last few years.
His increasing talk of "security", spanning everything from political security to economic security, shows rising paranoia both from forces at home and abroad.
His promotion of the head of China's Ministry of State Security to the Politburo for the first time signals tightening control.
Can China continue to flourish without freedom?
Xi Jinping cannot let go of power. He has set China on
a course from which, for him, there is no turning back.
Read more > https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-23/xi-jinping-china-power-communist-party-us-rival-russia-putin/101558090
His decision not to include a woman .. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-17/the-ccp-top-leadership-gender-inequality-national-congress/101500322 .. [oops, ok] among the 24-member Politburo, returning it to an all-male leadership group for the first time in a quarter of a century, shows a widening gulf compared to expectations for more equality in countries abroad.
Increasing zero-sum competition with the US, which the Biden administration is now reciprocating, will be the theme of foreign relations.
"Xi Jinping's main priority is still to deal with the US, and in this process he's trying to make more friends than enemies in the Western camp," Dr Lu said.
"There is still some leeway for the Australian-China relationship in the next few years," he said, pointing to recent overtures by the Chinese embassy in Australia.
However, others are less optimistic about the broader trends, believing the nineties and early noughties' heyday of China opening up to the world is now firmly in the rear-view mirror.
"We're not going to be walking into a future where we can return to more friendly relations," Mr Joske said.
--
"The Chinese Communist Party is really showing that it's locked into long-term competition with Western countries, so we're in for a really bumpy ride."
--
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-24/xi-jinping-extraordinary-power-grab-over-china/101568032
"China's Xi further cements power as party congress closes
"Xi Jinping Has Critics in China. They Have Paid a Steep Price.
"Xi Jinping the gambler’s greatest fear isn’t war
[...]China just set its lowest target for economic growth in 30 years. It still looks ambitious"""
By East Asia correspondent Bill Birtles
6 hours ago, updated 2h ago
Former Chinese president Hu Jintao (centre) was escorted out of congress on Saturday, just one move which shows
the power behind Chinese President Xi Jinping (right). (Reuters: Tingshu Wang)
Xi Jinping's extraordinary accumulation of personal power at the 20th Communist Party Congress over the weekend has gone beyond most observers expectations, with some suggesting his control is now greater than in Chairman Mao Zedong's day.
And his warning of dark times to come and obsession with security is foreshadowing a difficult period ahead.
It wasn't his precedent-busting third, five-year term .. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-23/chinese-leader-xi-jinping-named-to-third-term/101567072 .. at the helm of the world's most-powerful political party that shocked analysts, as that was on the cards for the past four years, ever since he scrapped State Presidential term limits.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping is named to a new term
Chinese leader Xi Jinping is named to a new term as head
of the Communist Party, increasing his political dominance.
Read more > https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-23/chinese-leader-xi-jinping-named-to-third-term/101567072
Rather, two moments over two days helped crystallise just how much of an iron grip he's managed to secure over both the Party and China as a whole.
The first was a moment on Saturday that, even with the most sympathetic explanation, still involved the incredibly undignified act of a former Chinese leader being manhandled off stage.
Just moments after journalists were allowed to enter the Great Hall of the People, Hu Jintao, Xi's predecessor, was filmed in some sort of dispute or distress .. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-22/hu-jintao-chinese-ex-president-escorted-out-of-party-congress/101566426 .. involving the documents in front of him.
Sitting between Mr Xi and Xi loyalist Li Zhanshu, who both spoke to him, Mr Hu looked confused and upset, and then was forced to his feet by an aide of Mr Xi who led him off stage.
Most of the other top leaders sat stone-faced and largely ignored this luminary of Chinese politics as he was led away.
Chinese state media has censored discussion of the incident but has allowed the video, filmed by foreign media, to continue to circulate on the main messaging app, WeChat.
Only in English on a platform blocked in China, Twitter, has the state newsagency said the 79-year old former leader was feeing unwell.
It's an explanation many analysts believe is credible.
Mr Hu's image and attendance wasn't scrubbed from state TV reports of the Congress closing ceremony, so the likelihood he was purged is very low.
VIDEO - 1 minute 4 seconds - The moment former Chinese president Hu Jintao is escorted out of party congress
However, his forced, unhappy exit stage right, with a pat on the shoulder to protege Li Keqiang on the way out was, at the very least, extraordinary timing because it came just after the Party delegates all voted to approve a new group of leaders that cut Mr Li and all other factional associates of Hu Jintao from top positions.
[Noted it looked like he wanted to take the documents with him, but was refused. ]
"It's clear that he either had some sort of medical issue or this was a deliberate attempt to humiliate him, as his allies inside the Chinese Communist Party were being removed from all positions of power," said Alex Joske, a senior China analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and the author of a new book on China's covert operations, Spies and Lies.
--
"It's a reflection of the sort of opaque, medieval workings of the Chinese Communist Party that
something as simple as a man being led off stage can spark so much speculation," he said.
--
The second moment putting Xi's power play into clearer view came on Sunday, when he led six men out on to a stage as his new cabinet.
Expectations were high that Mr Xi would try to fill the positions with loyalists, but few predicated a straight flush.
All six of the men are regarded as Xi associates, especially his new Number 2, Li Qiang, a politician without national-level experience, best known for overseeing a draconian COVID lockdown in Shanghai this year that led to food shortages and tanked the economy.
[ Insert: First time in 25 years, no women in Chinese Communist Party's new cabinet
For the first time in 25 years, China will not have a woman sitting on its Politburo.
https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/first-time-in-25-years-no-women-in-chinese-communist-partys-new-cabinet-2288667-2022-10-23 ]
It won Xi Jinping's approval though because it eradicated the virus from the city as new cases dropped to zero.
Temporarily.
Now parts of Shanghai are back in lockdown as COVID-19 cases have returned.
Politburo tightening Xi's grip
The Shanghai shutdown .. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-10/shanghai-mass-testing-june/101144652 .. contributed to a yearly quarter of almost stagnant national economic growth.
However, despite that, Mr Li will likely takeover management of the world's second-largest economy as the new Chinese Premier next year.
If there are any doubts about his credentials, there are none about his loyalty to the one man who counts.
"The way I read it, Xi Jinping for the past decade has been trying to transfer the [Politburo Standing Committee] from a board of directors, where there is some institutional means of power-sharing, into a team of division managers," said Dr Fengming Lu, a lecturer on Chinese politics at the Australian National University.
While the tea leaf reading of elite Chinese politics is fascinating to some, a more general steer on where Xi's China is going next is more relevant to most.
And optimism is in short supply.
Xi Jinping, who first took power in 2012, will serve a third five-year term as General Secretary of the CCP.
(Reuters: Thomas Peter)
Xi's defence of his COVID-zero policy and his promotion of Li Qiang leaves little room to imagine China opening its borders any time soon.
His defence of the country's economic fundamentals and repeat of an oft-used line about China "opening the door wider" clashes with the reality of the last few years.
His increasing talk of "security", spanning everything from political security to economic security, shows rising paranoia both from forces at home and abroad.
His promotion of the head of China's Ministry of State Security to the Politburo for the first time signals tightening control.
Can China continue to flourish without freedom?
Xi Jinping cannot let go of power. He has set China on
a course from which, for him, there is no turning back.
Read more > https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-23/xi-jinping-china-power-communist-party-us-rival-russia-putin/101558090
His decision not to include a woman .. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-17/the-ccp-top-leadership-gender-inequality-national-congress/101500322 .. [oops, ok] among the 24-member Politburo, returning it to an all-male leadership group for the first time in a quarter of a century, shows a widening gulf compared to expectations for more equality in countries abroad.
Increasing zero-sum competition with the US, which the Biden administration is now reciprocating, will be the theme of foreign relations.
"Xi Jinping's main priority is still to deal with the US, and in this process he's trying to make more friends than enemies in the Western camp," Dr Lu said.
"There is still some leeway for the Australian-China relationship in the next few years," he said, pointing to recent overtures by the Chinese embassy in Australia.
However, others are less optimistic about the broader trends, believing the nineties and early noughties' heyday of China opening up to the world is now firmly in the rear-view mirror.
"We're not going to be walking into a future where we can return to more friendly relations," Mr Joske said.
--
"The Chinese Communist Party is really showing that it's locked into long-term competition with Western countries, so we're in for a really bumpy ride."
--
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-24/xi-jinping-extraordinary-power-grab-over-china/101568032
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
Discover What Traders Are Watching
Explore small cap ideas before they hit the headlines.
