The Challenges | South China Morning Post

China sends jets to Diaoyus as risk of military clash with Japan rises

The risk of a military clash between China and Japan escalated yesterday, with Beijing saying it had scrambled two J-10 fighter jets to monitor Japanese military planes near a disputed part of the...

Xi Jinping's guidelines to cut back extravagance go into effect

Expensive meals and showy official trips are being banned across the country as local authorities scramble to conform to Communist Party chief Xi Jinping's call to streamline the bureaucracy and...

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China faces largest ecological deficit ever, WWF report finds

China is experiencing its largest ecological deficit ever - caused by decades of high economic growth and rapid urbanisation - as total emissions of carbon and other pollutants far exceed the...

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Chinese lawmaker makes urgent call for rural land reform

The mainland's land requisition system is in dire need of reform as it currently fails to protect farmers' rights, a top rural policymaker said yesterday.

Can problem-solver Wang Qishan get the job done on graft?

In Chinese politics, it is believed that a leader's personality and wisdom can help change the course of history, but that such qualities are not always enough.

Xi Jinping's public relations test

The months of speculation are mercifully over. Questions of whether there would be nine or seven are now resolved; who is in and who is out is settled. When the new Chinese Communist Party...

Xi Jinping warns of unrest if graft not tackled

If corruption is allowed to run wild in China then the ruling Communist Party risks major unrest and the collapse of its rule, state media on Monday quoted Vice President Xi Jinping as saying.

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Xi Jinping must make government credible, then reform it

New Communist Party leader Xi Jinping faces mounting calls to overhaul the nation's economic and political systems - and public expectations are high.

But Xi's first challenge would be to...

Expansion of Central Committee secretariat may reflect ethnic unrest

The expansion of the Communist Party's executive body from six to seven members may be due to the increasing importance of ethnic issues, analysts say.

China's 2020 goal may fail unless core issues are tackled, say analysts

While Hu Jintao's goal of doubling per capita income by 2020 is seen as a sign Beijing is paying attention to the poor, analysts said achieving it may not narrow the wealth gap if other, deep-...

Child journalists grill ministers at China congress

The innocent but pointed questions from a pair of young reporters to officials at China’s Communist Party talks have provided a refreshing break from the usual fare of bland reports and rote...

‘World’s workshop’ China aims to reinvent itself

China’s Communist leaders are promising to revolutionise the world’s second largest economy and move on from being the world’s workshop, but economists say the monumental task faces major hurdles...

Grumbling ‘volunteers’ roped into Beijing crackdown

The Chinese Communist Party’s paranoia is on full display for its congress in Beijing in a security squeeze extending from police swarming Tiananmen Square to elderly sentinels watching street...