https://www.scmp.com/rss/274479/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com A company with little track record in the chip industry has set up a venture in China to make semiconductor chip for high-end automobiles including electric vehicles, citing Tesla Motors Limited as a minority partner, according to the Chinese corporate registry Qichacha. According to the corporate information website, Tesla Motors, based in Devonshire in the UK, owns 5 per cent of the venture. A spokeswoman of Tesla China, which assembles the Model Y and Model 3 electric vehicles at a US$2... https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3201286/tesla-sets-autos-chip-jv-china-line-localisation-strategy-and-beijing-promotes-domestic-industry?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3201286/tesla-sets-autos-chip-jv-china-line-localisation-strategy-and-beijing-promotes-domestic-industry?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 28 Nov 2022 13:30:10 +0000 “He has governed the country very well,” taxi driver Cheng Wenli said, explaining why he supported a third five-year term for Xi Jinping as general secretary of the Communist Party of China, as he drove past Zhongnanhai, the seat of the central government in Beijing. Like Cheng, most delegates to the party’s 20th National Congress, scheduled to begin on October 16, have probably made up their minds about Xi. His third term is all but certain. Like any politician, Xi has his share of detractors.... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3195656/five-more-years-xi-west-doesnt-idea-most-chinese-do?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3195656/five-more-years-xi-west-doesnt-idea-most-chinese-do?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 13 Oct 2022 19:30:09 +0000 In President Xi Jinping’s expected third term, his new development philosophy is likely to play a central role, with its constituent parts – including dual circulation, ecological civilisation and common prosperity – becoming cornerstones of China’s socio-economic policies. Since the recent economic slowdown, common prosperity goals seemed to have been put on hold, but in recent months, they have re-emerged. One sign is that Xi’s 2020 speech on the new development philosophy was published this... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3195457/how-china-can-promote-common-prosperity-and-still-keep-economic?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3195457/how-china-can-promote-common-prosperity-and-still-keep-economic?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 13 Oct 2022 08:30:13 +0000 China was once blessed, and now is cursed, with an extraordinarily high investment share of GDP. According to the World Bank, investment comprises around 25 per cent of global GDP, ranging from the high teens and low 20s for more mature economies to the high 20s and low 30s for developing economies during their high-growth stages. China is different. For decades it has invested an amount equal to 40-50 per cent of its annual GDP. This is an astonishingly high level, but whether it is a good... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3194792/china-must-sacrifice-gdp-growth-rebalance-its-economy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3194792/china-must-sacrifice-gdp-growth-rebalance-its-economy?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 06 Oct 2022 08:30:08 +0000 China’s foreign exchange reserves grew by US$8.06 billion in May, the first increase this year, according to official data, amid growing pressure on the world’s second largest economy that could further weaken the yuan. The country’s foreign exchange reserves – the world’s largest – rose to US$3.13 trillion last month from US$3.12 trillion in April, according to data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) released on Tuesday. The exchange regulator said in a statement the 0.26... https://www.scmp.com/economy/economic-indicators/article/3180748/chinas-forex-reserves-climb-first-time-2022-yuan?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/economy/economic-indicators/article/3180748/chinas-forex-reserves-climb-first-time-2022-yuan?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 07 Jun 2022 11:45:19 +0000 A former senior inspector of China’s top anti-corruption agency has been given a suspended death sentence for taking 463 million yuan (US$72.9 million) in bribes. Dong Hong, who was until 2018 a deputy leader of the central inspection team of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) – the Communist Party’s top anti-corruption watchdog – pleaded guilty in court, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Friday. The Qingdao Intermediate People’s Court in eastern Shandong province said Dong... https://www.scmp.com/news/18th-party-congress/article/3165203/former-top-chinese-anti-graft-inspector-given-suspended?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/18th-party-congress/article/3165203/former-top-chinese-anti-graft-inspector-given-suspended?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 28 Jan 2022 23:00:19 +0000 China has staged a drill with internet service providers to practise taking down websites deemed harmful, as the country’s censors tighten control ahead of a sensitive political reshuffle. Internet data centres (IDC) and cloud companies – which host website servers – were ordered to participate in a three-hour drill to hone their “emergency response” skills on Thursday , according to at least four participants that included the operator of Microsoft’s cloud service in China. China Communist... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2105401/china-holds-drill-shut-down-harmful-websites?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2105401/china-holds-drill-shut-down-harmful-websites?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 04 Aug 2017 04:48:21 +0000 In China’s corridor of power, what has been said is never telling; what has not, is. The recent dismissal of the Chinese insurance regulator tells us that President Xi Jinping is more interested in getting a firm grip over the country’s financial industry than having a full blown war with the old power brokers of the Communist Party – at least for the moment. Here is what has been said. Xiang Junbo, who has been leading the insurance watchdog since 2011, was removed last week from his job as... https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2088559/xiangs-dismissal-shows-xi-picking-his-battles-and-letting-old?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2088559/xiangs-dismissal-shows-xi-picking-his-battles-and-letting-old?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 19 Apr 2017 00:00:13 +0000 Two former senior military officers have been expelled from the Communist Party for alleged ­corruption, according to state-run Xinhua. In a statement released late on Thursday at the end of the Central Committee’s sixth plenum in Beijing, the party said Fan Changmi, former deputy political commissar of the Lanzhou Military Area Command, and Niu Zhizhong, a former deputy commander of the People’s Armed Police, were expelled over “serious discipline violations”, usually a euphemism for graft. It... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2041082/communist-party-expels-two-former-senior-military?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2041082/communist-party-expels-two-former-senior-military?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 28 Oct 2016 15:36:36 +0000 In China’s world of opaque and delicate leadership status, holding a top party post does not necessarily signify authority. But being labelled “core” – a non-official title denoting a higher political status – is critical. Four years after becoming the Chinese Communist Party’s general secretary, Chinese President Xi Jinping was anointed as the “core” of the party’s leadership on Thursday at the end of the Central Committee’s four-day sixth plenum in Beijing. This sent a strong message that his... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2040962/why-becoming-core-matters-chinas-communist-leaders?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2040962/why-becoming-core-matters-chinas-communist-leaders?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 28 Oct 2016 06:15:30 +0000 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 East China Sea. The announcement came as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tokyo's firm stance on disputed East China Sea islands, known as the Diaoyus in China and the Senkakus in Japan, was not negotiable. In Beijing, a Ministry of National Defence spokesman said that a Y-8 aircraft, belonging... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1125928/china-sends-jets-diaoyus-risk-military-clash-japan-rises?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1125928/china-sends-jets-diaoyus-risk-military-clash-japan-rises?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 11 Jan 2013 16:00:00 +0000 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 cut waste and extravagance. At least 17 provinces and municipalities, including Beijing, have rolled out detailed guidelines to follow through on Xi's "eight rules" on official behaviour, according to People's Daily, the party's mouthpiece. Authorities in the rest of the country, including Chongqing,... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1119384/xi-jinpings-guidelines-cut-back-extravagance-go-effect?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1119384/xi-jinpings-guidelines-cut-back-extravagance-go-effect?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 03 Jan 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Journalists at an outspoken newspaper in Guangdong challenged the provincial propaganda authorities yesterday after the paper was forced to run a commentary glorifying the Communist Party and drop an article calling for proper implementation of the constitution. In a rare, open challenge, journalists at the Southern Weekly said they were outraged that the propaganda office ordered changes to the paper's first edition of the new year, just a day before its publication yesterday, without the... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1119378/outrage-guangdong-newspaper-forced-run-party-commentary?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1119378/outrage-guangdong-newspaper-forced-run-party-commentary?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 03 Jan 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Upon his promotion to the post of general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and therefore the leader of China, Xi Jinping declared that one of his top priorities was to tackle corruption. This is welcome indeed. But his pronouncement lacks credibility. It is not because Xi is seen as personally corrupt. Even the penetrating Bloomberg report last year, which detailed the vast wealth his family members had amassed, did not suggest Xi was himself corrupt. In parallel, The New York Times... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1117859/what-xi-jinping-must-do-root-out-corruption?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1117859/what-xi-jinping-must-do-root-out-corruption?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 01 Jan 2013 16:25:42 +0000 An exposé yesterday of the huge business interests and personal assets of the descendants of eight dead Communist Party veterans offers a detailed look at one part of China's elite and how its members benefited from the country's economic boom. Bloomberg News released a package of articles and info-graphics that dissects the scale and origins of China's "red aristocracy", tracing the fortunes of 103 people - the so-called Eight Immortals' direct descendants and their spouses. But government... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1113891/heirs-partys-founding-fathers-forefront-red-aristocracy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1113891/heirs-partys-founding-fathers-forefront-red-aristocracy?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 27 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000 The release of personal photographs and profiles of the Communist Party's top leaders is being seen as a step towards increased openness. But analysts are divided about whether it represents a starting point for reforms that will require officials to declare their own and families' personal assets. In the latest salvo in a charm offensive dating back to mid-November, the seven members of the party's new Politburo Standing Committee gave the public a rare glimpse of their personal and family... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1113172/analysts-look-clues-leaders-family-albums?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1113172/analysts-look-clues-leaders-family-albums?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 26 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000 China’s incoming president Xi Jinping was shaped by his “unique experiences as an ‘educated youth’”, state news agency Xinhua said in a profile that was accompanied by a lengthy photo gallery of the Communist Party boss in his early years. The piece, published on Sunday, sought to depict Xi, the son of former vice-premier and Communist revolutionary hero Xi Zhongxun, as a “man of the people” who survived hard times in a village in northwest China’s Shaanxi province. It also covers his time as... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1112069/xi-jinpings-early-life-exalted-xinhua-profile?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1112069/xi-jinpings-early-life-exalted-xinhua-profile?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 24 Dec 2012 04:46:39 +0000 The Central Military Commission (CMC) has ordered high-ranking military officials to cut down on pomp and receptions and shorten speeches in response to a similar campaign launched by party secretary Xi Jinping for Politburo members. Receptions attended by senior PLA officers will no longer feature alcohol or luxury banquets and will be free of welcome banners, red carpets, floral arrangements, formations of soldiers, performances and souvenirs, Xinhua reported. According to 10 regulations... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1110155/curb-pomp-and-bureaucracy-military-chiefs-are-told?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1110155/curb-pomp-and-bureaucracy-military-chiefs-are-told?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 21 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece the People’s Daily meted out harshly worded front-page editorials about internet regulation on Friday, Thursday and Tuesday this week, a move that might signal the party’s new campaign to impose further controls on the nation’s already heavily censored internet, especially its booming social media community. In Friday’s editorial titled “The internet is safer and more convenient under regulation”, the author maintained that “rumours’ and "slanders” like the... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1109724/peoples-daily-editorials-signal-harsher-internet-regulation?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1109724/peoples-daily-editorials-signal-harsher-internet-regulation?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 21 Dec 2012 02:49:18 +0000 The Communist Party's first policy blueprint next year will continue to focus on rural issues, with priority likely to be given to diversifying patterns of agricultural production to encourage more specialised, large-scale farming, experts said. For the past nine years, the party's top leadership has devoted its first policy document of the year, known as the No 1 document, to the development of rural areas, which have lagged far behind urban areas. Xu Xiaoqing, director of the rural economy... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1109431/partys-first-policy-plan-focus-rural-issues-say-experts?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1109431/partys-first-policy-plan-focus-rural-issues-say-experts?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 20 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000 An investigative report about China’s most infamous former police officer Wang Lijun by China’s Southern Metropolis Weekly magazine has answered some questions relating to the murder of British businessmen Neil Heywood, whose death precipitated the downfall of China's once powerful and ambitious politician Bo Xilai. Wang Lijun, Gu Kailai, Xu Ming – partners in crime Wang Lijun, then police chief of Jinzhou, Laioning province, met Gu Kailai, Bo’s wife, in 2007 through business tycoon Xu Ming.... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1108128/mysteries-surrounding-heywood-murder-begin-unfold?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1108128/mysteries-surrounding-heywood-murder-begin-unfold?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 19 Dec 2012 04:34:22 +0000 A month into office, the Communist Party's new leaders have shown an interest in change - symbolic or meaningful - to differentiate themselves from their predecessors. While analysts have welcomed the changes introduced by the party's fifth generation of leaders, who were given the keys to the world's biggest political machine on November 15, they cautioned that it was too early to draw conclusions about the team tasked with guiding the world's second-largest economy and bringing about the... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1106494/analysts-welcome-xi-jinpings-changes-caution?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1106494/analysts-welcome-xi-jinpings-changes-caution?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000 More than 1,000 lawyers, academics and professionals signed an open letter calling for newly chosen members of the Communist Party's Central Committee to publicly disclose their family assets to rein in corruption. The letter, to be sent to the National People's Congress, argues that the 205 members of the powerful committee must reassure the public that they are doing only the people's business. Signatories said they were emboldened by new general secretary Xi Jinping's warning last month that... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1104847/chinas-new-central-committee-members-urged-disclose-assets?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1104847/chinas-new-central-committee-members-urged-disclose-assets?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 13 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000 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 capacity of its ecosystems, a new study says. The "China Ecological Footprint Report", released yesterday by the global conservation body the WWF, also warned that the country's soaring carbon emissions have not only contributed to an avalanche of environmental woes, but also pose grave threats to about a... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1103921/china-faces-largest-ecological-deficit-ever-wwf-report-finds?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1103921/china-faces-largest-ecological-deficit-ever-wwf-report-finds?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 12 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000 New Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping ordered the People's Liberation Army to intensify its "real combat" awareness in order to sustain military readiness in his first reported visits to military bases during his just-concluded tour of Guangdong. Xi made the remarks during inspections conducted from Saturday to Monday in the PLA's Guangzhou military theatre of operations, a term usually used during wartime to emphasise the co-ordination of air, land and sea forces, the state-run... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1103957/xi-jinping-orders-pla-step-its-real-combat-awareness?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1103957/xi-jinping-orders-pla-step-its-real-combat-awareness?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 12 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000 A senior district official in Chengdu has alleged that recently disgraced former Sichuan deputy party secretary Li Chuncheng offered bribes for promotion, sold official positions to incompetent candidates and made his wife head of Chengdu's Red Cross after it received huge sums following the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Legal Daily yesterday quoted Shen Yong, director of the Chengdu district's United Front Work Department, as saying that Li had offered a huge bribe in the early 1990s to... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1103949/chengdu-official-reveals-details-disgraced-cadre-li-chunchengs-graft?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1103949/chengdu-official-reveals-details-disgraced-cadre-li-chunchengs-graft?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 12 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Are the Communist Party's new leaders all talk - like their predecessors - or will they actually implement the changes they have pledged? It's a question that is intriguing many observers after the new leadership promised to swiftly reform the previously extravagant working style of senior officials - long a source of public discontent. Early indications look promising, with the new style being felt - or heard - on at least a few occasions in the three weeks since the new, seven-member Politburo... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1099398/xi-jinping-talks-will-he-follow-through-change?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1099398/xi-jinping-talks-will-he-follow-through-change?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 06 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Xi Jinping has decided Shenzhen will be the venue for his first inspection trip as the party's new general secretary. It is a move political observers say pays tribute to the famous southern tour of Deng Xiaoping in 1992 and sends a signal of commitment to deepening reform. A Shenzhen propaganda official said Xi, who will succeed Hu Jintao as president in March, would follow in the footsteps of Deng's tour to "express his determination to further deepen China's reform". Xi is due to visit the... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1099413/new-party-leader-xi-jinping-heads-shenzhen-first-inspection-trip?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1099413/new-party-leader-xi-jinping-heads-shenzhen-first-inspection-trip?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 06 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000 A report about the recent official activities of Liu Qibao, the new propaganda chief whose conspicuous absence from the limelight for nine days has sparked intense speculation among overseas media and pundits, was released yesterday by Xinhua. Some online postings on mainland chatrooms and overseas media reports say his mother has died while others allege he was implicated in the downfall of the Sichuan vice-party boss Li Chuncheng, Liu's former subordinate when he was Sichuan party boss. Xinhua... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1099508/report-propaganda-chief-liu-qibao-released?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1099508/report-propaganda-chief-liu-qibao-released?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 06 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000 A veteran journalist has publicly accused the country's energy chief of forging his résumé, using his family to profit from his position and keeping a mistress. Luo Changping, deputy managing editor of Caijing Magazine, posted on his Sina account the accusations against Liu Tienan, who is director of the National Energy Administration and the deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission. Separately, a Xinhua report has confirmed that the Central Commission for Discipline... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1099400/energy-chief-hit-claims-family-got-big-payment?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1099400/energy-chief-hit-claims-family-got-big-payment?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 06 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Guangdong's top graft-buster has vowed that the province will be the first regional government to implement an assets declaration scheme for party cadres, but pundits question whether the oversight is in place to make the scheme effective. The announcement of the pilot scheme comes after media reports alleging that the families of Vice-President Xi Jinping and Premier Wen Jiabao own billions of yuan worth of assets. The reports drew attention to wealthy party cadres. Guangdong's party... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1097633/guangdong-officials-declare-assets-pilot-scheme?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1097633/guangdong-officials-declare-assets-pilot-scheme?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 04 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Premier Wen Jiabao is expected to make a push for economic and energy co-operation with a bloc of central Asian countries and Russia when he attends the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) summit this week. Wen will travel to Kyrgyzstan for the 11th prime ministers' meeting of SCO member states, and then to Moscow for meetings with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and President Vladimir Putin, in a three-day trip beginning tomorrow. The last SCO summit, held in Beijing in June, saw... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1096038/wen-push-trade-agreements-shanghai-co-operation-organisation-meeting?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1096038/wen-push-trade-agreements-shanghai-co-operation-organisation-meeting?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 02 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Two weeks after being installed as general secretary of the Communist Party, Xi Jinping took another step forward as the new paramount leader yesterday by making his second high-profile public speech. In the nationally televised speech, carried by state broadcaster China Central Television's prime-time news last night, the president-in-waiting appealed to the nation and its people to unite under the party's new leadership and achieve what he called "China's renaissance". "We are at the closest... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1094272/xi-jinping-pledges-renewal-nation?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1094272/xi-jinping-pledges-renewal-nation?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 29 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000 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. Chen Xiwen, director of the Communist Party's Central Rural Work Leading Group, told an economic forum in Beijing that reform of the land requisition system and the entire rural land system was imperative to protect farmers' rights. The requisitioning of large areas of rural land and its subsequent inefficient use has been widely criticised by... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1094177/chinese-lawmaker-makes-urgent-call-rural-land-reform?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1094177/chinese-lawmaker-makes-urgent-call-rural-land-reform?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 29 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Premier-in-waiting Li Keqiang held an unusual meeting with Aids activists from across the nation, the latest indication that the new leadership aims to project a more proactive and inclusive image. Tianjin Aids activist Li Hu told the South China Morning Post that the executive vice-premier met representatives from 12 NGOs at the Ministry of Health on Monday afternoon, along with ministry party chief Zhang Mao and Health Minister Chen Zhu. Li Keqiang vowed to fight public-sector discrimination... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1092519/premier-waiting-li-keqiang-meets-aids-activists?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1092519/premier-waiting-li-keqiang-meets-aids-activists?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000 After enduring 10 years of empty talk and speeches full of slogans typical of the leaders in the era of President Hu Jintao, it has been refreshing to see China's new leaders displaying positive changes in the leadership style. Sifting through the speeches by both Vice-President Xi Jinping and Vice-Premier Li Keqiang since they came to power little more than two weeks ago, has reflected their more pragmatic and common-touch style. Many mainlanders are even enamoured with Xi's clear yet booming... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1090841/tackling-graft-xi-jinpings-priority?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1090841/tackling-graft-xi-jinpings-priority?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 25 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000 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. Thus many believe the appointment of Wang Qishan to head the Communist Party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection could usher in some significant changes. Corruption is widely seen as having worsened over the past decade, becoming a main source of disaffection with the ruling party. Wang's personality and wisdom could be why... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1090215/anti-graft-guru-wang-qishan-gets-things-done?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1090215/anti-graft-guru-wang-qishan-gets-things-done?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 24 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000 When Premier Wen Jiabao went overseas he would often seize the chance to show the personable side of the Chinese leadership to overseas audiences, who sometimes perceive it as stern and rigid. In addition to serious business talks and deals, Wen would chat with ordinary citizens and on some occasions delivered remarks considered sensitive that were downplayed by the state media at home. In contrast to the serious, stiff look of most Chinese leaders, who appear reluctant to express their personal... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1089542/premier-wen-shows-chinas-best-face-world?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1089542/premier-wen-shows-chinas-best-face-world?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 23 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000 China's interactions with the two other major powers in the Asia-Pacific region, the United States and Japan, are expected to be fraught with uncertainty over the next few months because of impending government reshuffles, analysts say. China has just seen Xi Jinping named Communist Party chief and he is poised to succeed Hu Jintao as president in March. US President Barack Obama won re-election this month and is looking to fill key cabinet posts. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda dissolved... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1089543/chinese-diplomacy-holding-pattern-xi-takes-over?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1089543/chinese-diplomacy-holding-pattern-xi-takes-over?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 23 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Lieutenant General Wei Fenghe , who commands the People's Liberation Army's strategic missile force, was promoted to full general yesterday - the first officer formally elevated to the highest rank by Xi Jinping in his new capacity as the military chief. Wei, the 58-year-old commander of the Second Artillery Corps, received a certificate of command from Xi, chairman of the Communist Party's Central Military Commission, at a ceremony attended by other commission members in Beijing yesterday,... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1089561/wei-fenghe-first-pla-general-promoted-under-xi-jinping?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1089561/wei-fenghe-first-pla-general-promoted-under-xi-jinping?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 23 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000 It’s a once-in-a-decade exercise. Behind closed doors, deals are struck and broken, careers are bought and sold, battles are won and lost. When the white smoke finally rises from the conclave chimney, new kings are crowned and another layer of intervening leadership is added to one of the most opaque political systems in the world. The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (第十八次黨代表大會) opened on 8 November and concluded less than a week later. Just as pundits had predicted, Xi... https://www.scmp.com/comment/blogs/article/1088982/changing-guards?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/blogs/article/1088982/changing-guards?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 23 Nov 2012 03:32:59 +0000 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 leadership walked before the world's press last week, there was a feeling of anticlimax. If Hu Jintao had wanted to create a process that ended up boring everyone into submission, it worked. In the end, a group of men with very similar backgrounds and life stories, wearing similar suits and acting in uniform... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1088387/xi-jinpings-public-relations-test?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1088387/xi-jinpings-public-relations-test?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 22 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000 The man who will become premier next year has made a strong case for reform just days after the unveiling of the Communist Party's new leadership, saying reform is the biggest dividend. Li Keqiang, speaking at a seminar with selected local officials on Wednesday, organised by the State Council, said China would still be able to see the completion of a "moderately prosperous society" by 2020 even with a lower economic growth rate of about 7 per cent a year, China News Service reported. "We do not... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1088690/next-premier-li-keqiang-sets-out-case-reform?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1088690/next-premier-li-keqiang-sets-out-case-reform?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 22 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000 From an economic perspective, the 18th party congress closed at just the right time. New data shows that growth benchmarks in the industrial, investment, export and consumption sectors have been rising for two months, reversing the short-term downward trend. Policymakers have been more objective in tackling this downturn than they were in the 2008 financial crisis. They have been more cautious in rolling out a new round of stimulus measures and have also continued with reform efforts while... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1087658/chinas-old-and-new-leaders-should-seize-moment-economic?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1087658/chinas-old-and-new-leaders-should-seize-moment-economic?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 21 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Retired leaders in China’s Communist Party used a last-minute straw poll to block two pro-reform candidates from joining the policymaking standing committee, including one who had alienated party elders, sources with ties to the leadership said. Two sources said the influential retirees flexed their muscles in landmark informal polls taken before last week’s 18th party congress, where the seven-member standing committee, the apex of China’s power structure, was unveiled. The clout of the elder... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1087355/chinas-backroom-power-brokers-block-reform-candidates?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1087355/chinas-backroom-power-brokers-block-reform-candidates?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 21 Nov 2012 01:52:10 +0000 The way a party presents itself can either enhance or undermine a regime's legitimacy, and China is no exception. The regime currently faces a legitimacy crisis, partly because the Communist Party presents itself in such an ugly way that it has eroded the traditional Confucian moral basis of the state. There is no doubt the one-party system is responsible for China's economic success, and that it will remain the dominant force for years to come. But the topic of republicanism remains relevant... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1086794/chinas-political-reform-must-combine-modern-ideals-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1086794/chinas-political-reform-must-combine-modern-ideals-and?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 20 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000 The party chief in Inner Mongolia - a favourite to win a seat on the Politburo Standing Committee in the reshuffle that is five years away - has become the first cadre to pledge loyalty to the new leadership. Hu Chunhua , known as "Little Hu" for following in the footsteps of President Hu Jintao , told a regional cadre meeting yesterday "party members should be on the same path as the party led by general secretary Xi Jinping ". Xi was named national party chief during the leadership reshuffle... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1086372/inner-mongolia-party-chief-hu-chunhua-seen-making-politburo-standing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1086372/inner-mongolia-party-chief-hu-chunhua-seen-making-politburo-standing?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 19 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Beijing has announced new appointments to the top party posts overseeing personnel matters and public security, marking the start of a sweeping reshuffle of senior party and government officials after the unveiling of the party's new leadership line-up last week. In the first top-level reshuffle since the Communist Party's 18th national congress, which ushered in a new generation of party leaders, Shaanxi party chief Zhao Leji, 55, a rising star who was elevated to the Politburo last week, has... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1086373/beijing-begins-big-political-reshuffle?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1086373/beijing-begins-big-political-reshuffle?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 19 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000 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 at one of his first major meetings since being named as new leader at the 18th party congress. In unusually blunt language, Xi, who assumes Hu Jintao’s job as head of state in March next year, said that graft was like “worms breeding in decaying matter” – an old Chinese phrase meaning “ruin befalls those... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1086003/xi-jinping-warns-unrest-if-graft-not-tackled?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1086003/xi-jinping-warns-unrest-if-graft-not-tackled?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 19 Nov 2012 03:45:59 +0000 Premier-designated Li Keqiang is making a new strategic push for China - the "four new modernisations", highlighting the key areas the nation plans to focus on to transform its economy over the next decade. Li stressed the goal of "four new modernisations" at a panel meeting during the Communist Party Congress last week, referring to Beijing's new push for industrialisation, information technology application, urbanisation, and agricultural modernisation over the next decade. While it may sound... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1085632/incoming-premier-forge-new-strategic-economic-path?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1085632/incoming-premier-forge-new-strategic-economic-path?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 18 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000