https://www.scmp.com/rss/274484/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com 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 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 China's sovereign wealth fund would focus more of its US$482 billion firepower on Asia in a bid to beat a rise in protectionism in the West and boost exposure to rapid regional growth, chairman and chief executive Lou Jiwei said. The man charged with stewardship of a slice of the world's largest store of foreign wealth lauded the British approach to overseas investment in public sector projects as one for the world to follow. He said the policy response to Europe's debt crisis was a reason to... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1080262/chinas-sovereign-wealth-fund-focus-asia-investments?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1080262/chinas-sovereign-wealth-fund-focus-asia-investments?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000 China on Thursday stressed its intention to become a “maritime power” in line with its economic clout, as US President Barack Obama prepares to return to Asia amid regional anxiety at Beijing’s rise. Against a backdrop of simmering territorial disputes with its neighbours, President Hu Jintao indicated China would continue to assert its disputed claims to maritime territories as he addressed the ruling Communist Party’s congress. “We should enhance our capacity for exploiting marine resources,... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1077858/china-should-become-maritime-power-hu-jintao-says?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1077858/china-should-become-maritime-power-hu-jintao-says?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 08 Nov 2012 08:05:50 +0000 The world’s two biggest economies choose their next leaders in early November, an accident of timing that lays bare the vivid contrast between China’s opaque communist state and America’s riotous democracy. The rhythm of the presidential election in the United States has been set by three televised debates watched by tens of millions of voters, with campaigning carried out online as well as at boisterous rallies that draw thousands. On the other side of the Pacific, the power games are under way... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1072460/china-watches-us-election-avidly-without-envy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1072460/china-watches-us-election-avidly-without-envy?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 29 Oct 2012 07:18:46 +0000 Top diplomats from China and Japan met to discuss the territorial dispute over the uninhabited Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea, Tokyo said yesterday, signalling mutual willingness to ease tension ahead of a key Communist Party congress. Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura confirmed domestic media reports that Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister Chikao Kawai met senior Chinese officials in Shanghai last week to discuss the dispute over the islands, known as the Senkakus in Japan. Kyodo... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1068970/envoys-try-ease-tension-diaoyu-islands-dispute?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1068970/envoys-try-ease-tension-diaoyu-islands-dispute?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 24 Oct 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Beijing cancelled the visa for former US ambassador Jon Huntsman, who was set to speak in Shanghai last month, according to an interview by Foreign Policy published on Wednesday. Huntsman, a former governor in the US and Republican presidential candidate, was invited to speak at the World Money Show convention in Shanghai. The government intervened and pressured the organisers to disinvite him, said the interview.  Huntsman believed his tendency to criticise the Chinese government on human... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1063786/beijing-cancelled-visa-former-us-ambassador?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1063786/beijing-cancelled-visa-former-us-ambassador?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 18 Oct 2012 02:18:58 +0000 China has sent its first military delegation to Japan since the Diaoyus dispute boiled over last month, suggesting signs that the recent strains on relations may be easing. Several naval officers from the People's Liberation Army attended a regional co-operation meeting hosted by the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force in Tokyo yesterday, according to Japanese broadcaster NHK and ribenxinwen.com a Japan-based Chinese news portal. The gathering followed news over weekend that Beijing and Tokyo were... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1062107/chinese-military-delegation-attends-tokyo-talks?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1062107/chinese-military-delegation-attends-tokyo-talks?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 15 Oct 2012 16:00:00 +0000 China’s top level boycott of global financial meetings in Japan this week is a sign of things to come, analysts say, as an economically emboldened Beijing shows struggling Western nations it doesn’t need to play by their rules. With global growth slowing, many in the developed world are looking to Beijing to pick up the slack, and the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank seemed a good place to press the point. But while Tokyo was graced with global financial... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1060890/chinas-imf-boycott-sign-things-come?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1060890/chinas-imf-boycott-sign-things-come?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 14 Oct 2012 05:49:47 +0000 China's military development is generating more international controversy than at any time in the past decade, despite the People's Liberation Army's attempts to convince the world that it is increasing its transparency by publicising progress on some new weapons projects. Military observers agree that the past decade has been a golden era for PLA modernisation, with Beijing busily harvesting the fruits of weapons research and development made possible by three decades of rapid economic... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1056543/plas-modernisation-sign-power-or-repeat-tragic-mistake?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1056543/plas-modernisation-sign-power-or-repeat-tragic-mistake?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 Oct 2012 16:00:00 +0000 China quietly deferred a request by North Korea for its young leader to visit last month because the Chinese leadership was preoccupied with its once-in-a-decade leadership change and a host of other distractions, two independent sources said. The move also suggests that China, North Korea’s main food and oil supplier, may be seeking an assurance from the isolated state that it drops its nuclear ambitions, one source said, after it ignored warnings from Beijing not to go ahead with a rocket... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1053193/preoccupied-beijing-quietly-defers-kim-jong-uns-visit?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1053193/preoccupied-beijing-quietly-defers-kim-jong-uns-visit?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 03 Oct 2012 11:38:51 +0000 When former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa came out to discuss the health of China's leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping, it served as a reminder that the 18th national congress of the Communist Party is drawing near. Yet for months now on the evening news, though we get several minutes' coverage every day on the US election, this important home event receives little attention on television, either in Chinese or English. This is the Hong Kong-style cosmopolitanism we inherited from the colonial era,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1048745/china-will-reshape-east-asian-politics?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1048745/china-will-reshape-east-asian-politics?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 27 Sep 2012 16:00:00 +0000 When President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao took power 10 years ago, China was still new to the world stage, trying to re-establish itself after a decade-long diplomatic stalemate. China had just been accepted into the World Trade Organisation, an achievement which helped to show that the country was willing to play by international rules and could overcome the setbacks it suffered after Beijing's crackdown in 1989 on the student-led democracy movement brought sanctions from many... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1040968/rise-chinas-military-and-economic-power-leaves-rest-world-wary?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1040968/rise-chinas-military-and-economic-power-leaves-rest-world-wary?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 19 Sep 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Vice President Xi Jinping said Japan's "purchase" of the Diaoyu Islands was a farce on Wednesday and urged Japan to stop any behaviour that infringes upon China's sovereignty. "Japan should rein in its behaviour and stop any words and acts that undermine China's sovereignty and territorial integrity," Xi said in a meeting with visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. It was the first time Xi had commented on the Diaoyu Islands since the Japanese government announced its decision to... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1040668/xi-jinping-warns-japan-rein-its-behaviour-over-diaoyu-islands?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1040668/xi-jinping-warns-japan-rein-its-behaviour-over-diaoyu-islands?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 19 Sep 2012 08:11:44 +0000