https://www.scmp.com/rss/323517/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com When Xi Jinping outlined his political blueprint for the next 30 years at the Communist Party congress last year, it took him three and a half hours to articulate his vision for the country. Now, to mark the first anniversary of his speech, the party’s official mouthpiece has made a no less ambitious attempt to visualise the Chinese president’s doctrines. The result, published on the WeChat account of People’s Daily on Thursday, is a complex colour-coded “mind map” consisting of 30 separate... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/2169151/simple-guide-xi-jinping-thought-heres-how-chinas-official-media?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/2169151/simple-guide-xi-jinping-thought-heres-how-chinas-official-media?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 18 Oct 2018 09:06:24 +0000 China’s announcement last Sunday of its intention to remove the constitutional two-term limit for the presidency, clearing the way for President Xi Jinping to rule beyond 2023, has come as a surprise. As overseas media and analysts scramble to assess the implications and query the development, the answer to one of the biggest questions can in fact be inferred from his landmark marathon speech at the Communist Party’s 19th congress – a speech that gave him a stronger mandate for his second term... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2135206/how-long-does-chinas-president-xi-plan-hold-power-heres-magic?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2135206/how-long-does-chinas-president-xi-plan-hold-power-heres-magic?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 03 Mar 2018 00:30:30 +0000 A “reticent” general who was instrumental in the break-up of the strategic missile force he headed – even though it was not in his interests – is expected to become China’s new defence minister, sources said. General Wei Fenghe was named as one of the members of the Communist Party’s powerful Central Military Commission (CMC) on October 25. Wei, the last commander of the Second Artillery Corps – before it became the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force – is known as a strategist whose political... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2134555/reticent-general-rockets-ranks-central-military?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2134555/reticent-general-rockets-ranks-central-military?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 24 Feb 2018 06:30:00 +0000 Wang Qishan, China’s former formidable anti-corruption tsar, has defied political convention to hold on to a seat in the nation’s top legislature, paving the way for him to remain a player in state affairs for years to come. Wang, 69, stepped down from the supreme, seven-member Politburo Standing Committee in October after reaching the Communist Party’s unofficial retirement age of 68. The South China Morning Post reported in December that Wang, who rolled out Chinese President Xi Jinping’s... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2131097/chinas-retired-anticorruption-tsar-wang-qishan-holds?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2131097/chinas-retired-anticorruption-tsar-wang-qishan-holds?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 29 Jan 2018 14:30:30 +0000 Zhou Xiaochuan, the long-serving governor of the People’s Bank of China, was not included on a new list of the nation’s top political advisory body, the strongest signal yet he may be about to retire. Zhou, who has served as vice-chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference since 2013, is not being re-selected as a member of its 13th national committee, according to the official Xinhua news agency. The absence signals Zhou – who turns 70 on Monday – is likely to retire from... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2130541/chinas-central-bank-boss-zhou-xiaochuan-about-retire?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2130541/chinas-central-bank-boss-zhou-xiaochuan-about-retire?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 25 Jan 2018 07:22:56 +0000 A closed-door meeting of the ruling Communist Party on Friday endorsed a proposal to include “Xi Jinping Thought”, the president’s political theory, in China’s constitution, Xinhua reported. The proposal – to be formally approved by the national legislature’s full session in March – would make Xi the first sitting Chinese leader to see his name in the constitution since Mao Zedong. It follows revisions made in October at the party congress that saw Xi’s theory – Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2129760/top-cadres-propose-adding-xi-jinping-thought-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2129760/top-cadres-propose-adding-xi-jinping-thought-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 19 Jan 2018 15:00:30 +0000 China's point man on Sino-US trade ties is set to move on to be the country’s top political adviser and take direct charge of the Communist Party’s public engagement campaigns. The appearance of Wang Yang, 63, at a national party gathering on engaging non-party sections of society is the latest sign that the former Chinese representative in high-level economic talks with the United States will take up the outreach portfolio. It also comes as China’s activities abroad are under greater scrutiny... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2128703/chinas-go-man-us-trade-take-communist-partys-top-job?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2128703/chinas-go-man-us-trade-take-communist-partys-top-job?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 17 Jan 2018 13:00:30 +0000 Last month, when former US president Barack Obama gave a speech at a business conference in Shanghai, I was in the audience. There, Obama spoke to more than 2,500 representatives of small and medium-sized enterprises, both at home and abroad. In his first post-presidency speech in China, which was also his first in Shanghai in eight years, “cooperation” was a key word. I was also there when Obama spoke in Shanghai eight years ago, on his first visit to China. It was in the middle of November... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2124120/life-after-high-office-obama-gives-speeches-while-retired?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2124120/life-after-high-office-obama-gives-speeches-while-retired?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 15 Dec 2017 03:24:48 +0000 President Xi Jinping’s key economic adviser Liu He is likely to be promoted to vice-premier in March, as Xi assembles a new team to steer the world’s second largest economy over the next five years, according to sources with knowledge of the arrangement. After spending his first term amassing unprecedented power through a much trumpeted anti-corruption crusade, Xi is now under increasing pressure to tackle the daunting challenges facing the US$12 trillion economy that range from ballooning debts... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2123716/key-xi-jinping-adviser-set-major-role-team-steering?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2123716/key-xi-jinping-adviser-set-major-role-team-steering?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 11 Dec 2017 00:00:45 +0000 Wang Qishan, China’s formidable former anti-corruption tsar, will continue to wield political influence in new Communist Party and state roles carved out for him by president and party chief Xi Jinping. He has been given the rare privilege of attending meetings of the party’s supreme Politburo Standing Committee as a non-voting member, despite having stood down from the highest decision-making body in Chinese politics in October. Meanwhile, he is also expected to be named vice-president – a less... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2122382/wang-qishan-still-attending-top-communist-party?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2122382/wang-qishan-still-attending-top-communist-party?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 01 Dec 2017 07:15:30 +0000 The violation of political principles is no less damaging to China’s Communist Party than corruption, and meeting the party’s political standards should be the paramount criterion when considering cadres for promotion, according to its new personnel chief. In an article published on Thursday in the state mouthpiece People’s Daily, Chen Xi, head of the party’s Organisation Department, accused some senior cadres of losing their faith in socialism and turning to Western concepts of democracy. Xi... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2120217/chinas-cadres-should-believe-party-not-gods-and-ghosts?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2120217/chinas-cadres-should-believe-party-not-gods-and-ghosts?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 16 Nov 2017 11:30:45 +0000 Promoting young cadres was not a priority for Communist Party members in Beijing last month when they voted on the membership of its new Central Committee, the largest of the party’s elite ruling bodies. Only two of the 376 members of the new body were born in the 1970s, making it the oldest Central Committee in three decades. That’s a stark contrast to the Central Committee formed a decade earlier, which was the youngest in half a century and included 25 people born in the 1960s. The two... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2118939/why-chinese-communist-partys-largest-elite-body-now-has?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2118939/why-chinese-communist-partys-largest-elite-body-now-has?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 13 Nov 2017 06:07:32 +0000 As US President Donald Trump stepped out of a car outside the Great Hall of the People for a welcoming ceremony on Thursday morning, a line of Chinese officials standing on the red carpet rolled out before a flight of imposing stairs waited to greet him. The presence of this group of top officials, whose hands Trump shook one by one, shed light on who the central figures will be who will help shape China’s relations with the US over the next five years. Whereas in the Trump administration... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2119239/receiving-line-donald-trump-offers-rare-glimpse?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2119239/receiving-line-donald-trump-offers-rare-glimpse?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 10 Nov 2017 02:00:30 +0000 The Chinese Communist Party has appointed the former party chief of the coastal province of Fujian to take charge of its relations with non-party groups at home and abroad, including Hong Kong and Taiwan. State media reported on Tuesday that You Quan had been appointed the head of the party’s United Front Work Department on Tuesday, after handing over his position in the southeastern province to the former governor. You’s new responsibilities will include rallying support from business elites in... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2118815/chinas-new-non-party-liaison-chief-aims-boost-support?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2118815/chinas-new-non-party-liaison-chief-aims-boost-support?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 07 Nov 2017 14:08:00 +0000 Of the three political parties today that pack serious global pop – the Communist Party in China, and the Democratic and Republican parties in America – China’s comes across right now as the least disorganised and ineffective. Even so, is it possible President Xi Jinping is now less like an all-powerful Mao Zedong and more like a coalition-canny Abraham Lincoln, whose cabinet famously included quarrelling voices? Some 19th party congress evaluators size up the new Politburo Standing Committee as... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2118604/can-chinas-ideology-tsar-wang-huning-be-steadying-hand-sino?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2118604/can-chinas-ideology-tsar-wang-huning-be-steadying-hand-sino?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 06 Nov 2017 09:47:01 +0000 Xi Jinping’s former college classmate has been appointed to a senior position leading the Communist Party’s top academy in a promotion that broke with convention. The appointment of Chen Xi, the party’s personnel chief, as president of the Central Party School is a departure from precedent for filling the post. For nearly three decades, the post has been held by the first ranking member of the party’s secretariat, a role filled by a member of the top Politburo Standing Committee. But Chen is a... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2118275/xis-college-roommate-latest-close-ally-given-senior?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2118275/xis-college-roommate-latest-close-ally-given-senior?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 03 Nov 2017 07:00:00 +0000 Three Politburo members, including a prominent protégé of President Xi Jinping, will embark on a nationwide tour this weekend to promote the president’s ideology and policy initiatives. Observers said the decision to include Chen Miner, Xi’s close associate and one of the youngest Politburo members, in the group pointed to his expanding role in the leadership. The Politburo trio will be part of a 36-member “central publicity team” that from Sunday will go to companies, villages, schools,... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2118195/xi-protege-high-powered-propaganda-team-spread?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2118195/xi-protege-high-powered-propaganda-team-spread?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 02 Nov 2017 14:15:15 +0000 All President Xi Jinping’s key speeches in over past five years can be summarised with one message: ensuring the leading role of the Communist Party in all aspects of life, according to his key ally Wang Qishan. The former anti-corruption chief’s succinct summary of Xi’s speeches – which have featured in hundreds, if not thousands, of publications on the mainland – came as the party enshrined the president’s political thoughts into the party charter and guide to action at last month’s 19th party... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2118170/xis-epic-speeches-can-be-summed-one-simple-message-says?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2118170/xis-epic-speeches-can-be-summed-one-simple-message-says?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 02 Nov 2017 11:09:54 +0000 The Communist Party’s 19th Congress was watched closely by the whole world. Many commented that the new leadership line-up didn’t include a clear potential heir, raising chances that general secretary Xi Jinping might stay in office beyond 2022. While gaining insight into the opaque system of Chinese politics is intellectually satisfying, what matters to us overseas would still be its economic development and our opportunities. A further look at China’s growth model would help. I believe Xi’s... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2117886/china-growth-model-shows-xi-jinpings-vision-will-outshine?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2117886/china-growth-model-shows-xi-jinpings-vision-will-outshine?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 02 Nov 2017 04:25:54 +0000 It really is a new era. As members of China’s Politburo Standing Committee walked onto the stage to greet the press, it became clear that no successor to President Xi Jinping has been anointed. Instead, three politicians born in the 1960s – Hu Chunhua, Chen Miner and Ding Xuexiang – have become members of the wider Politburo. The old succession model created by Deng Xiaoping, in which the successor was groomed for at least five years on the Standing Committee, is now history. Sources who... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2117778/why-xi-jinping-must-ensure-china-has-viable-political?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2117778/why-xi-jinping-must-ensure-china-has-viable-political?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 01 Nov 2017 09:10:07 +0000 Following the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, analysts are parsing through President Xi Jinping’s 30,000-plus-word report – delivered in a 3½-hour address without breaks – to decipher the direction of the most populous nation in the world. It is a laborious effort, especially considering the report’s extensive official jargon and policy details. But there is a much easier way. Read The Economist ’scoverage of the party congress, which is considerably shorter in length,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2117730/under-xi-chinese-renaissance-assured-contrary-what-west?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2117730/under-xi-chinese-renaissance-assured-contrary-what-west?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 01 Nov 2017 04:05:47 +0000 China’s intelligence agencies and its police force are in for a shake-up with the announcement of two key appointments at the top of the national security apparatus. Zhao Kezhi, 63, who has worked closely with two of President Xi Jinping’s trusted aides, had taken over as Communist Party secretary at the Ministry of Public Security, the ministry said on November 1 . He was appointed Minister of Public Security on November 4. Zhao’s predecessor, Guo Shengkun, 63, is staying on as minister for now... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117894/china-appoints-new-communist-party-chief-oversee-police?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117894/china-appoints-new-communist-party-chief-oversee-police?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 01 Nov 2017 03:56:23 +0000 Beijing’s public security minister will take over as the country’s top security chief following a twice-a-decade leadership reshuffle of the ruling Communist Party. Guo Shengkun, also a new member of the 25-member Politburo, will succeed Meng Jianzhu as party secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission of the Central Committee, state news agency Xinhua reported. Guo for the first time presided over a commission meeting on Tuesday in Beijing. It is not yet clear who will take over... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117844/public-security-minister-guo-shengkun-step-chinas-top?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117844/public-security-minister-guo-shengkun-step-chinas-top?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 31 Oct 2017 14:17:55 +0000 President Xi Jinping made a high-profile visit to the birthplace of China’s Communist Party in Shanghai on Tuesday alongside his colleagues from the new Politburo Standing Committee. The symbolic visit echoed the call Xi made at the recently concluded 19th national congress for the party to stay true to its founding mission. And so China’s seven most powerful men flew by private jet from Beijing to the memorial site where the party held its first national congress more than 96 years ago, state... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117826/xi-jinping-top-cadres-visit-birthplace-chinas-communist?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117826/xi-jinping-top-cadres-visit-birthplace-chinas-communist?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 31 Oct 2017 11:45:45 +0000 China’s party congress every five years has often been a defining moment for the country’s development. At the just-concluded 19th congress, President Xi Jinping heralded a “new era” of Chinese politics, suggesting the start of a new political cycle. State media has immediately indicated that this is “Xi’s era”, the third in China’s communist-ruled history, with Mao Zedong’s rule between 1949 and 1976 the first era, and the post-Mao era under Deng Xiaoping and his successors Jiang Zemin and Hu... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2117740/will-xi-jinpings-new-era-one-man-rule-bring-progress-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2117740/will-xi-jinpings-new-era-one-man-rule-bring-progress-china?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 31 Oct 2017 06:43:10 +0000 Foreign countries must respect China’s sovereignty and understand Beijing’s strategy on Hong Kong in a “comprehensive and accurate manner”, the head of foreign ministry office in Hong Kong told diplomats on Monday. Xie Feng briefed officials from 56 consulates in the city – more than 90 per cent of the total – after this month’s 19th Communist Party congress, where President Xi Jinping presented his blueprint for the path China would take over the next five years. The envoys were reportedly... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/2117680/beijings-top-diplomat-hong-kong-tells-foreign-envoys?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/2117680/beijings-top-diplomat-hong-kong-tells-foreign-envoys?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 30 Oct 2017 14:00:15 +0000 An adviser to Xi Jinping has been named as one of the five architects of the Chinese president’s landmark speech to the Communist Party’s national congress which ended in Beijing last week. The five ranged in expertise from industrial policy to party history and were responsible for drafting the 68-page speech forming the backbone of “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era”, the latest dogma to be added to the organisation’s constitution. The drafting took 10... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117513/5-men-10-months-and-1-long-speech-cadres-behind-xi?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117513/5-men-10-months-and-1-long-speech-cadres-behind-xi?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 29 Oct 2017 12:30:15 +0000 The technocratic credentials of the Communist Party’s Central Committee were boosted at the recently concluded party congress in Beijing, with two former engineers with a background in the defence industries, including the aerospace sector, joining the 204-member body. Zhejiang governor Yuan Jiajun and Jin Zhuanglong, the former chairman of Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) who is now first deputy to President Xi Jinping on an important military-civilian integration committee,... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117319/chinas-technocrats-blast-two-more-space-engineers-new?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117319/chinas-technocrats-blast-two-more-space-engineers-new?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 29 Oct 2017 09:18:28 +0000 When Li Qiang became party chief of Jiangsu in June last year, it was the first time he had worked outside his home province of Zhejiang in more than three decades in politics. Situated on China’s east coast, just north of Zhejiang, Jiangsu has the second-largest gross domestic product of all the country’s provinces – it is second only to the southern economic powerhouse of Guangdong. Jiangsu’s GDP expanded 7.8 per cent in 2016 from a year earlier to more than 7.6 trillion yuan (US$1.14... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117420/li-qiang-keen-supporter-private-sector-and-xi?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117420/li-qiang-keen-supporter-private-sector-and-xi?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 29 Oct 2017 03:31:19 +0000 A poverty-stricken province in southwestern China is becoming one of the surest routes to the top of the Communist Party under Xi Jinping. In the eyes of many Chinese communists, the heavily rural province of Guizhou is taking on the status of what one analyst described as a “Holy Land”, serving as a showcase for the president’s achievements and a testing ground for some of the country’s most powerful men. The highest-ranked Guizhou veteran is Li Zhanshu, a top aide to Xi who entered the party’s... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117430/how-poor-rural-province-became-promised-land-chinas?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117430/how-poor-rural-province-became-promised-land-chinas?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 29 Oct 2017 03:00:40 +0000 Beijing has named Li Qiang, a former top aide to President Xi Jinping, as the top boss of Shanghai – an appointment that will be key to realising its ambitions for the city. Li, 58, formerly the party secretary of Jiangsu province, replaced Han Zheng, 63, following Han’s elevation to the Communist Party’s top seven-member decision-making body, the Politburo Standing Committee, Xinhua reported on Sunday. It comes after Shanghai revealed its plan to develop a free-trade port that is fully open to... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117465/xi-jinpings-former-secretary-takes-top-job-shanghai?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117465/xi-jinpings-former-secretary-takes-top-job-shanghai?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 29 Oct 2017 02:45:30 +0000 The Education Bureau seems to have invited controversy by inviting Hong Kong secondary schools to stream a Basic Law seminar featuring a Beijing official next month. But we should be tuning in more, and not only to things pertaining to Hong Kong. If we tuned in to the 19th party congress, we would notice that once again no women can be found in the new Politburo Standing Committee. And regardless how “big” the story of President Xi Jinping’s political stature, elevated to the heights of Deng... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2117286/where-are-women-chinas-new-leadership-reveals-equality-low?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2117286/where-are-women-chinas-new-leadership-reveals-equality-low?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 29 Oct 2017 01:16:55 +0000 Beijing named a new top official for the southern economic powerhouse of Guangdong on Saturday, one of a series of senior appointments to be made after the Communist Party’s leadership shake-up. Li Xi, 61 – one of President Xi Jinping’s allies elevated to the 25-member Politburo on Wednesday – was named as the province’s party chief, succeeding Hu Chunhua, the official Xinhua news agency said in a brief report. Li was previously party chief of northeastern Liaoning province and will be succeeded... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117432/xi-ally-named-new-boss-chinas-manufacturing-heartland?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117432/xi-ally-named-new-boss-chinas-manufacturing-heartland?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 28 Oct 2017 11:19:02 +0000 President Xi Jinping has been formally recognised as the ruling Communist Party’s lingxiu – a reverential term for “leader” that was only used during the era of chairman Mao Zedong and his successor Hua Guofeng more than three decades ago. “General Secretary Xi Jinping is the party’s well-deserved lingxiu, supported by the whole party and loved and esteemed by the people,” the Politburo said at its first meeting on Friday since the country’s new leadership line-up was unveiled. Lingxiu – a more... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117421/xi-jinpings-latest-grandiose-title-aims-take?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117421/xi-jinpings-latest-grandiose-title-aims-take?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 28 Oct 2017 10:03:32 +0000 Was it just me, or did the entire 204-member Central Committee of the Communist Party of China break into their cover version of Queen’s Xi is the Champion at the closing of the 19th Party Congress on Tuesday? No? OK, then it was just me. Yet following the Congress, certainty, no one can be in any doubt of President Xi Jinping’s political supremacy and the vaulting ambitions for his “Chinese Dream,” particularly as it relates to the force projection of China’s influence abroad. In fact, the... https://www.scmp.com/business/global-economy/article/2117278/dont-hold-your-breath-yuan-be-convertible-stability-trumps?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/global-economy/article/2117278/dont-hold-your-breath-yuan-be-convertible-stability-trumps?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 27 Oct 2017 06:00:00 +0000 After the Communist Party unveiled its new leadership line-up on Wednesday, the question now on everyone’s lips is who will become the new bosses of Guangdong province and Shanghai, China’s two most important economic centres. The guessing game was made more complicated by the fact that the two people previously considered front runners for the positions – Guangdong governor Ma Xingrui and Shanghai mayor Ying Yong – failed to secure seats on the 25-member Politburo. In the past, the two jobs... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117186/shanghai-guangdong-party-boss-vacancies-coming-soon?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117186/shanghai-guangdong-party-boss-vacancies-coming-soon?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 27 Oct 2017 03:00:32 +0000 Three disgraced senior officials from China’s Communist Party, including a man once considered a possible successor to President Xi Jinping, have been accused of rigging internal elections, as the party revealed on Thursday it abandoned a vote-based promotion system at its latest leadership reshuffle. The accused cadres are the former security tsar Zhou Yongkang, former chief of staff to President Hu Jintao Ling Jihua, and former Chongqing party boss Sun Zhengcai, according to a Xinhua... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117190/three-disgraced-chinese-communist-party-officials?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117190/three-disgraced-chinese-communist-party-officials?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 26 Oct 2017 15:15:45 +0000 Chinese President Xi Jinping called on leaders of the People’s Liberation Army to improve its capabilities and strive to become one of the world’s greatest armies, a day after he unveiled the new Communist Party leadership. Xi was addressing the high-profile meeting on Thursday as he began his second term as chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC). During the meeting, Xi reiterated his call for the PLA to become one of the world’s greatest armies by 2050, along with other... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117184/xi-jinping-sets-mission-chinas-military-leaders-aim?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117184/xi-jinping-sets-mission-chinas-military-leaders-aim?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 26 Oct 2017 14:05:11 +0000 Once run by peasants-turned-revolutionaries and then engineers, China is now in the hands of a group of political experts, economists and theorists. Only a decade ago, eight of the nine top Communist Party leaders studied engineering or natural sciences – the most sought-after majors when the country was struggling to industrialise. But no one in the newly appointed Politburo Standing Committee, unveiled on Wednesday, belongs to the so-called technocrats, who worked as engineers or natural... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117169/out-technocrats-chinas-new-breed-politicians?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117169/out-technocrats-chinas-new-breed-politicians?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 26 Oct 2017 11:45:30 +0000 No executives from state-owned enterprises (SOE) made it to the Chinese Communist Party’s newly elected Central Committee as full members – a dramatic change from 2012 when five top managers of state firms were among more than 200 full members on the party’s elite decision-making body. Since then, three SOE executives have taken on administrative positions with local governments; one was ousted in the anti-corruption crackdown and another implicated in alleged illegal selling of shares during... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117080/chinese-state-firm-executives-frozen-out-central?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117080/chinese-state-firm-executives-frozen-out-central?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 26 Oct 2017 10:48:30 +0000 Xi Jinping was elected general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party at the 18th party congress in November 2012. In the five years between the 18th and 19th party congresses, Xi has accomplished a great deal. First and foremost, with his very successful anti-corruption campaign, he averted the biggest threat to the continued survival of the party and the nation. The precariousness of the situation can be seen in the hundreds of thousands of high-level party and government officials and the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2117058/how-xi-jinping-revitalised-party-and-state-his-morally?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2117058/how-xi-jinping-revitalised-party-and-state-his-morally?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 26 Oct 2017 09:08:00 +0000 Taiwan and mainland China need to drop historical baggage to seek a breakthrough in cross-straits relations, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen said in her first public comments since the Communist Party unveiled a new leadership line-up. Relations nosedived after Tsai, who leads the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, took office last year, with Beijing suspecting that she wants to push for the island’s formal independence, a red line for Beijing. Beijing has suspended a regular... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117079/taiwan-president-calls-thaw-ties-mainland-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117079/taiwan-president-calls-thaw-ties-mainland-china?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 26 Oct 2017 05:58:39 +0000 North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent a rare congratulatory message to China’s President Xi Jinping on Wednesday wishing the Chinese leader “great success” in his future tasks as head of the nation, the restive state’s media said. The friendly gesture by the North Korean leader, who rarely issues personal messages, was sent at the end of China’s all important Communist Party Congress at which Xi became the country’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong. The message comes as China is being urged... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2117066/north-korea-leader-sends-congratulations-chinas-xi?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2117066/north-korea-leader-sends-congratulations-chinas-xi?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 26 Oct 2017 04:54:07 +0000 China’s anti-graft tsar may be on the way out but the Communist Party’s discipline watchdog is expected to have a bigger role, with its new chief gaining a seat in the innermost circle of power. The changes in the party’s leadership line-up will also pave the way for institutionalisation of President Xi Jinping’s anti-graft drive, further blurring the line between the party and the state. Among the seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee introduced to the public on Wednesday was Zhao... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117005/higher-profile-anti-corruption-watchdogs-chinas-graft?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117005/higher-profile-anti-corruption-watchdogs-chinas-graft?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 26 Oct 2017 00:30:15 +0000 The top echelon of the body overseeing the running of the world’s biggest military has shrunk by a third to make it the smallest leadership line-up in the history of the People’s Liberation Army. The Communist Party announced on Wednesday that the Central Military Commission would be led by a seven-member group, down from the 11 members who headed its operations before. Military analysts said the streamlined group indicated President Xi Jinping, the CMC’s chairman, was further consolidating his... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2117004/xi-jinping-rolls-out-leaner-top-line-chinas-military?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2117004/xi-jinping-rolls-out-leaner-top-line-chinas-military?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 25 Oct 2017 16:00:45 +0000 The Communist Party of China unveiled its new leadership on Wednesday, with perhaps the most notable points being the retirement of anti-graft chief Wang Qishan and the exclusion from the Politburo Standing Committee of anyone who would still be young enough to take over from President Xi Jinping in five years’ time. Xi and Premier Li Keqiang were the only two incumbents to retain their seats on the committee, China’s highest decision making body. They were joined by Xi’s chief of staff Li... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117002/xi-breaks-convention-and-upholds-tradition-while?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2117002/xi-breaks-convention-and-upholds-tradition-while?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 25 Oct 2017 15:30:00 +0000 The elevation of China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi to the Communist Party’s top echelon of power is an unequivocal sign of President Xi Jinping’s ambitions for the country as a rising global power, diplomatic pundits said. The State councillor and head of China’s foreign policy establishment was promoted to the 25-member Politburo on Wednesday, making him the most powerful foreign affairs official since Qian Qichen, a vice-premier and foreign policy guru under Jiang Zemin, who retired in... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2116978/its-good-day-chinas-diplomats-foreign-policy-chief?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2116978/its-good-day-chinas-diplomats-foreign-policy-chief?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 25 Oct 2017 14:00:45 +0000 While much of the focus in Beijing on Wednesday was on the people who had been elevated to the highest ranks of China’s power structure, three members of the Communist Party’s Politburo failed to retain their seats despite there being no obvious, or at least officially announced, reason for them to step down. Though aged in their sixties, Vice-President Li Yuanchao, 66, propaganda tsar Liu Qibao, 64, and the former boss of Xinjiang Zhang Chunxian, 64, are all under the unofficial retirement age... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2116993/not-too-old-none-too-popular-three-senior-politicians?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2116993/not-too-old-none-too-popular-three-senior-politicians?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 25 Oct 2017 14:00:00 +0000 China’s Communist Party unveiled its new leadership team on Wednesday. The membership of the party’s supreme decision-making body, the Politburo Standing Committee, remains at seven. Other than Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang, the other five members of the committee are new faces following the retirement of the previous members. The six other Standing Committee members will play a key role in affirming the core leadership of Xi, who has had his name enshrined in the party charter. The party also... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2116951/premier-lis-second-term-likonomics-following-orders?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2116951/premier-lis-second-term-likonomics-following-orders?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 25 Oct 2017 12:45:00 +0000 Li Zhanshu is one of the new members of the Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee. Here we take a dive into his background: When Li Zhanshu was named de facto chief of staff to the head of China’s Communist Party five years ago, just months before Xi Jinping became its leader, few people expected he would one day ascend to the party’s apex of power. But his “election” to the party’s supreme Politburo Standing Committee on Wednesday, ranking just after Xi and Premier Li Keqiang, was no... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2116576/li-zhanshu-key-aide-chinas-xi-jinping-vaults-top?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2116576/li-zhanshu-key-aide-chinas-xi-jinping-vaults-top?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 25 Oct 2017 11:00:00 +0000