ETHNIC-Chinese shopkeepers in Lhasa's old Tibetan quarter knew better than the security forces that the city had become a tinder-box. As word spread rapidly through the narrow alleyways on March 14th that a crowd was throwing stones at Chinese businesses, they shuttered up their shops and fled. The authorities, caught by surprise, held back as the city was engulfed by its biggest anti-Chinese protests in decades.
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Nearly overnight, the focus of the 17th Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Congress has shifted from the debate regarding Chinese political and economic reform to the promotion of internal party unity and the combating of Taiwan’s proposed referendum. This change has come about due to increasing concerns raised by the party rank-and-file, intellectuals and ordinary citizens over dislocations in the economy, particularly regarding the runaway prices of commodities and services ranging from foodstuffs…
Hu’s Economic Policies: Liberalizing the Economy or Promoting Special Interests?
09.08. 2007 PoliticsWhile widely recognized as holding conservative ideological and political views, the Hu Jintao leadership has been given reasonably high marks for pushing forward economic reforms first initiated by the late patriarch Deng Xiaoping. According to World Trade Organization provisions, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has opened up an unprecedented number of sectors for foreign equity participation. Yet, the authorities have at the same time tightened control over other aspects of the economy.…
Until recently, Chinese military training was widely dismissed as infrequent, unrealistic and overly scripted. In the 1980s and 1990s, outside observers and internal critics alike raised doubts about the utility of the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) exercises, and it was clear that training deficiencies represented one of the most serious challenges. For example, Western analysts noted that PLA Air Force (PLAAF) pilots flew an insufficient number of hours on a yearly basis and that the…
Chinese intellectual property officials rejected US criticism of Beijing's anti-piracy efforts, insisting Tuesday they are cracking down and saying countries such as Canada are worse offenders.
Chinese President Hu Jintao wrapped up his eight-country, twelve-day African tour this month in the midst of controversy regarding China’s role in the continent. Government officials from the countries that received China’s leader expressed gratitude for their guest’s generous offers of aid, cancellations of debt and promises of trade and investment. Critics, however, charge that China’s actions in Africa are no less than neocolonialism, as it seizes a new sphere of influence, grabs oil and…
Over the past 10-15 years, China has placed increasing emphasis on the development and improvement of its special operations forces [1]. According to the 2000 U.S. Department of Defense report on Chinese military power, “Particularly since the 1991 Persian Gulf conflict, the PLA has devoted considerable resources to the development of Special Operations Forces (SOF).” Moreover, the PLA identified the further development of these elite units as “an integral element of ground force modernization”…