China

 

Grim warning that Australia is just a 'little boat caught between two rocks' in the US-China trade war as Asian superpower's attitude switches from 'assertive to aggressive'

NEW Former Australia-China Business Council head and Howard Government minister Warwick Smith expressed deep concern for Australia's role in the increasingly fraught US-China relationship.

 

Silk in Antiquity - Ancient History Encyclopedia News items on anything Chinese and how it will affect Australia. China-Australia ties navigate choppy waters - Global Times

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Profile: China's President Xi Jinping

 

Xi Jinping became president of China in 2012, ushering in an era of increased assertiveness and authoritarianism.

He has been front and centre of China's push to cement its position as a superpower, while also launching crackdowns on corruption and dissent.

A consummate political chess player who has cultivated an enigmatic strongman image, the leader of the ruling Chinese Communist Party has rapidly consolidated power, having his ideas mentioned by name in the constitution - an honour that had been reserved only to Mao Zedong until now.

The "Xi Jinping Thought" means that any challenge to the president will now be seen as a threat to Communist Party rule.

A seven-man leadership committee unveiled in October 2017 included no obvious heir, raising the prospect that Mr Xi intended to govern beyond the next five years. The Communist Party has now confirmed that aim, with a proposal to remove a clause in the constitution that limits the presidency to two terms.

Princeling, peasant, president

Born in Beijing in 1953, Xi Jinping is the son of revolutionary veteran Xi Zhongxun, one of the Communist Party's founding fathers and a vice-premier.

Because of his illustrious roots, Mr Xi is seen as a "princeling" - a child of elite senior officials who has risen up the ranks.

But his family's fortunes took a drastic turn when his father was purged in 1962 prior to the Cultural Revolution and imprisoned.

At the age of 15, the younger Xi was sent to the countryside for "re-education" and hard labour in the remote and poor village of Liangjiahe for seven years - an experience that would later figure largely in his official story.

The BBC's China editor Carrie Gracie analyses Xi Jinping's riseLISTEN: Meet China's all-powerful leader

Far from turning against the Communist Party, Mr Xi embraced it. He tried to join it several times, but was rebuffed because of who his father was.

Once he was finally accepted in 1974, he worked hard to rise to the top - first as a local party secretary in Hebei province, before moving on to more senior roles in other places including party chief of Shanghai, China's second city and financial hub.

His increasing profile in the party propelled him to its top decision making body, the Politburo Standing Committee, and in 2012 he was picked as president.

The Tsinghua University chemical engineering graduate is married to the glamorous singer Peng Liyuan, and the two have been heavily featured in state media as China's First Couple. It's a contrast from previous presidential couples, where the first lady has traditionally kept a lower profile.

 

They have one daughter, Xi Mingze, but not much is known about her apart from the fact that she studied at Harvard University.

Other family members and their overseas business dealings has been a subject of scrutiny in the international press.

China Dream

Mr Xi has vigorously pursued what he has called a "great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation" with his China Dream vision.

Under him, China has enacted economic reform to combat slowing growth, such as cutting down bloated state-owned industries and reducing pollution, as well as its One Belt One Road trade project.

 

The country has become more assertive on the global stage, from its continued dominance in the South China Sea despite international protestations, to its exercise of soft power by pumping billions of dollars into Asian and African investments.

This has been accompanied by a resurgence in patriotic nationalism whipped up by state media, with a particular focus on Mr Xi as China's strongman leader, leading some to accuse him of developing a personality cult like that of former leader Mao Zedong.

At home, Mr Xi has waged a ruthless war on corruption which has punished more than a million "tigers and flies"- a reference to both high and low-ranking party officials.

Some observers believe that the campaign is aimed at rooting out opponents, and is part of a series of political manoeuvres by Mr Xi aimed at consolidating his power.

The ever-growing power of Xi JinpingWho is Xi Dada?

Meanwhile China has seen increasing clampdowns on freedoms, from rising online censorship to arrests of dissidents and human rights lawyers, leading some to describe Mr Xi as "the most authoritarian leader since Chairman Mao".

Despite this, Mr Xi is still thought to enjoy reasonably widespread support among ordinary Chinese citizens - and is expected to keep shaping the country for the next few years.

Chinese leaders have traditionally hinted at one or more possible heirs to the leadership body, the Standing Committee, at the beginning of their final term. But in October 2017, Mr Xi did not do so.

The leaders unveiled were all in their 60s and likely to retire at the end of this term.

And in a clear sign of Mr Xi's influence, the Communist Party voted, in 2017, to write his philosophy, called "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for the New Era", in its constitution.

Only founder Mao and Deng Xiaoping, who introduced economic reforms in the 1980s, have made it into the all-important fundamental law of the land.

Peng Liyuan:   born 20 November 1962) is a Chinese contemporary folk singer and performing artist. Peng Liyuan is the wife of the current General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Xi Jinping.

 China's new leader, Xi Jinping, and his wife, singer Peng Liyuan ...  wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping Pictures, Photos & Images ...Wife Of Chinese VP Shows Off Vocal Pipes, Military Stripes : NPRSamantha Cameron goes head-to-head with Chinese president's wife ...

    Chinese President Xi Jinping and wife pose for a picture with a ...  Peng Liyuan participates in tour hosted by Australian PM's wife ... Peng Liyuan participates in tour hosted by Australian PM's wife ...Koalas steal the show at G20 in Brisbane - World - Chinadaily.com.cn Peng Liyuan holds a koala during a visit to Canberra, Australia in November, 2014.      

Singer Peng Liyuan, wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping, will turn heads in Tasmania next week.

      

 

 

Xi MingzeXi Jinping's daughter

DescriptionXi Mingze, nicknamed Xiao Muzi, is the only child of Chinese paramount leader Xi Jinping and folk singer Peng Liyuan.

Wikipedia Born: 27 June 1992 (age 27 years),

Fujian, ChinaNationality: ChineseNickname: Xiao MuziEducation: Harvard University (2010–2014),

MORECousins: Yuan Ma, Xi Mingzheng, Zhang Yannan

Parents: Xi Jinping, Peng Liyuan

 

First Family of China

Photo shows Xi Zhongxun and his sons Xi Jinping and Xi Yuanping in 1958. [Photo / Beijing News] With his father and brother

Photo shows Xi Zhongxun and his sons Xi Jinping and Xi Yuanping in 1958.

Photo shows Xi Zhongxun and his children in front of the Nine-Dragon Wall in 1960. [Photo / Beijing News]

Photo shows Xi Zhongxun and his children in front of the Nine-Dragon Wall in 1960.

 

What we can learn from Xi's childhood - Chinadaily.com.cn

 

Xi Jinping: China's new Princess - the daughter of Communist ... Their daughter;  Xi Mingze, nicknamed Xiao Muzi

Xi Jinping Fast Facts - CNN

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHwd53nl0Ck

 

It runs in the family!

https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/military-singer-resurfaces-married-to-china-president-xi-jinpings-brother

The site below is how Mr X  is organizing religion in China. [Bit of an eye opener!]

https://nypost.com/2020/02/01/how-chinas-xi-jinping-destroyed-religion-and-made-himself-god/

 

 

 

Churches in China for Tourists!!

The practice of religion continues to be tightly controlled by government authorities. Chinese over the age of 18 are permitted to join only officially sanctioned Christian groups registered with the government-approved Protestant Three-Self Church and China Christian Council and the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Church.

https://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/top-ten-churches.htm

 

In late October, the pastor of one of China’s best-known underground churches asked this of his congregation: had they successfully spread the gospel throughout their city? “If tomorrow morning the Early Rain Covenant Church suddenly disappeared from the city of Chengdu, if each of us vanished into thin air, would this city be any different? Would anyone miss us?” said Wang Yi, leaning over his pulpit and pausing to let the question weigh on his audience. “I don’t know.”

Almost three months later, Wang’s hypothetical scenario is being put to the test. The church in south-west China has been shuttered and Wang and his wife, Jiang Rong, remain in detention after police arrested more than 100 Early Rain church members in December. Many of those who haven’t been detained are in hiding. Others have been sent away from Chengdu and barred from returning. Some, including Wang’s mother and his young son, are under close surveillance. Wang and his wife are being charged for “inciting subversion”, a crime that carries a penalty of up to 15 years in prison.

Now the hall Wang preached from sits empty, the pulpit and cross that once hung behind him both gone. Prayer cushions have been replaced by a ping-pong table and a film of dust. New tenants, a construction company and a business association, occupy the three floors the church once rented. Plainclothes police stand outside, turning away those looking for the church.

One of the officers told the Observer: “I have to tell you to leave and watch until you get in a car and go.”

Wang Yi, pastor of the Early Rain church, who was arrested and detained three months ago, along with his wife. Pinterest

Wang Yi, pastor of the Early Rain church, who was arrested and detained three months ago, along with his wife. Photograph: Early Rain/Facebook

Early Rain is the latest victim of what Chinese Christians and rights activists say is the worst crackdown on religion since the country’s Cultural Revolution, when Mao Zedong’s government vowed to eradicate religion.

 

Researchers say the current drive, fuelled by government unease over the growing number of Christians and their potential links to the west, is aimed not so much at destroying Christianity but bringing it to heel.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/13/china-christians-religious-persecution-translation-bible

 

Reporter pictured on the left, conducting a TV interview in Papua New Guinea with local workers who had given jobs by a Chinese state-owned enterprise 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8338789/What-China-like-Xinhua-editor-told-not-cover-polio-outbreak.html?ito=email_share_article-image-share 

I am pictured on the left, conducting a TV interview in Papua New Guinea with local workers who had given jobs by a Chinese state-owned enterprise Levi Parsons explains what China is like from inside its state media machineWhile working in Papua New Guinea he was not allowed to cover polio outbreakSenior members of his Xinhua team feared overshadowing Xi Jinping visitChina tried to keep the world in the dark and stop news of outbreak spreadingNow China is accused of a similar cover-up over the coronavirus pandemic Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19

 

The trade war with China continues: Beijing orders power plants to stop buying Australian coal - after announcing new checks on iron ore

Coronavirus: China bans companies from buying Australian coal

Chinese authorities have reportedly told state-owned power plants to buy coal locally instead of from Australia as the trade war between the two countries escalates. China earlier banned Australian beef and slapped an 80 per cent tax on barley in the wake of Canberra's calls for an inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. Australia's coal industry, which brings in tens of billions of dollars to the economy, may be next in facing tougher restrictions. China's retaliation has sparked fears of a global trade war involving other countries who backed an inquiry, including Britain, although Beijing claims the changes are nothing to do with coronavirus. China's ambassador in Canberra has previously hinted at a boycott of Australian goods after Scott Morrison's government rallied global support for an inquiry angering President Xi Jinping (pictured inset).

There can be no denying that the source and how COVID spread throughout the world in just a few short months is of concern and must be investigated. Donald Trump is edging for a fight with China because 1. he faces and an election and 2. he is an idiot, both unsavory combinations. But why did Scott Morrison have to big-note himself on the world stage by being the first to call for a virus investigation? It would have happened anyway? And why now in a crisis with the country facing the first recession in twenty-odd years? As Celia's comprehensive post illustrates, Australia needs China--China does not need Australia. Knowing such may dent a lot of Aussie pride, but that is how it is. The lesson is, Aussie markets must diversify. But that takes years to establish new trade deals. China saved us in the GFC. Now, it is not a good time to get on Xi Jinping's bad books. Scott Morrison poked the tiger, and I fear we could pay for his mistake for years to come.

Thank you for your input Veritas.

I think Morrison perhaps had not got his head around being PM of Australia yet when he made those comments, he will probably be more mindful in future.  But what an expensive way to learn!

 

 

China signals coronavirus under control with resumption of ...

China’s annual parliamentary meeting, which was delayed due to the coronavirus, will be held later this month. 

 

Speculation is mounting over whether China will announce a growth target for 2020 at its annual parliamentary gathering later this month, after the coronavirus outbreak delayed the event and lashed the economy.

With the opening session of the National People’s Congress (NPC) less than three weeks away, debate is raging over whether Beijing should stick to a 6 per cent growth target or lower its expectations due to the unprecedented damage caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

President Xi Jinping has repeatedly said that China would adhere to its economic and social development goals for 2020.

But growth of 6 per cent is becoming increasingly unlikely, after China’s economy shrank by 6.8 per cent in the first quarter amid wide-ranging virus containment measures.

The contraction has fanned talk among analysts that Beijing will have to be more flexible with its 2020 targets.

Nicholas Lardy, from the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics, said Beijing could postpone its goal of doubling gross domestic product (GDP) in the decade to 2020 to allow for the impact of the coronavirus. That goal requires a minimum growth rate of 5.6 per cent this year.

“They could shift the target date by six months to the end of the second quarter of 2021 … There is too much pessimism on 2020 growth,” said Lardy, an expert on the Chinese economy.

Louis Kuijs, head of Asia economics at Oxford Economics, said China could cite the coronavirus as “force majeure” – or an act of God – to explain why it had fallen slightly short of its goal this year.

“Ninety-five per cent is close enough to 100 per cent,” he said.

Jia Kang, former director of the Institute of Research at China’s finance ministry, said China could delay the deadline for doubling GDP in 2020 by a year.

Both Chinese and international institutions have sharply cut

forecasts for China's GDP growth

in 2020, some to below 2 per cent.

But higher growth targets have already been adopted by local governments across the country.

The northeastern province of Heilongjiang has set a goal of 5 per cent growth for this year, the lowest among China’s 31 provincial-level governments, while Tibet has set the highest target at 9 per cent.

China’s central government, meanwhile, has given few firm signals about its growth expectations for this year. It has at times played down the significance of a headline growth figure as a key policy goal, saying it is instead more focused on “employment and people’s standard of living”.

But it has also said the “building up a comprehensively well-off society”, which includes the doubling of GDP, must be achieved in 2020, despite the impact of the pandemic.

One consideration likely to affect the central government’s decision making was that the higher the growth target, the more economic stimulus needed to achieve it.

Beijing has so far shied away from a massive post-virus fiscal and monetary stimulus to boost growth, although it could announce new economic support measures at the NPC.

If Beijing forgoes a target for this year, it would be a break with tradition going back to the early 1990s.

The annual NPC, which was scheduled for early March, is largely seen as a ceremonial event to rubber-stamp policies that have already been decided. But it is closely watched as it lays out goals for economic growth, unemployment, inflation and fiscal deficits.

Lu Zhengwei, chief economist of the Shanghai-based Industrial Bank, said the doubling of GDP and aim to eradicate poverty were “the only quantitative indicators” in China’s “well-off society” goal, so neither would be given up easily.

Scott Kennedy, a China analyst at the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said the growth target was “entirely political”.

“This is self-generated political pressure, and the Communist Party could eliminate that pressure by announcing that the targets either can’t be reached or don’t matter,” he said.

Your Aussie friends are baffled, Britain: Why escape from Brussels – only to kowtow to Beijing, asks former prime minister of Australia TONY ABBOTT

 

Along with killing tens of thousands of people in countries such as Britain, and inflicting years of subsequent economic pain, the corona crisis should drive lasting change in our perceptions of China. It’s not that this virus has changed the nature of the Chinese regime; but it has made its repressive, secretive and self-aggrandising side glaringly obvious.

Take Australia’s perfectly reasonable request for a full and impartial international inquiry into the causes and handling of the outbreak.

China’s first response was to slap a prohibitive 80 per cent tariff on my country’s billion-dollar-a-year barley trade, even though the main sufferer would be China’s Tsingtao Brewery that relied on this clean Australian product.

Then, once the World Health Assembly had agreed to it, China’s ‘wolf-warrior’ ambassador in Canberra said that our success in securing a global investigation was ‘nothing but a joke’.

Of course, none of us should be anti-China. As prime minister, I routinely praised China’s stupendous achievement of lifting half a billion people from the Third World to the middle class in scarcely a generation.

This is probably the largest and fastest increase in material wellbeing in all history.

Soldiers of the People's Liberation Army prepare for a military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China at Tiananmen Square in October 2019 

Soldiers of the People's Liberation Army prepare for a military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China at Tiananmen Square in October 2019

My government successfully concluded a trade deal with China, its first with a G20 country, despite our flying military aircraft through its self-declared air defence identification zone over disputed islands and routinely affirming our strategic partnership with the United States.

 

And there is a world of difference between the Chinese people who in places such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and elsewhere have shown a remarkable talent for building civil societies; and the current Chinese government which has reversed the modest liberalisation that seemed to be taking place in the three decades after Deng Xiaoping.

Even five years ago, we still all hoped that China and the West were on converging paths towards more economic and political freedom. Regrettably, since then, President Xi Jinping has turned himself into a new emperor; and China has militarised its nearby seas, interned up to a million Uighurs, bullied its neighbours, and created a ‘brave new world’ of high-tech-enabled, state-enforced conformism.

Marxism-Leninism seems to have reinforced China’s traditional sense of itself as the world’s ‘Middle Kingdom’, with all other states expected to ‘tremble and obey’.

Clearly, the world is entering a new and dangerous era of strategic competition between China and the US-led West. Unlike the Cold War, though, with a Soviet Union that had a first-rate military but a third-rate economy; this new ‘cold peace’ with China involves a first-rate economy that’s rapidly becoming a first-rate military power.

Take Australia¿s perfectly reasonable request for a full and impartial international inquiry into the causes and handling of the outbreak 

Take Australia’s perfectly reasonable request for a full and impartial international inquiry into the causes and handling of the outbreak

Why a trade war with China couldn't have come at a worse...

 

Britain is urged to stand up to China as Beijing flexes its...  

And we can’t assume that it will never be worse than a cold peace. Any attempt by China to reclaim Taiwan by force would, at a minimum, unleash in the Indo-Pacific the greatest arms race the world has seen.

It’s noteworthy that during the Cold War, there were virtually no trade, investment or academic exchanges between the West and the Soviet Bloc. Since then, there has been a flood of Chinese exports and, latterly, Chinese students and Chinese investment into the West.

As a recent report by the Henry Jackson Society has highlighted, the US, the UK and Australia have heavily integrated China into domestic supply chains. Outsourcing much of our manufacturing to China didn’t seem to matter so much in the era of strategic convergence; but now it’s an altogether more serious issue than simply displaced local workers and lost jobs.

All Western countries, but especially the key Western allies, need a new plan for their relations with China that doesn’t put short-term economic gain above our long-term national interests – because if we can too readily be bought, we can too readily be beaten without a fight. It should be based on a clear-eyed understanding that the Chinese Communist Party – and, hence, the Chinese government that it totally controls – does everything with strategic intent.

There are, of course, innumerable Chinese who act out of simple human decency, like the heroic whistle-blowing doctors of Wuhan that the government initially had arrested. But as far as the Chinese government is concerned, ultimately, there are no private citizens and no private businesses. All are to be mobilised in the interests of the Communist Party.

For us, trade is about mutual economic self-interest. But for China, it’s also a way to gain political leverage over its trade partners. For Australia, this need not be a huge problem as the bulk of our exports are commodities. If China refused to take them, others would.

In Australia, both sides of politics have excluded Huawei from participation in strategic telecommunications infrastructure  

In Australia, both sides of politics have excluded Huawei from participation in strategic telecommunications infrastructure

This most emphatically does not mean that we should reduce our trade with China, at least in finished products. It does mean, though, that we have to be prepared for it to be turned on or off like a tap depending upon whether the Chinese regime wants to be ingratiating or intimidating.

For us, Chinese students are a way to make the most of our outstanding universities. If people from other countries are left with a sense of gratitude and appreciation for Australia, that’s a bonus. But for China, sending students to the West is a means to leapfrog its way to technological superiority. This does not mean refusing to take Chinese students. It should mean, though, that our universities treat income from this source more as a bonus than something to be taken for granted.

The best way to deal with all this, without singling China out; and, in so doing, giving it another excuse for antagonism, might be to introduce a new principle of reciprocity into our dealings with other countries.

You may invest in our strategic infrastructure only under the same circumstances in which we may invest in yours. Your students may study in our universities only under the same circumstances and in the same disciplines where ours may study in yours. In general, we should only be prepared to be dependent on China in circumstances where they would just as readily be prepared to be dependent on us.

In Australia, both sides of politics have excluded Huawei from participation in strategic telecommunications infrastructure on the grounds that Huawei has no choice but to take directions from the Chinese government. To us, it does seem strange that Britain, a ‘Five Eyes’ partner that’s just escaped interference from Brussels, should be so blasé about exposing itself to interference from Beijing.

For all the need to focus on the daunting strategic challenge that China now poses, it’s worth remembering that the people who know China best, its own citizens, have a remarkable predilection for sending their wealth offshore and for acquiring Western passports.

A few of them, perhaps, might see themselves as latter-day economic conquistadors. Most of them, I’m sure, are at least tacitly acknowledging the universal pull of the West’s commitment to freedom under the law. That is our abiding strength.

Share or comment on this article:Why escape Brussels to kowtow to Beijing, asks former Australian prime minister TONY ABBOTT

 

World Health Organisation fails to mention its 'goodwill ambassador' Peng Liyuan is the wife of China's President... saying only on its website that she's a singing star, amid concerns over WHO'S handling of the coronavirus pandemic

Peng Liyuan is listed on WHO's website alongside former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker as one of nine 'goodwill ambassadors'.

Peng Liyuan known as the Peony Fairy is an accomplished folk singer. I think Chinese folk singing in Chinese is an acquired taste, like Chinese Opera.

Many beautiful Chinese Opera singers are excelling in Western Opera, for example, He Hui. Here she sings the famous aria " Un Bel Di Vedremo" from Madama Butterfly, at Metropolitan Opera in New York.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utFtEd94jWQ

Hui He: Building Connection Through The Voice - The Opera Queen

I don't mind operetta but not the full Opera!  

Certainly the Chinese singing I think  is something one has to grow up with to enjoy, it always seems so high pitched.

 

 

China knows the importance of water for a developing nation.

 

 

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-17754256

 

 

 Three Gorges Dam in Yichang, China (file image)

The vast reservoir stretches for 660km (360 miles)

http://yangtzeriverthreegorgesregion.blogspot.com/2012/11/yang-3effects-of-resettlement.html

 

 

 

 

 

 https://news.mongabay.com/2011/11/the-dam-maker-china-involved-in-289-dam-projects-worldwide/

 

The dam-maker: China involved in 289 dam projects worldwideby on 6 November 2011 

China is currently involved in 289 hydroelectric projects worldwide, as reported by International Rivers. Most of the dams are planned for hydropower, and over half are considered ‘large’ projects. The list includes completed dams, one currently under construction, and ones in early planning stages.

While dams are often considered ‘green’ power, those in the tropics emit significant greenhouse gases from vegetation rotting in hydroelectric reservoirs. In fact, a recent study found that a dam in Lao PDR still produced greenhouse gas emissions a decade after it was constructed. However, such energy projects still emit considerably less than China’s current power of choice: coal.

By changing river flows, hydroelectric projects also impact fish populations and threaten local livelihoods. In some cases people are forced to move to make way for the river’s new flow or the reservoir.

Not all of China’s dam projects are foregone conclusions. Last month, a massive Chinese-sponsored dam in Myanmar was tabled by the government after local protests. The Myitsone Dam would have been built on the head of the Irrawaddy River with 90 percent of the energy being diverted China. Currently, China is planning 7 dams on the Irrawaddy.

Nearly half of China’s hydroelectric projects are in Southeast Asia with 30 percent in Africa, a continent where China’s influence is rising.

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