Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, EastAsiaIntel.com Ma Xingrui, a fast-rising high-tech whiz turned politician, has parachuted into the Shenzhen special economic zone (SEZ) as Party Secretary. The latest appointment of the 56-year-old designer of space vehicles has immense significance for the high-tech development of Shenzhen, which is home to Huawei, ZTE and Tencent Holdings, […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, EastAsiaIntel.com It has been an ingrained tradition for American vice-presidents to complain that their main job is attending state funerals in other countries. Given the fact that the Xi Jinping administration has reiterated that they will never copy political systems or values from the United States, it is surprising […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, EastAsiaIntel.com Beijing’s success in luring a number of key American allies to join the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has illustrated yet again Washington’s apparent failure to rein in the Xi Jinping administration’s ambitious plans to gradually displace the United States as the sole arbiter of global norms in […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, EastAsiaIntel.com Willy Lam was on travel this week. David Shambaugh, a China expert at the George Washington University, was praised only a couple of months ago by China as one of the top American China scholars who really know China. That assessment changed dramatically last week. The Beijing regime […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, EastAsiaIntel.com While Premier Li Keqiang got 45 rounds of applause as he read out the annual Government Work Report at the opening of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s legislature, on March 5, there is no mistaking that the “Chinese economic miracle” is coming to an end. Li’s report […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, EastAsiaIntel.com President and commander-in-chief Xi Jinping has told generals of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to abide by the instructions of the party leadership when waging “military diplomacy.” The policy-setting Central Military Commission (CMC) convened in late January a rare national conference on PLA-related diplomacy. Xi told senior generals […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, EastAsiaIntel.com Willy Lam is away for New Years celebrations. The world’s largest military has not considered bodyweight as a factor for promotion — that is until now. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s departments of General Staff, General Logistics and General Armaments jointly issued a new directive on reforming military […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, EastAsiaIntel.com Even as President Xi Jinping’s closest advisers are preparing for his first official state visit to the United States this September, influential members of China’s foreign-policy establishment have argued that the country’s relationship with its neighbors outweighs that with the world’s only superpower. The official Chinese press is […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, EastAsiaIntel.com The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) propaganda machinery has gone into overdrive eulogizing the “Xi Jinping spirit.” Exhortations about “deeply implementing the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s series of important talks,” have suffused commentaries in People’s Daily, Seeking Truth and other major party mouthpieces. One commentary claimed that […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, EastAsiaIntel.com President Xi Jinping has determined to outdo Mao Zedong in terms of building up a cult of personality: he has ordered a gigantic military parade at Tiananmen Square this autumn to demonstrate his ironclad hold over the army – and most other levers of power in the country. […]