Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com The 12.2 percent budget boost for the People’s Liberation Army has stolen the limelight at China’s annual meeting of the National People’s Congress (NPC), which opened in Beijing on Wednesday. Also remarkable are assertive foreign policy-related remarks made by Premier Li Keqiang and the NPC spokesman Fu Ying, […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com With the acquiescence of Party boss and commander-in-chief Xi Jinping, hawkish generals are aggressively lobbying for a bigger share of China’s economic resources. Officially, the military budget this year of 720.17 billion yuan was a modest 10.7 per cent over that of last year. This figure also represents […]
Sol W. Sanders In a troubled world, the obstacles to continued growth and stability in Communist China are staggering compared to the crises of the Euro and Sequestration. Most foreign observers are either willfully blind to the growing evidence or, facing a possible period of worldwide economic decline, they still hope growth in China […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com Owing to a quirk in the Chinese political calendar, there is a gap of at least four months between the selection of the party leaders and that of government leaders. Thus while Li Keqiang was named the second most senior member of the seven-man Chinese Communist Party (CCP) […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com Xi Jinping, newly anointed general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), has lost no time laying down what will likely be a leitmotif of his 10-year tenure: promoting “constitutional Socialism with Chinese characteristics.” This so-called “Back to the [Chinese] Constitution” movement will be kicked off after fellow […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com Gen. Zhang Qinsheng figures in all Western military analysts’ lists for up-and-coming People’s Liberation Army (PLA) officers who will likely receive a big promotion at the 18th Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Congress slated for this October. Zhang, 63, who is first deputy chief of the General Staff Department […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com While much of the Chinese media is still bashing the U.S. for a new round of “anti-China containment policy,” the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership is much more nervous about the potentially explosive results of the country’s ever-widening rich-poor gap. Calls for ending China’s worsening social inequality are […]