Chinese political watch

[mattster]

U may still not fully understand CCP's ruling system, the CCP is controlled by a group of elites, not a single person.

Except Mao, in CCP there are never any true dictator would do whatever he wants. Still in every 5 year, the Political Bureau will evaluate the top leader whether capable or not; if Xi were doing badly, he also has risk to be sacked, just like Nikita Khrushchev.

Rockdog.......I think you're the one that doesn't fully understand the Chinese system. Xi has systematically removed anyone and everyone who he suspects will not be 100% loyal to him from the 7 member CCP Politburo Standing Committee.

So now they are all his loyal DOGS.......they either sink or swim with him. The problem with that type of system is that no one person has the power or incentive to try and replace an all powerful leader even if he screws up really bad. Like loyal DOGS, they will die defending their Master, no matter what happens.

And that's why all you Chinese guys on the DFI are so nervous today - you know that if the "Xi Jinping train" takes one major wrong turn in the next 15 years.....then you are all royally screwed !!

 

[Compersion]

if i remember it correctly Hi Jingtao and Jiang Zemin still alive why they cannot go for beyond two term limits ...

president xi is better to them ? is there anyone better ? the above has not been thought of properly and the same appears to be done in a rush manner. perhaps there is more that meets the eyes. fascinating times we live in.

 

[AMCA]

Chinese rights lawyer dies under mysterious circumstances




By Associated Press February 26 at 7:25 AM

BEIJING — A prominent Chinese human rights lawyer died under mysterious circumstances in an eastern Jiangsu province military hospital on Monday, his close friend said, raising questions about the welfare of those who have defied the country’s authorities.

Li Baiguang was a well-known lawyer who defended farmers and Christian pastors, work that garnered him an award from the Washington-based National Endowment for Democracy in 2008. He died just hours after being admitted to No. 81 People’s Liberation Army Hospital for a minor stomach ache, a relative of Li’s told Bob Fu, a religious activist who has known the lawyer for over a decade.

Fu said in a statement through his U.S.-based Christian nonprofit group China Aid that the “Chinese regime should be totally held accountable” for Li’s sudden and “mysterious” death.

“The hospital alleged that he had liver problems and that he bled to death, but Li was previously healthy,” the statement said. “China has a history of either neglecting the medical conditions of human rights activists until they succumb to them or declaring previously healthy people dead.”

An employee surnamed Yang in the hospital’s propaganda department said he had not heard of Li’s case.


“I do not know who this person is,” Yang said, adding that death and causes of death are a “private matter.”

Fu and Li attended the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington together earlier this month. Li’s work defending arrested Chinese pastors often prompted death threats, Fu said. The lawyer had suffered injuries while allegedly being beaten by plainclothes security agents in October.

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“We do not know for certain whether those injuries may have contributed to his declining health, but the Chinese government should, as a party to the U.N. convention against torture, conduct a prompt and impartial investigation to determine whether those injuries may have played a role in his untimely death,” said William Nee, a China researcher for Amnesty International.

“The government has the obligation to ensure that lawyers can carry out their professional duties without fear of intimidation or interference, and without being identified with their clients and causes,” Nee said.

 

[Guest]

This is bad for China.

• The Chinese state will be become more brittle, not stronger.
• Xi's own opponents within CCP (not just Jiang faction) will forment social unrest and revolutionary tenancies to weaken the Chinese state, because their future is uncertain if Xi has an indefinite term
• To keep an inner circle of loyalists, Xi will also make certain other positions within the party and the state "indefinite." This will decrease the competitive spirit and motivation among CCP's ranks. You will no longer see governors taking up big public-works projects to impress Beijing, because they can no longer dream of making it to Beijing
• Like all other dictatorships, Xi will become increasingly paranoid, and with it, the state itself will become more paranoid and oppressive. Unlike with Putin, Xi will have 100X more conspiracies and conspirators to deal with.
• CCP will lose its "internal party democracy" excuse to the Chinese people

Chinese were happy with one person accumulating 100% power, as long as that power came with a 10-year expiry date. Now that happiness will be tested.

In a way this move undoes everything Deng Xiaoping worked for. The route to power in CCP will be dirty politics, and not development.

I think CCP is preparing for the worst, i.e. massive public dissent towards the establishment, as the days of super economic growth come to an end.

People will loose jobs due to high salary demand and competition from outside China, And this will effect general Chinese population. Also the 2nd generation of this last economic growth will demand more white collar jobs, against the blue collar which their fathers and mothers did. Similar to the problem we face in our more developed states like Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka or Gujarat, While in India our youth studied computer and got jobs in IT, still there were aggressive regime changes in many of these states every 5 years. It would be interesting to see how the CCP controls this without any regime change.

Also since there is a situation of overcapacity and large markets like the West, India are becoming increasingly hostile towards the Chinese imports. All these things will only amplify in future, post cold war the American growth was due to two things, Innovation(Internet, IT etc) and Oil. For China to achieve another cycle of growth It seems to be banking on OBOR, I don't see much innovation from their side, yes they have made all kinds of noises but have got nothing to show as of yet.

OBOR again, is blue collar initiative, which will have less takers form the Urban comfort loving population of China. Other than that, Its future is not very bright as we can see from CPEC, and confrontations in SCS. Recently Chinese have shown the intent to be flexible by talking to insurgent groups in Baluchistan for CPEC and searching for alternate route in Afghanistan, through Wakan corridor, all of these indicate OBOR is not going well as of now.

Now with highly centralized power in the hands of Xi this public dissent can be suppressed better, and more strongly, I don't see the any public movement achieving the level where It can threaten the Chinese state, with different power centers or a decentralized one there could be a chance but with a strong ruthless Dictator I don't see any such possibility. Which why Xi becoming 2nd Mao is important, it would be interesting to see how Xi develops his own cult following in this age of information. Xi's cult would be his savior when things get really bad.

Now coming to Xi reforms, as some of the Chinese members here are talking so highly about is nothing but an instrument to kick out or neutralize potential threats to this process of dictatorship, It is not new and the world has seen even more violent form of such "reforms" in PRC history previously.

 

[tarunraju]

The AP seems to be elaborating on most of the things I pointed out:

https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/02/27/world/asia/ap-as-china-politics-business.html

Like I said, this will make China more brittle, not stronger.

 

[indiatester]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...ments-hold-on-power-chinese-find-ways-to-vent

China’s Xi Jinping Lampooned on Social Media for Power Play
By
Edwin Chan
February 26, 2018, 8:01 AM GMT+5:30 Updated on February 26, 2018, 9:38 AM GMT+5:30

• Winnie the Pooh resurfaces as a symbol of popular discontent
• Dissent is rigidly policed and dangerous on the Chinese web

China’s Xi Removes Term Limits, Letting Him Rule Indefinitely
Iron Ore Surges to Ten-Month High

Bloomberg’s Tom Mackenzie reports on China’s move to clear the way for Xi Jinping to rule beyond 2023.
As China’s Communist Party prepares to repeal term limits and let President Xi Jinping rule beyond 2023, commentators have taken to social media to lampoon and laud the move.

One post over the weekend depicted Winnie the Pooh -- a stand-in for the leader -- embracing a giant pot of honey with his eyes rapturously closed. “Find the thing you love and never let go,” went the viral re-post of an image put up by Disney in 2013 on Weibo, a Chinese Twitter-like service. Others chose a different route, circulating a 2014 party-approved article about late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping with the headline: “The last thing I will be good for is setting up a system for retirement.”

Chinese people dissatisfied with party machinations have always adopted circuitous means to voice their displeasure online, from employing images of Pooh to popularizing the term “grass mud horse” as a slur against the government (it sounds like a particularly venomous curse when spoken). They came out in force again Sunday, when the decision-making Central Committee announced it will abolish a constitutional provision barring the head of state from serving more than two consecutive terms. That removes the only formal barrier to Xi, who is also commander-in-chief of the military, staying in power indefinitely.

The English-language version of China’s official Xinhua News Agency was the first to announce the term-limits change Sunday. Subsequent Chinese-language reports in state-run media mentioned the proposal as part of a series of planned amendments. As of Monday, the 2013 Pooh posting wasn’t visible on Disney’s Weibo feed. The company declined to comment.
Weibo censors have swung into action and by Monday, search terms such as “third consecutive term” were no longer shown. Other terms that don’t show results include “Emperor Xi” and “to live forever and never grow old.”

Not all comments were critical of the move, with some highlighting the stability it provides in a time of uncertainty.

“My personal view is that a leader who is tough, visionary, daring to rectify errors, and leading the country forward is beneficial. I have no problem that he stays on,” Weibo user @Lingchenjue9 wrote.

One online wit said his or her mother had always insisted they get married during Xi’s term of office. “Now I can relax.”
(Source: Bloomberg)
— With assistance by Yuan Gao, Lulu Yilun Chen, and Dandan Li

 

[cyclops]

China bans George Orwell's Animal Farm and letter 'N' as censors bolster Xi Jinping's plan to keep power indefinitely
Experts believe increased levels of suppression are sign Xi Jinping hopes to become dictator for life

• Maya Oppenheim
• Thursday 1 March 2018

It was not immediately obvious what the letter ‘N’ had done to get itself banned AFP
The Chinese government has banned George Orwell’s dystopian satirical novella Animal Farm and the letter ‘N’ in a wide-ranging online censorship crackdown.

Experts believe the increased levels of suppression - which come just days after the Chinese Communist Party announced presidential term limits would be abolished - are a sign Xi Jinping hopes to become a dictator for life.

The China Digital Times, a California-based site covering China, reports a list of terms excised from Chinese websites by government censors includes the letter 'N', Orwell's novels Animal Farmand 1984, and the phrase 'Xi Zedong'.


The latter is a combination of President Xi and former chairman Mao Zedong's names.

READ MORE

• China removes criticism of move allowing President to stay in power
• Door is open for China's President Xi Jinping to rule for decades
• China clears path for Xi Jinping to rule beyond 2023

Search terms blocked on Sino Weibo, a microblogging site which is China’s equivalent of Twitter, include “disagree”, “personality cult”, “lifelong”, “immortality”, “emigrate”, and “shameless”.

It was not immediately obvious why the ostensibly harmless letter ‘N’ had been banned, but some speculated it may either be being used or interpreted as a sign of dissent.

WORLD NEWS IN PICTURES

2 March 2018
A light turns red outside of Germany's Krupp Mannesmann steel factory. German officials and industry groups warned U.S. President Donald Trump that he risks sparking a trade war with his closest allies if he goes ahead with plans to impose steep tariffs on steel and aluminium imports. AP

1 March 2018People dance during Holi festival celebrations in Kathmandu, Nepal. EPA


The move to lift limits on the length of time leaders can stay in post has been met with global condemnation and a widespread backlash in China since it was announced on Sunday on the eve of an annual political congress in Beijing.

The proposed amendments to China’s constitution are expected to be rubber-stamped by the country's parliament, the National People’s Congress, which begins its annual meeting on Sunday.

China has a stringent policy of internet censorship because authorities view foreign websites and social media as a threat to national security.

This censorship is fortified by the Great Firewall of China - a term which refers to the combined force of technological and legislative measures which tightly control the internet on the mainland.

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have long been blocked in the country and even Winnie the Pooh recently found himself subject to China’s latest internet crackdown.

In July, references to the cartoon bear on Sina Weibo were removed after his image was compared to President Xi.


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...rwell-xi-jinping-power-letter-n-a8235071.html

 

[nimo_cn]

fake news, animal farm is available on Chinese largest online bookstore dangdang.com.

 

[rockdog]

fake news, animal farm is available on Chinese largest online bookstore dangdang.com.

Indeed:

http://product.dangdang.com/25229341.html

http://product.dangdang.com/23822771.html

 

[indiatester]

Indeed:

http://product.dangdang.com/25229341.html

http://product.dangdang.com/23822771.html

You folks should really raise this with the Independent newspaper. Media is unreliable everywhere unfortunately.

 

[cyclops]

Indeed:

http://product.dangdang.com/25229341.html

http://product.dangdang.com/23822771.html

fake news, animal farm is available on Chinese largest online bookstore dangdang.com.

Not from the whole of chinese web but just from weibo.
Can you check and confirm if the supposed words really are banned?

Original story and list of all "sensitive words" that are banned.

https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2018/02/sensitive-words-emperor-xi-jinping-ascend-throne/

 

[rockdog]

Not from the whole of chinese web but just from weibo.
Can you check and confirm if the supposed words really are banned?

Original story and list of all "sensitive words" that are banned.

https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2018/02/sensitive-words-emperor-xi-jinping-ascend-throne/

i searched the weibo, it works

 

[WiseMan]

The phrase 'Winnie the Pooh' is banned in China. Why? Because a Disney cartoon of the bear has a caption that says: 'Find the thing you love and stick with it'. China's censors could believe this refers to Xi, who loves being President so much he's going to stick with it. As it is, some see a physical resemblance between Xi and Pooh.

 

[rockdog]

The phrase 'Winnie the Pooh' is banned in China. Why? Because a Disney cartoon of the bear has a caption that says: 'Find the thing you love and stick with it'. China's censors could believe this refers to Xi, who loves being President so much he's going to stick with it. As it is, some see a physical resemblance between Xi and Pooh.

not banned.... u might need to investigate first

 

[indiatester]

Xi reelected.
Congrats I suppose.

What really surprises me is that I can't get such consensus in my apartment complex of just 130 well to do families.

 

[ezsasa]

Xi reelected.
Congrats I suppose.

What really surprises me is that I can't get such consensus in my apartment complex of just 130 well to do families.

Xi might have signed his own death warrant with this move.

You don’t have to worry about that from your apartment complex.

 

[Alien_cat26]

Xi is a powerful leader .
Such good will strengthen China has more political continuity σ`∀´)σ
anyway' Putin also successfully re-elected in today d(`･∀･)b
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/...-putin-looks-forward-cooperation-2018-n833591

 

[indiatester]

Xi is a powerful leader .

That he is for sure.

Such good will strengthen China has more political continuity σ`∀´)σ

I highly doubt that. These sorts of decisions make a lot of people dissatisfied. From what I see, there is no visible descent. Which means, its either being suppressed with force, or every one is accepting it. Both cases being bad.

 

[Alien_cat26]

That he is for sure.

I highly doubt that. These sorts of decisions make a lot of people dissatisfied. From what I see, there is no visible descent. Which means, its either being suppressed with force, or every one is accepting it. Both cases being bad.

Some events have been run, It is impossible to change. I think that even the members of CCP most are practical partners.

 

[Razor]

I don't fully understand Xi's move.
The president of PRC is not as powerful a post as many think.
It is the chairman of CMC and the Gen.Sec. of CPC that hold the power. Xi is already holding the above two posts and these posts don't have term limits, if I'm not mistaken.
Additionally Deng Xiaoping, if I remember right, didn't hold any of those posts at the height of his power.
So why is the CPC removing term limits for the post of "president" a post which is mostly for show and trying to attract the world's attention?