The Guardian (May 10)
“Tensions between Shanghai residents and China’s Covid enforcers are on the rise again, amid a new push to end infections outside quarantine zones to meet President Xi Jinping’s demand for achieving “dynamic zero-Covid.” To express their displeasure with what are increasingly being viewed as violations of human rights and the rule of law, residents are sharing incriminating videos on social media. “Censors have been taking down many of these videos, but determined residents have continued to post them.”
Tags: China, Covid, Displeasure, Enforcers, Human rights, Infections, Quarantine, Residents, Rule of law, Shanghai, Social media, Tensions, Videos, Violations, Xi
The Economist (April 30)
China cannot keep fighting a “forever war.” The nation’s “martial rhetoric will not help it defeat covid. And “victory, as Xi Jinping defines it” in terms of defeating or containing covid will only prove “an elusive goal…. Most countries have accepted that covid cannot be eradicated.” China, too, must learn “to live with the virus.”
Tags: China, Containing, Covid, Defeat, Elusive, Eradicated, Forever war, Live with, Martial rhetoric, Victory, Virus, Xi
Washington Post (April 15)
“The world has been understandably transfixed by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s horrific invasion of Ukraine,” but we must still stay alert to threats elsewhere. “President Xi Jinping has been quietly taking advantage of the West’s distraction by expanding China’s sphere of influence in the South Pacific. If Washington doesn’t wake up to this threat, China’s efforts to dominate the region will gain dangerous and perhaps irreversible momentum.”
Tags: China, Dangerous, Distraction, Dominate, Horrific, Influence, Invasion, Irreversible, Putin, Russia, South Pacific, Threats, Transfixed, U.S., Ukraine, World, Xi
Bloomberg (October 25)
“China’s economy risks slowing faster than global investors realize as President Xi Jinping’s push to cut its reliance on real estate and regulate sectors from education to technology combine with a power shortage and the pandemic.”
Tags: China, Economy, Education, Investors, Power shortage, Real estate, Regulate, Reliance, Risks, Sectors, Slowing, Technology, Xi
Washington Post (September 7)
“Mr. Xi’s two predecessors allowed China’s people more personal freedom and provided a rising living standard,” but he “is reversing that by putting more of an ideological stamp on society.” Aside from widely publicized new limits on video games and screen time, on September 2, the television regulator “banned effeminate men on the screen” out of “official concern that Chinese pop stars, imitating the sleek look of some South Korean and Japanese singers and actors, were failing to encourage China’s young men to be masculine enough.” Mr. Xi may know best “about everything, on behalf of everyone. But the more power concentrates in one man, the more brittle the system may become.”
Tags: Brittle, China, Effeminate, Freedom, Ideological, Japan, Masculine, Pop stars, Power, South Korea, Television, Video games, Xi
New York Times (August 28)
“Under Xi Jinping, the Communist Party’s most powerful leader since Mao, China has taken a hard ideological turn against unfettered private enterprise. It has set out a series of strictures against “disorderly” corporate expansion. No longer will titans of industry be permitted to march out of step with the party’s priorities and dictates.”
Tags: China, Communist, Corporate expansion, Dictates, Disorderly, Ideological, Industry, Leader, Mao, Powerful, Private enterprise, Strictures, Unfettered, Xi
Wall Street Journal (February 28)
“Hong Kong authorities moved this weekend to imprison nearly the entire opposition movement. The message is that anyone who runs as a pro-democracy candidate will be treated as a criminal…. China is violating its international obligations as it tramples Hong Kong’s freedoms. So far it has paid little price, which the world may come to regret as President Xi Jinping sets his sights on Taiwan.”
Tags: Candidate, China, Criminal, Freedoms, Hong Kong, Imprison, Obligations, Opposition movement, Pro-democracy, Regret, Taiwan, Tramples, Violating, Xi
Time (February 16 edition)
Despite amassing enormous power, President Xi has struggled to manage major issues. “These include popular unrest in semiautonomous Hong Kong, a disruptive trade war with the U.S. and now an unfolding health crisis.” The coronavirus appears to be the biggest challenge. It “threatens to undermine further his mission to have China stake out the next century as America did the last.”
New York Times (November 26)
“Citizens voted overwhelmingly for pro-democracy candidates” in Hong Kong’s local election this Sunday. “If the Chinese leadership under Xi Jinping had thought that there was a silent majority opposed to the disruptive protests, the turnout and result made clear that a vast majority of Hong Kongers treasure their relative freedoms and have no intention of letting Beijing whittle them away.”
Tags: Candidates, China, Citizens, Election, Hong Kong, Leadership, Overwhelmingly, Pro-democracy, Protests, Turnout, Vote, Xi
New York Times (April 3)
“President Trump and President Xi Jinping of China will probably soon reach a trade agreement, but that won’t solve the biggest problems…. A good trade deal with China is welcome. But when so many Americans are dying from Chinese fentanyl, when one million Muslims are interned, when Emperor Xi is dragging China in the wrong direction, let’s not celebrate but, instead, keep up the international pressure.”
Tags: China, Fentanyl, International pressure, Muslims, Trade agreement, Trump, Xi
