XI JINPING SAVED THE PARTY #451 Xi made it clear, when he assumed the leadership of the Party at the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party in 2012 that there was a big problem with corruption — bribery, dishonesty, extortion, fraud, preferential treatment for Party members and other bad…

THREE SIGNIFICANT CHINESE LEADERS #450 Mao Saved China Deng Saved the Economy Xi Saved the Party. MAO TSETUNG SAVED CHINA The Communist Party of China was formed in 1921 but it was not until January 1935 when the Party held a meeting of the enlarged Politburo at Zunyi in Guizhou…

TAIWAN AND WORLD PEACE #449 1 In the 17th century, large-scale Han Chinese immigration to Western Taiwan commenced. The island of Taiwan was annexed in 1683 by the Qing dynasty. It was ceded to the Empire of Japan in 1895. The Republic of China (‘ROC’), which had overthrown the Qing Dynasty…

THE ANCHORAGE TALKS #448 History will look back on the China-US Anchorage talks of March 2021 as a key moment in time when China spoke directly and with feeling to the US. The vigorous words of the lead Chinese negotiator, Yang Jiechi, marked a turning point in the balance of…

CHINA AND THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION #446 In a recent article in the Sunday Times, Matthew Syed, asserted that “the biggest threat to the world today is, as it has been for the past 30 years, the criminal mafia known as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The article pours scorn over…

BRI — THE BELT AND ROAD INITIATIVE It is good to be back After a prolonged break due to ill-health, I am pleased to return to writing regularly about China and also about Dispute Resolution. Re China my goal is not to join those critics of China who seek always…

CHINA AND SAUDI ARABIA #445 Copy As readers will be aware, this Column seeks to rectify the imbalance in Western coverage of China related developments. Sometimes the imbalance is distortion, sometimes omission and sometimes straightforward factual inaccuracy. Today, the focus is on omission and the failure of the Western media…

CHINA AND SAUDI ARABIA #445 As readers will be aware, this Column seeks to rectify the imbalance in Western coverage of China related developments. Sometimes the imbalance is distortion, sometimes omission and sometimes straightforward factual inaccuracy. Today, the focus is on omission and the failure of the Western media to…

EUROPE LOOKS TO WASHINGTON — AND BEIJING #445 GOOD MORNING FROM LONDON In Good Morning from London #440 observations were made about “the significance of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s first state visit to Beijing for talks with President Xi Jinping. It marked the end of the current phase of Western…