Bracing for a once-in-a-decade power change, China's top leadership on Monday appeared relaxed during the 63rd National Day celebrations, as they laid floral wreaths at Hero's Monument in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The old guard of Communist Party is set to hand over power to new leaders in November after staving off a bid by expelled leader Bo Xilai to wrest control of a key post.
External, economic or ethnic, the sources of vulnerability are getting worse, and China's leaders do not have a switch to turn these off, writes Nitin Pai
The head of the European monetary authority stepped off the plane at Beijing airport, and was transported by a high-speed train faster than France's TGV, to the centre of Beijing.
Clude Arpi salutes the Nobel prize committee for giving the peace prize to jailed Chinese human rights activist Liu Xiaobo.
Internet experts note that a Chinese tweet can have three times the volume of an English tweet, due to the high information intensity of the Chinese language. Around 140 Chinese characters can make up all the full elements of a news piece. Incidentally, photo-sharing website Flickr.com too has been blocked, and so has Bing.com (the new Microsoft search engine). Live.com and Hotmail.com were already under the scanner, while Blogspot and Youtube remain blocked.
Claude Arpi asks if Beijing has what it takes to be recognised as a superpower.
Nancy Pelosi's gritty refusal to backtrack on her plans to visit Taiwan is part of who she is.
Lu Jinghua, a well-known Tiananmen activist, was scheduled to attend the April 28 meeting of dissidents and exiles in Dharamsala.
As Chinese celebrate the People's Republic of China's 60th anniversary, Claude Arpi explores the rise of the dragon from the days of the Cultural Revolution to its projection of itself as a soft superpower in the modern world.
With 150,000 Tibetan citizens living in exile on its soil, many of whom shuttle between India and Tibet frequently, India nevertheless has a role in the resolution of this issue. Also, with Tibet under its control China has become India's Himalayan neighbour
The doctor who exposed the extent of China's SARS crisis faces charges criticising the Tiananmen Square massacre.
China's reigning party killed thousands of its own children on Tiananmen Square at dawn on June 4, 1989. Today, the regime in Beijing is not ready to admit to any wrong doing or consider changes in its policies.
Chirac is on the second day of a four-day visit dominated by promotion of French business in China.
Several bilateral economic agreements were expected to be signed on Thursday.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said China opposes US efforts to use human rights as an excuse to "interfere with other countries' internal affairs."
Troops from 17 countries, including Pakistan and Russia, formed part of 1000 foreign soldiers who took part in China's first military parade aimed at highlighting the excesses committed by Japanese troops against Chinese in the WW II in which according Chinese historians over 20 million people were killed, eight million forced into labour and thousands of women held as sex slaves.
One Chinese source informed ANI that 10 million new infections are probably occurring daily in China.
The agency said, 'The downgrade reflects Moody's expectation that China's financial strength will erode somewhat over the coming years, with economy-wide debt continuing to rise as potential growth slows.'
In democratic India, a citizen can be a patriot and at the same time be critical of the government, unlike China which promulgated a national security law in Hong Kong prescribing patriotism to contest elections, observes Rup Narayan Das.
Two policemen and nine militants have been killed when axe-wielding assailants attacked a police station in China's Muslim-majority Xinjiang province, the latest in a series of deadly attacks amid heightened tension in the volatile western region bordering PoK.
Wang Junzheng, Tibet's new Communist party boss, is on a number of sanctions lists by the US, Britain, the EU and Canada, for his tough role in Xinjiang, aimed at China's Uyghur ethnic minority, observes Jayadeva Ranade, the retired senior RA&W officer and distinguished China expert.
The 119 nearly identical construction sites, that could potentially house powerful weapons capable of reaching the American mainland, are similar to those seen at existing launch facilities for China's arsenal of nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles, the report said.
Addressing the centenary celebrations of the Communist Party of China at the historic Tiananmen Square, Xi in over an hour-long address also said that integrating Taiwan with the Chinese mainland is a historic mission of the ruling party.
Things have come to a grinding halt as thick smog has suffocated China. Hundreds of flights have been cancelled, with schools in the region closed and motorways gridlocked as people try to escape the poor conditions.
With flowers pinned to their chests, Xi and other Chinese leaders paid a silent tribute in front of the national flag to the victims of the COVID-19, which is regarded as the worst public health disaster in China's history.
'Although Hong Kong weathered many a storm and displayed a remarkable resilience to bounce back, the developments in the territory have raised question marks with regard to its future stability and prosperity.' A revealing excerpt from Rup Narayan Das's Hong Kong Conundrum: Pangs of Transition.
China has completed its new mega airport in Beijing after four years of construction, three months ahead of its planned grand opening. Measuring at 1.03 million square metres -- about the size of 144 football pitches -- the Beijing Daxing International Airport will be the world's largest airport terminal, according to Xinhua News. Here's a peak at the gargantuan structure.
The shirtless protester made a spine-tingling show of defiance to the army soldiers who launched a failed coup attempt on Friday night.
'The Olympic Spirit has been thrown to the wind in Xi Jinping's China.' 'The International Olympic Committee is ready to kowtow to totalitarian China,' notes Claude Arpi.
'India finds itself in an unenviable situation today with its prospects diminished by acutely polarised domestic politics and the setbacks suffered during the pandemic,' notes Ambassador Shyam Saran, the former foreign secretary.
One person was killed and eight others injured when a series of home-made bombs packed with ball bearings exploded in front of a provincial office of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, two days ahead of the party's key meeting to finalise political and economic reforms.
It is impossible the control or reduce the fury of nature but, at a lower scale, it is worth experimenting to modify it, says Ajay Lele.
Beijing's sky was gloomy and the ground largely deserted.
Image is being defined as iconic and a powerful image of the ongoing struggle between law enforcement and black Americans.
There is simmering disquiet in the Communist party and the world is watching as to what can unfold in China in the days to come ahead of next year's party congress, notes Rup Narayan Das.
With his eye on next year's Party Congress, Xi Jinping is using the CCP's centenary celebrations to publicise the benefits for China from its leadership, and boost his image and contribution to China's rise, observes Jayadeva Ranade, the distinguished China expert and retired RA&W officer.
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