The Chinese Communist Party's all important 19th Party Congress is just months away, and President Xi Jinping finds himself confronting unlikely challenges to his pre-eminent position, says former RA&W officer and China watcher Jayadeva Ranade.
The "bumper" 40 per cent increase followed a number of sweeping reforms intended to transform the "bloated People's Liberation Army, into a more modern, nimble fighting force".
'They know that India is no pushover.' 'We have to be extremely vigilant, remain ready and keep strengthening our positions.' 'We have to be militarily strong, whatever be the cost.'
Zhao said some US officials are trying to add fuel to the fire and pointing fingers.
Chinese hubris and the slippery slope it finds itself on have important lessons for authoritarian leaders elsewhere, including in India, observes Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The trial of disgraced Chinese leader Bo Xilai's wife Gu Kailai, who was charged with the murder of a British businessman, would test the credibility of Chinese judicial system, state-run media said in Beijing on Friday.
'There's no pro-China tilt in BRICS.' 'All these countries want to be close to China, but they are all good friends of India also.'
Bangladesh is in turmoil, which is not good news for India, which shares a porous 4000 km border with it. There is a danger of fundamentalism growing there, and India has to move in to reset its ties with the new dispensation before China and Pakistan make capital out of it, alerts Ramesh Menon.
In Tokyo, hundreds of Japanese citizens came out on the streets to express solidarity with the oppressed people of Tibet, Xinjiang, Mongolia, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The purpose of the strolls is not to indulge in any noticeable protest activity, but just to get out into the streets in large numbers and take a stroll as a silent mark of their demands.
The National People's Congress concluded at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Monday March 13, 2023 as a new set of leaders took charge of the Chinese government, and the ones they replaced head to retirement.
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned China that its 'material support' for Russia's war against Ukraine would attract sanctions and condemned the 'unacceptable violation' of American sovereignty by a Chinese spy balloon as he met Beijing's top diplomat Wang Yi.
President Xi Jinping has called for better international communication, urging the bellicose official Chinese media and 'wolf warrior' diplomats to adopt a tone that displays openness and conveys modesty, in what observers see as a rare admission of Beijing's growing isolation exacerbated by COVID-19.
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.
The fate of Gu Kailai, the high profile wife of disgraced Chinese Communist Party leader Bo Xilai who has confessed to murdering a British businessman, will be announced on Monday.
Sino-Indian strategic relations are expected to get further fillip during the second innings of Chinese Communist Party chief Hu Jintao, who is all set to offer a red carpet welcome to Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Beijing this week.
Rebuffing the Dalai Lama's remarks that there were "encouraging signs" about China changing its attitude towards Tibet, a top Chinese official has said there would be no breakthrough in talks until the Tibetan spiritual leader changed his stand on "some fundamental issues".
The opinion piece added that the party combines the most striking principles of three major political entities in the world -- the Likud Party of Israel, the Communist Party of China and the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt.
Thirty years after the massacre at Tiananmen Square, coerced collective amnesia envelops the Chinese nation about that horrific event. Claude Arpi glances back at how the student uprising could have changed the Middle Kingdom forever had the Chinese Communist party not traveled on the route of martial law.
'Even though as Xi will seemingly continue to stay in power beyond his third term, competitions for the post-Xi leadership would be inevitably unfolded beneath the surface of water, and that will be a big headache for Xi the dictator.'
The headquarters of former Chinese military leader Lin Biao has been converted into a military-themed bar. Here old military ordnance has been used as furniture including sandbags, helmets, artillery shells and landmines.
'We are facing the most critical military situation with China in the last 50 years.'
China rejects allegations of human rights abuse and has repeatedly lashed out against the politicisation of the Games.
Currently, the reserve forces are under the dual leadership of military organs and local Communist Party committees and they would be brought under the control of the ruling party and the CMC from July 1, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
A recent article in the Chinese Communist Party newspaper appears to be more categorical in conveying a message: US-India 'unified strategy' on all major regional issues is possible and that may change the strategic situation in South Asia. This shifts the focus on indications to China's possible counter moves in the future.
'The Chinese government lied to the world about the danger and contagious nature of COVID-19, silenced whistleblowers, and did little to stop the spread of the disease'
United States President Joe Biden has once again called his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping a 'dictator', just hours after they met for the first time in more than a year and held candid and productive discussions to revive bilateral ties.
Reports from Tokyo said the Dalai Lama while speaking at an online press conference hosted by the Tokyo Foreign Correspondents Club on Wednesday said, 'I prefer to remain here in India, peacefully', praising the country as a centre of religious harmony.
'The title of 'core' of the leadership gives Xi Jinping greater political authority at a time when China is beset by various problems as well as a slowdown in economic growth,' points out former RA&W officer Jayadeva Ranade.
Each time an Indian minister visits Arunachal Pradesh, the tinpot Communists in Beijing's Zhongnanhai get worked up and mutter threats.
The US maintained normal diplomatic relations with the government in Taiwan until 1979, when then-President Jimmy Carter abruptly cut off formal ties with Taipei and recognised the Communist regime in Beijing.
After the outbreak of the pandemic in the country he has ruled with an iron hand in recent years, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist party of China, has mostly stayed put in Beijing.
China also removed Finance Minister Liu Kun and appointed Lan Fo'an in his place. Liu is the third senior Cabinet minister to be replaced without any explanation.
The United States and Britain had also called for China to provide proof of Peng's whereabouts.
Ahead of the third anniversary of the riots in Tibet, China on Monday stepped up its attack against the Dalai Lama, vilifying him as a "wolf in monk's robes", "double-dealer" and a "secessionist chief" who is seeking separation of the region from the Communist nation.
Singh highlighted eight specific areas for cooperation between India and China.
A top provincial Chinese official was on Friday booked in the first high profile case of corruption after Xi Jinping took over as the leader the ruling Communist Party of China, while a police chief of a city in Xinjiang is being investigated for sexual misconduct.
Singhvi said for this government it seems national security is not important.
The readouts by the Indian and Chinese sides on the meeting on Monday between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Moscow bring out that divergences are crowding into the centrestage of their relationship, says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Today, the Ladakhis and Tibetans have been joined by the Sikhs, the Madrassis, the Garhwalis, the Rajputs, who are well trained psychologically and otherwise, to defend the nation, observes Claude Arpi.
