China's ruling Communist Party opens a Congress to usher in a new group of younger leaders. Rediff.com's takes a sneak peek inside Beijing's Great Hall of the People, which hosts one of the most-talked about political event, across the globe.
While Wuhan and 17 others cities in Hubei province remained the epicentre of the viral disease outbreak with most of the deaths having taken place there, the cases have started rising steadily in most of the Chinese provinces and cities, including Beijing.
Xi, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, called the progress China had made under his watch "truly remarkable
By Thursday, 830 confirmed cases of pneumonia, caused by the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), had been reported in 29 provincial-level regions in the country.
The tally from the weekend showed 37 new cases on Sunday with most testing positive after arrival at the airport
The United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union and NATO have expressed concern on the new law and warned of retaliatory measures.
'China is constantly probing India's weaknesses.' 'The challenge is to implement a strategy that will allow India to buy time, gather its strength, and eventually counter China,' recommends Harsh V Pant and Vinay Kaura.
The US military efforts in Afghanistan were akin to filling a bucket that had gaping holes, asserts Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Zhou Yongkang, one of China's top leaders in the previous Hu Jintao's regime, has been charged with trading power for sex, adultery and leaking state secrets.
The rumblings from the Tibetan areas of China continue. The more the Chinese suppress, the more the Tibetans protest. The more the Chinese demonise the Dalai Lama, the more the Tibetans respect him.
'We should not worry too much about Indian capabilities, both military and otherwise.'
How China's all powerful Communist party bungled the response to the coronavirus crisis.
China on Friday said that any successor to the present Dalai Lama should be approved by it, ruling out recognition to any heir nominated by him or by his followers.
Rights group vowed to continue the struggle for human rights in the Communist nation.
Prime Minister Modi made a strategic blunder of Nehruvian proportions -- presuming no war can happen now, and the Chinese won't be a military threat and risk their economic interests, observes Shekhar Gupta.
'By causing military humiliation of India it intends to send a signal to other Asian countries to toe the Chinese line,' argues Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'The logical step is to challenge the very legitimacy of the Chinese claim over Tibet,' recommends Inspector General Gurdip Singh Uban (retd).
The decision to not attend the forum attended by 28 heads of state and 130 national delegations is a clear break from its usual policy of going along with the crowd.
'We've never really been in the situation of having a difficult time with the Chinese and an increasingly difficult time with the Russians along with a relationship with the Americans which is important.'
At a time when Donald Trump is making belligerent noises, Chinese President Xi Jinping responds by overhauling the People's Liberation Army and restructuring the command of the PLA Navy to emphasise Beijing's resolve to dominate the South China Sea.
'The Congress party hated him because he had not gone to jail, he was not lathi charged, he had not gone on hunger strike.' 'They felt he had lived in London all his life and then he came to India and became an MP and a minister.'
The over 3,800-km-long Brahmaputra, one of the longest rivers in the world passes through China, India and Bangladesh and has several tributaries and sub-tributaries.
Criticising the Indian media and opposition parties for "creating trouble" for Sino-India ties, an official daily in Beijing on Thursday blamed New Delhi for "maintaining silence and ambiguity" over "provocative" reports of intrusion by Chinese troops into Despang valley in Ladakh.
Though growth in China is unlikely to slow down soon, India should prepare to take advantage of a shifting of gears there.
The death toll climbed to 2,592 with 150 new fatalities while the total number of confirmed cases increased to over 77,000, health officials said on Monday.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying, known for fiery retorts against the US, welcomed Biden's first moves to join the Paris Climate Accord and the World Health Organisation (WHO) which was trashed by Trump as a puppet of China over its conduct to deal with the COVID-19.
'That the two sides allowed such a situation to arise exposed the level of inaction and inefficiency in China-India border management.' 'The Modi-Xi meeting in Xiamen initiated a process to to avert such contingencies in the future.'
Chinese President Hu Jintao on Friday got the backing of the country's powerful military for his call to retain the supremacy of the Communist Party over the army, measures to speed up defence modernisation and the war against corruption.
China on Tuesday hoped that Congress president Sonia Gandhi's upcoming visit to the Communist nation would promote mutual understanding between the two countries and enhance bilateral ties as well as cooperation in various fields.
As the virus continued to spread at an alarming rate, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday warned officials of punishment if they shirked responsibility in tackling the virus outbreak.
Jack Ma, founder of China's e-commerce giant Alibaba suffered a major setback on Tuesday as Shanghai and Hong Kong Stock Exchanges suspended dual listing of the shares of his world's biggest initial public offer of $39.7 billion of the group's subsidiary - the Ant Group, 48 hours before the highly-anticipated trading was due to start. The Shanghai Stock Exchange surprised market investors with an abrupt announcement late on Tuesday that it will suspend Ant Group's IPO, as regulators and the public debate the balance between financial innovation and risk control, state run Global Times reported. According to media reports, the Hong Kong exchange followed suit several minutes later.
The Chinese side hopes that the next US administration will return to a sensible approach, resume dialogue with China, restore normalcy to the bilateral relations and restart cooperation, Wang, who is also a state councillor, told the state-run Xinhua news agency in an interview.
Thimpu apparently didn't think it necessary to take Delhi into confidence. Bhutan is loathe to getting dragged into the geopolitical rivalry between India and China. And for Beijing, this was too good an opportunity to be missed to thumb its nose at the powers-that-be in Delhi, points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Bracing for leadership changes in the ruling Communist Party of China due for next year, Chinese legislators on Sunday approved plans to change the course of their export-driven economy while firmly ruling out multi-party democracy. "Political development path of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the only correct road for China's development and progress as proved by practice," read a resolution approved by Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
There is a vocal constituency of educated, well-to-do, articulate Indian elites who would rather go with the idea that too much democracy is a liability. That India needs a spell of benevolent dictatorship. Of course, they have never lived under one, points out Shekhar Gupta.
No country has achieved a faster, deeper modern transformation than China, says former ambassador Kishan S Rana.
A Chinese firm said the unmanned aircraft was not sold to any government.
'Chinese experts estimate that the new US administration is 'at the crossroads of how to re-manage and control' Sino-American differences and strategic divergences and Biden's bottom line is that the US would have 'extreme competition with China, but won't allow competition to develop into conflict',' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'Russia is the only country that can act as facilitator for any eventual Chinese-Indian rapprochement,' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The Politburo Standing Committee -- the most powerful body in China -- is unveiled, but in a break from Communist party convention, no successor to Xi Jinping is named.
