A new military rank system had been introduced for the PLA, but all soldiers must always obey the Communist party, reveals Jayadeva Ranade, the distinguished China expert and retired RA&W officer.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has expressed readiness to join hands with India's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval to "properly handle" issues related to the situation on the ground in the border areas, amid the protracted border row in eastern Ladakh.
A top Chinese diplomat has described Jyoti Basu as "China's great friend" and India's "greatest communist" while paying floral respect to the departed leader.
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).
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.
'Unless India ups the ante, Beijing will continue to believe its transgressions are cost free and will feel encouraged to do more of the same.'
'General Secretary Xi Jinping has greenlighted a brutal campaign of repression against Chinese Muslims, a human rights violation on a scale we haven't seen since World War II. Now, the PLA has escalated border tensions with India'
China's new leader in waiting, Xi Jinping will have a surprise head-start to emerge as the most influential leader, as outgoing President Hu Jintao has reportedly decided to step down from all posts including the all-powerful post of the military chief.
As exit polls pointed to the Bharatiya Janata Party's victory in the general elections, a leading Chinese daily on Wednesday expressed hope that the new government likely to be headed by Narendra Modi will be 'pragmatic' towards China while adopting a tougher line on the border dispute and Tibet.
China plans to divert about 200 billion cubic metres of water annually from the Brahmaputra at its highest point, namely the Great Bend, where it turns into India. China's Brahmaputra dam will severely impact India, warns former senior RA&W officer and China expert Jayadeva Ranade.
To rise quickly in the PLA's hierarchy, you need to be close to Xi Jinping. Retired RA&W officer Jayadeva Ranade on the changes in China's military leadership.
Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist party of China and the People's Republic of China's president, was received at Moscow airport by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko and not Russian President Vladmir Putin as expected.
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.
The education minister has ordered varsities to ban western textbooks
'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.'
India's ties with China are gradually becoming competitive, with a sentiment gaining ground among Indian policy elites that China is not sensitive to India's core security interests and does not acknowledge its status as a global player, says Harsh V Pant.
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.
Any expectation that the new leadership -- newly appointed President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang -- would take China on the road to a more liberal society would be premature, writes senior analyst B Raman.
The Chinese Communist party's central committee on Thursday, November 11, adopted a landmark resolution on the party's 'major achievements and historic experiences', effectively consolidating CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping's lifelong hold on power.
In a dramatic turn of events, Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist Centre chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' was appointed as the new prime minister of Nepal by President Bidya Devi Bhandari on Sunday.
'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 Tibetan nation still lives under the yoke of the Chinese Communist Party, and Beijing today has a guilty conscience; this creates a great uneasiness for Xi Jinping and his colleagues observes Claude Arpi.
'India and China are at new inflection points, domestically and internationally. India needs to throw up a new leader whose vision is clear, experience laden with wisdom and articulation brimming with restraint and tolerance,' says Ambassador K C Singh.
What was the need for Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, President of the People's Republic of China and Chairman, Central Military Commission, to don the new role of Commander in-Chief? Does this mean that the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao faces numerous threats from within the Communist Party?
'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.
'Even if there is no full-scale war, Galwan-like skirmishes cannot be ruled out.'
China's presence in the international dog house is just the kind of opportunity that his opponents must be waiting for, predicts Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
A provisional regulation by the General Offices of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council says party and government officials, whose spouses and children have migrated overseas, will now be subjected to strict examination while applying for private passports and travelling abroad.
Pompeo, during a Congressional hearing on Thursday, told the members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee that 'the actions are entirely consistent with what they have been signalling to the world for decades you might even argue since 1989, but certainly since General Secretary Xi came to power'.
Hu, 60, succeeds Jiang Zemin, 76, who held two consecutive five-year terms as Chinese president.
'Which will not happen.' 'Foreign Minister S Jaishankar has expressly refuted Beijing's statement that normalcy was returning to Sino-Indian relations.'
Xi made the remarks in a verbal message to Pakistani President Arif Alvi, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
China's 2.8 million strong People's Liberation Army, the world's largest standing military, would continue to be part of ruling Communist Party of China, and resolutely oppose any attempt to separate from it, a military official said on Tuesday.
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 External Affairs Ministry claimed that more than mere courtesies were exchanged between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China President Xi Jinping at Bali G20 Meet in November 2022.
Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Chinese Communist party, attended the opening session of the National People's Congress, his country's parliament, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, March 5, 2022.
Seventeen months to the day after Chinese soldiers brutally killed 20 Indian soldiers in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Xi Jinping, general secretary of China's Communist party, at the G20 summit at the Garuda Wisnu Kencana cultural park in Badung, Bali, Indonesia.
Congress as the opposition party has become increasingly aggressive against the Narendra Modi government over its handling of the border standoff with China.
The new law, effective from January 1, weakens the role of the State Council, China's Cabinet headed by Premier Li Keqiang, in formulating military policy, handing decision-making powers to the Central Military Commission (CMC), the overall high-command of the two million-strong People's Liberation Army (PLA) headed by Xi, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Sunday.
Gen Wang is the fourth commander to head the Western Theatre Command after the eastern Ladakh standoff began in May last year.
