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☆ China Scraps Premier’s Annual News Conference in Surprise Move
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-04 | by ( Vivian Wang | Chris Buckley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

China’s premier will no longer hold a news conference after the country’s annual legislative meeting, Beijing announced on Monday, ending a three-decades-long practice that had been an exceedingly rare opportunity for journalists to interact with top Chinese leaders. It also reinforced how China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, has consolidated power, relegating all other officials, including the premier — the country’s No. 2, who oversees government ministries — to much less visible roles. China’s current premier, Li Qiang, was widely considered to have been elevated to the role last year because of his loyalty to Mr. Xi. “Barring any special circumstances, there will not be a premier’s news conference in the next few years after this year’s legislative session either,” Lou Qinjian, a spokesman for the legislature, said at a news briefing about this year’s session.

Persons: Xi Jinping, Li Qiang, Mr, Xi, ” Lou Qinjian Locations: Beijing

An Australian writer and businessman who has been detained in China since 2019 has been declared guilty of espionage and was given a death sentence with two years’ probation on Monday, in a blow to warming relations between Australia and China. If Mr. Yang does not commit any crimes in those probationary two years, the sentence can be commuted to life imprisonment, Penny Wong, the Australian foreign minister, said in a statement. She described the verdict as “harrowing.”The long detention of Mr. Yang — who is also known by his legal name, Yang Jun — has been one of the sources of tensions between Australia and China. Now the severe sentence may again weigh on relations, which had been improving after the election of a new, center-left Labor government in Australia in 2022. The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, visited Beijing late last year and has pressed for Mr. Yang’s release.

Persons: Yang Hengjun, Yang, Penny Wong, Yang —, Yang Jun —, Anthony Albanese Organizations: China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Labor Locations: Australian, China, Australia, Beijing

☆ Fear and Ambition Propel Xi’s Nuclear Acceleration
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-04 | by ( Chris Buckley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Nineteen days after taking power as China’s leader, Xi Jinping convened the generals overseeing the country’s nuclear missiles and issued a blunt demand. Publicly, Mr. Xi’s remarks on nuclear matters have been sparse and formulaic. But his comments behind closed doors, revealed in the speech, show that anxiety and ambition have driven his transformative buildup of China’s nuclear weapons arsenal in the past decade. From those early days, Mr. Xi signaled that a robust nuclear force was needed to mark China’s ascent as a great power. He also reflected fears that China’s relatively modest nuclear weaponry could be vulnerable against the United States — the “powerful enemy” — with its ring of Asian allies.

Persons: Xi Jinping, Xi, Xi’s Organizations: Second Artillery Corps, The New York Times, Publicly, United Locations: China, United States

A British businessman who disappeared from public view in China in 2018 was sentenced to five years in prison in 2022, China’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday, in its first public acknowledgment of the case. The businessman, Ian J. Stones, had lived in China since the 1970s, working for companies like General Motors and Pfizer. For years after he vanished, there was no public information about his whereabouts, though some in the business community privately discussed his secret detention. A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said that Mr. Stones had been convicted in 2022 of “buying and unlawfully supplying intelligence for an organization or individual outside China.” Mr. Stones’s appeal of the verdict was rejected in September 2023, said the spokesman, Wang Wenbin. Mr. Wang was responding to reporters’ questions at a regularly scheduled news conference, after The Wall Street Journal reported Mr. Stones’s case on Thursday.

Persons: Ian J, Stones, Mr, Wang Wenbin, Wang Organizations: General Motors, Pfizer, Foreign Ministry, Street Locations: British, China

☆ Shih Ming-teh, Defiant Activist for a Democratic Taiwan, Dies at 83
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-23 | by ( Chris Buckley | Amy Chang Chien | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Shih Ming-teh, a lifelong campaigner for democracy in Taiwan who spent over two decades in prison for his cause and later started a protest movement against a president from his former party, died on Jan. 15, his 83rd birthday, in Taipei, the island’s capital. The cause was complications of an operation to remove a liver tumor, said his wife, Chia-chiun Chen Shih. Mr. Shih helped lead a pro-democracy protest in 1979 that was brutally broken up by the police and that is now viewed as a turning point in Taiwan’s journey from authoritarianism to democracy. “I was imprisoned for 25 years, and I faced the possibility of the death penalty twice, but each time I came out, I instantly plunged back into the whole effort to overthrow the Chiang family dictatorship,” Mr. Shih said in an interview with The New York Times in 2022. “I’m someone who never had a youth.”

Persons: Shih Ming, Chia, Chen Shih, Shih, Chiang Kai, shek, Chiang Ching, Chiang, ” Mr, “, ” Organizations: The New York Times Locations: Taiwan, Taipei, China

In 2014, when Lai Ching-te was a rising political star in Taiwan, he visited China and was quizzed in public about the most incendiary issue for leaders in Beijing: his party’s stance on the island’s independence. His polite but firm response, people who know him say, was characteristic of the man who was on Saturday elected president and is now set to lead Taiwan for the next four years. Mr. Lai was addressing professors at the prestigious Fudan University in Shanghai, an audience whose members, like many mainland Chinese, almost certainly believed that the island of Taiwan belongs to China. Mr. Lai said that while his Democratic Progressive Party had historically argued for Taiwan’s independence — a position that China opposes — the party also believed that any change in the island’s status had to be decided by all its people. The party’s position “had been arrived at through a consensus in Taiwanese society,” Mr. Lai said.

Persons: Lai Ching, Lai, “, ” Mr Organizations: Saturday, Fudan University, Democratic Progressive Party Locations: Taiwan, China, Beijing, Shanghai

The Taiwanese presidential candidate Lai Ching-te has for years been reviled by China’s Communist Party as a dangerous foe who, by its account, could drag the two sides into a war by pressing for full independence for his island democracy. Right up to Saturday, when millions of Taiwanese voted for their next president, an official Beijing news outlet warned that Mr. Lai could take Taiwan “on a path of no return.”Yet, despite China’s months of menacing warnings of a “war or peace” choice for Taiwan’s voters, Mr. Lai was victorious. Mr. Lai, currently Taiwan’s vice president, secured 40 percent of the votes in the election, giving his Democratic Progressive Party, or D.P.P., a third term in a row in the presidential office. No party has achieved more than two successive terms since Taiwan began holding direct, democratic elections for its president in 1996. gathering outside its headquarters in Taipei, thousands of supporters, many waving pink and green flags, cheered as Mr. Lai’s lead grew during the counting of the votes, which was displayed on a large screen on an outdoor stage.

Persons: Lai Ching, Lai, Lai’s Organizations: China’s Communist Party, Democratic Progressive Party, Taiwan Locations: Beijing, Taiwan, Taipei

In the months leading up to a pivotal presidential election for Taiwan, candidates have focused on who can best handle the island democracy’s volatile relationship with China, with its worries about the risks of war. But at a recent forum in Taipei, younger voters instead peppered two of the candidates with questions about everyday issues like rent, telecom scams and the voting age. It was a telling distillation of the race, the outcome of which will have far-reaching implications for Taiwan. The island is a potential flashpoint between the United States and China, which claims Taiwan as its territory and has signaled that it could escalate military threats if the Democratic Progressive Party wins. A considerable number expressed disillusionment with Taiwan’s two dominant parties, the governing Democratic Progressive Party and the opposition Nationalist Party.

Organizations: Democratic Progressive Party, Nationalist Party Locations: Taiwan, China, Taipei, United States

☆ Behind Public Assurances, Xi Jinping Spread Grim Views on U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-13 | by ( Chris Buckley | More About Chris Buckley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When President Xi Jinping of China made his first state visit to the United States in 2015, he wrapped his demands for respect in reassurances. He denied that China was militarizing the disputed South China Sea, while asserting its maritime claims there. He spoke hopefully of a “new model” for great power relations, in which Beijing and Washington would coexist peacefully as equals. In Mr. Xi’s telling, China sought to rise peacefully, but Western powers would not accept the idea that a Communist-led China was catching up and could someday overtake them in global primacy. The West would never stop trying to derail China’s ascent and topple its Communist Party, he said in speeches to the military that are largely unreported by the media.

Persons: Xi Jinping, Xi, Xi’s Organizations: People’s, Army, Communist Party Locations: China, United States, reassurances, Beijing, Washington, Communist

☆ Li Keqiang, Former Chinese Premier, Dies of Heart Attack at 68
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-26 | by ( Chris Buckley | More About Chris Buckley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

China’s former premier, Li Keqiang, died of a heart attack on Friday, Chinese state media announced — an abruptly early end to a leader who had served alongside Xi Jinping for a decade until March. Mr. Li, 68, was visiting Shanghai when he suddenly suffered the heart failure near midnight on Thursday, a report on Chinese state television said. “All efforts to resuscitate him failed,” said the report. Mr. Li was once considered a potential top leader of the ruling Chinese Communist Party. But in the end, he was overtaken by Mr. Xi, and became China’s premier — its prime minister — in 2013.

Persons: Li Keqiang, —, Xi Jinping, Li, ”, Xi Organizations: Mr, Communist Party Locations: Shanghai

☆ China Dismisses Defense Minister Amid Swirl of Speculation
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-24 | by ( Chris Buckley | More About Chris Buckley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Just four months ago, China’s defense minister, Gen. Li Shangfu, was at a forum for regional officials in Singapore, serving as the face of his country’s bold vision for reshaping Asia’s balance of power. China’s announcement on Tuesday ended some uncertainty about General Li’s professional fate but leaves open questions about whether he is being investigated for any offenses. Officials in the United States had earlier said that Chinese authorities had placed him under investigation for corruption. General Li is the second Chinese minister to be purged this year without explanation and under a cloud of suspicion; the foreign minister, Qin Gang, was dismissed in July. The general’s removal also followed an abrupt shake-up in the leadership of China’s nuclear force, the highest-level upheaval in China’s military in recent years.

Persons: Li Shangfu, Li, Xi Jinping, Li’s, General Li, Qin Gang Organizations: United States Locations: Singapore, China, United States, United

☆ China’s Military Is Making Risky Moves and Adding Nuclear Warheads, U.S. Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-19 | by ( Chris Buckley | More About Chris Buckley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Risky ManeuversSince the fall of 2021, the Pentagon report says, the United States has recorded more than 180 intercepts of U.S. aircraft by Chinese military forces in the region. Beijing has long bristled at the U.S. military aircraft and ships that operate in international skies and seas near China. Beijing did not immediately comment on the Pentagon report. The most eye-catching evidence of China’s nuclear buildup in recent years has been three clusters of missile silos that have been dug out of the deserts of northern China. The Pentagon report found that construction of the silos had been completed by last year and that “at least some” intercontinental ballistic missiles had been installed in them.

Persons: Xi Jinping, Xi Organizations: Pentagon, U.S, People’s Liberation Army Locations: United States, Beijing, China . China, China, Canada, U.S, Chinese, Taiwan, Russia

☆ China’s Defense Minister Has Not Been Seen in Weeks, Fueling Intrigue
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-15 | by ( Chris Buckley | More About Chris Buckley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

China’s defense minister, Gen. Li Shangfu, has not been seen in public in more than two weeks, fueling speculation about further upheaval in the military after the abrupt removal of two top commanders in charge of the country’s nuclear force. Just six weeks ago, China’s leader, Xi Jinping, replaced the two most senior commanders of the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force, which oversees China’s nuclear missiles. The abrupt dismissals suggested that Mr. Xi was seeking to reassert his control over the military and purge perceived corruption, disloyalty and dysfunction from its ranks, analysts have said. Many experts believe that the military commanders may be accused of corruption, though some have said that suspicions of disloyalty toward Mr. Xi may be involved. In July, China also dismissed the foreign minister, Qin Gang — another official who had risen rapidly under Mr. Xi — without explanation.

Persons: Li Shangfu, General Li’s, Li’s, Mao Ning, Xi Jinping, Xi, Qin Gang — Organizations: Chinese Foreign Ministry, People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force, Qin Locations: Vietnam, China

China has discouraged the use of foreign-made electronic devices by government officials for a decade. It has told agencies and state-owned companies to replace American computer servers and other devices with domestic ones. And officials frequently show off to Americans their phones made by Huawei, China’s cellphone giant. Now, some employees of government agencies said they have received directives not to use Apple iPhones for work. Chinese authorities have issued no public pronouncements about broader restrictions on iPhones.

Organizations: Huawei, Apple, Street Locations: China, American, U.S

☆ Storms Deluge Hong Kong and Other Southern Chinese Cities
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-08 | by ( Chris Buckley | More About Chris Buckley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Torrential rains have pounded southern China, flooding low-lying homes and roads, choking expressways, and prompting officials to suspend classes while the record-breaking storms lingered over the region. By Friday morning, Shenzhen, a southern Chinese commercial city next to Hong Kong, had endured nearly eight inches of rain overnight, in the most intense downpour since records began in 1952, according to the city’s official news service. Hong Kong was hit by about six inches of rainfall in several hours. The Hong Kong Observatory headquarters recorded over six inches in just one hour, the most in that spot since its records began in 1884, according to the South China Morning Post.

Persons: Hong Kong Organizations: Hong Kong Observatory, China Morning Locations: China, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Hong

☆ China’s Economic Pain Is a Test of Xi’s Fixation With Control
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-06 | by ( Chris Buckley | More About Chris Buckley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But he may have to relinquish some of that control, as that strategy comes under pressure. The economic setbacks are eroding Mr. Xi’s image of imperious command, and emerging as perhaps the most sustained and thorny challenge to his agenda in over a decade in power. “The worse things get for China’s economy, the more likely it is that Xi Jinping has to make some course correction.”Earlier this year, Mr. Xi started his third term as China’s president, appearing indomitable. He was committed to taming the debt-laden real estate sector even as home sales fell. And he had a new Communist Party leadership team of loyalists poised to push through his growth plans.

Persons: ” Neil Thomas, Xi Jinping, Xi Organizations: Communist Party, Asia Society’s Center for Locations: Asia Society’s Center for China

Like his predecessors, Xi wields power through his control of the Communist Party, the military and the government. One-Man Party Xi overturned term limits, erased factions and installed loyalists to establish sweeping control of the Communist Party. When Xi first took power in 2012, few in the Politburo Standing Committee, the most powerful group in China, had close ties with him. Party leaders often set broad policy, and government ministries and agencies refined and implemented their goals, sending feedback to the leaders. You Are Being Watched The world’s biggest and most pervasive surveillance system ensures that nobody can easily challenge the power Xi has amassed.

Persons: Xi, Mao, Deng, –, Deng Xiaoping, Alibaba, Jack Ma Organizations: Communist Party, Man, Companies Locations: China

Vice President Lai Ching-te of Taiwan rose to prominence as a pugnacious opponent of Beijing’s claims over the island. But now, as a leading candidate in Taiwan’s presidential race, he is likely to present a more muted persona when he visits the United States starting Saturday. Expect restraint, not rousing speeches, Taiwanese officials and scholars say. Nonetheless, his stops in New York and San Francisco will be closely watched — in Taiwan, in Beijing and in Washington — for clues to how he might handle crucial relations with the United States and China as president, a top issue in Taiwan’s intense presidential race. And his visit, however low-key, is also likely to prompt an escalation of Chinese military flights and naval maneuvers near Taiwan, bringing into focus the risks of real conflict over its future.

Persons: Lai Ching, Beijing’s, Washington —, there’s, ”, Shu Hsiao, huang, ” Mr, Lai, William Organizations: United States, People’s Liberation Army, Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research, Democratic Progressive Party Locations: Taiwan, New York, San Francisco, Beijing, Washington, United States, China, Taipei

Chinese naval ships and air force planes have been edging closer to Taiwan’s territorial seas and skies, probing the island’s vigilance and trying to wear down its military planes and ships. China’s increasing presence there signals its intent to dominate an expanse of sea that could be vital for the island’s defenses, including for securing potential aid from the United States in a conflict, experts say. Mr. Lai leaves on Saturday for Paraguay, and is scheduled to stop in the United States on his way there and back. Beijing regards such transits in the United States as an affront to its stance that Taiwan is not an independent state. Mr. Lai is also the presidential candidate for the Democratic Progressive Party, which supports asserting Taiwan’s separate status, a position that Beijing condemns as “separatism.”

Persons: Lai Ching, Lai, ” Organizations: Pacific, Democratic Progressive Party Locations: China, Taiwan, United States, Beijing, Paraguay

☆ Xi Remade China’s Military to His Liking. Now a Purge Threatens Its Image.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-07 | by ( Chris Buckley | More About Chris Buckley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As Xi Jinping has entrenched his hold on power in China, he has likened himself to a physician, eradicating the toxins of corruption and disloyalty that threaten the rule of the Communist Party. And his signature project for over a decade has been bringing to heel the once extravagantly corrupt military leadership. But recent upheavals at high levels of the People’s Liberation Army forces suggest that Mr. Xi’s cure has not endured. “It’s like a virus in the system that has come back. It’s a deep-rooted problem, and it has survived in the system.”

Persons: Xi Jinping, Xi’s, ”, Andrew N.D, Yang, “ Organizations: Communist Party, People’s Liberation Army, Rocket Force Locations: China

☆ Xi’s Surprise Shake-Up Exposes Problems at Top of China’s Nuclear Force
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Chris Buckley | More About Chris Buckley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the years since China’s leader, Xi Jinping, transformed the People’s Liberation Army, one of his crowning creations has been the Rocket Force, the custodian of China’s expanding nuclear arsenal. But this week, Mr. Xi abruptly replaced the Rocket Force’s two top commanders with outsiders with no experience in the nuclear force. The shake-up in the rocket force indicated that the force’s expansion has been accompanied by serious problems in its top ranks. Suspicions of corruption or disloyalty to Mr. Xi may slow or complicate China’s upgrade of its conventional and nuclear missiles, several experts said. “I imagine this could disrupt the modernization,” said David C. Logan, an assistant professor at the Fletcher School of Tufts University who studies the Rocket Force and China’s nuclear weapons modernization.

Persons: Xi Jinping, Xi’s, Xi, Qin Gang, “, ”, David C Organizations: People’s Liberation Army, Rocket Force, Fletcher School of Tufts University Locations: China, Logan

☆ Eleven Dead and 27 Missing, as Heavy Rains Batter Beijing
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-31 | by ( Chris Buckley | More About Chris Buckley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The intense rain prompted Beijing to close tourist attractions like the ancient Forbidden City. On Tuesday, the Beijing government announced that, in addition to the 11 killed in the flooding — including two rescue workers — another 27 were missing, implying that the death toll could rise significantly. Most of the fatalities were in the outer parts of Beijing, including Mentougou District, where video shared by local news outlets on Monday showed cars being swept down a swollen river. Chinese television later showed footage of residents in the district walking through muddy streets strewn with cars that had been washed away. The Beijing government said 13 of the missing were in Mentougou, and another 10 were in Changping, another semi-rural district.

Locations: Beijing, city’s, Mentougou, Changping

☆ China Replaces Foreign Minister Missing From Public View Since June
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( Chris Buckley | More About Chris Buckley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

China’s foreign minister, Qin Gang, has been removed from office after disappearing from public view 30 days ago, abruptly ending the career of a diplomat who leaped to the top as one of President Xi Jinping’s most trusted rising stars, the Chinese government announced on Tuesday. The official decision that Mr. Qin had been replaced — and his spot taken by the former foreign minister, Wang Yi — capped weeks of speculation about his fate. As speculation grew, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed that Mr. Qin had health problems. The lack of clarity appears sure to fan speculation among Chinese commentators and seasoned observers about the circumstances behind one of the most dramatic falls of a high-flying Chinese official in recent times. Whatever the veracity of those theories, Mr. Qin’s downfall is an awkward moment for Mr. Xi, who catapulted Mr. Qin into his powerful role as minister ahead of other older, longer-serving diplomats.

Persons: Qin Gang, Xi Jinping’s, Qin, —, Wang Yi —, Xi Organizations: Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National, Committee Locations: China’s, United States

Mr. Kerry emerged late Wednesday from the lengthy negotiations in Beijing with no new agreements. In fact, the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, insisted in a speech that China would pursue its goals to phase out carbon dioxide pollution at its own pace and in its own way. Still, Mr. Kerry appeared buoyed that the world’s two biggest polluters had restarted discussions, which had been frozen for a year because of strained relations over Taiwan, trade and other issues. He insisted he was not disappointed in the outcome, noting that just talking marked progress. “We had very frank conversations but we came here to break new ground,” Mr. Kerry said, adding, “It is clear that we are going to need a little more work.”

Persons: John Kerry, Biden’s, Kerry, Xi Jinping, Mr, ” Locations: Beijing, China, Taiwan

After China’s leader, Xi Jinping, catapulted Qin Gang into the post of foreign minister in December, Mr. Qin set a frantic pace, meeting dozens of foreign officials as he pressed Beijing’s agenda in a divided, war-stricken world. Then Mr. Qin went silent. He was recently scheduled to meet the foreign policy chief of the European Union in Beijing, but China canceled that visit. Outside China, Mr. Qin’s lengthy absence has set off speculation on the internet about his health and status. Abrupt disappearances of senior Chinese officials from public life are often seen as potential signs of trouble.

Persons: Xi Jinping, Qin Organizations: European Union Locations: Vietnam, Russia, Sri Lanka, Beijing, China, Jakarta, Indonesia

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