Viola Zhou offers this analysis for the South China Morning Post. Can you figure out what a "technocrat" is? And why are technocrats no longer the dominant political leaders?
Only a decade ago, eight of the nine top Communist Party leaders studied engineering or natural sciences – the most sought-after majors when the country was struggling to industrialise.
But no one in the newly appointed Politburo Standing Committee, unveiled on Wednesday, belongs to the so-called technocrats, who worked as engineers or natural science researchers before entering the political arena.
President Xi Jinping, who studied chemical engineering at Tsinghua University, was the only one with such experience, but he went straight to the government after graduation and pursued a higher degree in Marxist theories and political education…
Wang Yang, who started as a food factory worker, got his first degree in management at a party school in 1992…
Wang Huning was… the head of the international politics department at the prestigious Fudan University…
[F]rom 1997 to 2007, all of the top leaders sitting on the innermost Standing Committee shared an engineering background…
[W]hen Li Keqiang joined the Standing Committee he was the only member to have studied humanities as an undergraduate…
Tao Yu, a political sociologist at the University of Western Australia, said that for Chinese officials – who spend decades ascending the political ladder – governing experience mattered more than academic background.
“But higher education does have an impact on their rule,” Tao said. “Leaders who went to universities tend to do a better job in reading data and analysing problems. They are very different from the revolutionaries who used to run China.”…
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The symbolic move came on the final day of a week-long political summit in Beijing…
Xi
“The congress unanimously agrees that Xi Jinping Thought … shall constitute [one of] the guides to action of the party in the party constitution,” a party resolution stated…
Some see the historic decision to enshrine Xi’s concept as a clear hint that he will seek to remain in power beyond the end of his second - and supposedly last - five-year term…
An even clearer indication of whether he is set on staying in power should come… when Xi introduces China’s new top ruling council, the politburo standing committee…
If the committee’s line-up - which is almost certain to be made up of seven men - includes no obvious successor, that would represent further proof that Xi plans to rule at least until 2027 and possibly beyond…
Bill Bishop, the publisher of the Sinocism newsletter on Chinese politics, said the birth of Xi Jinping Thought confirmed the rare levels of power and prestige enjoyed by its creator. “It means Xi is effectively unassailable … If you challenge Xi, you are challenging the party – and you never want to be against the party.”
Jude Blanchette, an expert in Chinese politics from New York’s Conference Board research group, said:… “If you tower above the party, then it is very difficult for anyone below you to decide they don’t want to implement your commands.”…
Bishop said two factors explained Xi’s emergence as one of the most dominant figures in modern Chinese history. One was the 64-year-old’s own ambition. “Xi is sort of a Chinese Machiavelli”, who grew up in a revolutionary family hearing tales of Mao’s legendary political manoeuvrings. “A lot of that stuff must have sunk in,” Bishop said.
But Xi’s rise also reflected a broader consensus within the party that a strongman was needed to help China avoid a Soviet-style collapse. In 2012, on the eve of Xi taking power, Bishop said there had been a sense among China’s political elites that “if Xi didn’t clear things up, then the place was going to implode and the Communist party was done”.
Back then, a common refrain was: “Xi is our last hope.”…
In a triumphalist editorial… the party’s official news agency, Xinhua, said the advent of Xi Thought underlined how China was now rising “like never before”.
“China is set to regain its might and re-ascend to the top of the world,” it boasted. “Those expecting China to fall will be disappointed. Finger pointing and questioning the legitimacy of the Chinese way are of no avail. It is time to understand China’s path, because it appears it will continue to triumph.”…
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The Revolutionary Guard Corps was created to replace the regular Iranian military which was suspected of being anti-revolutionary. Since then, it has grown in power and influence. At least until recently. This might deserve a penciled-in asterisk and footnote in your textbook.
From its nine-story headquarters in an upscale neighborhood of Tehran, a giant construction company directs its operations across Iran, building mosques, airports, oil and gas installations, hospitals, and skyscrapers.
Armed guards stand watch at the doors, and small posters on its exterior walls honor Iranians who have died in the current wars in Syria and Iraq.
Revolutionary Guards display for Defense Week
But this is not just any company. Khatam-al Anbiya, whose name means “seal of the prophet,” is the most important economic arm of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. It employs nearly 1.5 million people, including subcontractors, and is led by a military commander.
Yet the company’s outward signs of strength belie the powerful currents of change that are eroding its business. A crackdown is being led by Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, who ran for office promising to unleash economic growth by completing a nuclear deal and freeing the country from international sanctions.
Having achieved that — though some sanctions remain — he has turned his sights on the Revolutionary Guards, whose monopoly on large sectors of the economy and penchant for corrupt dealing he sees as a major drag on the growth he promised…
In his assault on a bastion of privilege and power long thought to be impregnable, Mr. Rouhani seems to have the all-important support of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader… who has blasted officials for allowing corruption to grow in all layers of Iran’s political system, including the government, called recently for the government to reach out to foreign countries for investments and new businesses.
“What I sought is that in the economy, we must have free competition,” Mr. Rouhani told a group of news media executives during his visit to the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September…
For years, the construction giant and numerous other companies and conglomerates run by the Revolutionary Guards have operated with impunity, well beyond the reach of civilian authorities, driving Iran’s sanctions-crippled economy, financing its military adventures in the region and — not coincidentally — enriching the hard-line commanders and clerics at their helms.
But now, with many sanctions lifted after the nuclear deal, and as the government tries to open the country to competition and foreign investment, the group’s economic dominance is increasingly seen as a liability…
In July, lawmakers told local news outlets that the government had decided to cut Khatam-al Anbiya’s annual budget. “They cannot take over every project anymore,” a lawmaker, Gholamreza Tajgardoon, told the newspaper Shargh. “Not the ones that private contractors can also do.”…
In most of the world, the Revolutionary Guards Corps is known for its military wing, which has been leading Iranian efforts to support its ally, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria… and Islamic State militants. It has sent thousands of Iranian soldiers to advise and to fight, helping to tip the balance in both wars. Domestically, the Revolutionary Guards oversee Iran’s aggressive missile program…
In line with its increasingly prominent military role, the Revolutionary Guards’ budget for military and missile activities has increased recently…
It would be wrong to assume the Revolutionary Guards will be forced entirely from the Iranian economy anytime soon, said Bahman Esghi, the secretary general of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce. Constitutionally, it is required to use its assets in peacetime to help with economic development, and practically speaking, since the private sector accounts for only 20 percent of the economy, the country needs its heft…
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The press release from the 19th CPC Congress offers no hints about who will ensure that laws and regulations are in harmony with the Constitution. Who will do that?
Advancing constitutionality review will strengthen the rule of law, experts have said.
The Communist Party of China (CPC) will strengthen oversight to ensure compliance with the Constitution, advance constitutionality review, and safeguard the authority of the Constitution…
Constitutionality review of laws and regulations will be one of the mechanisms to ensure the smooth functioning of China's rule of law, said Han Dayuan, president of the Chinese Constitutional Law Society…
Constitutionality review of laws and regulations will be one of the mechanisms to ensure the smooth functioning of China's rule of law, said Han Dayuan, president of the Chinese Constitutional Law Society.
"It is important to ensure uniformity of laws and regulations within the framework of the Constitution, and resolve the contradictions between some laws and regulations and the Constitution," said Duan Luping of the Guangzhou University.
Constitutionality reviews in different jurisdictions vary, but generally provide a system where legislative or administrative acts are set aside if they are found to be conflicting with the Constitution.
"China's constitutionality review will not be a copy of the Western way," said Chen Shu, a legal scholar.
"Reviews should focus on revoking and correcting administrative and regional legislation that is incompatible with the terms and spirit of the Constitution," said Lou Jian, a legal affairs official with Zhejiang provincial government.
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President Xi Jinping thrust China into a new era of strongman politics on Wednesday, unveiling a leadership team without a likely successor among the six officials who will help him rule for the next half decade.
In a nationally televised ceremony, Mr. Xi introduced the new members of China’s highest council of power, the Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee, on the red carpet of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. In addition to Mr. Xi and China’s premier, Li Keqiang, the committee included five new members, all men in their 60s…
The five new Standing Committee members are party leaders with long careers in Chinese politics, including one of Mr. Xi’s longtime allies and a scholar of international relations. But the party declined to name a younger leader to the committee who might succeed Mr. Xi when his second term as president ends in 2023…
But by discarding the unspoken conventions that have ensured relatively stable leadership changes in recent years, Mr. Xi has pushed Chinese politics into new territory that critics have warned could lead to turmoil, or a cult of personality with echoes of Mao…
Among the new members were Wang Yang, 62, a vice premier who promoted himself as a can-do reformer while party chief of Guangdong Province in southern China, and Han Zheng, a former mayor of Shanghai who is credited with guiding that city’s emergence as China’s glittering financial and business capital. Neither had a long history of working closely with Mr. Xi before he became president in 2012.
Other new members have worked alongside Mr. Xi for years. They included Li Zhanshu, his longtime friend and aide, and Wang Huning, a former professor turned party ideologue who has helped craft Mr. Xi’s speeches and reports…
The seventh member, Zhao Leji, served as head of the party’s organization department and will assume leadership of its anticorruption agency…
Some China watchers have said they also expect Mr. Xi to place more emphasis on overhauling the economy and cleaning up finances, after spending the past five years stamping out dissent and tightening his control over the party and the military, China’s other political power center…
Few experts expect Mr. Xi will take big steps toward market liberalization, but many believe he must move to limit financial risk. After decades of rapid growth, China faces growing economic challenges that include mountains of debt held by local governments and inefficient state-owned conglomerates.
“He wants a team around him that will implement his vision,” said Evan S. Medeiros, the former senior director for Asian affairs in the National Security Council under President Barack Obama. “On economic issues, one could tentatively say that this Politburo Standing Committee is more reform-minded than the current lineup.”…
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The sheer dominance by the top two social classes of Oxford and Cambridge University admissions has been revealed in newly released data.
Punting on the Cam
Four-fifths of students accepted at Oxbridge between 2010 and 2015 had parents with top professional and managerial jobs, and the numbers have been edging upwards…
Nationally about 31% of people are in the top two social income groups. They are the doctors, the lawyers, the senior managers.
The data reveals these top two social classes cleaned up in terms of places, with their share of offers rising from 79% to 81% between 2010 and 2015.
This was despite both universities spending £5m each a year on efforts to cast the net wider for students, according to official figures…
[David Lammy MP] said the scale of the regional divide went far beyond anything he could have imagined.
Mr. Lammy accused Oxbridge of failing to live up to its responsibilities as national universities, saying: "Oxbridge take over £800m a year from the taxpayer - paid for by people in every city, town and village.
"Whole swathes of the country - especially our seaside towns and the 'left behind' former industrial heartlands across the North and the Midlands are basically invisible.
"If Oxbridge can't improve, then there is no reason why the taxpayer should continue to give them so much money." …
Analysis By Branwen Jeffreys, BBC News education editor
We should all care who goes to our top universities because they end up running the country.
Less than 1% of the adult population graduated from Oxford or Cambridge, but the two universities have produced most of our prime ministers, the majority of our senior judges and civil servants, and many people in the media…
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Can conscience become a cure for China's corruption?
Forget Marx and Mao. Chinese City Honors Once-Banned Confucian.
Nearly 500 years after he died, the Chinese philosopher Wang Yangming once again wielded a calligraphy brush, carefully daubed it into a tray of black ink and elegantly wrote out his most famous phrase: “the unity of knowledge and action.”…
Robot of Wang Yangming
Watching the scene unfold was Zhou Ying, who manages Wang — or at least a very realistic robot that not only looks like Wang but is able to imitate his calligraphy and repeat more than 1,000 of his aphorisms.
“This is exactly what we’re hoping to achieve with the robot,” Ms. Zhou said as Wang began writing another saying. “We feel this is a way to get people interested in these old ideas.”
Promoting these old ideas has been a priority for President Xi Jinping, who has rekindled enthusiasm for traditional culture as part of a broader push to fill what many Chinese see as their country’s biggest problem: a spiritual void caused by its headlong pursuit of prosperity.
And when China’s most powerful leader in 40 years endorses a philosopher, even a long-dead Confucian one, people rush to take action…
Since Mr. Xi began promoting the philosopher three years ago, officials in and around Guiyang have built a Wang Yangming-themed park, constructed a museum to showcase his achievements, turned a small cave into a shrine in his honor and, yes, commissioned a robot to bring him to life…
In his efforts to address the country’s spiritual shortcomings, Mr. Xi has spoken favorably of Confucius, praised Buddhism and presided over a revival of traditional religious practices that were once condemned as superstitious.
But he has seemed most comfortable praising the life and works of Wang Yangming.
During his years [in Guiyang], Wang ran a post house on the edge of town. That gave him time to meditate on the philosophical problem that would define his legacy: understanding how people know right from wrong. His conclusion: People have an inborn conscience that they must act upon, regardless of the consequences.
It was this advocacy of moral action that apparently appeals to the no-nonsense Mr. Xi, who has cracked down on vice and corruption within the party’s ranks…
However, some see Wang, with his emphasis on following one’s internal moral compass, as a risky thinker for an authoritarian state to embrace.
“Wang Yangming can pave the way for a philosophy of autonomy — that standards don’t come from outside. that they are inner,” said Sébastien Billioud, co-author of a recent book on Confucian thought in today’s China. “And of course autonomy is always dangerous for authoritarian regimes.”
During the first decades of communist rule, Wang’s works were banned as “bourgeois.”…
The ban on Wang began to lift around 2000 with a revival in the popularity of Confucian studies. Then, in 2014, Mr. Xi explicitly told local leaders to promote Wang’s thoughts. Suddenly, Wang Yangming was China’s hottest philosopher since Marx…
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Benjamin Haas, writing for The Guardian offers his version of what to remember from Xi Jinping's three-hour speech to the opening of the Communist Party Congress in Beijing. To read the details, go to the newspaper's web site.
Xi Jinping opened a historic Communist party meeting in Beijing with a three hour and 23 minute speech that heralded a “new era” in Chinese politics. A mostly monotone affair, Xi became emotional at several points, and the party faithful in the audience responded with applause at the appropriate pauses.
Students watch Xi's speech
Here are the most important points and what to watch during Xi’s next five years as China’s leader:
Xi wants China to rise on the global stage
China has no interest in systems of western democracy
Beijing talks tough on regions eyeing independence [like Taiwan and Hong Kong]
Xi seeks to calm fears over the economy
The communist party wants a “Beautiful China”
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Revised proposals for the shape of parliamentary seats at the next general election have been published.
The proposed constituency boundaries in England,Scotland and Wales have been drawn up on the basis the total number of MPs will be cut from 650 to 600.
Parliament approved the principle of reducing the size of the Commons in 2011, intended as a cost-saving measure in the wake of the expenses scandal.
But it is uncertain whether the Commons will end up backing the detailed plans.
If they do so, the proposed new constituencies - recommended by independent bodies in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland - will take effect in 2022, the scheduled date of the next election.
However, there are doubts whether MPs will agree to the plans, which would leave England with 32 fewer seats, Scotland six fewer, Wales 11 fewer and Northern Ireland - which will publish its revised plans at a later date - one less than at this summer's general election…
As well as reducing the number of seats, the review is predicated on plans to make constituencies more equal in size, in terms of their total number of voters.
Under the blueprint published on Tuesday, all but a handful of constituencies - for which exemptions are being made because of their unique geographic characteristics - will have between 71,031 and 78,507 voters…
The Commons rejected the last set of boundary proposals in 2013 after the Lib Dems withdrew their support in the wake of the failure to agree with their Tory coalition partners on reforms to the House of Lords.
As a result, the 2015 election was fought on the same boundaries as in 2010. This summer's snap poll, called at short notice by Mrs May, was also contested on the basis of the 2010 boundaries.
If MPs reject the current proposals, the next election will be fought on demographic data based on the 2000 electoral register and will not take into account changes since then.
Labour's Cat Smith said her party would work with other parties to ensure the boundary review went ahead in the interests of democracy, but said it had serious concerns about the current proposals.
"To lose 50 MPs at a time we are repatriating powers from Brussels, as we leave the European Union, risks leaving the UK government struggling to keep up with the day-to-day requirements of legislation," she said.
"They need to drop their unfair, undemocratic plans, as well as ensuring the review is based on the most up-to-date register and that there is appropriate flexibility to take into account community ties and geography."
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“Times have changed … today men and women are equal,” Mao Zedong pronounced more than half a century ago. “Whatever men comrades can accomplish, women comrades can too.” Unless, of course, you mean running the country.
For not once since Mao’s communists took power in 1949 has a woman been appointed to China’s top political body, the politburo standing committee, let alone become the country’s top leader…
“Taiwan has a female president. Even Hong Kong has a female chief executive. But I think the Communist party would have to collapse before you actually saw a woman leading China as a country,” said Leta Hong Fincher, the author of a forthcoming book called Betraying Big Brother: China’s Feminist Resistance.
“All the signs indicate that the Communist party does not want women to have power. It wants women to return to the home and take care of the families…
Elizabeth Economy, director for Asia studies at the Council of Foreign Relations, predicted that the [Standing Committee] would remain a club for the boys: “I think it’s going to be a pretty conservative group that is comfortable with the more authoritarian and politically repressive state-directed tendencies of Xi.”
Chairman Mao famously proclaimed that women “hold up half the sky” and they did enjoy unquestionable advances after the 1949 revolution, as China’s leader fought to simultaneously liberate women and harness their economic potential.
But women continue to play a peripheral role in Chinese politics. There are currently just two female faces on the party’s expanded 25-member politburo; only 10 of the 205 full members of its central committee are women, down from 13 in 2012…
“The absence of female voices in politics is a global phenomenon. But considering the communist regime flaunts the idea that ‘women hold up half the sky’, it hasn’t set the example it should have,” said Feng Yuan, a leading women’s rights campaigner…
Hong Fincher said a looming demographic crunch – which means that by 2050 more than a quarter of China’s population will be over 65 – had convinced Beijing that women were now needed more in the home than in the halls of power.
“Communist party leaders are extremely alarmed at the demographic trends in China so this is a big reason why they are pushing women into marrying and having babies,” said Hong Fincher. “They see women as just biological vessels to reproduce. Babies for the future of the nation.
“Women are better educated than ever before in Chinese history. So why isn’t the Communist party tapping into this incredible resource? I believe it’s because Communist party leaders fundamentally just see women’s roles as being wives and mothers.”…
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Contrary to President Muhammadu Buhari’s claim on Friday that his discussion with the President of the World Bank Group, Jim Yong Kim, was twisted, a huge chunk of the financial institution-backed projects in partnership with the Federal Government is based in the North, SUNDAY PUNCH can report.
The President has always been accused by his critics of favoring the northern part of the country…
The latest criticism took place when Kim, divulged that Buhari had asked the bank to concentrate on northern Nigeria.
The Presidency, however, said what the President asked for was “rebuilding of the beleaguered North-East.”…
SUNDAY PUNCH’s findings [from] the World Bank website… showed that out of the 14 World Bank-sponsored projects in the country, seven are exclusively for the North, while six others are meant for the whole nation (South-West, South-South, South-East, North-West, North-East, North Central and North West)…
The World Bank documents did not contain any programme or project specifically designed for the South-East, South-South and the Middle Belt regions since Buhari got into power…
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Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, called for increased cooperation between the CPC and the country's non-Communist political parties to jointly strive for achieving the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation.
Xi made the remarks at a meeting held by the CPC Central Committee to solicit opinions from members of non-Communist political parties on a draft report for the upcoming 19th CPC National Congress…
After hearing the opinions of the participants, Xi said it has been a long-held practice for the CPC to solicit opinions from the central committees of non-Communist parties, leading figures of the All China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and those with no party affiliation, on major policies and decisions of the CPC and the country…
He said the CPC Central Committee will carefully study the opinions raised by the participants and fully incorporate them into the revisions of the draft report…
Representatives of non-Communist parties and those without party affiliation acknowledged the major achievements made by the CPC Central Committee with Xi Jinping at the core since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012…
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Delegates of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) arrive at Capital International Airport in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 15, 2017. The congress will start on Oct. 18.
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The trick question is "Where is the constitution of the UK?"
Sometimes the answer is, "It's unwritten." More accurately, the answer is it's written all over history as precedents to be followed.
How about the sixteenth century "Henry VIII powers," now called Statutory Instruments? Would you think to look there for the constitution?
"The Government sometimes adds this provision to a Bill to enable the Government to repeal or amend it after it has become an Act of Parliament…
"Such provisions are known as Henry VIII clauses, so named from the Statute of Proclamations 1539 which gave King Henry VIII power to legislate by proclamation." -Parliament Web Site
I don't offer this information because I think you need to know about Henry VIII powers. I point out how diverse and ancient the constitutional provisions of the UK's government are. The generalization is more important than the specific trivia.
Theresa May is likely to agree to a new parliamentary committee to help weed out excessive use of Henry VIII powers after Brexit as she seeks to head off a rebellion, according to Tory MPs pushing for the change…
The purpose of the EU withdrawal bill is to transpose legislation from Brussels into British law to ensure a smooth exit process.
However, May is facing a rebellion over so-called Henry VIII powers that would allow ministers to tweak secondary legislation as it is transposed…
Dominic Grieve, the former attorney general who tabled the key amendment, told the procedure committee on Wednesday that the bill represented the “most extraordinary arrogation of powers” by the executive that he had seen during 20 years in parliament.
He said there needed to be an exceptional mechanism for dealing with secondary legislation, where MPs would sift through statutory instruments to decide whether they needed full parliamentary debate or not…
Further note:
Statutory instruments are not quite the archaic devices they are being portrayed… They are regularly used to make adjustments to the law. Around 3,500 of them are created in a normal year. Parliament can debate and reject them, although it is admittedly a rather cumbersome process.
But whatever legislation is created, whether by act of parliament or SI, can later be amended or repealed by parliament. This in contrast to the vast amount of EU legislation currently under scrutiny, which entered our laws from the EU without parliament being involved, and which not cannot be amended or repealed while we remain members…
J Cameron Smith
Dunoon, Argyll and Bute
-letter to The Guardian
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Part of the north-south cleavage in Nigeria is educational. Christian missionaries (and their schools) had greater successes in the south than in the mostly Muslim north. This imbalance had a role in causing the civil war since colonial and (after independence) Nigerian bureaucrats were mostly southerners.
Echos of that historic situation show up in this embarrassing example of misgovernment.
Thousands of primary school teachers in Nigeria's northern Kaduna
state are to be sacked after failing the exams they set for their six-year-old pupils.
State governor Nasir El-Rufai said 21,780 teachers, two-thirds of the total, had failed to score 75% or higher on assessments given to pupils.
He said 25,000 new teachers would be recruited to replace them…
"The hiring of teachers in the past was politicised and we intend to change that by bringing in young and qualified primary school teachers to restore the dignity of education in the state," he was quoted as saying by Nigeria's Daily Trust newspaper…
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In China, the PLA has served many roles: employment of last resort during recessions, workforce during natural disasters, entrepreneurs, enrichment opportunity for corrupt officers, and police to prevent protests. Oh, yes, and a defensive military force.
After the Cultural Revolution, the government began offering the generals modern weaponry, a role on China's space program, and opportunities for respect as a modern military in exchange for accepting civilian control.
Of the many noteworthy developments that have characterised Chinese President Xi Jinping's first five-year term, none stands out as much as military reform, and this reveals a great deal about the coming political trajectory in China, writes political analyst Cheng Li.
Xi Jinping did not shy from the bold and broad undertaking of military reform and it has resulted in profound changes to the People's Liberation Army (PLA).
Even beyond the monumental purges of top generals, whose shameless corruption extended to practices like selling military titles, Mr Xi has worked with single-minded purpose to organise and modernise China's military…
He… transformed China's military operations from a Russian-style, army-centric system toward what analysts call a "Western-style joint command"; and swiftly promoted "young guards" to top positions in the officer corps…
Judging from the list of military and police delegates to the forthcoming congress where China's future leaders are to be unveiled, the largest turnover of senior officers in the history of the People's Republic of China (PRC) is set to occur.
An extraordinary 90% of the 300 military delegates will be first-time attendees.
At most, only 17% (seven of 41) of the military representatives with full membership on the 18th Central Committee will retain their seats…
Gen Li Zuocheng
The new top military leadership will most likely consist of Mr Xi's long-time friends Gen Zhang Youxia, Gen Li Zuocheng, and Adm Miao Hua, along with the newly promoted commanders of the PLA army, navy, air force, and strategic support force.
In addition to their perceived loyalty to Xi Jinping, these generals are known for their extended military service, combat experience, and professional knowledge of modern warfare…
With firm control over the military, Mr Xi has set the stage for a massive turnover in the party leadership at the 19th Party Congress…
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Can you figure out what is meant by "withdrawing the whip" from the reporting? (The answer comes after the article.) By the way, do you know what an MEP is?
Two rebel Conservative MEPs who voted to block moves towards trade talks between the UK and European Union have been stripped of the party whip…
The decision to remove the whip was backed by Downing Street in a sign that Theresa May is preparing to get tough with her party over Brexit as the talks move into a crucial phase…
The whip was removed from the two senior MEPs after consultation between the party’s European parliament chief whip, Dan Dalton, and Downing Street…
In his letter to the pair, [party spokesman] Dalton said: “The Brexit negotiations are the most important negotiations our country faces and reaching a new partnership with the European Union is in the interests of both the UK and the EU.
“The resolution by the European parliament sought to delay progress in the negotiations between the UK and the EU by holding back talks on the future relationship. It also proposed that one part of the UK, Northern Ireland, could remain in the single market and customs union, while the rest of the UK departs – which is not acceptable.
“Given the seriousness of this issue, and your failure to discuss your intention to vote against the agreed position of the Conservative delegation in advance, I am therefore writing to inform you that I am suspending the Conservative whip from you until further notice.”…
What does it mean to withdraw the whip?
The whip is a parliamentary term dating back to 1742. ... In modern usage, whips are parliamentary enforcers who provide inducements and punishments to MPs who do not "toe the party line", and in the extreme case of expelling an MP from a party, the party withdraws the whip. Sep 20, 2013
Every five years, the eyes of the world turn to China as the ruling Communist Party holds its congress.
The event determines who will lead the Party. Those people will go on to lead the 1.3 billion people of China - most of whom don't get a say…
The 19th congress will begin on 18 October and while significant leadership changes are expected current Party leader and Chinese President Xi Jinping is widely expected to stay in the top job.
In mid-October, Communist Party of China (CPC) delegates from across China will meet at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
The party has 2,300 delegates…
Behind closed doors, those CPC delegates will elect the powerful Central Committee, which has about 200 members.
This committee in turn elects the Politburo and from that, the Politburo Standing Committee is chosen.
Introduction of the Standing Committee
Those are China's real decision-making bodies. The Politburo currently has 24 members, while the Standing Committee has seven, although these numbers have varied over the years.
While there is a vote, in reality many of these people have already been handpicked by the current leadership, and the committee just approves their edict.
The Central Committee also elects the Party's top leader - the general secretary - who becomes the country's president. That is, and will most likely continue to be, Xi Jinping.
The 19th Congress will be closely watched for two main things.
First, Mr Xi will deliver a lengthy report that will be scrutinised by analysts for signs on China's political policy direction for the next five years.
Secondly, the Politburo Standing Committee is expected to be nearly completely refreshed…
We would normally expect to see a new line-up of future leaders presented to the public at the congress - including a possible eventual successor to Mr Xi - who would take over in five years' time.
However, there is some speculation Mr Xi might break with tradition this time round and delay this step…
It's likely there'll be a further overall consolidation of power by Mr Xi.
He has assumed an unprecedented number of positions since coming to power in 2012, including the title of a "core" leader of China, which puts him on par with past political giants like Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.
There are likely to be more of his allies placed in leadership positions at the congress, and we may see the enshrining of his policies, known as "Xi Jinping Thought", in the party charter…
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China's National Anthem Law came into force Sunday to ensure appropriate performance of the song.
The anthem shall be sung at formal political gatherings, including the opening and closing of National People's Congress sessions, constitutional oath ceremonies, flag raising ceremonies, major celebrations, awards ceremonies, commemorations, national memorial day events, important diplomatic occasions, major sport events and other suitable occasions, according to the law…
It is now illegal to use the national anthem during funerals, "inappropriate" private occasions, commercials or as background music in public places.
Violators, including those who maliciously modify the lyrics, play or sing the national anthem in a distorted or disrespectful way, can be detained for up to 15 days, even be held criminally liable…
Previously, without a law to standardize etiquette for the national anthem, the song was sometimes used inappropriately…
Chinese national anthem
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In about one year, 2,287 delegates have been elected to attend the upcoming 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC)…
The elections started in November 2016 after the CPC Central Committee stated the quota of delegates, their qualifications and the election procedure.
According to requirements, nominees must be highly qualified politically and ideologically, have good work and life styles, be competent in discussing state affairs, and have been successful in their work…
Party committees at various levels encouraged wider participation of grassroots-level CPC members in the nomination process.
Besides media coverage, lectures, and leaflets, they also used video connections, text messages, messages on instant messaging service WeChat, and telephone talks to include more Party members into the process.
Those in remote regions such as Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region even took mobile ballot boxes to towns and villages for voters.
All grassroots-level Party committees were included, with 99.2 percent of Party members participating…
The electoral units then conducted thorough investigations of nominees, listening to the opinions of both their supervisors and the public.
After passing the investigations, the delegates, elected from across the country when local Party committees held their congresses this year, will need to pass a further check to get final approval to attend the congress…
… 771 delegates are from frontline production and manufacturing, including workers, farmers, and technicians, accounting for 33.7 percent of the total, up by 3.2 percentage points from five years ago.
These delegates not only come from traditional industries like manufacturing, transportation, steel and coal, but also from sectors such as finance, the Internet, and social organizations.
The representation of female CPC members and members from ethnic minority groups is also rising, reaching 24.1 percent and 11.5 percent of the total respectively.
The average age of the delegates is 51.8, about 0.2 year younger compared with the 18th CPC National Congress, and about 70.6 percent of them are under the age of 55.
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The first female president of the supreme court and the youngest lord chief justice in 50 years have been sworn in.
Brenda Hale’s appointment to the leading role at the UK’s highest court was announced by Downing Street in July. A longstanding champion of diversity in the judiciary, she became the first female justice of the court in October 2009 and was appointed deputy president in June 2013…
Lady Hale, 72, who was born in Yorkshire and succeeds Lord Neuberger in the role, has had a varied career as an academic lawyer, law reformer and judge…
And from last July when the appointment was announced.
Brenda Hale’s elevation to president of the supreme court represents a resounding victory in the long campaign for gender equality among the senior judiciary.
Her appointment is also the zenith of an extraordinary, successful legal career in which she has become one of the most forthright and liberalising influences on the court…
As deputy president of the court for the past four years, she was firm favourite to succeed Lord Neuberger… Since being sworn in as a law lord in 2004, Hale – a self-declared feminist – has been the only woman on the UK’s highest court. It is a singularity she has regularly deplored…
Her ascent of the judicial ladder did not follow the conventional practice route. She spent 18 years as an academic, teaching law at Manchester University, becoming a professor and qualifying as a barrister. In the 1980s she was appointed to the Law Commission, which revises outdated legislation, began sitting as a part-time judge and was made a QC…
Her rise was rapid: she went up to the court of appeal in 1999 and the law lords in 2004, transferring across to the supreme court when it was established in 2009. On appointment to the Lords, she created a coat of arms bearing the motto Omnia Feminae Aequissimae, meaning “women are equal to everything”…
Hale’s speeches and writing reflect a consistently feminist and egalitarian approach. Her 1984 co-authored Women and the Law, the first comprehensive survey of women’s rights at work, in the family and in the state concluded: “Deep-rooted problems of inequality persist and the law continues to reflect the economic, social and political dominance of men.”…
A feisty presence, Lady Hale invariably gives the impression of being up for a robust exchange of views. Her enthusiasm for educating has sometimes led her into political crossfire…
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The Communist Party… said it will support and protect entrepreneurs in the first such directive to safeguard China’s private business owners since it took power in 1949.
The guideline – issued by the Central Committee and State Council – praises China’s business people for boosting national economic growth.
“Lots of entrepreneurs … have made a great contribution to the accumulation of social wealth, to job creation, economic and social development,” the directive says…
It also promises to protect their legitimate rights and interests, ensure fair market competition and strengthen protection of intellectual property rights…
The promises come at a time when the authorities are in dire need of more investment from the private sector to support growth…
Overall investment in China went up 7.8 per cent in the first eight months… State sector investment grew at 11.2 per cent, but investment growth from the private sector slowed to 6.4 per cent in that period…
“China’s economic growth can’t rely on government-led investment as it is unsustainable,” said Lu Zhengwei, chief economist at the Industrial Bank. “Private investment still has huge scope to grow…
China’s political ruling class has had an on-again off-again attitude towards the country’s private business sector… After Mao Zedong took power in 1949, the new regime set about confiscating assets from the bourgeoisie and forcing many private businesses to enter “public-private joint ventures”. Private entrepreneurship was wiped out in the ’60s and ’70s under a centralised command economy that took the country to the brink of collapse before Deng Xiaoping revived it with his liberalisation policy in the late ’70s. Jiang Zemin went further, allowing private capitalists to join the party in the 1990s – a major ideological breakthrough for the sector.
Many Chinese tycoons are among the richest people in the world, and the party is generous in giving honorary titles to loyal entrepreneurs – the parliament’s largely ceremonial advisory body counts a long list of billionaires as members.
At the same time, business people often find themselves dependent on the whims of the authoritarian state and haunted by the so-called original sin – problems that emerged in the early days of the private sector…
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The New York Times' Stephen Castle interviewed a couple academics in the UK suggesting that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn might become PM in a couple years. Is this news?
It is always satisfying to prove your doubters wrong and, in the case of Jeremy Corbyn, the left-wing leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party, there were an awful lot of them.
Written off as a hapless loser 12 months ago at his last party conference, Mr. Corbyn can expect a triumphant reception at this year’s event…
Last year, he was widely depicted as an unreconstructed Marxist and a political dinosaur, destined to lead Labour to electoral extinction. Now, Mr. Corbyn is seen, even by some opponents, as a prime minister in waiting…
At 68, Mr. Corbyn is in many ways a British version of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, except further left… In June, though, he exceeded expectations with a clever general election campaign that revealed him to be a personable, if not downright charming, candidate.
His unexpected ability to connect with voters, particularly young ones, coupled with a building opposition to Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, or Brexit, helped him deprive Prime Minister Theresa May of the landslide victory she had expected…
While Mr. Corbyn’s journey from zero to hero has been remarkable, Steven Fielding, a professor of political history at Nottingham University, says, the party conference in Brighton, England, will bring a new question into focus: whether Labour can shift from a defensive strategy primarily intended to keep control of his party to an offensive one that could take Labour to power…
While many of Britain’s predominantly right-wing newspapers remain hostile to Mr. Corbyn’s agenda, their tone has changed. Where the news media once pointed to his failure to sing the national anthem as evidence of his unsuitability for high office, recent articles have debated things like whether Mr. Corbyn is turning from vegetarianism to veganism (apparently he is not, though he is eating more vegan food)…
To win a general election, he will have to reach out to new voters, and “whether he is in a position to go and win a majority in Parliament is an open question,” said Mark Wickham-Jones, professor of political science at the University of Bristol…
That may be hard. By the time of the next election, the Conservatives are likely to have replaced Mrs. May with a more popular figure, and Mr. Corbyn and his agenda will probably face tougher news media scrutiny…
Teaching Comparative blog entries are indexed. Use the search box to look for country names or concept labels attached to each entry.
Just The Facts! 2nd editionis a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
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Just The Facts! 2nd edition is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
