Parliamentary procedure in the UK
The speaker of the House of Commons, the present one was chosen by the Conservatives, has a great deal of power, but it is mostly used in traditional ways. Not so, the other day. Boris Johnson, the foreign minister, has a lot of power and a lack of inhibition.
Boris Johnson’s ‘sexist’ behavior swiftly shut down in the House of Commons
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has a habit of putting his foot in his mouth
He once described Hillary Clinton as “a sadistic nurse in a mental hospital” with “dyed blond hair and pouty lips, and a steely blue stare.”…
In an on-camera interview, he somewhat nonsensically compared the European Union to a “gigantic lobster. With butter sauce.”…
And in Parliament on Tuesday, he referred to Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary for the opposition Labour Party, as Lady Nugee. Nugee is the last name of Thornberry's husband, Christopher.
Johnson appeared to be disparaging Thornberry for asking whether the government is prepared to take Russia to an international criminal court over the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter on British soil…
That comment prompted a sharp admonition from the speaker of the House of Commons, who deemed it “sexist” and “inappropriate.”
“We do not namecall in this chamber,” John Bercow said to applause from Labour lawmakers. “We do not address people by the titles of their spouses. The shadow foreign secretary has a name, and it is not 'Lady Something.' ”
Bercow went on: “It is inappropriate and frankly sexist to speak in those terms, and I am not having it in this chamber. That is the end of the matter. That parlance is not legitimate, and it will not be allowed, and it will be called out.”…
“I heartily tender my apologies to the right honorable lady if she was offended by what I said, and I meant no harm,” Johnson said…
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Labels: parliament, politics, UK
Presidential campaigning in Nigeria
President Buhari is quiet about his intentions for the 2019 election. Political opponents have called for him to step down. His Vice President has begun campaigning. Now his party is campaigning. Is there any doubt that he'll run?
APC Plotting To Ensure Buhari Is The Sole Presidential Candidate In 2019, Says PDP
Nigeria’s main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of plotting a ‘grand scheme’ to ensure that President Muhammadu Buhari is the sole presidential candidate on the ballot in the 2019 presidential election.
PDP said this while reacting to comments by Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed that it should be deregistered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Sunday.
The Minister had called on INEC to withdraw the registration certificate of PDP because of the party’s alleged politicization of the abduction and release Dapchi school girls…
But in its response, PDP said the assertion by the minister was part of the plans by APC to ensure Buhari does not have an opponent in 2019 election…
The major opposition party (PDP) further claimed that Nigerians are tired of APC and would vote out the party to restore the nation to the path of unity, national cohesion, and economic prosperity in the 2019 general election.
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Labels: campaign, leadership, Nigeria, parties
Consumer imperialism
Iranian officials mocked for using foreign products
It began with a televised address in Iran in celebration of Persian New Year on Tuesday, when Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei urged Iranians to support local products rather than importing from abroad.
Soon afterwards, photos began to emerge on social media of some officials purportedly failing to follow that advice - including Khamenei himself.
A photo of the Supreme Leader apparently getting out of a BMW was liked more than 1,200 times, with some people reposting the image alongside a picture of pre-Islamic Republic Prime Minister Amir-Abbas Hoveyda driving the first Iranian-made Paykan car in the 1960s.
This tweet reads: "The PM of the corrupt Pahlavi regime driving a domestically made car, but the spiritual Leader of Muslims around the world riding on the unbelievers' hundred-million [dollar] car, the Republic of mottos."
Some people defended Khamenei over the photo, with one person suggesting that the car may have belonged to the security department and not him.
But others were highly critical, with one person labelling locally-made cars as "junk products", and another sharing images of badly damaged Iranian cars in response…
Other members of the Khamenei family who came in for criticism include Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, the former Speaker of the Iranian Parliament whose daughter married Ali Khamenei's son Mojtaba.
In one tweet liked more than 700 times, a person shared pictures of Haddad-Adel appearing to buy clothes from a popular British high street shop…
This tweet reads: "#support_for_Iranian_products just by Haddad-Adel, father-in-law of Mojtaba Khamenei, the Prince of Iran, who is buying clothes in the wicked Britain."
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Labels: cleavages, Iran, nationalism, politics
Evolution of Mexican cartels
Instead of Whack-a-mole it seems that the Mexican government is "playing" Whack-a-cartel.
Rise of new cartel leading to more violence, USD study shows
Mexico’s strategy of targeting top organized crime figures, or kingpins, for arrest and extradition has led to the spread of a new crime syndicate and driven up homicide numbers in many parts of the country, according to a new policy brief by the University of San Diego’s Justice in Mexico project.
The report, titled “The New Generation: Mexico’s Emerging Organized Crime Threat,” focuses on the rise of the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (New Generation Cartel Jalisco), commonly known as CJNG.
The group’s recent and rapid expansion across Mexico has been accompanied by high levels of violence, the report states, with a countrywide record of 29,000 homicides in 2017…
Authors Lucy La Rosa… [and] professor David Shirk, the Justice Project’s principal investigator, say that the Guadalajara-based CJNG has benefited from the weakening of the Sinaloa Cartel’s grip in regions across Mexico, including Tijuana and its ability to forge alliance with local drug organizations.
“The CJNG has successfully taken advantage of a series of power vacuums resulting from the disruption of of leadership structures in Mexican organized crime groups,” the report states…
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Labels: Mexico, rule of law
What Nigeria and the USA have in common
Back in 2015, Cambridge Analytica worked for Goodluck Jonathan's campaign in Nigeria. Was it practice for the company's work in the USA in 2017?
Cambridge Analytica's ruthless bid to sway the vote in Nigeria
Cambridge Analytica… had been hired by a rich Nigerian who supported the incumbent, President Goodluck Jonathan.
“It was the kind of campaign that was our bread and butter,” says one ex-employee. “We’re employed by a billionaire who’s panicking at the idea of a change of government and who wants to spend big to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
This was a standard variation on what SCL had done around the world for 30 years – this time, with a twist. Weaponising information to harm an opponent was standard methodology…
What was new, or at least new to those employees who have now spoken out, was bringing these techniques to the company’s election work.
Seven individuals with close knowledge of the Nigeria campaign have described how Cambridge Analytica worked with people they believed were Israeli computer hackers…
They said the hackers offered Cambridge Analytica access to private information about Buhari…
The Observer has obtained an astonishing and disturbing video that Cambridge Analytica used in the campaign.
“Coming to Nigeria on February 15th, 2015,” the voiceover says in the manner of a trailer for a Hollywood movie.
“Dark. Scary. And very uncertain. Sharia for all.” And then it poses the question: “What would Nigeria look like if sharia were imposed by Buhari?”
The company confirmed… that it had been hired to provide “advertising and marketing services in support of the Goodluck Jonathan campaign”.
That work seems to have come about through Brittany Kaiser, a senior director at Cambridge Analytica, who would go on to play a public role at the launch of Nigel Farage’s Leave.eu campaign, and a senior strategist on the Trump campaign…
In a statement, SCL Elections, the parent company of Cambridge Analytica, confirmed it had been hired in December 2014 in support of the Jonathan campaign.
“We can confirm that SCL Elections was hired in December 2014 to provide advertising and marketing services in support of the Goodluck Jonathan campaign.”
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Labels: cleavages, elections, Nigeria, politics
Simplifying?
Maybe this will make it easier to teach and learn about China's regime. Instead of having to keep track of parallel government and Party organizations, we'll only have to keep track of Party elements and the government organs that are puppets of the Party.
By the way, there is a great interactive graphic in the original of this article illustrating the Chinese regime.
China unveils bold overhaul to tighten Communist Party control
Beijing on Wednesday unveiled a massive plan to further assert the Communist Party’s control over economic and foreign affairs, cultural policies, and the appointment and training of cadres.
While the central government is restructured every five years after each term of cabinet, major overhauls of the party organs are rarely seen…
The party’s influence has grown under President Xi Jinping, in line with his slogan “the party leads everything”, reversing past practice of leaving policy implementation to the state.
Four of the party’s “leading groups” – on financial and economic affairs, cybersecurity, reforms and foreign affairs – have been upgraded to become commissions…
All four of those groups are chaired by Xi, and the reforms and cybersecurity bodies were set up after he took the party’s top job in 2012…
Aside from the upgrades, some party agencies will also take responsibility for offices that were previously under the State Council, China’s cabinet…
It will set up another two party commissions that will oversee ministries with almost identical functions. To establish an “authentic and effective” audit system and strengthen supervision, it will create the Central Audit Commission above the cabinet-level National Audit Office…
Beijing-based political commentator Zhang Lifan said the overhaul would help the party to consolidate its control.
“It will be good for the party to cut its operating costs and increase efficiency by merging offices with overlapping functions,” Zhang said…
 |
| This graphic is interactive in the original post. |
Politics professor Li said the shift reflected Beijing’s growing confidence in the party’s status, even on the global stage.
“China used to follow in the footsteps of the West, but now it’s more confident and doesn’t believe that it has to do certain things via the government.”
But he was not concerned that blurring the line between party and state could result in an over-concentration of power, saying Beijing’s rationale for the reforms was partly to avoid a situation like the collapse of the Soviet Union.
“The Soviet collapse was caused by the separation of the party and the state,” Li said. “The West’s notion of separation of power is not always a good idea.”
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Labels: China, Communist Party, regime
Has the next campaign already begun?
It's difficult to know from this distance, but it might be that the next presidential campaign in Nigeria has begun. The President is being coy about announcing whether he will run, but the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, made corruption charges that implicate the major opposition party.
Jonathan Administration Embezzled N100 Billion, $289 Million Few Weeks to 2015 Elections - Osinbajo
Nigeria's Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, on Monday said N100 billion and a separate $289 million were embezzled by officials of the Goodluck Jonathan administration, a few weeks to the 2015 elections…
 |
| Osinbajo |
The Vice President, who spoke to a cross section of stakeholders in the Nigerian business and economy circle, said the strategic alliance contracts signed by Mr. Jonathan government… were used to embezzle money by the promoters…
"In one single transaction, a few weeks to the elections in 2015, the sum of N100 billion and $289 million in cash were embezzled by a few… When we talk about our economy, we talk about it like it is normal but it is abnormal by every standard, completely abnormal. Nobody should talk about the economy when you have these huge leakages and corruption; corruption that makes what you allocate to capital and infrastructure nonsense," the Vice President said…
Speaking on what went wrong with the Nigerian economy, Mr. Osinbajo said the seed of economic woes the nation faced was planted by the corrupt deals of the former administration…
"But I want to talk about what I think is probably the biggest problem but which we, for some reason, hardly talk about when discussing our National economy. This is grand corruption in the public finance space!"…
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Unifying control of broadcast media
Among the changes approved at the recent National People's Congress was the creation of clear Party controls over the media messages to the world.
Beijing plans to merge state media outlets as it tightens control
China Central Television (CCTV), China National Radio (CNR) and China Radio International (CRI) will be consolidated into a new broadcaster called Voice of China – a nod to federally funded Voice of America in the United States and Germany’s Deutsche Welle…
 |
| Xi greets CCTV workers |
A document introducing the changes… says the consolidated group will sit directly under the State Council, China’s cabinet, and will be led by the party’s Central Propaganda Department.
It also outlines changes to the propaganda unit and the Central Organisation Department – two already powerful agencies that will have even more heft after the revamp.
The propaganda department will absorb the country’s top media watchdog… taking over its regulatory power on news, publications and film…
The changes are part of a structural reform of party and state departments designed to entrench the party’s control over all levers of government and all aspects of life.
According to the document, Voice of China’s main duties will be to “promote the party’s theories, principles and policies”, “coordinate and organise major propaganda coverage”, “strengthen the ability to shape public opinion”, “improve its global communication capabilities”, and “tell the China story well”.
Under Xi, Beijing has also grown increasingly eager to be heard in a world it sees as dominated by Western narratives that are unfair and biased against China…
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Labels: China, Communist Party, media, regime
Friendly press
This is the kind of coverage leaders get when the government owns and runs the news media. [Xinhua, the source of this report, is the government-run news agency in China.]
Xi's election as president fills country with confidence, hope
As a leader who has led China to historic achievements during the past five years, Xi Jinping was elected president again on Saturday amid high expectations.
Both by a unanimous vote, Xi was elected Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) of the People's Republic of China at the ongoing first session of the 13th National People's Congress, the national legislature.
"The result is in line with the will of the people," said Liu Jiaqi, a farmer from the southwestern Chongqing Municipality, and one of the 2,970 national lawmakers who cast their votes at the Great Hall of the People…
During the past five years, Xi has once and again called on the Communist Party of China (CPC) to strive for a "better life" for the people.
Over that period, China has seen its economy expand to more than 82 trillion yuan (13 trillion U.S. dollars) from 54 trillion yuan, with the per capita disposable income growing by 7.3 percent year-on-year in real terms.
More than 68.5 million people had been lifted out of poverty in five years, and the middle-income population has reached 400 million and is still growing…
The Central Leading Group for Deepening Overall Reform, headed by Xi, introduced more than 1,500 measures, including supply-side structural reform, and cutting government red tape and bureaucracy to encourage middle and small-sized businesses.
"It has been a golden time for businessmen, and I'am glad to see that it continues to be so," said Li Xiang, general manager of Huaxing North Automotive Trading Company located in Tianjin Municipality…
Over the past five years, Xi's drastic anti-corruption drive has transformed public life. Every corner of the system was examined, leading to the punishment of more than 1.5 million officials in five years…
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Labels: China, freedom of the press, leadership, politics
Not news
What was Putin's margin of victory? What was the voter turnout? What happens next?
Vladimir Putin wins by big margin
Vladimir Putin will lead Russia for another six years, after securing an expected victory in the presidential election.
A Russian state exit poll gave him 73.9% of the vote, easily defeating his closest competitor…
A state exit poll put the turnout at 63.7%, down on 2012. Mr Putin's campaign had hoped for a large turnout, to give him the strongest possible mandate…
Exit polls, published as soon as voting ended, showed that Mr Putin's closest opponent, Pavel Grudinin, was only projected to win 11.2%…
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Labels: elections, leadership, politics, Russia
New No. 2
Xi gets another term and his buddy gets the #2 spot. (Sound like guanxi to me.)
China anti-corruption chief Wang Qishan named Xi Jinping's deputy
China's parliament [NPC] has endorsed Xi Jinping for a second term and appointed Wang Qishan as his vice-president…
 |
| Wang Qishan |
He is a longstanding ally of President Xi and his elevation is being seen as a further consolidation of the Chinese leader's power.
The recent abolition of term limits for the Chinese presidency extends to the vice-presidency, giving the position greater significance than before…
Mr Wang, 69, has held a number of prominent positions since starting work for the Chinese Communist Party in the 1980s as a policy researcher.
He became mayor of Beijing… in 2003, and was executive chair of the city's Olympic committee…
In 2007, he joined China's Politburo and in 2009 became then-president Hu Jintao's chief negotiator in trade talks with the US.
However, Mr Wang is best known for his most recent post - leading China's anti-corruption investigation…
Mr Wang, reportedly a friend of Mr Xi's from their youth, led the charge - becoming a feared enforcer for the Xi administration…
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Rule of perception
When there is rule of law, it's not difficult to know what the rules are. But if the rules are in the minds of a powerful person, who else knows what the rules are?
Tehran’s Mayor Watched a Dance Recital. Now He’s the Ex-Mayor.
A troupe of young dancing girls throwing rose petals may have ended the career of Tehran’s mayor, who suddenly resigned on Wednesday.
 |
| “A celebration of indecency,”? |
The mayor, Mohammad Ali Najafi, attended a celebration last week amounting to an Islamic version of Mother’s Day. There he encountered six girls dancing in traditional costumes and throwing the rose petals in honor of a female saint.
There is a ban on dancing in public, however, for women in the Islamic republic — and girls older than 9 are regarded as women by clerics, who resist any change in social norms.
Mr. Najafi, a 66-year-old graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who came to lead the capital promising change, did not leave the auditorium when the girls took the stage. A video of the event shows him immersed in paperwork as they twirl around…
[H]ard-liners who saw the video were outraged.
“A celebration of indecency,” the semiofficial Fars news agency wrote of the event.
An influential Friday Prayer leader, Ahmad Alamolhoda, said the dance performance had been planned by enemies set on disgracing the Shiite saint that the event was meant to honor, Fateme Zahra.
Mr. Najafi tried to defend himself. The mayor said that the girls were all younger than 9 and that he regretted that their dance had been a part of the event. But Mr. Alamolhoda was having none of that.
“One cannot argue that these were children,” he said, according to the semiofficial ILNA news agency. “They were young girls who incited arousal. They made the most atrocious movements. This cannot be justified.”…
Mr. Najafi, the first reformist to take on the post since 2005, seemed reined in. His administration did manage to hang billboards across the city honoring famous Iranian women, something unthinkable under the other administrations.
But as often happens in Iranian politics, victory goes to those who most rigidly interpret Islam…
On Wednesday Mr. Najafi handed in his resignation, a City Council member… said Mr. Najafi had resigned because of medical reasons.
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ß
Labels: Iran, politics, rule of law
Wishful thinking
It wasn't long ago that "prosperity created democracy" was an accepted truth in the West. So, if China was more and more economically successful, it would become more and more democratic.
I guess that assumption was wrong.
How the West got China wrong
LAST weekend China stepped from autocracy into dictatorship. That was when Xi Jinping, already the world’s most powerful man, let it be known that he will change China’s constitution so that he can rule as president for as long as he chooses—and conceivably for life. Not since Mao Zedong has a Chinese leader wielded so much power so openly. This is not just a big change for China… but also strong evidence that the West’s 25-year bet on China has failed.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the West welcomed the next big communist country into the global economic order. Western leaders believed that giving China a stake in institutions such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO) would bind it into the rules-based system set up after the second world war (see Briefing). They hoped that economic integration would encourage China to evolve into a market economy and that, as they grew wealthier, its people would come to yearn for democratic freedoms, rights and the rule of law…
China has grown rich beyond anybody’s imagining. Under the leadership of Hu Jintao, you could still picture the bet paying off. When Mr Xi took power five years ago China was rife with speculation that he would move towards constitutional rule. Today the illusion has been shattered…
Start with politics. Mr Xi has used his power to reassert the dominance of the Communist Party and of his own position within it. As part of a campaign against corruption, he has purged potential rivals. He has executed a sweeping reorganisation of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), partly to ensure its loyalty to the party, and to him personally. He has imprisoned free-thinking lawyers and stamped out criticism of the party and the government in the media and online. Though people’s personal lives remain relatively free, he is creating a surveillance state to monitor discontent and deviance.
China used to profess no interest in how other countries run themselves, so long as it was left alone. Increasingly, however, it holds its authoritarian system up as a rival to liberal democracy…
The bet to embed markets has been more successful. China has been integrated into the global economy. It is the world’s biggest exporter, with over 13% of the total…
Yet China is not a market economy and, on its present course, never will be. Instead, it increasingly controls business as an arm of state power. It sees a vast range of industries as strategic. Its “Made in China 2025” plan, for instance, sets out to use subsidies and protection to create world leaders in ten industries, including aviation, tech and energy, which together cover nearly 40% of its manufacturing…
And China uses business to confront its enemies. It seeks to punish firms directly, as when Mercedes-Benz, a German carmaker, was recently obliged to issue a grovelling apology after unthinkingly quoting the Dalai Lama online…
This “sharp power” in commerce is a complement to the hard power of armed force. Here, China behaves as a regional superpower bent on driving America out of East Asia…
What to do? The West has lost its bet on China, just when its own democracies are suffering a crisis of confidence…
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Labels: China, democratization, economics
What about accents and dialects?
How important is a common language to political integration?
UK should set date for everyone to speak English
The government should set a target date for "everybody in the country" to speak English to encourage integration, a former official has said.
Dame Louise Casey, who wrote a report for the government on integration in 2016, said a "common language" would help to "heal rifts across Britain"…
 |
| Dame Louise Casey |
In her 2016 report, Dame Louise recommended providing additional funding for local government to promote English language skills, including prioritising adult skills budgets and providing community-based classes.
But she has criticised the government for not taking any action since its publication.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Westminster Hour, Dame Louise said that integration should be "one of the most significant priorities" for the government and that any more delays to the strategy would be "incredibly frustrating".
She called for "big, bold policies" to tackling issues around integration, including a "very significant boost" in promoting the English language…
Dame Louise said… "I don't care how we've got here, I don't care who can't speak English [and] I don't care what's going on.
"But what I do know is everybody of working age and of school age should be able to speak one language and I think the public in particular would feel some relief."…
She also called for "social-economic splits" to be addressed in the strategy, which she pointed to in her own report.
"It's not only about the tides of immigration and migration and English language, but some of this is about equalities for women, as well as equalities overall, as well as in terms of social and economic disadvantage… "
Conservative MP and former immigration minister Mark Harper… welcomed Dame Louise's recommendations and acknowledged there were concerns about areas of the UK where people cannot speak the language.
He told Westminster Hour: "I think the recommendations she has made are very powerful and I hope the government produces an ambitious strategy."
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Labels: political culture, political integration, UK
Executive power in China
Chris Buckley, writing in
The New York Times, tries to outline Xi Jinping's exercise of power.
How Xi Jinping Made His Power Grab: With Stealth, Speed and Guile
Some 200 senior Communist Party officials [the Central Committee] gathered behind closed doors in January to take up a momentous political decision: whether to abolish presidential term limits and enable Xi Jinping to lead China for a generation.
In a two-day session in Beijing, they bowed to Mr. Xi’s wish to hold onto power indefinitely. But a bland communiqué issued afterward made no mention of the weighty decision, which the authorities then kept under wraps for more than five weeks…
The decision was abruptly announced only last week, days before the annual session of China’s legislature…
The congress is all but certain to approve the change… sweeping away a rule that restricts presidents to two five-year terms and has been in the Constitution for 35 years…
Mr. Xi deployed speed, secrecy and intimidation to smother potential opposition inside and outside the party… He installed loyalists to draft and support the amendments. And he kept the whole process under the tight control of the party, allowing little debate, even internally…
Previous rounds of constitutional amendments in China took much longer and involved at least the trappings of public discussion…
By contrast, Mr. Xi first announced that he wanted to make constitutional changes in December…
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Labels: China, constitution, leadership, politics
Politics within Labour
PM May is struggling with dissent within the Conservative Party. Jeremy Corbyn has similar problems as Labour leader.
The battle of ideas within the Labour Party
The Labour leader was in Coventry, declaring that under his radical left-wing government Britain would remain in a customs union with the EU after Brexit. The Confederation of British Industry, hardly a bastion of socialism, hailed the policy as a “real-world solution”. Rebellious Conservative MPs campaigning for a soft Brexit cheered it…
Two-and-a-half years into the job, Mr Corbyn has never been stronger. Once-mutinous MPs have fallen into line. Corbynites fill crucial positions in the party’s apparatus. Left-wingers dominate Labour councils in London. But Mr Corbyn’s rule is far from absolute…
In some local parties, by contrast, bloody intraparty battles rage. In Haringey, a Labour-run north-London borough, the controversial redevelopment of a run-down housing estate sparked a civil war from which the left wing of the local party emerged victorious. The result was the deselection or resignation of more than 20 Labour councillors…
Outside London… [the battle] has caused barely a ripple in the sea of red that is Labour’s northern urban territory. All 96 of Manchester’s council seats (of which Labour holds 94) are up for election in May…
Labour’s central party apparatus, by contrast, is increasingly stuffed with true believers [Corbyn loyalists]…
Yet although Mr Corbyn’s critics have surrendered control of the party bureaucracy, other battles are still under way… but the philosophical and policy fight is up for grabs”, says one senior Labour MP. The most important battleground is Brexit. This week Mr Corbyn reiterated that Britain “voted to leave the EU, that’s a done deal.” But Labour’s position on the manner of departure is still in flux, as shown by the customs-union shift…
The party’s members are solidly pro-EU: 89% voted to remain, as did 96% of Labour MPs. Among Labour voters, however, the figure was 64%…
Meanwhile, Labour’s softening line on Brexit creates the prospect of splitting the Conservatives, whose contingent of Remain voters is roughly equal to Labour’s Leave minority. Tory rebels have already proposed legislative amendments designed to keep Britain within a customs union, which could inflict a damaging defeat on Theresa May’s government if Labour supports them… Mr Corbyn’s new stance placates those Labour MPs who had demanded he come up with a softer Brexit policy, and creates a potential route to Downing Street should Brexit blow up for the Tories. The Labour leader may not have total control of his party, but he is moving closer to a bigger prize.
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Labels: Brexit, Labour Party, leadership, politics, UK
An executive with Chinese characteristics
The Economist editors, as usual, offer some good explanations of basics.
Xi Jinping decides to abolish presidential term limits
[T]he Communist Party announced its plan to get rid of presidential term limits… Such limits may not matter much in themselves… The presidency is a weak office. Mr Xi could stay in power as the party’s general secretary and military chief, to which term limits do not apply. But the abolition is still important partly because it is the clearest evidence that Mr Xi does, in fact, plan to ignore convention that party chiefs step down after ten years, and keep all of his jobs after 2023. It also pierces the veil of politics and shows what kind of ruler he wants to be. At a time when he is trying to boost China’s image globally as a modern, outward-looking and responsible state, the political system he governs seems premodern, opaque and treacherous.
The system itself is extremely unusual. China has two ladders of authority: the government and the party. The party hierarchy outranks the state one. In other countries, the ministers of finance and foreign affairs (government jobs) are usually the most important ones after the president or prime minister. In China, they are not even in the top 25. Neither man is a member of the Politburo, let alone its inner sanctum, the Politburo Standing Committee. Formally, the People’s Liberation Army is controlled by the party, not the government. In one respect, though, Chinese politics is all too normal. As with other Leninist systems, it is bedevilled by the problem of leadership succession…
In the 1980s, reacting to the chaos of the Mao era, Deng Xiaoping tried to make the system more orderly and predictable by introducing new rules, norms and precedents. These included the reinstitution of the post of president (there had not been one since 1968), along with a two-term limit for the holder of that office as well as the vice-president. Mandatory retirement ages were also introduced… In a speech in 1980 [Deng] said the system should avoid an “over-concentration of power”, which, he warned, was “liable to give rise to arbitrary rule”. He said it should make a clearer separation between the party and the government. And it had to “solve the problem of succession in leadership”…
As the abolition of term limits shows, he failed—or at least, his reforms failed to rein in Mr Xi. Instead of avoiding an over-concentration of powers, the president has made himself chairman of everything. Instead of separating party from state, he has injected party control into areas which had once been relatively free of it, such as private companies…
Mr Xi has used his anti-graft campaign to rid himself of other rivals… This hardly looks like a predictable, orderly system…
So why has he done this? He could have stayed on as general secretary. His ideology, called “Xi Jinping Thought for a New Era”, would still have been in the party’s own charter, giving him the status of final arbiter in any dispute. The answer must be that it is because of the kind of leader he wants to be: with his power on full display, not hidden behind the scenes…
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Labels: China, executive, leadership, politics, state
Socialism with Chinese characteristics: wealth
Rich people, it seems, aren't legislators for the power, but for the protection.
China’s Parliament Is a Growing Billionaires’ Club
In a country where the Communist Party makes all the big decisions, Chinese lawmakers hold very little political power. But they have plenty of money — $650 billion of it — and that’s growing.
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| Beijing street scene |
According to the Hurun Report,… the net worth of the 153 members of China’s Parliament… that it deems “super rich” amounts to $650 billion…
While President Xi Jinping has pledged to close the income gap and alleviate poverty, the wealth of the nation’s lawmakers has kept soaring. In 2017, it topped $500 billion, more than doubling from the year before…
[The NPC session] provides business people with an opportunity to hobnob with one another. The title of delegate also gives them extra cachet in making business deals.
The wealthiest lawmaker is also China’s richest person, Pony Ma, whose net worth is $47 billion. He is the founder of Tencent, which owns WeChat, a social media mobile app that is indispensable in Chinese life. Tencent is now valued at $540 billion, more than Facebook…
The fortunes of China’s entrepreneurs have changed significantly since the Communist Party, which was founded to work for the interests of workers and stamp out capitalism, welcomed business people into the party more than a decade ago…
Victor Shih, an associate professor at the University of California, San Diego, and an expert on money and politics in China, said that being a member of the National People’s Congress “affords a considerable protection for the wealthy.”
“If you’re part of the NPC, you become a state cadre, and so the local police can’t arrest you easily without cause,” he said, referring to the congress.
“That’s not the case for a wealthy person who has no affiliation with the Chinese government, and wealth becomes very vulnerable to predatory action by a local government.”
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Labels: China, cleavages, economics, politics
Mao wannabe? or Yuan wannabe?
Outside commentators are jumping on the bandwagon that is likening Xi Jinping to Mao Zedong's authoritarian and dictatorial ways. We'll have to see how accurate their predictions are.
China’s Censors Ban Winnie the Pooh and the Letter ‘N’ After Xi’s Power Grab
During his more than five years in power, Mr. Xi has cultivated an image as a man of the people — a centered, sympathetic leader who lines up with workers to buy pork buns while also guiding the world’s most populous nation to growth and global influence.
But the move to abolish term limits, announced on Sunday, has resurrected deeper fears in Chinese society, where memories remain of the personality cult of China’s founding father, Mao Zedong, and the fevered emotions and chaos that it conjured.
Anxious to suppress criticism, and maintain an appearance of mass support, the Communist Party’s censors have scoured the internet and social media for content deemed subversive. The sanitizing has included many images of Winnie the Pooh — Mr. Xi is sometimes likened to the cartoon bear — and search terms like “my emperor,” “lifelong” and “shameless.”
For a short time, even the English letter “N” was censored, according to Victor Mair, a University of Pennsylvania professor, apparently to pre-empt social scientists from expressing dissent mathematically: N > 2, with “N” being the number of Mr. Xi’s terms in office…
Retirees who endured the trauma of Mao’s Cultural Revolution are warning of a return to dictatorship. University students are posting quotes from George Washington’s farewell address online. Business executives, concerned about the Communist Party’s growing grip on private enterprises, are hastening plans to relocate overseas…
While some have likened Mr. Xi to Mao, others reached further into Chinese history, comparing Mr. Xi to Yuan Shikai, an early 20th-century warlord who briefly restored China’s monarchy with himself as emperor.
For all the discontent, analysts said it was unlikely anything would block Mr. Xi’s attempts to extend his rule…
For one, much of the frustration over the term-limits plan is limited to the urban elite. Mr. Xi remains immensely popular among farmers and blue-collar workers, as well as a new generation of young nationalists…
For another, Mr. Xi already has an iron grip on Chinese society. A sweeping anticorruption campaign has ensnared tens of thousands of officials and imposed discipline on the Communist Party and other powerful institutions like the People’s Liberation Army… There have also been conspicuously public arrests of lawyers and dissidents…
While the plan to abolish term limits may be one of the most important political decisions in decades, many citizens are simply unaware of it. The decision has been buried inside newspapers and mentioned only in passing on television news shows…
Mr. Xi’s maneuvering has rekindled memories of the Cultural Revolution, the decade-long upheaval instigated by Mao that fractured Chinese society and left more than one million dead.
Many see echoes of Mao’s obsession with power in Mr. Xi, who has placed the ideal of absolute loyalty to the party at the center of everyday life. Like Mao, Mr. Xi has also filled China’s society with political slogans and used propaganda to present himself as the leader needed to guide China to its destiny.
Critics argue that by putting such a personal stamp on power and eliminating the previous collective leadership model, Mr. Xi is setting the stage for a return to the excesses of personal loyalty and fanaticism that nearly tore China apart during Mao’s time…
Others harbor nostalgia for the politics of the Cultural Revolution, which they see as a time of decisiveness and ideological purity. They dismiss criticism of Mr. Xi’s strongman tendencies, saying centralized power is a sign of prosperity and stability…
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Labels: censorship, China, constitution, leadership, politics
No term limits, but other changes might be more significant
An analysis of the proposed constitutional changes described last week.
Please note the referrals to the state (government) and party bureaucracies. Guess who is gaining power.
First term limits ... now Xi Jinping to shake up the state to tighten Communist Party’s grip on government
Chinese President Xi Jinping has kick-started a structural shake-up of the country’s massive party and state bureaucracy, in a push for efficiency and to further entrench the Communist Party’s control of all levers of government.
Xi’s shake-up plan was endorsed by the party’s ruling Central Committee…
It came just days after the announcement of a party proposal to scrap the two-term constitutional limit on the presidency, opening the way for Xi to stay in power beyond the end of his second term in 2023.
The Xinhua report did not detail the reform plan, but stressed the top priority was to fortify the party’s control.
The main task of the overhaul was to “strengthen the party’s full leadership of all areas and all aspects of work, to make sure the party’s leadership is all encompassing and becomes even stronger”, the report said…
Part of the blueprint will be put to the National People’s Congress – the country’s legislature – for formal approval when it convenes its annual meetings next week…
The Xinhua report did not say which government departments would be affected, saying only that the systems for market supervision, natural resources and environmental management, and public service management would be improved…
Wu Qiang, a former Tsinghua University political science professor, said… “The party will not only tighten control over traditional administrative agencies, and economic policymaking, but also social groups,” Wu said. “In particular, it means that the party will deepen its intervention in economic and social affairs.”
Although the details of the changes were not public, Wu said it was very likely that the State Council, China’s cabinet, would continue to wane in a political system ruled by an increasingly powerful party…
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Labels: bureaucracy, China, Communist Party, leadership
Complications of Brexit
Why can't we just leave? (BTW, the headline refers to Engish-language courts, not UK courts.)
Why English courts are opening in the EU
It's English law, in English - but the courtroom is in Paris.
According to French reports, the new "international chamber" is an attempt to capitalise on Brexit and steal London's crown as a global hub for lucrative commercial legal disputes.
Other English-language courts are popping up in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium, with those behind them also talking about seizing opportunities from the UK's departure from the EU.
English courts have long been chosen by companies based all over the world to govern their contracts. So are these new rivals a threat to London's crown?
French justice minister Nicole Belloubet… said in December that the UK's exit from the EU could mean it losing access to a "common judicial space" with the attractiveness of London courts "replaced by other European jurisdictions"…
Key to the warnings about London losing its crown is an EU regulation that allows judgements in one member state to be enforced across the bloc…
Otherwise, rulings made in London may not be automatically recognised in the EU - there could be extra paperwork, confusion about which jurisdiction should hear a case, and an overall loss of certainty…
This will depend on the negotiations between the UK and the EU…
"Just having English language proceedings would not be enough to attract foreign litigants away from England and Wales," Mickaël Laurans, of the Law Society of England and Wales predicted.
However, the French court - which opens on Thursday - will go further than than those in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany by having the power to make rulings on English law…
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Labels: Brexit, courts, UK
China's upper house
China's legislature (the NPC) is unicameral. So what's with this People's Political Consultative Conference that meets the week before the NPC meets?
Well, if you go way back to the post World War II era, when the Communists and the Kuomintang were fighting for control of China, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference was established as a vehicle for communication and negotiation between the warring parties (and all the other parties that were on the scene back then).
In 1949, the Kuomintang was defeated and many of the leaders and soldiers retreated to Taiwan. Mao Zedong and the Communists established the Peoples Republic of China, and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference carried on without the Kuomintang. Until the establishment of the NPC, it was, in essence, the legislature. Some people have suggested that the CPPCC be officially reorganized as the upper house of the NPC.
Today the CPPCC is an advisory group made up of members of the political parties in China and many individuals (mostly rich business people). Meetings began early in March.
China's top political advisory body starts annual session
China's top political advisory body started its annual session Saturday afternoon in Beijing, vowing to take on new mission for the country's goal toward a "great modern socialist country."
Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of the 12th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee [reported to the group]… "We will focus our advice and efforts on the main issues in securing a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and embarking on a journey to fully build a modern socialist China."
He stressed that the top political advisory body shall uphold the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC).
In regards to its future work, the CPPCC would give top priority to studying and applying Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era…
"We will promote the ready acceptance of the leadership of the CPC among all political parties, social groups, and people of all ethnic groups and from all social sectors that participate in the CPPCC, and firmly uphold the core position of General Secretary Xi Jinping," he noted…
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The Comparative Government and Politics Review Checklist.
Two pages summarizing the course requirements to help you review and study for the final and for the big exam in May. . It contains a description of comparative methods, a list of commonly used theories
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Labels: China, history, legislature, politics, state
Banks on the move?
When Brexit comes many things, like banks and broadcasters, will go.
Ireland pushes for UK TV channels to make post-Brexit move
First it was banks; now Ireland is targeting television channels based in the UK who may need to relocate to an EU country after Brexit in order to continue broadcasting across the bloc.
Its foreign investment authority has launched a charm offensive in London with the aim of persuading channels to follow Bank of America and Barclays to locate their EU-regulated HQ in Dublin…
Under cross-frontier broadcasting licensing laws, broadcasters need just one “country of origin” licence in one EU state to be able to broadcast throughout the bloc.
The broadcasting business is, like banking, centred in London with as many as 1,400 channels licensed in the capital, 750 of them broadcasting to another EU country, ranging from Al Jazeera to Disney and Viacom.
And just as banks have had to relocate some of their operations to Frankfurt. Amsterdam, Dublin and Paris in order to retain their “passport” to operate across the EU, broadcasters are now being forced to look at moving in the absence of any Brexit deal to recognise the UK’s licensing system…
Ireland is facing stiff competition for the Brexit spoils. It is understood Belgian authorities have also held events in London for the broadcasting industry, and Luxembourg has been sending letters out to TV chiefs arguing it is a natural home for TV…
Ireland is also targeting the pharmaceutical sector and legal services. It recently secured a deal with Wasdell, a British pharmaceutical company to set up in Dundalk with the promise of 300 jobs over five years in a €30m investment…
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Labels: Brexit, International Organizations, UK
Rule long and prosper
There are many proposed amendments to the Chinese constitution, but outside observers seem to focus on just one: it removes term limits from the current leadership. Is this another sign that President Xi Jinping is aiming to be another Mao?
Proposed constitutional amendment package unveiled
The Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee made public its proposal on amendments to China's Constitution…
- New thought:The CPC Central Committee proposed writing Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era into the country's fundamental law.
- United front: The CPC Central Committee proposed including patriots devoted to national rejuvenation as part of the patriotic united front
- Harmonious relations among all ethnic groups
- Community with shared future for humanity: The expression that China will "adhere to the peaceful development path and the mutually beneficial strategy of opening-up" should be added to the preamble
- CPC leadership: This sentence was proposed to be added to the constitution: "The leadership of the Communist Party of China is the defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics,"
- Core socialist values: The proposal read that the State advocates core socialist values, and the civic virtues of love of the motherland, of the people, of labour, of science and of socialism.
- Oath of allegiance: The CPC Central Committee proposed inclusion of pledging allegiance to the Constitution into the fundamental law
- Chinese President and Vice-President: The CPC Central Committee proposed revising the clause "The term of office of the President and Vice-President of the People's Republic of China is the same as that of the National People's Congress, and they shall serve no more than two consecutive terms" to "The term of office of the President and Vice-President of the People's Republic of China is the same as that of the National People's Congress."
- New cabinet function: ecological advancement will be a new function and power of the State Council, or cabinet
- More cities with legislative power: Chinese cities, with subordinate districts, would be granted the power to make local laws and regulations
- Supervisory commissions: The CPC Central Committee proposed listing the supervisory commissions as a new type of state organs in the Constitution
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Labels: China, constitution, leadership, politics
Just The Facts! 2nd edition is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
