Archivo etiqueta «China»
El proceso para la elección de las nuevas élites dirigentes chinas ha iniciado su curso. La celebración del XVIII Congreso del Partido Comunista, en otoño de este año, cerrará el círculo iniciado hace pocos meses y que actualmente transcurre, en lo esencial, en el nivel provincial y local. Aun a sabiendas de que Xi Jinping y Li Keqiang personificarán el relevo, el interés por su desarrollo persiste en la medida en que la renovación será la mayor de los últimos 30 años y que no se descarta alguna sorpresa. De los nueve máximos dirigentes actuales, solo ellos dos permanecerán.
Pese … Seguir leyendo
Chinese dissident writers exiled to the West today get a very different response than Soviet writers received not so long ago.
In 1975, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger advised President Ford not to meet with writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, warning in a memorandum that doing so would offend the Soviet Union. Now, similar views are held not only by pragmatic politicians but also by multinational corporations with large investments in China as well as universities and foundations with inextricable links to China.
The Chinese communist regime’s penetration of the West far exceeds that of the former Soviet Union. In the Cold … Seguir leyendo
It is a deeply ingrained belief in China that a young novice starting out in the real world must earn a degree, or at least spend some time in the West. “Gilding,” or “du-jin” as it’s called in Chinese, boosts the person’s credentials and chances of success. Nowhere is this belief more apparent than in politics. For a new leader, strutting on the White House lawn and shaking hands with the president of the United States validates his status as a true statesman and confirms his country’s rising power.
Ten years ago, China’s current president, Hu Jintao, made the rounds … Seguir leyendo
One hundred years ago, on Feb. 12, 1912, the 6-year-old child emperor of the Qing Dynasty abdicated, ending more than 2,000 years of imperial rule in China. But this watershed moment for modern China will not be widely celebrated in the People’s Republic. The political climate in Beijing is tense as the ruling Communist Party prepares for a secretive transition to the next generation of leaders, with the untested vice president, Xi Jinping, expected to become president. Reminders of past regime change and the end of dynasties are not welcome.
Of course, the current government has little to fear … Seguir leyendo
Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping’s visit this week is an opportunity for the man who is likely to lead China from late 2012 to late 2022 to begin to develop the agenda for that decade with a president who may well serve until January 2017.
Yet this visit comes at a time of growing strategic distrust between China and the United States.
China, despite some problems, remains on a roll. Its economy has rapidly expanded to second-largest in the world, with gross domestic product continuing to advance annually in the high single digits. Its military budget has grown 10-plus … Seguir leyendo
The visit by China’s vice president, Xi Jinping, to Washington this coming week offers a unique opportunity to take the measure of the man who will lead China for the next decade.
While Xi has traveled the world since being anointed Hu Jintao’s designated successor in 2007, he has not been to the United States during this grooming period (he did visit earlier as a provincial official).
This will be a good opportunity for Xi to familiarize himself with America and vice versa. As he is not well known outside of China and enigmatic even inside the country, observers will … Seguir leyendo
En su visita la próxima semana a Estados Unidos, Xi Jinping, que cuenta con la práctica totalidad de los boletos para ser agraciado próximamente como secretario general del PCCH (2012) y presidente de China (2013), encara una agenda apretada y difícil. Xi mantiene una buena sintonía con los dirigentes estadounidenses, no solo políticos. Es conocida su afinidad con Henry Paulson. En las últimas semanas ha mantenido encuentros con Henry Kissinger o Jeb Bush. Es consciente también de la importancia cardinal de las relaciones sinoestadounidenses y de la significación que su hipotético capital personal puede desempeñar como activo para superar las … Seguir leyendo
The Feb. 14 visit to Washington by Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping gives the United States a well-timed opportunity to lay its cards on the table for China’s presumptive next president and Communist Party chairman. With U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke’s recent characterization of China’s human rights situation as “worsening,” the United States should use Mr. Xi’s visit to state unambiguously that a failure to reverse that trend constitutes a serious obstacle to better bilateral relations. The U.S. can take three steps to ensure he gets that Valentine’s Day message.
First, President Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden … Seguir leyendo
Rather a lot of megaphone diplomacy followed the recent UN vote on Syria. Confusion and anger flowed from British and western media. So why did Russia and China veto the UN security council draft resolution on Syria? As Chinese ambassador in the UK, I feel it is timely to give a more measured explanation of why China voted no. Also, I want to explain how together we can, must and should give peace a chance in Syria.
Since day one of this crisis, China has been watching the situation very closely. We have consistently urged all sides to stop … Seguir leyendo
In many ways, China’s decision to join Russia in vetoing the Syria resolution in the United Nations Security Council seems an aberration. The veto not only derailed the latest attempt to pressure the Assad regime to end its bloody crackdown, but also damaged China’s relations with both the West and the Arab League, which sponsored the resolution.
In fact, the most important factor in China’s decision had little to do with Beijing-Damascus ties, and everything to do with its diplomatic cooperation with Moscow.
Since it returned to the United Nations in 1971, China has been sparing in its use of … Seguir leyendo
La celebración del XVIII congreso del Partido Comunista de China (PCCH), previsto para octubre, será el gran acontecimiento político en el gigante asiático este año 2012. La elección de una nueva cúpula dirigente, con Xi Jinping y Li Keqiang a la cabeza, abrirá paso a una nueva generación de líderes que deberá afrontar los grandes desafíos de la presente década, entre ellos la probable culminación general del proceso de modernización iniciado a marchas forzadas en 1978. La plasmación del nuevo modelo de desarrollo y la definición de las bases de una estabilidad sociopolítica renovada serán sus mayores retos en el … Seguir leyendo
China’s behavior during the recent presidential election in Taiwan demonstrates that its leaders have learned some lessons, if only the hard way. They have learned that China can have a greater impact on Taiwanese voters through trade and making people feel richer than by threats – even threats to fire missiles – which had been China’s electoral tactics in previous Taiwanese elections, particularly when a pro-independence candidate looked popular enough to win.
Indeed, fearing the popularity of Lee Teng-hui, who ran in the 1996 presidential election on a pro-independence platform, China’s People’s Liberation Army actually fired missiles close to the … Seguir leyendo
From July 2005 until this past December, China’s renminbi (RMB) appreciated steadily. But then the RMB fell unexpectedly, hitting the bottom of the daily trading band set by the Peoples’ Bank of China (PBoC) for 11 sessions in a row. Though the RMB has since returned to its previous trajectory of slow appreciation, the episode may have signaled a permanent change in the pattern of the exchange rate’s movement.
As long as China was running a trade surplus and receiving net inflows of foreign direct investment, the RMB remained under upward pressure. Short-term capital flows had little impact on the … Seguir leyendo
Long the most fragmented nation on earth, China is being brought together like never before by a new connectivity. Its Internet community is expanding at hyper speed, with profound implications for the Chinese economy, to say nothing of the country’s social norms and political system. This genie cannot be stuffed back in the bottle. Once connected, there is no turning back.
The pace of transformation is breathtaking. According to Internet World Stats, the number of Internet users in China has more than tripled since 2006, soaring to 485 million in mid-2011 – more than three times that in 2006. Moreover, … Seguir leyendo
China celebró el pasado octubre el primer centenario de la revolución de Xinhai. Fue en 1911 cuando tardíamente puso fin a siglos de feudalismo, abriendo camino a un nuevo republicanismo que aportaría la modernización pendiente. El gigante oriental giró 180 grados con el objetivo de “aprender de Occidente para salvar a China”, aspiración que venía movilizando las mayores y mejores energías del país desde finales del siglo XIX.
Sin renegar al completo de ella, para la China continental de hoy, la revolución de 1911 se asoció a su rival Kuomintang (KMT), la fuerza nacionalista que vertebró dicho movimiento bajo el … Seguir leyendo