In Moscow on 22 March 2023 Chinese President Xi Jinping told Russian President Vladimir Putin that ‘Right now there are changes — the likes of which we haven’t seen for 100 years — and we are the ones driving these changes together.’ Leaving the hyperbole aside, there is evidence that many of certainties of the Western-led … more
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, a curtain has risen on an engrossing theatre of international relations. The spotlight has swivelled towards China. In May, China cast a surprising vote in the UN General Assembly, supporting a resolution that described Russia as the aggressor in the conflict—a term that China had previously … more
Informal economic sanctions reinforced by state-sponsored consumer boycotts have made the Chinese market volatile for multinational corporations (MNCs) over the past decade. MNCs must be careful not to offend Beijing and nationalists in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Nonetheless, a definition of what it means to ‘offend China’ 辱華 is rather elusive. Examples range … more
At the Communist Party of China (CPC) Congress in October 2022, Xi Jinping was confirmed for a third term as the Party’s General Secretary. The Party had already passed a historic resolution the year before — only the third in its 100-year history — establishing Xi as the ‘core of the central committee and of … more
The Party Congress 中国共产党全国代表大会 is the most important meeting in the calendar of activities of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Since 1977, one has been held every five years. Before that, they were less regular. Delegates to the congress formalise changes to the Party’s leadership, review the previous five years, and set policy directions … more
At the Twentieth National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), not a single woman was elected to the Politburo. Women’s participation in Chinese elite politics has stalled as men continue to dominate political power. The systemic underrepresentation of women in China’s elite politics clashes with the Party’s propaganda about increasing ‘the proportion of … more
Two things stand out to us when thinking about public protests in today’s People’s Republic of China (PRC). First, although it is easy for outsiders to view the PRC as having become such a tightly controlled, surveilled, and censored place that there is no room for dissent, this has never been the case — as … more
Earlier this year, thousands of angry depositors stormed the Henan office of China’s central bank. The cause was a classic bank-run trigger: people were unable to retrieve their deposits. Two things about this protest were particularly noteworthy. First, it was directed at some of the less known Village and Township Banks 村镇银行 that rarely enter … more
In a rare survey of Chinese public opinion on the Russia-Ukraine War conducted by the Carter Center in March-April 2022, we can identify two highly significant findings: first, the majority (around 75 percent) of respondents believed that supporting Russia was beneficial to China’s national interest; second, the consumption of national state media and the use … more
Amid Taiwanese aspiration, Chinese rage, and regional concern over whether the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, would visit Taiwan, she arrived on 2 August. The most senior US official to travel to Taiwan in a decade and the first sitting speaker to do so in twenty-five years, her itinerary was … more
