Free Republic

Ren Zhiqiang, known as “The Cannon,” in the past has been one of the most prominent critics of Xi. Saturday morning his friends reported him missing, according to the Times. “We’re very worried about him,” Wang Ying, a retired entrepreneur and friend of Mr. Ren’s told the Times. “I will continue to look for him.”

Despite China’s incredible economic success as of late, it’s important to remember that it is still fundamentally a communist country. Recent events have been a stern reminder. Freedom can be messy, but it’s nothing like the mess an authoritarian regime creates when it fears losing power. The disturbing outbreak of the coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in China and the communist government’s response to it should be a reminder of the consequence of a system based on state control, without rule by the people and a vibrant civil society. Many are impressed by the fact that China built a 1,000-bed hospital in 10...

There is a lot written about China these days and most of it is correct in describing that country as nasty, aggressive and a threat to civilization. President Xi wants to be emperor of the whole world and could see a path to achieving that. But he has kicked a couple of own goals that will help preclude that from happening. Xi’s first own goal was to suppress privately owned business activity in favour of state-owned companies. Workers in state-owned companies have about a third of the productivity of those in businesses run by their private owners. Beyond that, his...

China is rapidly redefining itself as a rogue nation, too dangerous to stay in bed with as an integral part of the world economy. Reuters, no ally of the anti-globalists and populists shaking up politics in the US, UK, and elsewhere, reports: Chinese President Xi Jinping warned top officials last week that efforts to contain the new coronavirus had gone too far, threatening the country’s economy, sources told Reuters, days before Beijing rolled out measures to soften the blow. (snip) After reviewing reports on the outbreak from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and other economic departments, Xi...

On February 4, Cui Tiankai, China’s ambassador to the United States, prepared to address an audience of students, scholars, and businesspeople in San Diego, California. Before the ambassador could speak, a young Chinese man stood up and yelled, “Xi Jinping, step down!” Security quickly whisked the man away, and the event went on. A handful of similar calls for the resignation of Chinese President Xi Jinping have popped up on the Chinese Web in recent weeks, from citizens who accuse the country’s leadership of bungling the state’s response to the deadly coronavirus that has spread throughout the country. Like the...

...Every country is engaged in the construction and reconstruction of a usable past within a continuous history. For China today, that task is distinctively important, multi-faceted, and difficult. China’s history is extremely long and immensely complex. The People’s Republic of China that was established in 1949 self-consciously marked a new beginning, and it defined itself in part in opposition to China’s past... ...Mao himself is now part of China’s history, and reconstructing and interpreting Mao is part of what China’s leaders must do today. (They do not yet seem prepared to re-interpret the Tiananmen events of 1989, but almost surely...

After six months of protests in Hong Kong, the new year has brought more chaos, with Tsai Ing-wen winning an election in Taiwan and disease spreading in Wuhan. Perhaps President Xi Jinping should recognise that China needs new leadership. The new year has only brought more chaos: in addition to Tsai’s victory, China faces an outbreak of a coronavirus in Wuhan – which has now spread to Japan, and elsewhere – just as the Lunar New Year holiday is beginning. While a ceasefire in the trade war has ostensibly been declared, the phase one deal required concessions from Beijing and...

Billionaire George Soros said he will commit $1 billion to start a global university to fight authoritarian governments and climate change, calling them twin challenges that threaten the survival of our civilization. The Open Society University Network will offer an international platform for teaching and research, the 89-year-old said Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The university will be launched through a partnership of the Soros-backed Central European University and Bard College. “As a long-term strategy our best hope lies in access to quality education, specifically an education that reinforces the autonomy of the individual by cultivating...

There were no champagne corks popping, no crystal balls dropping in Wang Yi's new year. The pastor of Early Rain Covenant Church was in prison, spending his second January 1st in a dark cell, charged with a crime Americans commit every day: worshipping Jesus. The actual allegations were much more subtle -- things like "illegal business activities" or "inciting subversion of state power." But in China, government officials need no excuse. Christians, like Uyghurs, Falun Gong, and any other men and women of faith, are fair game. "Where are you taking my husband?" a woman pleads on a cell phone...

As China struggles to deal with the slowdown of the world’s second-largest economy, it has embarked on a new strategy of placing financial experts in provinces to manage risks and rebuild regional economies. Since last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping has put 12 former executives at state-run financial institutions or regulators in top posts across the nation’s 31 provinces, regions and municipalities, including some who have grappled with banking and debt difficulties that have raised fears of a financial meltdown. Only two top provincial officials had such financial background before the last leadership reshuffle in 2012, according to Reuters research....

Exclusive: China considers delay of key party congress: sources By Benjamin Kang Lim and Nick Edwards BEIJING | Tue May 8, 2012 5:28pm EDT (Reuters) - China's ruling Communist Party is seriously considering a delay in its upcoming five-yearly congress by a few months amid internal debate over the size and makeup of its top decision-making body, sources said, as the party struggles to finalize a once-in-a-decade leadership change. The two most senior posts, of president and premier, are not considered in much doubt. But any delay in the congress, no matter the official reason, would likely fuel speculation of...

FULL TITLE: Momentum grows for dropping 'President' from title of China's leader; Remove 'veneer' of legitimacy The Trump administration, with a simple change in rhetoric, has signaled a subtle shift in its approach to China in recent weeks — and in the process has deepened a rift with the Communist Party leadership in Beijing. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a major foreign policy speech late last month in which he referred to Chinese leader Xi Jinping as “general secretary” rather than “president.” The seemingly minor tweak, national security sources and analysts say, carries a much deeper meaning and suggests...

Remember when President Barack Obama was running around telling everyone how he’d convinced China to get serious about cutting its carbon dioxide emissions? A new report shows that Obama was easily duped. Over the course of three years, Obama met with Chinese President Xi Jinping to, he said, agree to “climate targets” (in 2014), “lay out additional actions” (in 2015), and sign the Paris Agreement (2016). In typical Obama understatement, he declared that “we may see this as the moment that we finally decided to save our planet.” Of course, anyone who looked at what China was promising could see...

Unprecedented leaked documents confirm the Chinese Communist Party is committing ethnic cleansing, and lying about it to its own people and the world. The New York TimesÂ’ Asia correspondents Austin Ramzy and Chris Buckley dropped a bombshell last Saturday by reporting on the Xinjiang Papers, a 403-page collection of reportedly classified documents including speeches by Chinese leader Xi Jinping and other Communist Party officials on plans to carry out the massive incarceration of the Uyghur Muslim minority in Xinjiang and government directives instructing local officials how to coerce Uyghur students to return home with lies and threats.The leak of such...

Taiwan News, established in 1949, recently carried an article saying President Xi's daughter, having graduated from Harvard in 2014, is now back there. And that it is likely for her own safety.  The safe space movement at Harvard peaked in 2016 and is still doing things to make its students feel less threatened.  But Xi Mingze would not feel threatened by old paintings of long -dead white men, as some other Harvard students are. Her father charmed his way to the top job in China and once there consolidated his position by eliminating his rivals in an anti-corruption campaign.  Then he had...

Since President Donald Trump took office, his administration has secured the release of 17 prisoners foreign governments had detained. “We’ve had 17 released, and we’re very proud of that record. Very proud. And we have others coming,” Trump said Saturday evening as he welcomed home Joshua Holt, an American citizen who had been detained in Venezuela for two years without trial. Unlike his predecessor, the president has managed to bring these prisoners home without freeing terrorists or paying millions of dollars in suspected ransom payments. 1. Sabrina De Sousa: Portuguese-American Sabrina De Sousa, a former CIA agent, was arrested and...

Breaking News: A deal reached in Ecuador tonight between President Lenin Moreno and opposition leaders of indigenous groups..... A relative calm on the littered streets of Quito, Ecuador with military forces and police.... Its been a weekend of subdued protest in Hong Kong, but China's president offered up tough remarks on a visit to Nepal...... Extra police deployed in Catalonia amid concern over the verdicts for 12 leaders of the region.... The Turkish president speaking in Istanbul rejecting any offers of mediation with Kurdish side...... Another significant development related to Syria is the agreement between the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces...

For a profile in courage, consider a very significant move by the Trump administration this week in defense of Muslims. Just days before taking up new trade talks with China, the administration announced a dramatic stand in defense of up to 2 million Chinese Muslims in concentration camps and against companies that are using their technology to spy on the Chinese in their daily lives. Not that I expect the media to give the president and his administration points for defending the religious liberty of people around the world, but when you consider that the NBA couldn't find the character...

For several years, I was vice president of the US-China Strategic Review Commission, and we spent a lot of time with the top experts. We all generally agreed that China would grow larger and more powerful, but the central question was whether this would be a peaceful transformation or a violent one. Very few of these people (almost all men) thought China could get through the transition without some sort of violent convulsion, as we see today. Chinese unification has long been a challenge to the chiefs of their dynasties, and today there are three big areas that seek...

As a confrontation between Hong Kong protesters and Chinese authorities escalates, Donald Trump has decided to turn up the heat a little himself. Trump had been oddly quiet about the pro-democracy protests in China’s administrative state, even though they have adopted the American flag as one of their symbols of protest. Over the last twenty-four hours, however, Trump has used his Twitter feed to urge Xi Jinping to have a “personal meeting” with protesters to resolve the standoff — and hinted at US trade action if Xi plans any other kind of response.This began last night: I know President...