Posted on 03/08/2019 10:34:15 AM PST by SeekAndFind
When China’s president Xi Jinping presided over the country’s rubber stamp parliament last year, he scrapped term limits to consolidate power and spouted rhetoric about the country’s juggernaut status. To the world, he looked an unstoppable strong man.
This year, Mr Xi will stride into the Great Hall of the People in far tougher times – the economy is seeing its poorest economic growth in nearly three decades, hampered by a protracted trade war with the US.
Beijing is also seeing the first signs of a backlash over its 'Belt and Road' plan - an infrastructure-led plan intended to boost its global clout - as partner countries cancel or reconsider previously agreed projects over debt concerns.
Foreign governments are meanwhile pressuring Beijing on everything from espionage to human rights.
“People are going into this now, not with a positive sense that China is really arriving, but with this concern of, 'are the wheels going to come off the bus?', or 'are things going to be ok?'” said Benjamin Cavender, a principal at China Market Research, a consultancy.
“They’re in damage control mode right now.” Mr Xi will need to seize the opportunity to reassure the nation by sending the right message, even though this year’s “lianghui”, meaning “two sessions”, is expected again to be a highly scripted piece of political theatre – big on pomp and circumstance with no major surprises.
“There’s a lot of anxiety at the moment, so I suspect this year will really be about this oasis of calm in the midst of a typhoon of uncertainty,” said Kerry Brown, professor of China studies at King’s College London.
“Whether people buy into that or not, the show will go on.” The annual meeting will see 3,000 delegates gather in Beijing to discuss political and economic policy,
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
The Trump Curse is beginning to hit the ChiCom elites very hard.
Why would Xi even give a rats? If anyone in Red China complains, he’ll just have them gunned down in the streets.
Yogi Bear can’t steal any Picnic Baskets ?
Does that make me a bad person?
I’ve not seen any effect whatsoever from a trade war with China.
It would take a billion bullets. At some point, the press will find out.
The guy has to eat sometime. Unless he’s going to grow, process, and cook his own chow, then he’ll be poisoned.
It’s an ocean of people. No one man controls the tide.
I hope the Chinese economy implodes.
NB: You can never get up if you are holding the other SOB down.
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