President Hu Jintao (
"One area where there might be a change is in foreign policy," Lyman Miller, from the Hoover Institute of Stanford University who edits the China Leadership Monitor, said. "The idea of the peaceful rise of China was used in speeches last year by both Hu Jintao and [Premier] Wen Jiabao (
Miller said it was difficult to analyze what this meant "but it seems that there has been some contention over what this idea means with respect to relations with the United States and Taiwan."
Ostensibly the idea of a peaceful rise of an increasingly powerful China would entail the peaceful settlement of the Taiwan issue.
But it was unclear if this meant Beijing would back down from its threat to take the island by force should it declare independence.
"I don't expect great changes in either Sino-US relations or cross-strait relations, at least in the short run, but I think Hu is likely to focus more on resolving Chinas socio-economic difficulties than confronting the US," said Joseph Fewsmith, a China expert at Boston University.
On Hong Kong, Hu may be freer to address increasing demands for democracy, but it would likely only come in the context of the intra-party democratic reforms that he is already trying to pursue domestically.
"Hu's coming into power bodes well for Hong Kong and to a certain extent Taiwan," said Paul Harris, a specialist on Chinese politics at Hong Kong's Lingnan University.
"It's still a big question whether he can consolidate his power and carry out his reforms and whether or not he will experiment more with democracy, but the Hong Kong elections [earlier this month] showed that you can have elections and still maintain control," Harris said.
Gilles Guiheux, director of the Hong Kong-based French Center for the Study of Contemporary China, said the image Hu has already projected -- of a down-to-earth leader concerned with the problems of ordinary people -- could blossom more now.
"There was no way for Hu Jintao to become pragmatic on the Hong Kong issue while Jiang Zemin was around because issues relating to sovereignty and nationalism were issues that politically he could not compromise on because of the leadership struggle," he said.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
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