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.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
China has reserved offshore airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts that are usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sunday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. The alerts, known as notice to air missions (NOTAMs), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert
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