The contradictory phenomenon by which China is able to maintain a high economic growth rate and yet also step up state control over the media and basic human rights is likely to continue for the next 10 years, as Beijing's leadership attempts to build China into the world's No. 2 economic power, a China expert from Hong Kong said yesterday.
Willy Lam, professor of China and global studies at Japan's Akita International University and a veteran journalist, yesterday addressed the European Chamber of Commerce in Taipei on the policies that the Chinese leadership uses in the management of its economic development.
Lam, who previously worked at the South China Morning Post and CNN's Hong Kong headquarters, said that the regime of Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) and Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) was trying to transform China into the world's No. 2 power after the US before 2020 by seizing all the economic opportunities available.
Lam said the contradictory phenomenon of China's economic liberalization and its tightening of political control on the Internet and religious freedoms will continue for the foreseeable future.
"There is no light at the end of the tunnel," he said.
Lam said one such contradiction includes an exodus of money belonging to children of high-level Chinese Communist Party (CCP) cadres to Western countries.
"In addition to CCP cadres being the beneficiaries, the US is also a major beneficiary as these contributions from China's high-born children have helped create a real estate boom in California and New York City," Lam said.
He said the reason the offspring of cadres purchase housing in the West is because "None of these high-born kids have faith in the party [CCP] or believe in the `free market with Chinese characteristics' way of development."
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
RSS