China's National People's Congress opens this week with the top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CPP) anxious to avoid trouble ahead of the Olympics, even as they lay foundations for the next big generational change.
The 3,000-member congress, which convenes for its annual full session from Wednesday, is a vital cog in a political machinery that may wield crushing power, but only as long as society around it is peaceful.
"Especially this year, 2008, with the Olympic Games in Beijing, the priority for the Chinese leadership will still be stability," said Yang Jiang, a China specialist at University of Auckland.
"So I don't expect any substantial political reform or progress this year," he said.
Despite the extreme caution from the Chinese leaders they cannot stop the political calendar. Important changes are coming up and must be dealt with, Olympics or no Olympics.
Most crucially, the fourth generation of leaders around President Hu Jintao (
Nothing seems written in stone yet, but most observers would bet their money on 54-year-old Xi Jinping (
This would put him on track to take over the presidency along with other key positions from Hu in five years' time, making him the world's second-most powerful man by mid-2013.
There are emerging signs already that Xi is on the way to greater things. He heads the CCP secretariat, the central committee's "front office," a position of unique value in creating personal networks.
"The one who is in charge of party affairs is the heir ... the one who will take over from Hu Jintao," said Zhang Xin (
As the sun sets on another scorching Yangon day, the hot and bothered descend on the Myanmar city’s parks, the coolest place to spend an evening during yet another power blackout. A wave of exceptionally hot weather has blasted Southeast Asia this week, sending the mercury to 45°C and prompting thousands of schools to suspend in-person classes. Even before the chaos and conflict unleashed by the military’s 2021 coup, Myanmar’s creaky and outdated electricity grid struggled to keep fans whirling and air conditioners humming during the hot season. Now, infrastructure attacks and dwindling offshore gas reserves mean those who cannot afford expensive diesel
Does Argentine President Javier Milei communicate with a ghost dog whose death he refuses to accept? Forced to respond to questions about his mental health, the president’s office has lashed out at “disrespectful” speculation. Twice this week, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni was asked about Milei’s English Mastiff, Conan, said to have died seven years ago. Milei, 53, had Conan cloned, and today is believed to own four copies he refers to as “four-legged children.” Or is it five? In an interview with CNN this month, Milei referred to his five dogs, whose faces and names he had engraved on the presidential baton. Conan,
French singer Kendji Girac, who was seriously injured by a gunshot this week, wanted to “fake” his suicide to scare his partner who was threatening to leave him, prosecutors said on Thursday. The 27-year-old former winner of France’s version of The Voice was found wounded after police were called to a traveler camp in Biscarrosse on France’s southwestern coast. Girac told first responders he had accidentally shot himself while tinkering with a Colt .45 automatic pistol he had bought at a junk shop, a source said. On Thursday, regional prosecutor Olivier Janson said, citing the singer, that he wanted to “fake” his suicide
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirmed his pledge to replace India’s religion-based marriage and inheritance laws with a uniform civil code if he returns to office for a third term, a move that some minority groups have opposed. In an interview with the Times of India listing his agenda, Modi said his government would push for making the code a reality. “It is clear that separate laws for communities are detrimental to the health of society,” he said in the interview published yesterday. “We cannot be a nation where one community is progressing with the support of the Constitution while the other