For traders, offering the right credit together with the product is worthwhile. Car dealerships and electronics stores have been doing so for a long time. China AG is now using this business model to sell the construction of an entire metropolis for six million inhabitants with a parliament building and presidential palace. In Egypt, Chinese companies are building a new capital city – paid for with Silk Road loans. What about the Danaans?
The Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) is once again the cause of nervousness. The parliament in Brussels is showing a united front against Beijing’s strong-arming. And although associations and foundations are not actually part of the treaty, the German Engineering Federation, VDMA, fears being affected by disadvantages. This is remarkable because Germany wanted the treaty with China to secure better conditions in China for precisely such industries.
The Chinese Communist Party was founded on July 23, 1921. The comrades traditionally celebrate their anniversary on July 1 – this time, on the occasion of the great centenary, especially lavishly. We’re highlighting various aspects of this remarkable party in a series to mark the occasion. Today, Johnny Erling kicks things off by giving us a guide to reading the CP’s official historiography. Its focus is – of course – on Xi Jinping, who occupies much more space in it than Mao or Deng. Like the Vatican, the party presents itself as virtually infallible, including glossing over the disasters of its past.
The timetable was ambitious: After the political agreement on the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) at the end of December, Brussels had targeted its ratification for spring 2022. Now things are burning on several fronts. As expected, the European Parliament stopped working on the agreement on Thursday because of the sanctions from Beijing. The MEPs passed a resolution on the matter that was quite a challenge. In it, they demanded the withdrawal of the punitive measures. Although such resolutions are not legally binding, they reflect the positions of the EU Parliament. It has the right to vote on this matter. The resolution received a broad majority: 599 MEPs voted in favor, 30 against, and 58 abstained. These are the most important statements:
Parliamentarians have thus put up a cross-party front against Beijing’s strong-arming. “The signal from the European Parliament is clear. The CAI negotiations will be frozen and remain in the fridge until the Chinese side makes a move,” FDP European politician Moritz Körner told China.Table. “With its sanctions, China has miscalculated. The Chinese leadership should learn from its mistakes and rethink,” said the Chairman of the EU Parliament’s China delegation, Reinhard Bütikofer (Greens), on the vote.
EU Parliament circles consider it rather unlikely that the position of the European Parliament will change shortly. A potential “peace offer” from China, in which the sanctions are not withdrawn but simply not implemented, would thus also be without effect. However, according to observers, there is currently no sign that Beijing might consider publicly dropping the sanctions – the stalemate remains.
The treaty partner China reacted quickly to the EU Parliament’s dismissive decision. The agreement was “not a gift given by one side to the other,” China’s EU mission announced on Twitter late Thursday night, stressing: “China’s decision to take countermeasures is a legitimate response to the EU’s unilateral sanctions and confrontation.” China, it said, “always has the sincerity to promote cooperation with the EU.”
The EU Commission is also under increasing pressure on another front (China.Table reported). A controversial paragraph in the CAI on dealing with non-profit organizations is unsettling German foundations, NGOs, and associations. In a briefing on Friday, the EU Commission will provide answers to questions from foundation and association representatives, China.Table confirmed.
The German Engineering Federation (VDMA), for example, is concerned about the impact the paragraph could have on its offices in Beijing and Shanghai. According to their statements, other German trade associations with representative offices in the People’s Republic are also concerned about the passage. There is a general lack of understanding as to why non-profit organizations should appear in an investment agreement at all. According to representatives of foundations and associations, clarification from Brussels is expected at today’s meeting.
Where Africa’s tallest building, the Iconic Tower, is currently built, there was nothing but the desert only three years ago. Then excavators and other heavy equipment from China’s State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) moved in and began their work. The 585-meter office building is scheduled for completion in January of next year.
The Iconic Tower is not the only mega-building that China is currently erecting in Egypt. The People’s Republic is the Egyptian government’s most important partner in the construction of its new capital, which is built around 35 kilometers east of Cairo. The Iconic Tower, reminiscent of an obelisk, is one of 20 high-rise buildings that are to form the business center of the New Administrative Capital. Chinese banks are providing the $3 billion loans, and CSCEC is handling the construction work. In addition, China is financing and building a monorail between Cairo and the new capital for $1.2 billion.
What Egyptian construction companies could hardly manage in such a short time is no problem for the Chinese company. CSCEC is China’s largest construction company. In the past decades, it has gained enough experience to make huge skylines spring up like mushrooms in its own country. Almost every time China tackles a major project abroad, CSCEC is involved. Hundreds of Chinese workers are scurrying alongside local forces on the construction sites of the new Egyptian capital to ensure that everything is completed as quickly as possible.
Although the Covid pandemic caused some delays, the first residents are expected to move into the new Egyptian capital this summer. It is supposed to become home to more than 6.5 million people in a few years. The metropolis of Cairo, which has long been home to more than 20 million people, should thus be relieved. Egyptian civil servants will be rewarded with lavish special payments when they move to the new seat of government.
In addition to a new parliament and a presidential palace, the new Egyptian capital will also be home to the country’s largest airport. In addition, there will be an entertainment district and a city park three times the size of New York’s Central Park. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi speaks of the “birth of a new state” in connection with his new city. He also means an Egypt that maintains closer ties with China than ever before in its history.
Beijing and Cairo had been close for a long time. In 1956, under nationalist leader Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egypt became the first country in the Middle East and Africa to recognize the People’s Republic of China. Former President Hosni Mubarak was one of the first foreign leaders to visit Beijing after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. Close ties have been further deepened under current President al-Sisi. He has made six trips to Beijing since taking office in 2014 after a coup ousted the country’s first democratically elected president, Mohammed Mursi.
Beijing has significantly increased its investments since al-Sisi came to power in 2014. According to a study by the Africa Center at Johns Hopkins University, the country received nearly $5 billion in Chinese money between 2015 and 2019, compared to only around $280 million between 2002 and 2014.
Chinese money is flowing and the new capital is far from the only project in which Beijing is involved. Another example is the special economic zone TEDA Egypt on the Red Sea, whose expansion Cairo and Beijing have been pushing for years.
The area, which is described by its creators as “Egypt’s first Chinese city,” was planned based on a model in the eastern Chinese port city of Tianjin. There, in 1984, the Chinese government approved the Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Area (TEDA), one of China’s first special economic zones in which foreign investors enjoy special advantages. In the meantime, more than 3,300 companies have settled in the original TEDA in China, including global companies such as Airbus, Volkswagen, and Continental.
Unlike Tianjin, however, the Egyptian special economic zone is likely to attract fewer Western companies in the future, but mainly Chinese corporations that want to do business in Egypt. So far, China’s state news agency Xinhua reported in January, 96 companies settled or invested in TEDA Egypt. More than 30,000 jobs have been created.
For Beijing, political factors naturally play a role in its generous lending and economic development programs in other states. In the case of Egypt, China hopes to strengthen its influence in North Africa and the Middle East through good relations. So it wouldn’t be so bad if not every investment paid off. But it is likely that Egypt will nevertheless yield a decent return for China. Hardly any other nation is predicted to grow as strongly in the coming years. The North African country was one of the few nations in the world whose economy expanded last year despite the Covid pandemic.
Moreover, Egypt has no choice but to build new cities and massively expand its infrastructure. For example, the population is expected to grow from around 100 million at present to 130 million by 2030 alone. Housing and new jobs need to be created every year. So the building boom continues, and China, whose own population is aging and growing ever more slowly, is on board. Gregor Koppenburg/Joern Petring
On July 1, the Communist Party of China (CPC), founded in 1921, is staging its centenary as a very big spectacle. To mark the occasion, the world’s sole ruling and most populous CP published its new “Short History of the Communist Party of China” (中国共产党简史). Its final chapter on Party leader Xi Jinping as China’s new strongman alone accounts for about 25 percent of the content. Instead, there is no longer a separate chapter on the Cultural Revolution.
A “short” history is an understatement at 531 pages. Thanks to 92 million party members, however, the book is already a bestseller despite the heavy fare. China’s party history once took the somewhat misleading title from the Soviet Union. In 1938, the “History of the CPSU (B) – A Short Course” had been published for the first time. Scoffers attributed the adjective “short” to the radical revision of each new edition. Party leaders who had fallen out of favor were cut out. This went well until the CPSU itself evaporated with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Since then, only China’s party holds up the flag. Every ten years, it published its own “Short History.” None of the editions published since 1991, however, have been changed as much as the current new version. Although Xi has only been leading the 100-year-old party for barely ten years, he gets the starring role. Under the heading “China’s Special Socialism Enters a New Age,” the chapter on Xi fills a quarter of the book. It ends in 2021 with his outlook for the year 2035, when China is supposed to have reached the next milestone on its long march to becoming a world power, which is planned to last until 2050. To achieve these goals, it must be “socialistically modernized” by 2035, lead the way in all high-tech areas, and upgrade its military to world-class standards.
So there is still a lot for the soon-to-be 67-year-old Xi to do. As the founder of the “new era,” he ensured that he continues to rule China without a time limit by amending the constitution and party statute. All he has to do is have it approved by the 20th party congress in 2022.
How do you read between the lines in China’s party history abroad? Beijing helps, at least linguistically. According to Xinhua, it is currently translated non-stop into seven world languages by 40 translators. For the first time, it is also illustrated. For starters, five color portraits show who among the numerous CP leaders since 1921 survived party ideology. In historical order, Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and Xi greet us, but Xi comes first regarding the number of photos in the book (12) – even before Mao (11). The others account for only half as many pictures. The three-way split gives further clues when it comes to the merits of the party leaders: Mao made himself immortal because he made the People’s Republic “stand up,” just as reform architect Deng did because he made China “become rich.” Xi, however, is making the nation “strong.” ( 站起来-富起来-强起来).
Under him, “never before in its history has China moved so close to the center of the world stage as it is today,” and “never before has it been so close to the rebirth of its nation as it is today.” That, he said, has an impact both internally and externally. China trumpets Xi’s November 2014 proclamation to the CC’s Foreign Affairs Committee: From now on, China “must pursue its own special great power foreign policy.” Deng’s famous warning to his compatriots to keep a cool head and “hide their light under a bushel” (韬光养晦) is no longer up to date.
The most serious change in the new Party History is its relativizing account of the Cultural Revolution (1966 -1976). Unlike the previous volumes, which still condemned Mao’s disastrous policies in separate chapters, the new edition suffices just 20 pages to describe and reassess the persecution campaigns under the heading: “Explorations in Building Socialism and Its Development in Twists and Turns.”
To be sure, leftist despotism occurred, and serious mistakes were made. Millions were persecuted unjustly. But the chairman would have erred in good faith to explore new ways to build socialism. Even Mao’s justifications are reprinted. He wanted the Cultural Revolution to “protect China from the danger of capitalist restoration and eliminate corruption, privilege and bureaucracy in the Party and government.”
Listing the major military, scientific and economic achievements of the 1966-1976 period, the new Party History attempts to prove that the catastrophe was not so bad after all. The 2001 Party History, on the other hand, said that all the progress “should in no way be regarded as the success of the Cultural Revolution, but on the contrary, were achieved because those in charge resisted the disruptions caused by the Cultural Revolution.” (当然，这一切决不是 “文化大革命 “的成果，恰恰相反，是抵制 “文化大革命 “的干扰而取得的.) Also in 2001, it was said that “Mao Zedong bears the main responsibility for the leftist long-lasting mistakes made everywhere in the Cultural Revolution.”
Now the party is “correct” again and always has been. Where it made mistakes, it corrected them itself. Immediately after taking office, Xi demanded that a line should be drawn under the different ways of dealing with Mao’s 30-year rule from 1949 to 1978 and the 30-year reform period that followed. He said, the two developments should not be played off against each other but should be of one piece. On Jan. 15, 2013, Xi delivered the speech in question. It is included in his new book: “Xi Jinping: On the History of the Communist Party.” It is the counterpart to the “Short History.” Xi sets the course. To make his role even more conspicuous, a complementary anthology of the other leaders was published as a separate reading: “Mao, Deng, Jiang and Hu on the History of the Communist Party.”
Reading the “short” 100-year history leaves one with an uneasy feeling. The cult of CP leader Xi, the glorification of the party, and the tabooing of any critic coming to terms with the past cast a dark shadow over China’s future development as a responsible world power.
Wedding in white? No, in red! At this mass ceremony in the western Chinese city of Zhongyi, dozens of couples got married at the same time. Incidentally, the occasion for the traditional ritual was not only one of the Chinese Valentine’s Days, because the date 5/20 (wǔ èr líng) sounds remotely like “I love you” in Mandarin, but also World Bee Day, which falls on May 20. The region produces honey.
For traders, offering the right credit together with the product is worthwhile. Car dealerships and electronics stores have been doing so for a long time. China AG is now using this business model to sell the construction of an entire metropolis for six million inhabitants with a parliament building and presidential palace. In Egypt, Chinese companies are building a new capital city – paid for with Silk Road loans. What about the Danaans?
The Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) is once again the cause of nervousness. The parliament in Brussels is showing a united front against Beijing’s strong-arming. And although associations and foundations are not actually part of the treaty, the German Engineering Federation, VDMA, fears being affected by disadvantages. This is remarkable because Germany wanted the treaty with China to secure better conditions in China for precisely such industries.
The Chinese Communist Party was founded on July 23, 1921. The comrades traditionally celebrate their anniversary on July 1 – this time, on the occasion of the great centenary, especially lavishly. We’re highlighting various aspects of this remarkable party in a series to mark the occasion. Today, Johnny Erling kicks things off by giving us a guide to reading the CP’s official historiography. Its focus is – of course – on Xi Jinping, who occupies much more space in it than Mao or Deng. Like the Vatican, the party presents itself as virtually infallible, including glossing over the disasters of its past.
The timetable was ambitious: After the political agreement on the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) at the end of December, Brussels had targeted its ratification for spring 2022. Now things are burning on several fronts. As expected, the European Parliament stopped working on the agreement on Thursday because of the sanctions from Beijing. The MEPs passed a resolution on the matter that was quite a challenge. In it, they demanded the withdrawal of the punitive measures. Although such resolutions are not legally binding, they reflect the positions of the EU Parliament. It has the right to vote on this matter. The resolution received a broad majority: 599 MEPs voted in favor, 30 against, and 58 abstained. These are the most important statements:
Parliamentarians have thus put up a cross-party front against Beijing’s strong-arming. “The signal from the European Parliament is clear. The CAI negotiations will be frozen and remain in the fridge until the Chinese side makes a move,” FDP European politician Moritz Körner told China.Table. “With its sanctions, China has miscalculated. The Chinese leadership should learn from its mistakes and rethink,” said the Chairman of the EU Parliament’s China delegation, Reinhard Bütikofer (Greens), on the vote.
EU Parliament circles consider it rather unlikely that the position of the European Parliament will change shortly. A potential “peace offer” from China, in which the sanctions are not withdrawn but simply not implemented, would thus also be without effect. However, according to observers, there is currently no sign that Beijing might consider publicly dropping the sanctions – the stalemate remains.
The treaty partner China reacted quickly to the EU Parliament’s dismissive decision. The agreement was “not a gift given by one side to the other,” China’s EU mission announced on Twitter late Thursday night, stressing: “China’s decision to take countermeasures is a legitimate response to the EU’s unilateral sanctions and confrontation.” China, it said, “always has the sincerity to promote cooperation with the EU.”
The EU Commission is also under increasing pressure on another front (China.Table reported). A controversial paragraph in the CAI on dealing with non-profit organizations is unsettling German foundations, NGOs, and associations. In a briefing on Friday, the EU Commission will provide answers to questions from foundation and association representatives, China.Table confirmed.
The German Engineering Federation (VDMA), for example, is concerned about the impact the paragraph could have on its offices in Beijing and Shanghai. According to their statements, other German trade associations with representative offices in the People’s Republic are also concerned about the passage. There is a general lack of understanding as to why non-profit organizations should appear in an investment agreement at all. According to representatives of foundations and associations, clarification from Brussels is expected at today’s meeting.
Where Africa’s tallest building, the Iconic Tower, is currently built, there was nothing but the desert only three years ago. Then excavators and other heavy equipment from China’s State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) moved in and began their work. The 585-meter office building is scheduled for completion in January of next year.
The Iconic Tower is not the only mega-building that China is currently erecting in Egypt. The People’s Republic is the Egyptian government’s most important partner in the construction of its new capital, which is built around 35 kilometers east of Cairo. The Iconic Tower, reminiscent of an obelisk, is one of 20 high-rise buildings that are to form the business center of the New Administrative Capital. Chinese banks are providing the $3 billion loans, and CSCEC is handling the construction work. In addition, China is financing and building a monorail between Cairo and the new capital for $1.2 billion.
What Egyptian construction companies could hardly manage in such a short time is no problem for the Chinese company. CSCEC is China’s largest construction company. In the past decades, it has gained enough experience to make huge skylines spring up like mushrooms in its own country. Almost every time China tackles a major project abroad, CSCEC is involved. Hundreds of Chinese workers are scurrying alongside local forces on the construction sites of the new Egyptian capital to ensure that everything is completed as quickly as possible.
Although the Covid pandemic caused some delays, the first residents are expected to move into the new Egyptian capital this summer. It is supposed to become home to more than 6.5 million people in a few years. The metropolis of Cairo, which has long been home to more than 20 million people, should thus be relieved. Egyptian civil servants will be rewarded with lavish special payments when they move to the new seat of government.
In addition to a new parliament and a presidential palace, the new Egyptian capital will also be home to the country’s largest airport. In addition, there will be an entertainment district and a city park three times the size of New York’s Central Park. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi speaks of the “birth of a new state” in connection with his new city. He also means an Egypt that maintains closer ties with China than ever before in its history.
Beijing and Cairo had been close for a long time. In 1956, under nationalist leader Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egypt became the first country in the Middle East and Africa to recognize the People’s Republic of China. Former President Hosni Mubarak was one of the first foreign leaders to visit Beijing after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. Close ties have been further deepened under current President al-Sisi. He has made six trips to Beijing since taking office in 2014 after a coup ousted the country’s first democratically elected president, Mohammed Mursi.
Beijing has significantly increased its investments since al-Sisi came to power in 2014. According to a study by the Africa Center at Johns Hopkins University, the country received nearly $5 billion in Chinese money between 2015 and 2019, compared to only around $280 million between 2002 and 2014.
Chinese money is flowing and the new capital is far from the only project in which Beijing is involved. Another example is the special economic zone TEDA Egypt on the Red Sea, whose expansion Cairo and Beijing have been pushing for years.
The area, which is described by its creators as “Egypt’s first Chinese city,” was planned based on a model in the eastern Chinese port city of Tianjin. There, in 1984, the Chinese government approved the Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Area (TEDA), one of China’s first special economic zones in which foreign investors enjoy special advantages. In the meantime, more than 3,300 companies have settled in the original TEDA in China, including global companies such as Airbus, Volkswagen, and Continental.
Unlike Tianjin, however, the Egyptian special economic zone is likely to attract fewer Western companies in the future, but mainly Chinese corporations that want to do business in Egypt. So far, China’s state news agency Xinhua reported in January, 96 companies settled or invested in TEDA Egypt. More than 30,000 jobs have been created.
For Beijing, political factors naturally play a role in its generous lending and economic development programs in other states. In the case of Egypt, China hopes to strengthen its influence in North Africa and the Middle East through good relations. So it wouldn’t be so bad if not every investment paid off. But it is likely that Egypt will nevertheless yield a decent return for China. Hardly any other nation is predicted to grow as strongly in the coming years. The North African country was one of the few nations in the world whose economy expanded last year despite the Covid pandemic.
Moreover, Egypt has no choice but to build new cities and massively expand its infrastructure. For example, the population is expected to grow from around 100 million at present to 130 million by 2030 alone. Housing and new jobs need to be created every year. So the building boom continues, and China, whose own population is aging and growing ever more slowly, is on board. Gregor Koppenburg/Joern Petring
On July 1, the Communist Party of China (CPC), founded in 1921, is staging its centenary as a very big spectacle. To mark the occasion, the world’s sole ruling and most populous CP published its new “Short History of the Communist Party of China” (中国共产党简史). Its final chapter on Party leader Xi Jinping as China’s new strongman alone accounts for about 25 percent of the content. Instead, there is no longer a separate chapter on the Cultural Revolution.
A “short” history is an understatement at 531 pages. Thanks to 92 million party members, however, the book is already a bestseller despite the heavy fare. China’s party history once took the somewhat misleading title from the Soviet Union. In 1938, the “History of the CPSU (B) – A Short Course” had been published for the first time. Scoffers attributed the adjective “short” to the radical revision of each new edition. Party leaders who had fallen out of favor were cut out. This went well until the CPSU itself evaporated with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Since then, only China’s party holds up the flag. Every ten years, it published its own “Short History.” None of the editions published since 1991, however, have been changed as much as the current new version. Although Xi has only been leading the 100-year-old party for barely ten years, he gets the starring role. Under the heading “China’s Special Socialism Enters a New Age,” the chapter on Xi fills a quarter of the book. It ends in 2021 with his outlook for the year 2035, when China is supposed to have reached the next milestone on its long march to becoming a world power, which is planned to last until 2050. To achieve these goals, it must be “socialistically modernized” by 2035, lead the way in all high-tech areas, and upgrade its military to world-class standards.
So there is still a lot for the soon-to-be 67-year-old Xi to do. As the founder of the “new era,” he ensured that he continues to rule China without a time limit by amending the constitution and party statute. All he has to do is have it approved by the 20th party congress in 2022.
How do you read between the lines in China’s party history abroad? Beijing helps, at least linguistically. According to Xinhua, it is currently translated non-stop into seven world languages by 40 translators. For the first time, it is also illustrated. For starters, five color portraits show who among the numerous CP leaders since 1921 survived party ideology. In historical order, Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and Xi greet us, but Xi comes first regarding the number of photos in the book (12) – even before Mao (11). The others account for only half as many pictures. The three-way split gives further clues when it comes to the merits of the party leaders: Mao made himself immortal because he made the People’s Republic “stand up,” just as reform architect Deng did because he made China “become rich.” Xi, however, is making the nation “strong.” ( 站起来-富起来-强起来).
Under him, “never before in its history has China moved so close to the center of the world stage as it is today,” and “never before has it been so close to the rebirth of its nation as it is today.” That, he said, has an impact both internally and externally. China trumpets Xi’s November 2014 proclamation to the CC’s Foreign Affairs Committee: From now on, China “must pursue its own special great power foreign policy.” Deng’s famous warning to his compatriots to keep a cool head and “hide their light under a bushel” (韬光养晦) is no longer up to date.
The most serious change in the new Party History is its relativizing account of the Cultural Revolution (1966 -1976). Unlike the previous volumes, which still condemned Mao’s disastrous policies in separate chapters, the new edition suffices just 20 pages to describe and reassess the persecution campaigns under the heading: “Explorations in Building Socialism and Its Development in Twists and Turns.”
To be sure, leftist despotism occurred, and serious mistakes were made. Millions were persecuted unjustly. But the chairman would have erred in good faith to explore new ways to build socialism. Even Mao’s justifications are reprinted. He wanted the Cultural Revolution to “protect China from the danger of capitalist restoration and eliminate corruption, privilege and bureaucracy in the Party and government.”
Listing the major military, scientific and economic achievements of the 1966-1976 period, the new Party History attempts to prove that the catastrophe was not so bad after all. The 2001 Party History, on the other hand, said that all the progress “should in no way be regarded as the success of the Cultural Revolution, but on the contrary, were achieved because those in charge resisted the disruptions caused by the Cultural Revolution.” (当然，这一切决不是 “文化大革命 “的成果，恰恰相反，是抵制 “文化大革命 “的干扰而取得的.) Also in 2001, it was said that “Mao Zedong bears the main responsibility for the leftist long-lasting mistakes made everywhere in the Cultural Revolution.”
Now the party is “correct” again and always has been. Where it made mistakes, it corrected them itself. Immediately after taking office, Xi demanded that a line should be drawn under the different ways of dealing with Mao’s 30-year rule from 1949 to 1978 and the 30-year reform period that followed. He said, the two developments should not be played off against each other but should be of one piece. On Jan. 15, 2013, Xi delivered the speech in question. It is included in his new book: “Xi Jinping: On the History of the Communist Party.” It is the counterpart to the “Short History.” Xi sets the course. To make his role even more conspicuous, a complementary anthology of the other leaders was published as a separate reading: “Mao, Deng, Jiang and Hu on the History of the Communist Party.”
Reading the “short” 100-year history leaves one with an uneasy feeling. The cult of CP leader Xi, the glorification of the party, and the tabooing of any critic coming to terms with the past cast a dark shadow over China’s future development as a responsible world power.
Wedding in white? No, in red! At this mass ceremony in the western Chinese city of Zhongyi, dozens of couples got married at the same time. Incidentally, the occasion for the traditional ritual was not only one of the Chinese Valentine’s Days, because the date 5/20 (wǔ èr líng) sounds remotely like “I love you” in Mandarin, but also World Bee Day, which falls on May 20. The region produces honey.
