China’s Communist Party

The sole governing power of the People’s Republic of China
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Latest news, analysis and opinion on the Communist Party of China which has ruled the country since 1949 and is currently led by General Secretary Xi Jinping. The party currently has over 90 million members and it began to admit private entrepreneurs into its ranks in 2001. 

Latest News
News
Politics
The retirement age is gradually being raised as the country grapples with a looming demographic crisis and an older population. Photo: AFP
Politics
‘No one is happy’: China’s move to lift retirement age unpopular among workers
Uncertainty over further changes and concerns over economy and jobs market are fuelling discontent over the decision.
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The Congressional-Executive Commission on China held hearings on Wednesday about US citizens detained in China. Photo: Bloomberg
China
Panel urges Biden to prioritise release of Americans wrongfully held in China
Chair of Congressional-Executive Commission on China says detainees must be the focus whenever secretary of state meets Chinese officials.
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People visit a booth for Chinese battery manufacturing giant CATL at Automechanika, a leading trade fair for cars, in Frankfurt, Germany, on September 11. Photo: Xinhua
China
US study finds China’s tech innovation ‘much stronger’ than understood
Performing best in nuclear power, EVs and batteries, mainland companies will ‘likely equal or surpass Western firms within a decade or so’.
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Chinese dancers welcome Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa ahead of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing. Photo: EPA
Diplomacy
How China is sharing its development and governance experience with Africa
The world’s second largest economy is bringing its insights to the continent as part of a joint pursuit of modernisation.
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A series of central government and southern officials have been given the job of helping revitalise the country’s former heavy industry heartland. Photo: Xinhua
Politics
Why China is sending southern officials north to rusting economic front lines
More than a dozen senior cadres from the central government and powerhouse provinces have taken up new northern posts this year alone.
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Chen Wenqing (third from right), head of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, in Lhasa, as part of his tour of Tibet and Sichuan’s Ganzi prefecture. Photo: CCTV
Politics
China’s security chief calls for crackdown on separatists in Tibetan areas
Chen Wenqing’s four-day visit comes as security is tightened in sensitive Tibet region ahead of National Day on October 1.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping visits the Maijishan Grottoes, a Unesco-listed heritage site, in northwest China’s Gansu province on Wednesday. Photo: Xinhua
Politics
China’s Xi puts culture and ecology front and centre on Gansu inspection trip
Four-day tour of Gansu province sees President Xi Jinping emphasise cultural and environmental protection alongside deeper reform.
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China-focused espionage pulp fiction was popular between the 1950s and 70s. Photo: Shutterstock
Books
Long Read|How the rise of spy novels was spurred by the Cold War and a fictional China
Amid the Cold War, a particular style of pulp fiction, stepped in a clichéd, Orientalist version of China, caught the imagination of authors and readers halfway across the world
The National People’s Congress Standing Committee has reviewed a proposed amendment to China’s Supervision Law. Image: Shutterstock
Politics
China is poised to amend its anti-corruption law for the first time
Changes would include allowing bail during investigations but also extending the period suspects are denied access to a lawyer.
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China’s leadership wants to raise the retirement age, which is among the lowest in the world. Photo: AFP
Politics
Lawmakers discuss plan to gradually lift retirement age in China
The move comes as the country is grappling with a declining birth rate and rapidly greying population.
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The US House of Representatives passed a bill on Tuesday that could result in the closing of Hong Kong’s three trade missions in the country. Photo: Shutterstock
China
Hong Kong trade offices, academic exchange targeted in bills passed by US House
Republican-led measure cutting Homeland Security funds for schools follows efforts to decouple Sino-American cooperation in education.
2
Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong delivers a speech at the 2024 Conference of Global Public Security Cooperation Forum in Lianyungang on Monday. Photo: Xinhua
Politics
China to train 3,000 foreign police officers to protect overseas interests
Public Security Minister Wang Xiaohong says Beijing will also send consultants to help countries improve law enforcement and tackle cross-border crime.
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Even though millions of officials have been caught up in China’s anti-corruption campaign, it is rare for death sentences not to be suspended in corruption cases. Photo: Shutterstock Images
Politics
Chinese legal community asks: where is the line on death penalty for corruption?
Inner Mongolia court dismisses appeal by party official who pleaded guilty to pocketing more than US$422 million and was sentenced to death.
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Monks and religious experts attend a meeting in Lanzhou, Gansu province on Tuesday about policies and regulations governing the “reincarnation of living Buddhas” in Tibetan Buddhism. Photo: Weibo/琼布活佛
Politics
Buddhists urged to obey reincarnation rules as Dalai Lama mulls successor
Top monks and religious experts gather for seminar aimed at making Tibetan Buddhism ‘compatible with socialist society’.
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Illustration: Craig Stephens
China Opinion
Opinion|Why ‘peak China’ talk obscures dire reality about its economy
China is far from collapse but its gamble to anchor growth in hi-tech innovation won’t pay off unless it shores up its traditional economy.
4
Gao Zhen was detained last week at a studio just outside Beijing. Photo: Xiao Ke
Politics
Chinese artist held under law that bans defaming revolutionary ‘heroes’
Artist and his brother Gao Qiang are well-known for their critical depictions of Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution.
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China’s localities should limit their reliance on land and tax incentives to bring in new investment, a state media commentary said. Photo: Bloomberg
China Economy
‘Profound reform’ a must for investment-hungry regions, Chinese newspaper says
A Chinese newspaper has called for localities to alter their strategies to win investment, saying past methods are no longer viable.
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The Potala Palace in the Tibet Autonomous region of China. It was the residence of the 14th Dalai Lama until he fled to India during the 1959 Tibetan uprising, which followed by two years an offer by Beijing’s leaders to take a “long-term” view of Tibet’s reforms.
Opinion|Deng Xiaoping and the Tibet factor in ‘one country, two systems’
With hindsight, the one country, two systems framework bears a certain resemblance to a Qianlong policy Deng and others studied in 1957.
Published excerpts from a 2018 speech reveal the education concerns China’s leader had about the battle for influence over the nation’s youth. Photo: AFP
Politics
Xi Jinping speech warned against foreign forces ‘westernising’ Chinese youth
Newly published excerpts from 2018 speech to education conference accused the West of plotting ‘colour revolution’, urged more ideology education.
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China’s Ministry of State Security says it has identified and jailed citizens for collecting data from China’s railways, which the ministry deems “intelligence information”, for a foreign company. Photo: AFP
Politics
Security ministry says Chinese jailed for giving railway data to foreigners
Ministry of State Security says Chinese vendor enticed by lucrative contract to gather data later identified as ‘intelligence information’.
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A veteran Hong Kong politician has called for greater policy alignment between jurisdictions overseeing the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge. Photo: Eugene Lee
Politics
Hong Kong must better sync up policies with Macau, mainland China: Starry Lee
Starry Lee, who sits on NPC Standing Committee, says more policy coordination between jurisdictions aligns with spirit of third plenum.
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China’s new Communist Party rules comprise 27 articles that define lesser breaches for members that might be met with discipline or expulsion. Photo: Reuters
Politics
New China’s Communist Party rules will regulate faith, loyalty and performance
Regulations target members who are not guilty of serious breaches but ‘lack revolutionary spirit’ or fail to pay membership fees on time.
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China won 40 gold medals at the Paris Games and 91 in total – the nation’s most successful overseas Olympics. Photo: AP
Politics
Report outlines Xi’s push for fair competition, more ‘just’ global sports order
Calling China ‘an important force for change’, it marks the first time Xi Jinping Thought on sport has been laid out.
7
The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge has “enormous potential”, a top mainland official says. Photo: Dickson Lee
Politics
Hong Kong urged to alter approach to scheme allowing mainland vehicles into city
Chinese commerce minister earlier called for restrictions to be overcome in the roll-out of the ‘Southbound Travel for Guangdong Vehicles’ scheme.
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Tam Yiu-chung, formerly Hong Kong’s sole member on China’s top legislative body, speaking at a seminar in 2023. Photo: Jelly Tse
Politics
Hong Kong political veteran calls for city to build new homes for global talent
Tam Yiu-chung, formerly the city’s sole member of Beijing’s top legislative body, suggests local reforms based on China’s third plenum resolution.
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Illustration: Brian Wang
Politics
China’s urban-rural gap is a threat to growth. Is the divide too wide to fix?
Researchers report waning optimism about social mobility among rural Chinese as education disparities create obstacles for economy.
20
Travel to China by US congressional staff has tapered off amid declining American sentiment towards the mainland. Photo: Reuters
Diplomacy
China may preoccupy US lawmakers and staff, but few travel there now
Observers mull implications as some of Beijing’s harshest critics and less-travelled policy hands on Capitol Hill avoid trips to mainland.
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Some of the planned cross-border school trips will include visits to Beijing’s Museum of the Communist Party of China. Photo: AFP
Education
Hong Kong pupils to learn more Communist Party history on mainland China trips
Education Bureau says cross-border trips in coming school year will include visits to museums and sites of historical relevance to the party.
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A team investigating China’s cooking oil scandal has vowed “zero tolerance” for such incidents, pledging to continue to control the transport of cooking oil. Photo: AP
China
Arrests and fines in fallout from China’s cooking oil scandal
Team led by State Council’s food safety body says perpetrators were ‘trampling on the bottom line of morality and the red line of the law’.
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Illustration: Stephen Case
China Opinion
Opinion|Why China’s GDP growth needs to be read against its social contract
Economic development and sustainability are both part of the contract and one cannot come at the expense of the other.
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Opinion
My Take|In Hong Kong, Xi has completed where Deng left off
The city’s destiny was always about unification and integration, not democratisation or meeting Western expectations.
SCMP ColumnistAlex Lo
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Editorial|A modern, powerful China the legacy of Deng Xiaoping, born 120 years ago
Paramount leader launched country on reform path that transformed nation from among the world’s least developed to a global force.
SCMP Editorial
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Editorial|China’s short-term moves to bolster growth today crucial for tomorrow
Politburo has vowed to step up macro policies and stabilise market confidence amid China’s planned economic overhaul.
SCMP Editorial
My Take|Get rich or die trying? China rethinks the pursuit of wealth
China appears to have entered a stage when the pursuit of wealth is seen as something suspicious, not glorious.
SCMP ColumnistZhou Xin
7
Editorial|Fiscal shake-up must be a success for sake of the China economy
Ambitious plan by third plenum aims to overhaul taxation system to help cash-strapped local governments and the people they serve.
SCMP Editorial
Opinion|Security-obsessed China struggles to win friends and tell its story well
The Communist Party’s elite are battling to find a way to shore up international confidence and cope with risks.
Shi Jiangtao
3
Editorial|Now comes the hard work after plenum puts growth, security ahead of quick fixes
An array of long-term objectives from deepening reform of economy to meeting geopolitical challenges aim to rebalance China in years to come.
SCMP Editorial
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My Take|Chinese bankers go communist – good for them
In America, the state serves finance, in China, it’s the other way around. That’s why the US financial services sector is highly predatory by using debt to ensnare clients and consumers.
SCMP ColumnistAlex Lo
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My Take|US is dreaming if it thinks its allies in Asia crave another cold war
American commentators may be hoping to bring down Beijing, but the whole region and Global South do not want animosity, let alone conflict.
SCMP ColumnistAlex Lo
28
Editorial|Xi offers message of reform to business leaders at pivotal time
Pro-business and pro-growth words from China’s president to heads of state-owned firms, private entrepreneurs and investors come ahead of third plenum focusing on economic strategy.
SCMP Editorial
Editorial|China’s challenges ahead will test strengthening of party leadership
State Council institutions must follow new line that aims to improve efficiency, deliver growth and ensure technological transformation.
SCMP Editorial
My Take|New catchphrase hints at China’s chase for tech-led economic revival
The concept of ‘new productive forces’ shows that China’s top leadership has realised that the traditional model of relying on debt-fuelled investment to drive growth has reached its limit.
SCMP ColumnistZhou Xin
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