China’s panda, since 1961 the heraldic animal of the world’s largest nature conservation organization “World Wide Fund for Nature” (WWF), is no longer threatened with extinction. According to Beijing figures, the black and white bears are multiplying at an ever-faster rate. There are currently almost 2,500 specimens living in the wild and as offspring, enough […]
China adopted a new ideal as a “birth-friendly nation.” To this end, Beijing has been searching online for propaganda rhetoric to make China’s households more palatable to the newly permitted child policy. The Internet community reacted differently than hoped – with an angry and derisive “shit storm”.Once again, the Communist Party is asking China’s families […]
In northern Beijing, about 35 kilometers from the city, hides Qincheng, the country’s notorious special prison. All party leaders from Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping have had their political opponents disappear there since 1960. No journalist was allowed to glimpse behind its walls. China’s judiciary is also kept out. Qincheng answers only to the Ministry […]
Party chief Wang Dongfeng (王东峰) is the most powerful man in Beijing’s neighboring province of Hebei. He personally inspected all police checkpoints on July 30 on the roads leading to the sea at Beidaihe. China’s famous seaside resort, a 280-kilometer highway drive from Beijing, falls under the jurisdiction of his province. Wang expressed satisfaction with […]
Just one block away from Beijing’s Foreign Ministry, devout Chinese light incense sticks day by day in front of hundreds of holy figures in the Dongyue temple, asking their respective patron saint to watch over life, death and fate, wealth, happiness or health. Founded in 1319, the once most important Daoist monastery complex in northern […]
Today, China’s ambassadors wield increasingly overbearing influence over their host countries as lobbyists for the interests of a future superpower. Beijing’s foreign ministry has been breathing down their necks with its wolf-warrior mentality since President Xi Jinping ordered diplomats in November 2014 to stop holding back: From now on, they are to represent “the special […]
Gone are the days when Western news anchors were given stage directions on how to pronounce Xi Jinping’s last name, “like the word ski.” Today, the name is familiar to them, after all, dozens of biographies have long been published about China’s most powerful leader since Mao.But anyone who tries to understand the person behind […]
“In China, even clothing is political,” reads the headline of a Beijing magazine on its monthly cover story on fashion in the People’s Republic. This was also true for party leader Xi Jinping last week. On his speech on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, he […]
Taking a swing at China is part of the standard repertoire in the US political campaign. It is now gradually spilling over to Europe. In Germany, political parties are also taking a stand ahead of the Bundestag elections, where the People’s Republic is still a partner or already a “competitor and systemic rival”. The Berlin-based […]
Seeing the anniversary building for the party “from the air” immediately reveals a secret. Its construction incorporates the shape of the character gong (工), reveals the Xinhua news agency. Gong is a linguistic shorthand for work, or for the working class, of which the Chinese Communist Party is known to be the forerunner.Visitors approaching the […]
