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."
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS