Asia
North Korea fires ballistic missile toward sea: Seoul officials
North Korea fired a ballistic missile toward the sea on Friday, Seoul officials said, as its rival South Korea was wrapping up an annual military drill that the North views as an invasion rehearsal.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement the missile flew toward North Korea’s eastern waters but gave no further details including how far the weapon flew.
The launch, the latest in a series of weapons tests by North Korea in recent weeks, came on the final day of South Korea’s annual 12-day “Hoguk” field exercises, which also involved an unspecified number of U.S. troops this year.
The South Korean and U.S. air forces plan to conduct a large-scale training next week.
North Korea sees such regular drills by Seoul and Washington as practice for launching an attack on the North, though the allies say their exercises are defensive in nature.
Friday’s launch came four days after the rival Koreas exchanged warning shots along their disputed western sea boundary, a scene of past bloodshed and naval battles.
The launch also came after U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman during a visit to Tokyo this week issued a warning over North Korea’s escalating provocations and reiterated that the U.S. would fully use its military capabilities, “including nuclear,” to defend its allies Japan and South Korea.
There are also concerns that the North could up the ante in the coming weeks by conducting its first nuclear test since 2017. Rafael Grossi, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Thursday that a new nuclear test explosion by North Korea “would be yet another confirmation of a program which is moving full steam ahead in a way that is incredibly concerning.”
He said the U.N. agency has been observing preparations for a new test, which would be the North’s seventh overall, but gave no indication of whether an atomic blast is imminent.
China accused of using overseas bases to target dissidents
China has reportedly established dozens of “overseas police stations” in nations around the world that activists fear could be used to track and harass dissidents as part of Beijing’s crackdown on corruption.
Information about the outposts underscored concerns about the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s influence over its citizens abroad, sometimes in ways deemed illegal by other countries, as well as the undermining of democratic institutions and the the theft of economic and political secrets by bodies affiliated with the one-party state.
Spanish-based non-government group Safeguard Defenders published a report last month, called “110 Overseas. Chinese Transnational Policing Gone Wild,” that focused on the foreign stations.
Laura Harth, a campaign director with the group, told The Associated Press that China has set up at least 54 overseas police service stations.
“One of the aims of these campaigns, obviously, as it is to crack down on dissent, is to silence people,” Harth said. “So people are afraid. People that are being targeted, that have family members back in China, are afraid to speak out.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Thursday that Beijing wasn’t doing anything wrong. “Chinese public security authorities strictly observe the international law and fully respect the judicial sovereignty of other countries,” Mao said.
The Dutch government said this week it was looking into whether two such police stations — one a virtual office in Amsterdam and the other at a physical address in Rotterdam — were established in the Netherlands.
“We are investigating the activities of these so-called police centers. Once there is more clarity on the matter, we will decide on appropriate action,” the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement sent to the AP. “We have not been informed about these centers via diplomatic channels.”
Another Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, described the foreign outposts identified by Safeguard Defenders as service stations for Chinese people who are abroad and in need of help with, for instance, renewing their driver’s licenses.
Wang added that China also has cracked down on what he called transnational crimes but said the operation was conducted in line with international law.
In its report, Safeguard Defenders reproduced Chinese media accounts about people suspected of alleged crimes in China being interrogated by video link from some of the locations in other countries that Beijing allegedly did not declare to other governments.
In one instance, according to the group, a Chinese man accused of environmental crimes was persuaded in 2020 to return from Madrid to Qingtian, in Zhejiang province, where he turned himself in to authorities.
Read: China's Xi urges military expansion as party congress gets underway
Visits by The Associated Press to some of the locations identified by Safeguard Defenders in Rome, Madrid and Barcelona found, respectively, a massage parlor, the Spanish headquarters of an association of citizens from Qingtian and a firm providing legal translation services. There was no indication of police stations or other activity directly related to the Chinese government.
A worker at the Barcelona translation company confirmed to the AP that a Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station operated on the premises for a few weeks this year in a test-drive capacity.
The employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists, the press, said the police service center offered document renewal services to Fuzhou citizens living in the Barcelona region who could not return to China due to pandemic travel restrictions and the high cost of flights.
According to Safeguard Defenders, China claims 230,000 suspects of fraud were “persuaded to return” to China from April 2021 to July 2022.
“These operations eschew official bilateral police and judicial cooperation and violate the international rule of law, and may violate the territorial integrity of third countries involved in setting up a parallel policing mechanism using illegal methods,” its report said.
The European Union’s executive arm said Thursday it was up to member countries to investigate such allegations since it would be a matter of national sovereignty.
A Hungarian opposition lawmaker claimed this month to have discovered two sites in Budapest where Chinese overseas police stations operated without the knowledge of the country’s Interior Ministry.
The lawmaker, Marton Tompos, said one of the two locations in Hungary’s capital had a sign that said Qingtian Overseas Police Station. Tompos said he was unable to contact anyone affiliated with the sites and that when he visited again days later, the sign had been removed.
The Hungarian Interior Ministry did not immediately respond to AP questions on the matter.
Three informal Chinese police stations are operating in Portugal, Safeguard Defenders reported. Portuguese authorities did not immediately reply to AP questions about the claim.
Read: China's Xi expected to get third five-year term
A Portuguese TV report said one of the venues, located in an industrial complex in northern Portugal, appeared to be a car shop operated by a Chinese man. The man denied any connection with the Chinese government, though broadcaster S.I.C. Noticias showed him in a video promoting the Beijing Winter Olympics and said he heads a local association that helps Chinese immigrants.
In Tanzania, both police and the Chinese Embassy have denied the presence of a Chinese-run police station in the country’s commercial hub and former capital, Dar es Salaam, after the BBC reported on it last week.
“You are fabricating stories,” the embassy tweeted, calling the report an example of disinformation aimed at dividing China-Africa relations. A police spokesman sent the AP a copy of China’s denial in response to questions Thursday.
In Lesotho, a kingdom in southern Africa, national police Senior Superintendent Mpiti Mopeli also denied the existence of any Chinese law enforcement activities. He said such operations would be illegal as any form of policing in Lesotho is conducted by local authorities.
Over his decade in power, Chinese President Xi Jinping has pushed a relentless anti-corruption drive that has seen tens of millions of Communist Party cadres investigated and expanded overseas via a pair of campaigns known as Sky Net and Fox Hunt. Both are tasked with locating allegedly corrupt officials who have fled abroad and convincing them to return to China with their stolen state assets.
Since China began opening up in the 1980s, corruption has been a major problem among those enjoying access to state funds and resources with few safeguards in place, and cash was often squirreled away abroad, particularly in the U.S. and other countries without extradition treaties with China.
Asia-Pacific countries to cooperate in using space applications for sustainable development
Ministers and heads of national space agencies Wednesday endorsed the Jakarta Ministerial Declaration on Space Applications for Sustainable Development in Asia and the Pacific at the close of a high-level meeting co-organised by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and Indonesia.
The Declaration shows the strong commitment of countries to using innovative space applications to address outstanding and emerging development challenges of persistent poverty, food security, threats to global health, and increasing vulnerability to disasters, climate change and environmental degradation.
“Without a doubt, this Declaration will not only sustain the momentum of increasing integration of space and geospatial information applications in support of sustainable development but also reach countries in special situations to ensure that everyone in our region captures the benefits of space science, technology and its applications,” said Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCAP.
Space applications provide multiple solutions for socioeconomic development. The cooperation between countries in the region has greatly broadened over the years, going beyond disaster response to all thematic priority areas for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
Countries have implemented over 600 activities contributing to 156 out of the 188 actions identified in the 2018 Asia-Pacific Plan of Action on Space Applications for Sustainable Development.
To this end, delegates at the fourth Ministerial Conference on Space Applications for Sustainable Development in Asia and the Pacific agreed to accelerate Phase II of the Plan of Action under the guiding theme “Space+ for our Earth and Future,” comprising four core elements: leveraging innovative digital applications; engaging end users, including the private sector and youth; managing data and information more effectively; and enhancing partnerships with national, regional and global stakeholders.
"Through the fourth Ministerial Conference, BRIN fully supports the Asia Pacific Action Plan on Space Applications for Sustainable Development (2018–2030) both in terms of research and innovation, as well as in terms of formulating policy recommendations related to the use of space," said Laksana Tri Handoko, Chair of the National Research and Innovation Agency of Indonesia (BRIN).
At the Conference, ESCAP also launched its compendium on Geospatial Practices for Sustainable Development in South-East Asia 2022, which documents more than 60 good practices in the subregion. Alongside well-established space applications in drought monitoring and early warning, South-East Asian countries have diversified their use of space technology into areas such as spatial mapping of poverty, tracking of greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution, and evidence-based accounting of land, renewable energy and other natural resources.
Woman in Indonesia killed, swallowed whole by python
A woman in Indonesia's Jambi province was killed and swallowed whole by a python, according to local reports.
Jahrah, a rubber-tapper reportedly in her 50s, had made her way to work at a rubber plantation on Sunday morning, reports BBC.
She was reported missing after failing to return that night, and search parties sent out to find her. A day later villagers found a python with what appeared to be a large stomach.
Locals later killed the snake and found her body inside.
"The victim was found in the snake's stomach," Betara Jambi police chief AKP S Harefa told local media outlets, adding that her body appeared to be largely intact when it was found.
He said the victim's husband had on Sunday night found some of her clothes and tools she had used at the rubber plantation, leading him to call on a search party.
Read:Florida teen wins $10,000 by capturing 28 pythons
After the snake - which was at least 5m (16ft) long - was spotted on Monday, villagers then caught and killed it to verify the victim's identity.
"After they cut the belly apart, they found it was Jahrah inside," Mr Harefa told CNN Indoneisa.
Though such incidents are rare, this is not the first time someone in Indonesia has been killed and eaten by a python. Two similar deaths were reported in the country between 2017 and 2018.
Pythons swallow their food whole. Their jaws are connected by very flexible ligaments so they can stretch around large prey.
One expert had earlier told the BBC that pythons typically eat rats and other animals, "but once they reach a certain size it's almost like they don't bother with rats anymore because the calories are not worth it".
"In essence they can go as large as their prey goes," said Mary-Ruth Low, conservation & research officer for Wildlife Reserves Singapore.
That can include animals as large as pigs or even cows.
China launches Covid-19 vaccine inhaled through mouth
The Chinese city of Shanghai started administering an inhalable COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday in what appears to be a world first.
The vaccine, a mist that is sucked in through the mouth, is being offered for free as a booster dose for previously vaccinated people, according to an announcement on an official city social media account.
Scientists hope that such “needle-free” vaccines will make vaccination more accessible in countries with fragile health systems because they are easier to administer. They also may persuade people who don’t like getting a shot in the arm to get inoculated.
China wants more people to get booster shots before it relaxes strict pandemic restrictions that are holding back the economy and are increasingly out of sync with the rest of the world. As of mid-October, 90% of Chinese were fully vaccinated and 57% had received a booster shot.
A video posted by an online Chinese state media outlet showed people at a community health center sticking the short nozzle of a translucent white cup into their mouths. The accompanying text said that after slowly inhaling, people hold their breath for five seconds, with the entire procedure completed in 20 seconds.
“It was like drinking a cup of milk tea,” one Shanghai resident said in the video. “When I breathed it in, it tasted a bit sweet.”
The effectiveness of non-needle vaccines has not been fully explored. Chinese regulators approved the inhalable one in September, but only as a booster shot after studies showed it triggered an immune system response in people who had previously received two shots of a different Chinese vaccine.
A vaccine taken orally could fend off the virus before it reaches the rest of the respiratory system, though that would depend in part on the size of the droplets, one expert said.
Larger droplets would train defenses in parts of the mouth and throat, while smaller ones would travel further into the body, said Dr. Vineeta Bal, an immunologist in India.
The inhalable vaccine was developed by Chinese biopharmaceutical company CanSino Biologics Inc. as an aerosol version of the company’s one-shot adenovirus vaccine, which uses a relatively harmless cold virus.
The traditional one-shot vaccine has been approved for use in more than 10 markets including China, Hungary, Pakistan, Malaysia, Argentina and Mexico. The inhaled version has received a go-ahead for clinical trials in Malaysia, a Malaysian media report said last month.
Regulators in India have approved a nasal vaccine, another needle-free approach, but it has yet to be rolled out. The vaccine, developed in the U.S. and licensed to Indian vaccine maker Bharat Biotech, is squirted in the nose.
About a dozen nasal vaccines are being tested globally, according to the World Health Organization.
China has relied on domestically developed vaccines, primarily two inactivated vaccines that have proven effective in preventing death and serious disease but less so than the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines at stopping the spread of the disease.
Chinese authorities also have not mandated vaccination — entering an office building or other public places requires a negative COVID-19 test, not proof of vaccination. And the country’s strict “zero-COVID” approach means that only a small proportion of the population has been infected and built immunity that way, compared to other places.
As a result, it’s unclear how widely COVID-19 would spread if restrictions were lifted. The ruling Communist Party has so far shown no sign of easing the “zero-COVID” policy, moving quickly to restrict travel and impose lockdowns when even just a few cases are discovered.
Authorities on Wednesday ordered the lockdown of 900,000 people in Wuhan, the city where the virus was first detected in late 2019, for at least five days. In remote Qinghai province, the urban districts of Xining city have been locked down since last Friday.
In Beijing, Universal Studios said it would close its hotels and attractions “to comply with pandemic prevention and control.” The city of more than 21 million people reported 19 new cases in the latest 24-hour period.
Veteran Indian politician Kharge takes charge as Congress president
Veteran politician Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday became the first non-Gandhi in 24 years to take over the reins of India's main opposition Congress party.
The 80-year-old was officially handed over the baton by interim president Sonia Gandhi at a function at Congress headquarters in the Indian capital this morning.
Sonia was the Congress president for nearly 23 years, while his son Rahul Gandhi held the coveted post for one year.
Addressing party leaders, Sonia said that she was "relieved" with Kharge taking over as Congress president.
"I did my duty to the best of my ability. Today, I will be freed of this responsibility. A weight is off my shoulder. I feel a sense of relief," Sonia said.
"This was a big responsibility. The responsibility is now on Mallikarjun Kharge," she said, adding that "the biggest challenge today was the crisis of democratic values in the country".
Kharge was elected the Congress president on October 19. Considered close to the Gandhi family, he defeated a relatively young Shashi Tharoor, a former UN diplomat, by a huge margin.
While Kharge is a staunch Gandhi family loyalist with 50 years of political experience, 66-year-old Tharoor is an articulate leader who joined the party in 2009 after nearly a 30-year stint in the UN.
Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's nationalist BJP swept to power in 2014, the Congress has witnessed a vertiginous decline. The Congress is now in power only in a handful of Indian states.
Often blamed for the party's poor performance, Rahul has been reluctant to take over the reins of the party in the run-up to the general elections slated for 2024.
Confident son-in-law Rishi Sunak will do his best for Brits: Indian billionaire businessman
British Prime Minister-designate Rishi Sunak's father-in-law and Indian billionaire businessman NR Narayana Murthy has said he is confident that his son-in-law will do the best for the people of the UK.
Sunak, 42, on Monday was elected as the new leader of the ruling Conservative Party and is all set to become Britain's first prime minister of Indian origin.
"Congratulations to Rishi. We are proud of him and we wish him success. We are confident he will do his best for the people of the United Kingdom," Narayana Murthy, the founder of Indian software behemoth Infosys, told the local media.
Sunak, the former British Chancellor, tied the knot with Narayana Murthy's daughter Akshata a leading fashion designer, in 2009. The couple, who met at Stanford University, has two daughters.
Akshata and Sunak are one of the wealthiest couples in Britain, with a combined fortune of 730 million pounds.
Akshata holds a 0.93% stake in Infosys, and her personal wealth hogged media limelight in the context of her claim of non-domiciled status in the UK.
Cameras capture former leader Hu Jintao being escorted out of event
The twice-a-decade congress of China’s ruling Communist Party is a tightly choreographed event. So when former Chinese President Hu Jintao was guided off stage without explanation Saturday — as the world’s media looked on — questions spilled forth.
The speculation ran from a health crisis to an attempted protest by the 79-year-old former leader, or a political purge by current President Xi Jinping. Xi has previously gone after retired officials on corruption charges, though never one as high-ranking as Hu.
China’s tightly controlled state media didn’t report the incident, but the official Xinhua News Agency tweeted in English several hours later — as speculation raged overseas — that Hu was in poor health and needed to rest.
Major party events can be trying: Former top leader Hu Yaobang died of a heart attack during a meeting at the age of 73, setting off the student-led pro-democracy movement that led to Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.
Hu, who has reportedly been in poor health, appeared confused during the incident, although not in obvious distress. While an attendant held his arm, he shuffled off stage right, speaking briefly with Xi and patting Premier Li Keqiang on the shoulder. Throughout the process, most of the other delegates stared silently ahead.
The Xinhua tweet, while believable, didn’t satisfy skeptics, and the truth may never be definitively known.
The idea that it may have been more than a health issue stemmed from Hu’s somewhat ambiguous relationship with Xi, who succeeded him as party leader in 2012. Xi is the hard-driving son of a Communist elder, while the mild-mannered Hu hails from a family of tea merchants and trained as an engineer.
Hu had favored his protege, Li, as his successor. Li, who belonged to Hu’s Communist Youth League faction, instead got the No. 2 spot in the party hierarchy.
On Saturday, in a sign of a further consolidation of Xi’s power, the party congress removed Li from the leadership, dropping him from the party’s 205-member Central Committee. Li and two others who had also been appointed under Hu and were dropped from the committee are expected to go into retirement.
Hu left the meeting at the hulking Great Hall of the People not long after the election of the new Central Committee, and more than two hours after the session had started.
The spectacle was, in the words of longtime China watcher Bill Bishop, “humiliating.”
The “image of Hu Jintao being led out is a perfect symbol of Xi’s absolute decimation of the ‘Communist Youth League’ faction,” Bishop wrote in his newsletter.
Another member of the same faction, Hu Chunhua, was denied a spot on the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee in a leadership shuffle at the end of the congress, despite being an early favorite. Hu Chunhua didn’t even make it onto the 24-member Politburo one rung below.
Xi has been steering China into what the party calls a “new era,” away from the legacy of former leader Deng Xiaoping, who launched China on its economic rise with market-oriented reforms — and also selected Hu as a future leader.
It was Deng who put Hu on the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee — from which China’s leaders come — at the relatively tender age of 49.
Xi has broken with tradition by declining to consult with senior party officials such as Hu, or defer to their factional concerns, analysts say.
Hu attended the congress as a specially invited delegate, as is customary for senior retired officials. He was seated onstage next to Xi, in the front row with party leaders.
Whether he was able to take part in discussions isn’t known — it’s part of the secrecy that surrounds party events. Since stepping down from the presidency in 2013, he has rarely been seen in public, drawing additional attention to his sudden departure at the congress.
India launches 36 internet satellites
India launched a rocket carrying 36 private internet satellites on early Sunday, stepping in to keep the orbital constellation growing after a monthslong interruption related to the war in Ukraine.
The liftoff from southern India was the first launch for London-based OneWeb since breaking with the Russian Space Agency in March because of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We have accomplished the orbit very accurately, now the rocket is in its intended orbit,” said S. Somanath, the chairperson of India’s space agency. He said 16 satellites were put into orbit and expressed optimism that “the remaining 20 satellites will get separated as safely as the first of the 16.”
OneWeb now has 462 satellites flying — more than 70% of what the company said it needs to provide broadband services around the world. Despite this year’s disruption, OneWeb said it remains on track to activate global coverage next year with a planned constellation of 648 satellites. It’s already providing service in the northernmost latitudes.
Each OneWeb satellite weighs about 330 pounds (150 kilograms).
It was the 14th launch of OneWeb satellites and relied on India’s heaviest rocket, normally reserved for government spacecraft. All of the previous OneWeb flights were on Russian rockets; the first was in 2019.
The launch is important for India and reflects the gradual opening of its space agency to private customers, said Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, a director specializing in space and security at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.
Rajagopalan said India is an expert at launching smaller satellites and has been trying to corner this market, pitching itself as a satellite launch facility.
With the war in Ukraine still raging, it could open an opportunity for India as many countries shun Russian launch services.
“It could spur that trend in a big way,” she said.
Xi Jinping named to another term as head of ruling Communist Party
President Xi Jinping, China’s most powerful leader in decades, increased his dominance when he was named Sunday to another term as head of the ruling Communist Party in a break with tradition and promoted allies who support his vision of tighter control over society and the struggling economy.
Xi, who took power in 2012, was awarded a third five-year term as general secretary, discarding a party custom under which his predecessor left after 10 years. The 69-year-old leader is expected by some to try to stay in power for life.
On Saturday, Xi’s predecessor, 79-year-old Hu Jintao, abruptly left a meeting of the party Central Committee with an aide holding his arm. That prompted questions about whether Xi was flexing his powers by expelling other leaders. The official Xinhua News Agency later reported Hu was in poor health and needed to rest.
The party also named a seven-member Standing Committee, its inner circle of power, dominated by Xi allies after Premier Li Keqiang, the No. 2 leader and an advocate of market-style reform and private enterprise, was dropped from the leadership Saturday. That was despite Li being a year younger than the party’s informal retirement age of 68.
Xi and other Standing Committee members appeared for the first time as a group before reporters Sunday in the Great Hall of the People, the seat of China’s ceremonial legislature in central Beijing.
The No. 2 leader was Li Qiang, a former Shanghai party secretary who is no relation to Li Keqiang. The holder of that post has since the 1990s served as premier, the top economic official. Zhao Leji, a member of the previous committee, was promoted to No. 3, which puts him in line to head the legislature. Those government posts are to be assigned when the legislature meets next year.
Leadership changes were announced as the party wrapped up a twice-a-decade congress that was closely watched for signs of initiatives to reverse an economic slump or changes in a severe “zero-COVID” strategy that has shut down cities and disrupted business. Officials disappointed investors and the Chinese public by announcing no changes.
The lineup appeared to reflect what some commentators called “Maximum Xi,” valuing loyalty over ability. Some new leaders lack national-level experience as vice premier or Cabinet minister that typically is seen as a requirement for the post.
Li Qiang’s promotion appeared to support that analysis because it puts him in line to be premier with no background in national government. Li Qiang is seen as close to Xi after the two worked together in Zhejiang province in the southeast in the early 2000s.
Li Keqiang was sidelined over the past decade by Xi, who put himself in charge of policymaking bodies. Li Keqiang was excluded Saturday from the list of the party’s new 205-member Central Committee, from which the Standing Committee is picked.
Read: China’s Communist Party capable of new, greater miracles: Xi Jinping
Another leader who left the Standing Committee was Wang Yang, a reform advocate suggested by some as a possible premier. Wang, 67, is below retirement age.
Other new Standing Committee members include Cai Qi, the Beijing party secretary, and Ding Xuexiang, a career party manager who is regarded as Xi’s “alter ego” or chief of staff. Wang Huning, the party’s chief of ideology, stayed on the committee. The No. 7 member is Li Xi, the party secretary since 2017 of Guangdong province in the southeast, the center of China’s export-oriented manufacturing industry.
None of the members is a woman or ethnic minority. The Central Committee includes 11 women, or about 5% of the total.
Party plans call for creating a prosperous society by mid-century and restoring China to its historic role as a political, economic and cultural leader.
Those ambitions face challenges from security-related curbs on access to Western technology, an aging workforce and tension with Washington, Europe and Asian neighbors over trade, security, human rights and territorial disputes.
Xi has called for the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” and a revival of the party’s “original mission” as social, economic and culture leader in a throwback to what he sees as a golden age after it took power in 1949.
During the congress, Xi called for faster military development, more technology self-reliance and defense of China’s interests abroad, which raises the likelihood of further conflict.
The party has tightened control over entrepreneurs who generate jobs and wealth, prompting warnings that rolling back market-oriented reforms will weigh on economic growth that sank to 2.2% in the first half of this year, less than half the official 5.5% target.
Under a revived 1950s propaganda slogan, “common prosperity,” Xi is pressing entrepreneurs to help narrow China’s wealth gap by raising wages and paying for rural job creation and other initiatives.
Xi, in a report to the congress, called last week for “regulating the mechanism of wealth accumulation,” suggesting entrepreneurs might face still more political pressure, but gave no details.
“I would worry if I were a very wealthy individual in China,” said economist Alicia Garcia Herrero of Natixis.
In his report, Xi stressed the importance of national security and control over China’s supplies of food, energy and industrial goods.
Xi said the party would build “self-reliance and strength” in technology. He gave no indication of possible changes in policies that prompted then-President Donald Trump to launch a tariff war with Beijing in 2018 over its technology ambitions.
An “important guideline” from the congress is the “doubling down on the state’s role and the greater focus on national security,” said Garcia Herrero and Gary Ng of Natixis in a report.
The party has poured money into nurturing Chinese creators of renewable energy, electric car, computer chip, aerospace and other technologies. Other governments complain Beijing improperly subsidizes and shields its suppliers from competition.
Trump’s successor, Joe Biden, has kept punitive tariff hikes on Chinese goods and this month increased restrictions on China’s access to U.S. chip technology.
The party has tightened control over private sector leaders including e-commerce giant Alibaba Group by launching anti-monopoly and data security crackdowns. Under political pressure, they are diverting billions of dollars into chip development and other party initiatives. Their share prices on foreign exchanges have plunged due to uncertainty about their future.
Read: China moves to solidify Xi's dominance in leadership shuffle
The party will “step up its industrial policy” to close the “wide gap” between what Chinese tech suppliers can make and what is needed by smartphone, computer and other manufacturers, said Garcia Herrero and Ng.
Xi gave no indication Beijing will change its “zero-COVID” strategy despite public frustration with repeated city closures that has boiled over into protests in Shanghai and other areas.
Xi’s priorities of security and self-sufficiency will “drag on China’s productivity growth,” said Julian Evans-Pritchard, Sheana Yue and Mark Williams of Capital Economics in a report. “His determination to stay in power makes a course correction unlikely.”
The central bank governor, Yi Gang, and bank regulator, Guo Shuqing, also were missing from Saturday’s Central Committee list, indicating they will retire next year, as expected.
Xi suspended retirement rules to keep Gen. Zhang Youxia, 72, on the Central Committee. That allows Zhang, a veteran of China’s 1979 war with Vietnam, to stay as Xi’s deputy chairman on the commission that controls the party’s military wing, the People’s Liberation Army.
The party elite agreed in the 1990s to limit the general secretary to two five-year terms in hopes of avoiding a repeat of power struggles in previous decades. That leader also becomes chairman of the military commission and takes the ceremonial title of president.
Xi has directed an anti-corruption crackdown that snared thousands of officials including a retired Standing Committee member and deputy Cabinet ministers. That broke up party factions and weakened potential challengers.
Xi is on track to become the first leader in a generation to pick his own successor but has yet to indicate possible candidates or when he might step down. Hu Jintao and his predecessor, Jiang Zemin, both were picked in the 1980s by then-supreme leader Deng Xiaoping.
Xi had the ruling party remove the two-term limit for president from China’s constitution in 2018. Chinese officials said the change would allow Xi to stay if needed to complete reforms.
Ahead of the congress, banners criticizing Xi and “zero COVID” were hung from an elevated roadway over a major Beijing thoroughfare in a rare protest. Photos of the event were deleted from social media. The popular WeChat messaging app shut down accounts that forwarded them.
Xi’s government also faces criticism over mass detentions and other abuses against mostly Muslim ethnic groups and the jailing of government critics.