Xi Jinping formally assumed the highest political position in China this week, General Secretary of the Communist Party. He will lead the Politboro Standing Committee, reduced from nine to seven members. While he spoke of the desperate need for vigilance against corruption, the overreach of bureaucracy and party members being "out of touch," the hope for true political reform is slight, say analysts.
Corruption, get rid of it. Unity, need more of it. Reform, now. All of these assertions were heard multiple times in the 18th Party Congress' public sessions. Why were they made and what do they mean for the future China, if anything?
"China resolutely opposes the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," said a Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson. But a UN Security Council diplomat told Reuters that South Korean officials, in fact, confiscated Syria-bound, North Korean ballistic missile parts from a Chinese ship in May.
Member of Parliament, Brent Rathgeber, is calling for international action on allegations and mounting evidence of forced organ harvesting in China. "A government involved in abhorrent human rights activities...that's going to bear negatively on all international relations," he said.
This episode of NTD's Discovering China features characters from Chinese history portrayed through dance; the world's first orchestra to incorporate full-time Chinese instrumentalists; and artworks by Falun Dafa practitioners go on display in Taiwan. [More]
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