Lucas Niewenhuis is the Newsletter Editor at The China Project. Previously, he has researched China-Africa relations at the Social Science Research Council, interned at the Council on Foreign Relations, and studied Chinese language and culture in Shanghai and Beijing.
Chinese state media have highlighted four meetings led by Xi Jinping in the past week, with delegations from Inner Mongolia and Qinghai Province, representatives from the health and education fields, and security and military personnel.
The annual gathering of the National Peopleโs Congress in Beijing kicked off with modest goals for the economy and environment, and plans for the more complete subjugation of opposition forces in Hong Kong.
According to a new Gallup poll, 79% of Americans now have an unfavorable view of China โ more than right after the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989. Pew, meanwhile, found that nine-in-ten Americans see China as a competitor or enemy.
According to the UN, the world still needs to dramatically increase its climate commitments to avert disaster. China has promised that its emissions will peak by 2030 โ and political meetings in Beijing may soon reveal detail on whether, and how, that is likely to happen.
Beijing unexpectedly announced last week that it had found โpestsโ in Taiwanese pineapples, and banned their import. Taiwan called it an โambush,โ and drew a parallel to Chinaโs targeting of Australian wine.
India-China tensions now appear to be at their lowest level since the two countriesโ latest border clash began 10 months ago.
On the same day that U.S. regulators cleared the way for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to become the country's third approved COVID-19 shot, two more Chinese companies applied for public rollouts of their vaccines in China.
Last summer, the National Peopleโs Congress in Beijing bypassed the Hong Kong Legislative Council to impose a national security law. Next month, the NPC is expected to take a similar action to ensure that only โpatriots,โ as Beijing defines them, hold public office in the city.
Beijing has a plan to โrevitalizeโ rural communities that focuses on food security, including the use of smart agriculture and, possibly, GMO seeds, which are currently banned in most circumstances.