Xi Jinping | China Curated

Iran, China sign deal on ‘Belt and Road’ project | Anadolu Agency

“Iran and China signed a much-anticipated 25-year strategic cooperation agreement on Saturday, as part of China’s “Belt and Road” initiative.
The document was signed by Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and his Chinese counterpart Wang Li in a ceremony in Tehran attended by top officials of the two countries. Wang arrived in the Iranian capital Friday on a two-day visit as part of his regional tour, which comes at a time of heightened tensions between China and the US.
The cooperation agreement aims to bolster economic cooperation between Tehran and Beijing and paves the way for Iran’s participation in the “Belt and Road” Initiative, a massive infrastructure project stretching from East Asia to Europe, with a focus on the private sector.

The $400 billion deal had been on anvil since January 2016 when Chinese President Xi Jinping became the first world leader to visit Iran following the signing of the 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and world powers.”

Read the full article @ Anadolu Agency:

Iran, China sign deal on ‘Belt and Road’ project

$400 billion deal paves the way for Iran’s participation in “Belt and Road” Initiative – Anadolu Agency

The plans of the new Chinese ambassador to Switzerland | NZZ

“China is said to have eliminated absolute poverty by the end of the year. This is what the head of state and party leader Xi Jinping wants. It is an area that Wang Shihting, Beijing’s new representative in Switzerland, is very familiar with.”

Read the full article @ NZZ (paywall):

Die Pläne des neuen chinesischen Botschafters in der Schweiz

China soll bis Ende Jahr die absolute Armut beseitigt haben. So will es der Staats- und Parteichef Xi Jinping. Es ist ein Gebiet, auf dem sich Wang Shihting, Pekings neuer Vertreter in der Schweiz, bestens auskennt.

Internal Chinese report warns Beijing faces Tiananmen-like global backlash over virus | Reuters

“The report, presented early last month by the Ministry of State Security to top Beijing leaders including President Xi Jinping, concluded that global anti-China sentiment is at its highest since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, the sources said.

As a result, Beijing faces a wave of anti-China sentiment led by the United States in the aftermath of the pandemic and needs to be prepared in a worst-case scenario for armed confrontation between the two global powers, according to people familiar with the report’s content, who declined to be identified given the sensitivity of the matter.

The report was drawn up by the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), a think tank affiliated with the Ministry of State Security, China’s top intelligence body.”

Read the full article @ Reuters:

Exclusive: Internal Chinese report warns Beijing faces Tiananmen-like global backlash over virus

An internal Chinese report warns that Beijing faces a rising wave of hostility in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak that could tip relations with the United States into confrontation, people familiar with the paper told Reuters.

The Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held a meeting chaired by Xi Jinping | Xinhua

“Xi Jinping pointed out that with the strong leadership of the Party’s Central Committee and the strong support of all parties, with the active participation and cooperation of the people of Hubei, especially the people of Wuhan, after arduous efforts, the defensive battles in Hubei and Wuhan have achieved decisive results and the national epidemic prevention and control blockade has achieved Major strategic achievements.

This all was not easily achieved. At present, the overseas epidemic outbreaks continue to grow, the pressure on China’s foreign defense imports continues to increase and the complexity of preventing domestic epidemic rebounds is also increasing. The string of epidemic prevention and control must be strict at all times, and must never be abandoned. All regions and departments should pay close attention to the prevention and control of normal epidemic situation, strengthen the import of external defense and the rebound of internal defense in a targeted manner, continuously consolidate the results of prevention and control, provide a strong guarantee for the comprehensive restoration of economic and social order and ensure the completion of the decisive battle and the goal of overcoming poverty, and build a well-off society in an all-round way.”

Read the full article @ Xinhua:

中共中央政治局常务委员会召开会议习近平主持-新华网

‘It all feels a little off’: Caution as post-virus China reopens | Al Jazeera

“Even as new cases have plummeted, fears of a second wave of infections have prompted the imposition of restrictions that are even more strict than before including mandatory quarantines.

President Xi Jinping has identified the city as a top priority in virus prevention efforts.

“The security and stability of the capital city is directly related to the overall work of the party and country,” he said in a recent speech.

Daily life is now accompanied by new restrictions and small inconveniences, most of which have been welcomed as an indication that the crisis is being properly managed.

Masks are mandatory – those who attempt to leave their homes without one can expect to be reminded not only by local security guards, but by other residents.”

Read the full article @ Al Jazeera:

‘It all feels a little off’: Caution as post-virus China reopens

In Beijing, people struggling to resume ‘normal’ life amid continuing restrictions and their own fear of coronavirus.

Six uncomfortable (but essential) questions to Xi Jinping, secretary general of the one-party state of China | NZZ

“When Donald Trump talks about the Chinese virus, he does it with good reason. It originated in China, China initially covered it up, and now China wants to help the world fight the virus. What exactly is happening there?”

Read the full article @ NZZ:

Niall Ferguson: Sechs Fragen zum Coronavirus an Xi Jinping

Wenn Donald Trump vom chinesischen Virus spricht, dann tut er dies mit gutem Grund. In China ist es entstanden, China hat es zunächst vertuscht, und nun will China der Welt dabei helfen, das Virus zu bekämpfen. Was geschieht da genau?

For China, the 2020s will be a difficult decade | CapX

“At the dawn of the 2020s, China is facing challenges that are perhaps the most serious since the death of Mao Zedong in 1976.

Until relatively recently, these were predominantly home-grown problems gathering momentum slowly over the last decade or so. They have become accentuated, though, by the emergence of a new, repressive governance system under President Xi Jinping, and, in the last two years by the so-called trade war and the eruption of instability in Hong Kong. In the 2020s, China’s growth is likely to continue to slow to about 3-4% a year. A ‘recession with Chinese characteristics’ is not out of the question.

We should pay close attention. Slower growth and the rising risk of a significant fall in the value of the yuan in the next few years could easily choke the narrative that China will become the biggest economy in the world. This would have a significant impact on how China, and we think about everything from economics to foreign and security policy in the global system.”

Read the full article @ CapX:

For China, the 2020s will be a difficult decade – CapX

At the dawn of the 2020s, China is facing challenges that are perhaps the most serious since the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. Until relatively recently, these were predominantly home-grown problems gathering momentum slowly over the last decade or so. They have become accentuated, though, by the eme…

Understanding China’s AI strategy: Clues to Chinese strategic thinking on Artificial Intelligence and national security | CNAS

“In the second half of 2018, I traveled to China on four separate trips to attend major diplomatic, military, and private-sector conferences focusing on Artificial Intelligence (AI). During these trips, I participated in a series of meetings with high-ranking Chinese officials in China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, leaders of China’s military AI research organizations, government think tank experts, and corporate executives at Chinese AI companies. From these discussions – as well as my ongoing work analyzing China’s AI industry, policies, reports, and programs – I have arrived at a number of key judgments about Chinese leadership’s views, strategies, and prospects for AI as it applies to China’s economy and national security. Of course, China’s leadership in this area is a large population with diversity in its views, and any effort to generalize is inherently presumptuous and essentially guaranteed to oversimplify. However, the distance is large between prevailing views in American commentary on China’s AI efforts and what I have come to believe are the facts. I hope by stating my takeaways directly, this report will advance the assessment of this issue and be of benefit to the wider U.S. policymaking community.” – Gregory C. Allen

Read the full report @ Center for a New American Security:

Understanding China’s AI Strategy

Developing strong, pragmatic and principled national security and defense policies.

Download the full White Paper [PDF, 1.3 MB]

Why more Chinese companies will come to Switzerland | Swissinfo

Switzerland can expect to see a lot more companies coming over from China in the coming years, according to Liu Jiren, co-founder and chairman of leading Chinese software firm, Neusoft.

Chinese companies made the headlines in Switzerland last year with several notable merger and acquisition (M&A) deals, including the record $43.3 billion takeover of Basel agrochemical giant Syngenta by the China National Chemical Corporation (ChemChina).

“Yet more are taking advantage of Switzerland’s political stability, technical know-how, strong financial system and low corporate tax rates to set up regional headquarters in the alpine nation. It also helps when diplomatic relations between the two countries are at a high point, as witnessed by the free trade agreement and visit earlier this week of Chinese President Xi Jinping.”

Read the full article @ Swissinfo:

Why more Chinese companies will come to Switzerland

Switzerland can expect to see a lot more companies coming over from China in the coming years, according to Liu Jiren, CEO of Neusoft.