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Takeaways from Xi’s Congress
Originally published at The Indian Express, 24 October 2022. p.14. Published online as ‘Xi Jinping’s Congress: What are the implications for China, the world, and India?’ What are the main takeaways from the CPC Congress? The CPC’s 20th Congress underlined General Secretary Xi Jinping’s role not just as the core of the Central Committee but also…
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A Third Term For Xi Jinping Holds Little Assurance For India
Originally published at BQ Prime, 22 October 2022. India has several reasons to pay close attention to the ongoing 20th Party Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC). As a neighbour to China and as a country of similar size of population and length of history, it would be natural for India to assume…
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India’s Xinjiang Abstention: Neither Morality nor Self-Interest Clear
Originally published as ‘What national interests has India achieved by abstaining at UNHRC vote on Xinjiang?’, Moneycontrol, 14 October 2022. In Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, George Smiley is asked a question about what morality was — whether it was a method or if it was “vested in the aims”. “Difficult to know what one’s aims…
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Why factional politics might no longer matter in China
Originally published at 9DashLine, 6 October 2022. It is axiomatic that authoritarian states will be more vulnerable to sudden leadership changes or to regime collapse than open, democratic systems. Therefore, it is natural for China’s leaders to worry, and not entirely surprising that the Chinese Party-state has spent more on internal security than it has…
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A Significant Non-Meeting: Modi and Xi at Samarkand
Originally published as ‘Samarkand SCO: Significance of the Modi-Xi non-meeting’, Moneycontrol, 19 September 2022. Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not meet one-on-one with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Uzbekistan on the sidelines of the 22nd meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) Council of Heads of State. At least there is no publicly shared evidence of the meeting…
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100 Years of the Communist Party of China, Special Issue 2
China Report Vol. 58, No. 3, August 2022100 Years of the Communist Party of China, Special Issue 2Guest Editors: Jabin T. Jacob & Bhim B. Subbahttps://journals.sagepub.com/toc/chra/58/3 CONTENTS 1. Introduction – ‘Carrying Forward the Great Founding Spirit’: Governance in the Communist Party of China Today Jabin T. Jacob & Bhim B. Subba https://doi.org/10.1177/00094455221108226 2. The Relationship…
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A litany of economic woes but in China politics rules
Originally published at 9DashLine, 24 August 2022. The list of problems the Chinese economy faces is long. A rural banking collapse in Henan province has affected deposits worth billions of dollars, including the life’s savings of several customers.[1] Chinese property developers have defaulted to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars[2] as a result…
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China-Taiwan crisis: Implications and options for Japan
Co-authored with Chisako T. Masuo and originally published at India Today, 9 August 2022. It would be easy to portray the tensions generated by the visit of US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan as something largely involving the US and China; sometimes, even the Taiwanese are not considered as part of the…
Thinking about China in India 