Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon
aims to alert you to the threats and opportunities that China and India present. China and India require serious attention; case of ‘hidden dragon and crouching tiger’.
Without this attention, governments, businesses and, indeed, individuals may find themselves at a great disadvantage sooner rather than later.
The POSTs (front webpages) are mainly 'cuttings' from reliable sources, updated continuously.
The PAGEs (see Tabs, above) attempt to make the information more meaningful by putting some structure to the information we have researched and assembled since 2006.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, addresses a Chinese Lunar New Year reception at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 23, 2020. The CPC Central Committee and the State Council held the reception on Thursday in Beijing. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei)
BEIJING, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday stressed racing against time and keeping abreast with history to reach the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation.
“Time and history wait for no one as they are both on the side of hard workers,” said Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission.
Xi made the remarks while addressing a Chinese Lunar New Year reception held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
Under the strong leadership of the CPC, all members of the Party, armed forces and people of all ethnic groups must fear no wind or wave, rise up to challenges and keep marching toward the glorious goal of national rejuvenation and the great prospect of building a community with a shared future for humanity, Xi said.
At the reception, held by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, Xi extended Lunar New Year’s greetings to Chinese people of all ethnic groups, compatriots in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and overseas Chinese.
Party and state leaders Li Keqiang, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji, Han Zheng and Wang Qishan were among the more than 2,000 people attending the reception. Li Keqiang chaired the event.
Xi noted in his speech that new and significant progress has been made in the past year toward building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.
He mentioned major events during the year, including the fourth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of Macao’s return to the motherland and resolute efforts to safeguard the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong and Macao, as well as celebrations marking the 70th founding anniversary of the People’s Republic of China.
A campaign themed “staying true to our founding mission” was also carried out to demand the more than 90 million Party members remember to always stay with the people.
“In the new year, we must secure a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and fighting poverty,” Xi said, adding that achieving this first centenary goal is a milestone in the process of realizing the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation.
The results, Xi said, must be recognized by the people and stand the test of time.
Xi said the Chinese nation, with a civilization stretching back over 5,000 years, has made indelible contributions to the civilization and progress of mankind. But the nation was held back for too long by various internal and external troubles in modern times.
That is why, Xi said, the Chinese people have always had an extraordinary sense of urgency and appreciation of the underlying trend of the times.
From now to the middle of this century, the Chinese people will strive to build China into a great modern socialist country. It will be a great era in which a new splendid chapter of the Chinese civilization will be written, he said.
Every Chinese person must feel proud of living in such a great era, Xi said.
“We must maintain strategic direction and resolve, stay united, work hard and forge ahead against all odds,” Xi said.
on Thursday, just a week after President Tsai Ing-wen angered Beijing by saying the island was an independent country.
According to Taiwan’s defence ministry, the formation, which included a KJ-500 early warning and control aircraft and an H-6 bomber, passed through the Bashi Channel near Taiwan’s Orchid Island en route to the western Pacific Ocean.
It did not say how many aircraft were involved but said they had taken off from different airbases in southern China.
“They returned to their airbases from their morning flight path after a long-haul exercise,” the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry urged the public not to be alarmed by the aircraft’s presence, saying it constantly monitored the activities of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), both in the air and at sea.
Taiwan’s armed forces would also remain on high alert over the Lunar New Year
holiday, which starts on Friday, it said.
“There is no holiday for national security,” it said.
The PLA exercise came just a week after Tsai said on January 15 that Beijing needed to face the reality of Taiwan’s independence.
“We don’t have a need to declare ourselves an independent state,” she said in an interview with the BBC. “We are an independent country already and we call ourselves the Republic of China, Taiwan.”
Tsai urges mainland China to review strained ties
21 Jan 2020
Tsai’s comments came just days after she secured a second term as president with a record 8.2 million votes.
In her victory speech, she promised to continue to stand up to Beijing’s intimidation, while also strengthening Taiwan’s defences, partly by developing more home-grown military equipment, including submarines.
US-made F-16V fighters took part in a show of Taiwan’s military might last week. Photo: AFP
In response to Tsai’s “independent country” comments, Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesman for the mainland’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said: “We firmly attack and counter various forms of Taiwan independence and separatist activities to maintain overall peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”
Beijing regards Taiwan as part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary. Official ties between the two sides have been suspended since Tsai took office in 2016 and refused to accept the one-China principle – the political understanding that there is only one China with ambiguity over whether it is governed by Taipei or Beijing.
Over the past four years Beijing has ramped up the pressure on the island, by poaching its diplomatic allies and staging military drills.
Taiwanese Minister of National Defence Yen Te-fa said earlier that the mainland staged about 2,000 bomber patrols a year near the Taiwan Strait.
For their part, Taiwan’s army and air force last week gave two demonstrations of their readiness to defend the island against attack.
Wuhan, a Chinese city of eleven million people, has temporarily shut down its public transport as it tries to halt the outbreak of a new strain of virus.
Those living in the city have been advised not to leave, in a week when millions of Chinese are travelling for the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday.
The respiratory illness has spread to other parts of China, with some cases in other countries including the US.
There are more than 500 confirmed cases and 17 people have died.
Known for now as 2019-nCoV, the virus is understood to be a new strain of coronavirus not previously identified in humans. The Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome) virus that killed nearly 800 people globally in the early 2000s was also a coronavirus, as is the common cold.
All the fatalities so far have been in Hubei, the province around Wuhan.
Meanwhile, after a day of discussions in Geneva, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) emergency committee has announced it will not yet declare a “global emergency” over the new virus.
Director general Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus said more information was needed about the spread of the infection. The committee of health experts will meet again on Thursday.
A global emergency is the highest level of alarm the WHO can sound and has previously been used in response to swine flu, Zika virus and Ebola.
What measures have been announced?
From Thursday, all flights and passenger train services out of Wuhan have been stopped.
Bus, subway and ferry services all shut down from 10:00 local time (02:00 GMT).
A special command centre in Wuhan set up to contain the virus said the move was meant to “resolutely contain the momentum of the epidemic spreading”.
Those living in Wuhan had already been told to avoid crowds and minimise public gatherings.
State news agency Xinhua said tourist attractions and hotels in the city had been told to suspend large-scale activities while libraries, museums and theatres were cancelling exhibitions and performances.
A Lunar New Year prayer-giving ceremony at the city’s Guiyuan Temple, which attracted 700,000 people last year, has also been cancelled.
The hashtag “Wuhan is sealed off” was trending on Chinese social media website Weibo.
One user said worries about food and disinfectant made it feel like “the end of the world”, while another said they were on the “verge of tears” when Chinese officials announced the shut-down.
The WHO’s Dr Ghebreyesus described the latest measures as “very strong” and said they would “not only control the outbreak, they will minimise spread internationally”.
Chinese officials said the country was now at the “most critical stage” of prevention and control.
“Basically, do not go to Wuhan. And those in Wuhan please do not leave the city,” said National Health Commission vice-minister Li Bin in one of the first public briefings since the beginning of the outbreak.
Like shutting down London before Christmas
By James Gallagher, BBC health and science correspondent
Wuhan is starting to look like a city in quarantine.
Officials had already warned residents not to leave the city and visitors not to come.
Now the reported public transport ban – which includes flights – slams many of the routes in and out of the city shut.
Image copyright GETTY IMAGESImage caption Subways in Wuhan will be temporarily shut
It is a significant attempt to stop the spread of this new virus, which we now know can spread from person to person.
Limiting transport will cut the chance of the virus reaching other cities in China and other countries around the world.
This all comes just as millions of people are travelling across China for the week-long holiday that is Lunar New Year.
If you’re struggling for context – imagine shutting down London in the week before Christmas.
The big question left is the roads – and whether any of Wuhan’s 11 million inhabitants will be able to simply drive away.
The patient in Macau is said to be a businesswoman who arrived from Wuhan over the weekend.
The first US case was confirmed on Tuesday. President Donald Trump said the situation was “totally under control” and that he trusted the information being provided by Chinese authorities.
There have been three cases in Thailand, one in Korea, one in Japan and one in Taiwan.
Although only about 500 cases have been confirmed, calculations by scientists at the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis at Imperial College London suggest there are 4,000 people sick with the virus in Wuhan.
Our estimate at 4,000 cases is more than double the past estimate due to increase of number of cases outside China. This should not be interpreted as implying the outbreak has doubled in size.
The virus originated in a seafood market in Wuhan that “conducted illegal transactions of wild animals”, authorities said. The market has since been shut down.
GENEVA (Reuters) – A World Health Organisation panel of experts on the new coronavirus met on Thursday to evaluate whether the outbreak, which has spread from China to several countries, constitutes an international emergency.
The 16 independent experts in disease control, virology, epidemiology and vaccine development were holding a second closed-door meeting at the U.N. agency’s headquarters in Geneva after not reaching a decision on Wednesday.
Didier Houssin, an adviser to France’s national health security agency, is serving as chair. Chinese health authorities made a presentation by teleconference and have allowed a WHO team into the country who are due to report back to the panel.
A news conference was expected later in the day.
Here are some facts about WHO Emergency Committees:
– Director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced on Monday that the WHO had called an Emergency Committee to assess the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) that began in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of last year.
– Declaration of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern – known as a “PHEIC” in WHO jargon – is rare.
– The WHO panel’s recommendations, after assessing any evidence of human-to-human transmission and other factors, would be put to Tedros, who would decide whether to declare an emergency.
– Only five emergencies have been declared in the past decade: the H1 virus that caused an influenza pandemic (2009), West Africa’s Ebola outbreak, polio (2014), Zika virus (2016), and the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (2019).
– The WHO’s criteria, laid out in the 2005 International Health Regulations, define a PHEIC as “an extraordinary event which is determined to constitute a public health risk to other states through the international spread of disease and to potentially require a coordinated international response”.
– Such situations are “serious, sudden, unusual or unexpected”, carry cross-border implications and may require immediate international action, its rules say.
– A declaration would lead to boosting public health measures, funding and resources to prevent and reduce international spread.
– It could include recommendations on trade and travel, including airport screening of passengers, although the WHO generally aims to avoid disruptive trade restrictions.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, beats a wooden drum of the Wa ethnic group three times to bless the coming year in Sanjia Village in the city of Tengchong, southwest China’s Yunnan Province, Jan. 19, 2020. Xi has extended Chinese New Year greetings to all Chinese people during a three-day inspection tour to Yunnan Province which concluded Tuesday. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)
KUNMING, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Xi Jinping has extended Chinese New Year greetings to all Chinese people.
He wished Chinese people of all ethnic groups a better life and the country greater prosperity in the new year.
Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks during a three-day inspection tour of southwest China’s Yunnan Province which concluded Tuesday.
During a visit to Sanjia Village in the city of Tengchong on Sunday afternoon, Xi learned about poverty alleviation efforts and called for efforts to speed up the development of ethnic minorities and areas with large ethnic minority populations.
After joining local villagers in making rice cakes, a traditional local festival food, Xi noted that shaking off poverty is the new starting point, calling for vigorously promoting rural vitalization after China completes the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects.
According to local custom, Xi beat a wooden drum of the Wa ethnic group three times to bless the coming year.
Later that day, Xi went to the old town of Heshun, a gateway on the ancient Southern Silk Road, where he visited a village-level library built over 90 years ago.
Visiting the memorial hall of Ai Siqi, a renowned philosopher, Xi said the country needs a large number of talented individuals who can explain the adaptation of Marxism to the Chinese context well and who can use easy-to-understand language to spread the Party’s new theories to more ordinary households.
Visiting an ecological wetland of Dianchi Lake in Kunming on Monday, Xi stressed resisting the old way of developing the economy at the cost of the environment.
Dianchi Lake, once among the most polluted lakes in China, has seen its ecology greatly improved after years of conservation efforts.
Inspecting market supply for Chinese New Year at the Kunming International Convention and Exhibition Center, Xi demanded a sufficient supply of safe and reliable goods during the festival.
There, Xi extended Chinese New Year greetings to local residents, the Chinese people of all ethnic groups, compatriots in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and overseas Chinese nationals.
Xi then went to the former site of the National Southwest Associated University in Kunming. He stressed the close link between education and the fate and future of the country and noted that the goal of China’s education system is to nurture a new generation of capable young people who are well-prepared to join the socialist cause.
After hearing the work reports of the CPC Yunnan Provincial Committee and the provincial government on Tuesday morning, Xi encouraged Yunnan to break new ground in promoting ethnic unity and progress, pushing forward ecological conservation, and pursuing greater cooperation with South Asia and Southeast Asia.
Xi urged efforts to promote high-quality development, accelerate building a modernized economy, consolidate the achievements in poverty alleviation, boost the healthy and sustainable development of tourism, while continuing to fight air, water and soil pollution.
He also required further opening-up to neighboring countries, speeding up the building of connectivity networks and strengthening cultural and people-to-people exchanges.
Xi demanded efforts to strengthen governance capacity in border areas and areas with large ethnic minority populations, implement the plans to boost the development of ethnic minority areas and ethnic groups with small populations, step up the fight against cross-border crime, gangs and their “protective umbrellas,” and maintain the stability of border areas.
On the anti-poverty fight, Xi ordered focusing on areas with extreme poverty, preventing people from falling back into poverty due to illness, injury or the lack of follow-up policies, and further aligning developmental poverty relief with protective poverty relief.
On Party building, Xi said the “staying true to the Party’s founding mission” campaign should be regarded as a lifelong task for strengthening Party building among all Party members and a source of inspiration in the new era.
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi addresses the 2020 new year reception of Chinese Foreign Ministry at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 20, 2020. (Xinhua/Li Xiang)
BEIJING, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) — Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Monday reiterated China’s resolve on reunification.
The historical and legal fact that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China will not change no matter how the situation in Taiwan may evolve, Wang said when addressing the 2020 New Year reception hosted by the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
Nothing will shake the resolve and confidence of the Chinese government and people in advancing the reunification, he said.
The one-China principle has been a consensus shared by the international community and a universally recognized norm governing international relations, Wang said.
The annually reception was attended by nearly 400 diplomatic envoys and representatives of relevant Chinese departments.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits the former site of the National Southwest Associated University (NSAU) in southwest China’s Yunnan Province, in the afternoon on Jan. 20, 2020. The NSAU was a coalition between Peking and Tsinghua universities in Beijing, and Tianjin’s Nankai University during the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. Xi visited the museum commemorating the university, and learned about the history of the institution when its teachers and students dedicated themselves to the country during the war. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)
KUNMING, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) — Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, Monday afternoon visited the former site of the National Southwest Associated University (NSAU).
The NSAU was a coalition between Peking and Tsinghua universities in Beijing, and Tianjin’s Nankai University during the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
Xi visited the museum commemorating the university, and learned about the history of the institution when its teachers and students dedicated themselves to the country during the war.
BEIJING (Reuters) – With millions of Asians travelling on Tuesday for the Lunar New Year holiday, authorities in China confirmed that a new virus could be spread through human contact, reporting 15 medical staff had been infected and a fourth person had died.
The chilling update on the coronavirus outbreak that began in the central city of Wuhan sent shivers through financial markets, as the World Health Organisation called a meeting for Wednesday to consider declaring an international health emergency.
By the end of Monday the number of confirmed cases in China had climbed to 291, the National Health Commission said. Some 270 were in Hubei province. Wuhan, a city of 11 million people is the provincial capital.
The outbreak was also spreading to other cities, with 15 cases in southern province of Guangdong, five in the capital Beijing and two in Shanghai.
RELATED COVERAGE
WHO says expects further spread of new coronavirus in China
Death toll from coronavirus outbreak in China’s Wuhan rises to six – state TV
“Information about newly reported infections suggest there may now be sustained human to human transmission,” WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific Takeshi Kasai said in an email statement.
The scare brought back bad memories of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), another coronavirus that broke out in China in 2002/2003, resulting in the death of nearly 800 people in global pandemic.
Health authorities around the world have begun to step up screening of travellers arriving from China. Two cases have already been identified in Thailand, one in Japan and one in South Korea, while the Philippines reported on Tuesday its first suspected case.
Wuhan Municipal Health Commission confirmed a fourth fatality on Tuesday, disclosing that an 89-year-old man who had underlying health issues, including heart disease, died on Jan. 19.
Chinese authorities also confirmed for the first time that the virus could spread through human contact and said 15 medical staff had been infected.
The mounting anxiety was transmitted to regional markets. China’s onshore yuan CNY= fell 0.6%, its biggest daily drop since Aug. 26, 2019, while airline and travel stocks fell across the region.
European shares also slipped on mounting concerns about the impact of the outbreak, with luxury goods firms particularly hard-hit on worries about weaker demand from Chinese consumers.
The virus can cause pneumonia, with symptoms including fever and difficulty in breathing. As those symptoms are similar to many other respiratory diseases, extra screening is needed.
AIRPORT SCREENING
The origin of the virus has yet to be identified, but the primary source is most likely animal, according to WHO. Chinese officials have linked the outbreak to a seafood market in Wuhan.
“The outbreak of a SARS-like coronavirus in Wuhan is developing into a major potential economic risk to the Asia-Pacific region now that there is medical evidence of human-to-human transmission,” said Rajiv Biswas, Asia Pacific Chief Economist for IHS Markit, in an email statement.
So far, the WHO has not recommended trade or travel restrictions but such measures could be discussed at Wednesday’s emergency meeting.
China’s National Health Commission will also give an update on the outbreak at a press briefing at 10 a.m. (0200 GMT) on Wednesday.
Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China will attend the WHO meeting and share relevant information.
“China is willing to deepen its global cooperation and work with the international community to work together to deal with the epidemic,” Geng told reporters at a regular daily briefing.
Airport authorities in the United States as well as most Asian nations also are screening passengers from Wuhan.
Australia on Tuesday said it would screen passengers on flights from Wuhan, while Singapore announced it would quarantine individuals with pneumonia and a history of travel to Wuhan within 14 days prior to the onset of symptoms.
QUEUES FOR MASKS
Wuhan officials have been using infrared thermometers to screen passengers at airports, railway stations and other passenger terminals since Jan. 14.
Zhong Nanshan, head of the National Health Commission’s team of experts investigating the outbreak, said in footage shown by state television on Monday there was no danger of a repeat of the SARS epidemic so long as precautions were taken.
Images of long lines of people queuing to buy face masks were circulating widely on Chinese social media, where the outbreak was one of the top trending topics.
Some online vendors were limiting sales of masks and hand sanitizers as demand surged.
And Shanghai’s market regulator warned on Tuesday that it will punish speculators who hoard masks and other products used for preventing diseases, according to the Shanghai Observer – a web publication backed by a Communist Party newspaper.
Trip.com, China’s top online travel booking platform, said it would refund customers who cancel bookings in Wuhan this month, or whose travel plans are disrupted by quarantines or other regulatory efforts to prevent the spread of the virus.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits a village of the Wa ethnic group to extend his Chinese New Year’s greetings to the villagers in Qingshui Township of the city of Tengchong, southwest China’s Yunnan Province, Jan. 19, 2020. Xi visited Yunnan Province Sunday on an inspection tour ahead of Chinese New Year. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)
KUNMING, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) — Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, visited southwest China’s Yunnan Province Sunday on an inspection tour ahead of Chinese New Year.
Xi went to a village of the Wa ethnic group in Qingshui Township of the city of Tengchong Sunday afternoon to learn about poverty alleviation efforts and extend his Chinese New Year’s greetings to the villagers.
He also visited the old town of Heshun, a gateway on the ancient Southern Silk Road that linked China’s Sichuan and Yunnan with Myanmar and India, to learn about exchanges, historical and cultural inheritance, as well as ecological and environmental protection along the trade route.
Furious internet users have been digging for information on her background as they push for an explanation, while state media urges probe
‘Lu Xiaobao’, who posted pictures of her and a friend with her car at the site, claims to be the wealthy granddaughter-in-law of a revolutionary hero
Pictures of the women posing in front of a car in the Forbidden City went viral. Photo: Weibo
A Chinese woman who drove her luxury SUV into Beijing’s Forbidden City
and posted pictures online has prompted a public search for information about her, while state media called for the case to be investigated.
The photos – showing two women standing in front of a Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen parked in the World Heritage Site, which banned vehicles in 2013 – were posted on microblog site Weibo on Friday under the name “LuxiaobaoLL”. It was captioned: “As it is closed on Monday, [we] avoided tourists and enjoyed the palace.” The post went viral and drew tens of thousands of comments.
The Palace Museum, which runs the 600-year-old landmark, later apologised, confirming that a car had been allowed to enter the complex on Monday last week when it was closed to the public.
It did not identify the pair, but said it would “stop it from happening again”.
Lu Xiaobao claims she is married to the grandson of revolutionary hero He Changgong. Photo: Weibo
Social media user Lu Xiaobao, who posted the photos of herself and a friend, has claimed to be the wealthy granddaughter-in-law of a Chinese revolutionary hero, and that her fortune includes a house in Los Angeles worth more than US$11 million.
Lu herself and the family she says she married into have so far remained silent, and the claims could not be independently verified. But irate social media users have been digging online for information on her background as they push for an official explanation.
Some are concerned that flouting the car ban risked damaging the Ming dynasty complex, and the incident has also reinforced a widespread perception that certain people are granted privileges denied to ordinary Chinese because of their family connections.
Lucky Air passenger who threw ‘good luck’ coins at plane ordered to pay airline US$17,200
3 Jan 2020
Social media users seized on one of Lu’s Instagram posts featuring a house she claims to have bought in 2018. The property is apparently owned by Wang Zhijie, wife of Liu Zhongtian, the billionaire founder of aluminium products maker China Zhongwang, raising suspicion that Lu could be connected to the family.
But the company denied there was any link with the woman in a statement issued on Sunday. “Mr Liu himself doesn’t know Luxiaobao LL or her relatives directly,” it said.
State media has also weighed in on the case, with People’s Daily, the Communist Party mouthpiece, running a scathing commentary on Saturday calling for a thorough investigation by the Palace Museum.
“People are distressed because our national heritage and culture – which we treasure – has been damaged,” the commentary read. “People are furious because there are still people trying to challenge the consensus that the 600-year-old Forbidden City is no longer a private property for feudal privilege.”
The history of the Forbidden City: a visual explainer Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of state-run tabloid Global Times, also called for a better explanation of the incident.
The woman has claimed that she is married to He Gang, the grandson of He Changgong, who joined the party in 1922, a year after it was established, and played an important role in its early development.
But Hu wrote on Weibo that if the woman’s claim was true, her background was “not so eminent” since He Changgong had not taken any important positions after the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949.
The Palace Museum banned vehicles from the Forbidden City in 2013 to protect the complex. The ban has been strictly enforced, including when former French president Francois Hollande visited that year and had to leave his car outside and walk into the palace.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, addresses a Chinese Lunar New Year reception at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 23, 2020. The CPC Central Committee and the State Council held the reception on Thursday in Beijing. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei)
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 