The View from India | The era of Xi Jinping Premium

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Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a speech during the opening ceremony of the 20th National Congress of China’s ruling Communist Party. | Photo Credit: Mark Schiefelbein

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On Sunday, opening the Chinese Communist Party’s once-in-five-year national Congress in Beijing, President and party general secretary Xi Jinping laid out a decade-long vision for the country’s continued rise. The 20th party Congress, which will conclude on October 22, is set to be one of the most consequential party events in China’s recent history. While the party will pick a new leadership team for the next five years, Mr. Xi, who rose to the helm a decade ago, is expected to get a third term, defying a precedent set by the former leader Deng Xiaoping. Two of Mr. Xi’s predecessors, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, exited the high office after serving two consecutive terms. But Mr. Xi, arguably the most powerful leader since Mao, the founder of the People’s Republic, is likely to stay for at least 10 more years, leaving deep imprints on China’s domestic and foreign policies at a time when the country no longer hides its strength and ambitions. In his opening remarks at the congress, Mr. Xi said the party’s goal was to “significantly increase” China’s “economic strength, scientific and technological capabilities, and comprehensive national strength”. On the Taiwan question, Mr. Xi said China would “never promise to renounce the use of force”, although Beijing would “continue to strive for peaceful reunification”.

The Hindu has been closely following the developments in China and has published a series of features, reports and analyses from Beijing in recent weeks. Our correspondent in China, Ananth Krishnan, has written a three-part series, explaining how Xi remade China’s party state, the current state of its economy, and its ‘wolf warrior’ diplomacy. In this Profile of Mr. Xi, Ananth writes the party, faced with an existential crisis, turned to the former ‘princeling’ in 2012. A decade on, Mr. Xi has rewritten the party rulebook and is laying the groundwork for years of continued dominance.

Escalation in Ukraine

Flame and smoke rise fron Crimean Bridge connecting Russian mainland and Crimean peninsula over the Kerch Strait.

In retaliation to a blast at the Kerch bridge that links the Russian mainland to the annexed Crimea, Russian President Vladimir Putin last week ordered the broadest Russian missile strikes on Ukraine since the war began. Dozens of Russian missiles from the air, land and sea targeted both civilian and military infrastructure in Ukraine, in a major escalation of the war. Before launching the strike, Mr. Putin had blamed Ukraine for the bridge attack, apparently a truck bomb explosion. After the strikes, he warned that Russia would launch more ‘severe’ attacks if there would be further Ukrainian “terror” attacks. Ukraine’s counter-offensive did not make much gains in the past week, while the Russia-backed separatists claimed to have entered into Ukraine-controlled Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast, which is one of the four provinces annexed by Mr. Putin earlier this month. In this editorial, The Hindu writes that the war is in a dangerous escalatory spiral with no end in sight. Yet, we argue, the absence of talks means the continuation of the conflict, which is dangerous for the whole world. So both Mr. Putin and his rivals should back off from their maximalist positions and start taking talks seriously.

Meanwhile, Russia suffered a major setback in the UN as a vast majority of the member countries voted in the UN General Assembly to condemn the Russian annexation of Ukrainian territories. The vote in the 193-member U.N. General Assembly was 143-5 with 35 abstentions. India, which has abstained from all votes at the UN related to the conflict since the war began on February 24, abstained again, but after reiterating its position that it supports dialogue and an immediate cessation of violence.

Neighbourhood watch

At a regional conference in Kazakhstan, India said it wanted normal ties with Pakistan, but it must take “credible, verifiable and irreversible actions” to end cross-border terrorism. “Pakistan is the global epicentre of terrorism and continues to be the source of terrorist activities, including in India. Pakistan continues to make no investment in human development but provides their resources for creating and sustaining infrastructure of terrorism, said Meenakshi Lekhi, Minister of State for External Affairs. India’s comments were not the only diplomatic problem Pakistan faced last week. It hit headlines when U.S. President Joe Biden said Pakistan was “may be one of the most dangerous nations in the world” as it has “nuclear weapons without any cohesion”. Pakistani Foreign Ministry summoned the U.S. Ambassador in Washington immediately after Mr. Biden’s comment. Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said in Karachi that he was “surprised” by Biden’s statement. “I believe this is exactly the sort of misunderstanding that is created when there is a lack of engagement,” he said.

The Top Five

1. Russia’s continued defiance of international law | The list of Moscow’s barefaced violations of international law runs long, striking at the very foundations of the post-war international legal order, write Prabhash Ranjan and Aman Kumar.
2. Reading the Chinese tea leaves | It is necessary to understand how politics will be shaped by the national congress and vice versa, writes Bhim Subba.
3. Biden’s security strategy focuses on China, Russia | China and Russia are increasingly aligned with each other, but the challenges they pose are different, says the document, Sriram Lakshman reports from Washington.
4. Urban poverty triples in Sri Lanka amid enduring economic crisis | As Sri Lankans continue braving their worst economic crisis since Independence, urban poverty on the island has tripled in the last year, from 5% to 15 %, according to the World Bank report, Meera Srinivasan reports from Colombo.
5. Energy inflation in Europe peaks at 40% as Russia squeezes oil supply | Despite high dependence on Russian oil, supply to most European countries has taken a hit, Vignesh Radhakrishnan and Jasmin Nihalani explain with numbers in The Hindu Datapoint.