Translation Tag: social stability
Lou Yu, a scholar from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), traces opportunities and challenges for continued development of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and broader regional engagement in Latin America. Lou is relatively sober on prospects for bilateral ties, pointing to the geopolitical situation in Latin America (specifically, growing U.S. and European interests in the region), substantial crime rates and associated security challenges to Chinese investment, and political instability in many Latin American countries. Nevertheless, Lou suggests that political trends in the region – including a resurgence of left-leaning governments – may result in greater openness to BRI engagement going forward.
Two scholars from Fudan University analyze the evolving role of the Belt and Road Initiative in cultivating China-Latin America relations. They characterize Latin America as a key partner that China can work with to promote a reorientation of its trading relationships away from the United States and other advanced Western economies, and they trace growing diplomatic, cultural, and economic exchange between the two sides. Nevertheless, the authors also soberly identify complex challenges that could undermine such developments, including U.S. suspicion of China’s engagement in the region and political and social instability in many Latin American countries. They recommend Beijing proactively seek to deepen cooperation with Latin America on supply chains, infrastructure construction, and people-to-people exchanges, and strategically address the development needs of Latin American countries in order to build influence in the region.
The CCP Politburo holds “collective study sessions” on a semi-regular basis, in which an outside academic or government expert leads a discussion on a selected topic. Such sessions are important signals as to what issues the senior leadership finds important. The 18th collective study session of the 20th Central Committee Politburo was held on December 9, 2024 and was presided over by Xi Jinping. Xi delivered a speech emphasizing the need to improve border governance including by supporting economic development in border regions and creating better transportation and commercial linkages between border regions and the rest of China.
A report to the National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), more commonly referred to as just the “Party Congress,” is arguably the most authoritative document in the Chinese Party-state ecosystem. It is technically the report of the outgoing Central Committee (here, the 15th Central Committee) at the quinquennial gathering of the Party Congress (here, the 16th Party Congress). Delivered by the General Secretary of the CCP (here, Jiang Zemin), the report not only provides an official summary of the Party’s work over the past five years, but also outlines the official Party stance on all major policy issues and sets policy priorities for the incoming Central Committee (here, the 16th Central Committee).
A report to the National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), more commonly referred to as just the “Party Congress,” is arguably the most authoritative document in the Chinese Party-state ecosystem. It is technically the report of the outgoing Central Committee (here, the 13th Central Committee) at the quinquennial gathering of the Party Congress (here, the 14th Party Congress). Delivered by the General Secretary of the CCP (here, Jiang Zemin), the report not only provides an official summary of the Party’s work over the past five years, but also outlines the official Party stance on all major policy issues and sets policy priorities for the incoming Central Committee (here, the 14th Central Committee).
Researchers at Nankai University argue that increasing the proportion of China’s population in the middle class will have knock-on effects for social stability, productivity growth, and consumer demand. As a result, they argue, continuing to expand this demographic will be “an important task for China going forward in the new stage of development.” The authors recommend Beijing focus on raising income levels of rural residents through rural revitalization, promoting urbanization, and “gradually transition[ing] from an urban development orientation to a strategic focus that prioritizes rural revitalization and development.”