China’s secret ‘magic weapon’ for global soft power
Xi Jinping is quietly ramping up the United Front Work Department of the Chinese Communist party in a push for global “soft power”, The FT’s James Kynge writes in a… Read more »
Category: Communist regimes
Chinese exceptionalism? Ideology rules in CCP’s new top team
A number of major western news groups whose coverage has irked Beijing were excluded from Xi Jinping’s unveiling of China’s new ruling council on Wednesday – in some cases for the… Read more »
As APEC Summit looms, Vietnam escalates crackdown on rights campaigners
Vietnam should drop all charges and immediately release student blogger Phan Kim Khanh, Human Rights Watch said today. Vietnam’s donors and regional leaders should make it clear that they will… Read more »
Does Xi – China’s most powerful leader since Mao – plan to ‘do a Putin’?
China’s ruling party moved on Tuesday to confirm Xi Jinping’s status as the country’s most powerful leader in decades by adding his name and ideology to its constitution. Xi’s concept… Read more »
Rejecting ‘Western’ democracy, China’s Xi consolidates power with new ideology
China’s President Xi Jinping has created his own political ideology, in a step towards entrenching his position at the top of the Communist Party. Top officials have made multiple… Read more »
The problem with Cuba’s ‘new economy’
When Raúl Castro steps down as Cuba’s president in February 2018, he will hand off to his successor the unfinished task of reforming the economy, notes William LeoGrande, Professor of… Read more »
Pluralist democracies have soft power advantage, says research
In a world first, researchers have found that a state’s soft power has statistically significant impact on foreign direct investment (FDI), overseas student recruitment, tourism, and international influence in… Read more »
50 years on, exposing The Che Guevara Myth
In the 50 years since his death, Ernesto “Che” Guevara has grown into a mythical figure for leftists around the world. As one of the heroes of Fidel Castro’s Cuban… Read more »
‘Xi Jinping’s Moment’ – Communist Party primacy in all realms of politics and civil society
Xi Jinping has emerged as the most decisive, disciplined Chinese leader in a generation, and, given China’s rise in relative strength compared to the West, the most powerful in more… Read more »
China’s aggressive soft power corrosive of democracy, sovereignty
China has officially embraced Joseph Nye’s theory of soft power, using it both as a justification and as a new euphemism for the Chinese government’s expanded and revised overseas… Read more »