King Narasimhavarma Pallavan should be feeling very happy at the
buzz in the port city of Mamallapuram created by him .. .. the town is awash
with activity being the venue of the meeting of two tall leaders – Mr Narendra
Modi and Mr Xi Jinping of China.
One
may not be aware of the Uyghurs, a minority Turkic ethnic group originating
from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central and East Asia
but most are aware and are perhaps using Xioami (Redmi) phones, so popular in
India. Xiaomi Corporation is a Chinese electronics company founded by Lei Jun
in 2010 and headquartered in Beijing. Xiaomi makes and invests in smartphones,
mobile apps, laptops, bags, trimmers, earphones, MI Television, Shoes, fitness
bands, and many other products. Xiaomi released its first smartphone in August
2011 and rapidly gained market share in China to become the country's largest
smartphone company in 2014. The World is
following the visit of the leader of the
world's most populated country and second largest economy (GDP), Xi Jinping who
holds a firm grasp on China's only
political party. It is an informal meet
at Mahabalipuram, 50 kms off Chennai, Tamilnadu.
In March, China's parliament amended its constitution,
broadening Xi's power and scrapping term limits. After ascending to the presidency in 2012, Xi was quick to see the
benefits of privatization-friendly reform.He is widely credited with the slogan
Chinese Dream - a set of personal and national ideals for the advancement of
Chinese society.
The
man, President Xi Jinping, has become
China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. Over the years, Overseas media reports and
analysts have focused mostly on the extraordinary rise of Xi’s power, surmising
it could somehow throw China into greater political and economic uncertainty.
The
visit assumes greater significance as - China has close economic, diplomatic
and military ties with Pakistan, making it one of the nation's closest allies
in the region. Between 2008 and 2017, Islamabad purchased more than $6 billion
of Chinese arms, according to think tank CSIS. China has also invested billions
in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, an integral part of Xi's Belt and Road
Initiative (BRI) trade and infrastructure mega-project. Economic and strategic competition between
China, a Communist-ruled one-party state, and India -- the world's largest
democracy -- has also intensified in the past few years as Beijing started to
expand its influence in India's traditional backyard, especially through Xi's
ambitious BRI global trade plan.
Chinese
President Xi Jinping is arriving in
Chennai this afternoon for a two-day visit ahead of his second informal meeting
with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The two world leaders meet on Saturday
morning for a one-on-one meeting nearly a year after they met in China's Wuhan
in April.Xi Jinping's visit comes two days after his meeting with Pakistan
Prime Minister Imran Khan, when they discussed Kashmir and China cited the UN
charter.Sources said terrorism, including training, financing and any other
support to terror groups, will be one of the key issues to be discussed. Others
will be trade, defence and border issues. Sources say both sides are also
looking at possible confidence-building measures for the India-China border,
which may be announced later.
China
and India desperately want to improve their trade relationship. But it seems
whenever the countries' leaders meet, the Himalayas get in the way.When Chinese
President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met in the Chinese
city of Wuhan in 2018, it came after a tense, months-long military standoff
over Doklam, a region in the "trijunction" between India, China and
Bhutan, high in the Himalayas. That standoff at times appeared poised to spill
over to outright conflict, a repeat of the brief border war the two countries
fought in 1962.As Xi lands in the coastal city of Chennai Friday for a two-day
visit to India, it's the Kashmir Valley at the northwestern tip of the mountain
range that's poised to spoil efforts to improve Sino-Indian ties. This time, however, Beijing isn't directly involved in the
conflict.
Beijing
is a longtime ally of Islamabad, and New Delhi is keen to keep China out of the
dispute. According to the Hindustan Times, Indian officials said the recent
change in status for Jammu and Kashmir "won't be up for discussion"
when Xi and Modi meet this week, with talks expected to focus on trade issues. A couple days ago, Pakistan Prime Minister
Imran Khan threw a spanner into the works with a visit to Beijing, where he met
with Xi in an apparent attempt to shore up support ahead of the Modi summit.
Xi
Jinping, born 1953, is the General
Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC), President of the People's Republic of China
(PRC), and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC). Xi has been
Paramount Leader, the highest ranking officer in China, since 2012 and he
officially received the title of "core leader" from the CPC in 2016.
As general secretary, Xi holds an ex-officio seat on the Politburo Standing
Committee of the Communist Party of China, China's top decision-making
body. Xi is the first general secretary
born after the Second World War and the establishment of the People's Republic
of China. Xi was governor of Fujian from 1999 to 2002.
Since
assuming power, Xi has introduced far-ranging measures to enforce party
discipline and to ensure internal unity. His signature anti-corruption campaign
has led to the downfall of prominent incumbent and retired Communist Party
officials, including members of the Politburo Standing Committee.He has
tightened restrictions over civil society and ideological discourse, advocating
Internet censorship in China as the concept of "internet
sovereignty". His tenure has also seen a significant increase of
censorship and mass surveillance, significant deterioration in human rights,
the return to a cult of personality and the removal of term limits for the
President in 2018. Xi has, according to the Human Rights Watch, started a
"broad and sustained offensive on human rights" since he became
leader in 2012. The HRW also said that repression in China is "at its
worst level since the Tiananmen Square massacre."
In
2017, the local government of the Jiangxi province told Christians to replace
their pictures of Jesus with Xi Jinping.
The Associated Press reported in 2018 that "Xi is waging the most
severe systematic suppression of Christianity in the country since religious
freedom was written into the Chinese constitution in 1982", which has
involved "destroying crosses, burning bibles, shutting churches and
ordering followers to sign papers renouncing their faith". As of 2019,
China is holding one million ethnic Uyghurs in internment camps in
Xinjiang.
Interesting !
With
regards – S. Sampathkumar
No comments:
Post a Comment