About 230 miles off of the Philippine island of Luzon there lies the Scarborough Shoal, a major fish depository for the Philippine fish industry. The problem is that China is bullying the smaller country out of their land by blockading the area around the shoal and starting restoration efforts, forbidding the fishermen from fishing there. This is evident of the deeper problem that China believes they own the entire South China Sea. Recently the Philippines has sought to renew ties with the US, likely to garner support from us in their battle with China. On his part President Duterte has called for a resolution against China from several of the smaller countries around the Sea, he has also however said that he really cant do much to stop them. This statement has caused much concern among his constituents.

In a remarkable turn around from the past 40 years, China now wants citizens to have a second child to increase their birth rate numbers. It appears that they have grossly overshot their one child policy and are facing the fact that a very large number of their citizens are exiting working age and retiring soon. Soon, experts predict, China will have the oldest average population and is facing a diminishing work force. They also face the problem of trying to convince their citizens who group up under the one child policy to change their mindset and have a second child, or with economic difficulties, any children at all.

There is much concern in China over the growing tensions between the US an North Korea. Ever since President Trump has taken over, the N. Korea has rammed up their missile program and the current US administration has promised to take a hard line stance. Meanwhile, China is caught in the middle because they want North Korea to scale back but they fear a collapse of the regime and an influx of refugees and the US military at their doorstep. In order to appease the US and attempt to rein in Pyongyang the Chinese have banned all coal imports for the year, their primary export and a staple of their economy. Recently a group of senior former US officials had planned to meet with Pyongyang leadership, however the US canceled visas and put a stop to that. As of now the future of relations between the three nations is murky at best.

China is the largest polluter in the world and this is definitely not a category they want to be first in. Their lead man on combating climate change, Ma Jun is taking the fight to the polluters. He has been working on an app for quite some time that allows the tracking of lead polluters and disseminates the information to the people. There is worry though now that President Trump is in office that many of the of the deals that the US made with China under the Obama administration will be rolled  back. If this happens then China will become the leader in clean energy, a position of leadership that they may not want.

In this New York Times article we see the story of several employees that have been stranded in china and haven’t been allowed to leave since their billionaire boss disappeared. Xiao Jianhua was abducted by the police from his apartment at the four seasons hotel. He is believed to have been taken back to the mainland. When one of his employees attempted to leave country soon after, he was detained at the airport pending investigation of his bosses dealings. Mr. Xiao has apparently been abducted due to the fact that he has as much power as he has and 5 of the 7 members of the Politburo Standing Committee are up for election. This just goes to show that not even the economic elite, one of the wealthiest men in the country, isnt safe from the CCCP.

In this New York Times article, we find out that China has been officially declared to not be a market economy. This evidently leaves them without some of the economic concessions that come with being declared as such. This has evidently been in response to the Chinese governments monopoly on much of the economy, including their excess of steel and the 2000 year old monopoly on salt. These days the communist party has systematically infiltrated and now controls the market. They are a what the new York times calls, “a party-corporate conglomerate.”

In this post, David Shambaugh alleges that the Chinese communist system is facing problems of magnificent proportions. He believes that Chinese head of state Xi Jinping is cracking down too hard on the people and his political opponents. He believes that there are five reasons why the current situation is indicative of the crackup in China. One, the Chinese elites are investing as much as possible in foreign markets and diversifying as much as possible. Two, Xi JIngping is cracking down on political dissent much more than those before him. Three, many of the loyalists are at this point just pretending to go along with the regime. As if too don’t really believe in it any more. Fourth, the state is about as corrupt as they come. Finally, their economy may seem like it is booming, however on the inside it is sputtering to a stalemate.

In this story of the mayor of a has been Chinese city we see the struggle that one man faces when trying to restore the cultural spirit of his city. He is plagued at every turn by corrupt party officials, complaining towns folk and lazy, cheap contractors. He is one of the hardest working men I have ever seen, however his dreams of fixing the city are cut short when he is reminded of his ties to the party when they call him to another city, it’s at that point that the citizens of the city realize that theyd rather have Geng as a mayor because, while he is making changes he is at least being proactive.

In this article, the author talks about how many members of the local government were blamed when the famine hit the peasantry because of the Mao’s Great Leap Forward program. The majority of the people, especially in the local governments were not happy with the way their efforts were not rewarded and the fact that their extra work served to only drive their economy into the ground. This was the largest blight on Mao’s record and no matter how it was spun and what his previous record was, he was still judged by all for nearly running his country into the ground.

President Xi’s speech was very much how I expected a propaganda speech for the Communist Party to go. He talked up the military and the economy as well as the public education system as much as he could. When he mentioned the natural disasters the country had faced that year he made sure to mention how everyone who died had died a hero and would go down as such. He also made the point to talk about how a meeting of world leaders will be hosted in China. Essentially it was a propaganda speech, and he did an excellent job conveying his opinions.