"A lot of people far away from the frontline are celebrating," one soldier tells us, who only wants to be known by his call sign "Gadfly". The graft ran deep. In Beijing, I remember going to a nightclub whose owner was reputed to have a ready supply of illicit drugs and attractive young women for those with enough money. His business partner was the public security bureau - the police. The villages here are mostly destroyed from both their occupation and recent liberation. Despite the eerie quiet and visible destruction, there is movement. http://irannews.ru/ - irannews.ru They believe it indicates an "if we can't have it, no-one can" approach. And it appears to have paid off. Li Qiang, the Shanghai party chief who oversaw the city's controversial shut down, has been elevated to premier, Xi's second in command. What he does want is to be the most powerful leader China has ever had - and the Communist Party just handed him that victory. The country was still recovering in that decade or so following Mao's death. Tens of millions had died on his watch - first from hunger because of his devastating mission to industrialise China overnight; and then in the violent, paranoid purges of rivals, dissidents, intellectuals and "class enemies". Nothing lends legitimacy to the Communist Party quite like Mao - the iconic revolutionary whose portrait still reigns over Tiananmen Square, where he declared the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Edit
Pub: 24 Oct 2022 14:44 UTC
Views: 135