When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in .

You've reached your limit of one free article.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime .

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Exclusive International news coverage

Ad-free experience NEW

Weekly digital Magazine NEW

9 daily & weekly Newsletters

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Free trial

30-days free access, then $2.90
per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
Geopolitics

Jackie Chan And Yao Ming - China's Consultative Assembly Goes Glam

LE MONDE ( France), XINHUA ( China)

Worldcrunch

BEIJING - According to Le Monde, the opening of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) on March 3, was more like a star-studded film premiere than a political event.

The CPPCC is a 2,200-member body that meets annually to debate policy and advise government. It includes politicians, but also businessmen and celebrities.

But walking up the stairs to the parliament in Tiananmen Square, only the celebrities were to be seen. There was former NBA player Yao Ming, martial-arts star Jackie Chan, Nobel prize winning writer Mo Yan, Baidu CEO Robin Li, director Chen Kaige and many more.

The 2013 CPPCC session opening speech (XinHua)

The cooperation of non-politician personalities is the reason why the CPPCC has always been a favorite of the Chinese public.

Since the beginning of China’s Opening Up and Reform, more and more delegates have been chosen from business, cultural and sports world. Today, 61% of the 2,200 delegates are non-politicians.

Even though the delegates make individual proposals –28930 in the last five years, according to Xinhua – that are transmitted to the respective ministries or administrations, they cannot debate publicly or organize in order to achieve a collective consensus. Their proposal power is thus neutralized.

The presence or absence of certain celebrities has been quite controversial.Liu Xiang, a former 110-meters hurdles Olympic champion, is being criticized for only participating in two sessions out of five since 2008. This year he is in the U.S. for medical treatment.

In an interview broadcast on CCTV state-television, Yao Ming said the presence of celebrities revives the public interest for politics and allows “the political system to become more mature.”

Professor Hu Xingdou, a sharp commentator of Chinese political life disagrees with the basketball player’s opinion: “Taking an interest in politics doesn’t mean participating in them. The government does not want the people to participate. In practice, they do everything in order to encourage people to do business and keep them away from politics.”

Yao Ming (Wikimedia)

The opening of the CPPCC marks the beginning of the annual parliamentary session that lasts two weeks. The National People’s Congress (NPC) starts on March 5.

The 2013 session of the “Lianghui” (“two assemblies” in Chinese) is very important – it is Xi JinPing’s first, the new secretary general of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The NPC will designate him officially as President and will reveal the composition of the new government.

According to Xinhua, the CPPCC session focused mainly on the unity and democracy within the patriotic socialist government in place.

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Society

Big Brother For The People: India's CCTV Strategy For Cracking Down On Police Abuse

"There is nothing fashionable about installing so many cameras in and outside one’s house," says a lawyer from a Muslim community. And yet, doing this has helped members of the community prove unfair police action against them.

A woman is walking in the distance while a person holds a military-style gun close up

Survellance and tight security at the Lal Chowk area in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India on October 4, 2022

Sukanya Shantha

MUMBAI — When sleuths of the National Investigating Agency suddenly descended on human rights defender and school teacher Abdul Wahid Shaikh’s house on October 11, he knew exactly what he needed to do next.

He had been monitoring the three CCTVs that are installed on the front and the rear of his house — a chawl in Vikhroli, a densely populated area in suburban Mumbai. The cameras told him that a group of men and women — some dressed in Mumbai police’s uniform and a few in civil clothes — had converged outside his house. Some of them were armed and few others with batons were aggressively banging at the door asking him to immediately let them in.

This was not the first time that the police had landed at his place at 5 am.

When the policemen discovered the CCTV cameras outside his house, they began hitting it with their batons, destroying one of them mounted right over the door. This action was captured by the adjacent CCTV camera. Shaikh, holed up in his house with his wife and two children, kept pleading with the police to stop destroying his property and simply show them an official notice.

Keep reading...Show less

The latest