“The party leads everything” | China under Xi

How Xi took control of the People’s Republic.

Katie Stallard, the New Statesman’ssenior editor, China and global affairs, presents a special series of the NS’s World Review podcast, explaining China’s past, present and future under Xi Jinping, as the Chinese leader prepares to embark on a third term in power.

This week’s episode looks at how Xi consolidated power during his first decade in charge: how he subdued his rivals, cracked down on Chinese civil society and began to flex China’s growing military strength.

Katie is joined by Manoj Kewalramani, chair of the Indo-Pacific research programme and China studies fellow at the Takshashila Institution, a leading Indian public policy education centre, and the author of Smokeless War: China’s Quest for Geopolitical Dominance, as well as Diana Fu, associate professor at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto, and the author of Mobilizing Without the Masses: Control and Contention in China. Katie also speaks to Susan Shirk, chair of the 21st Century China Center at the University of California San Diego and the author of Overreach: How China Derailed Its Peaceful Rise.

The betrayal of Hong Kong.

Xinjiang: a region of suspicion and subjugation.

China doesn’t just want to be part of the global order, it wants to shape it.

Dangerous skies over the South China Sea.

How Peng Shuai exposed the limits of China’s power.

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