WATCH: Shock moment former Chinese President Hu Jintao gets escorted from party conference

Ryan King

October 22, 11:03 AM October 22, 11:10 AM

In a stunning moment, former Chinese President Hu Jintao was mysteriously escorted out of a key Chinese Communist Party meeting on Saturday.

Hu, 79, was sitting next to his successor, current leader Xi Jinping, during the closing ceremony of a congress for the CPP when suddenly a man walked over to him, prodded him up, and walked him away from his seat, drawing stunned looks from nearby officials.

Initially looking perplexed, Hu appeared unwilling to leave his seat, but the man who approached him was insistent. On his way out, he motioned over to Xi, who looked indifferent and nodded along while Hu was directed away.

CHINA’S LEADER-FOR-LIFE, AND AMERICA’S DIMINISHED MILITARY, RAISE RISK OF WAR OVER TAIWAN

Hu appeared to say something to Xi and also touched the shoulder of Premier Li Keqiang, the No. 2 official in China, on his way off the stage of the main auditorium of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

A video of the moment caught fire on Twitter and other foreign social media platforms, but it appears to have been censored in Chinese media, CNN reported. His abrupt exit came during deliberations for the party’s elite Central Committee.

The former leader appeared frail and unsteady during the encounter.

Hu served as the president of the People's Republic of China from 2003 to 2013. His successor, Xi, has been considerably more powerful in his post than Hu was, holding a number of key positions in addition to the presidency.

Xi, 69, is widely expected to get appointed to a third five-year term as the head of China once the party wraps up its deliberations. His ascension has been made possible by the removal of term limits back in 2018.

He is widely regarded as one of the most powerful leaders in China since Mao Zedong. Ironically, Xi's father was ostracized under Mao's stewardship during the Cultural Revolution. Since ascending to become the leader of China, Xi embarked on a massive crackdown on corruption, which critics theorize was used as a cudgel to take out his political rivals.

As China is expected to crown Xi as its next leader, the country is contending with a deluge of domestic troubles. Economic woes stemming from its stringent COVID-19 suppression politics, a housing bubble that appears to have popped, and more have plunged the Asian giant into turmoil.

White House’s concept to China: ‘Not the time’ for assisting Putin

Mike Brest

September 16, 11:34 AM September 16, 11:34 AM

The White House despatched a robust concept to Chinese leaders not to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine even as leaders of the two Asian international locations achieved in individual to reaffirm their partnership.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin fulfilled on Thursday at a regional summit in Uzbekistan times immediately after Russian forces dropped major territorial floor in Ukraine.

XI TO PUTIN: 'WE ARE All set TO Workforce UP WITH OUR RUSSIAN COLLEAGUES'

The two leaders publicly pledged aid to do the job with each other, together with Xi telling Putin that his region is "all set to workforce up with our Russian colleagues," whilst the Russian chief acknowledged that China had some “questions and concerns” regarding the war. The admission signifies a doable pressure in their relationship, nevertheless Xi referred to Putin as a “dear and longtime mate.”

Countrywide Protection Council spokesman John Kirby issued a warning to China, telling CNN that it’s not “business as usual” as it relates to doing the job with Russia.

“Our concept to China, I imagine, has been consistent: that this is not the time for any kind of business as common with Mr. Putin, supplied what he’s done within Ukraine. This is not the time to be isolated from the rest of the intercontinental neighborhood, which has largely condemned what he’s executing in Ukraine and not only condemned it but stepped up to help the Ukrainians protect themselves and their territorial integrity,” he reported.

To date, China has refrained from explicitly displaying support for Putin’s war in Ukraine, which the NSC spokesman famous, though the place has amplified Russian disinformation promises of justification for the invasion.

“China has a choice to make,” Kirby elaborated. “They obviously have chosen not to condemn that war in Ukraine. But we also have not found — importantly, we have not noticed them violate the sanctions or in any other way provide direct substance guidance to Mr. Putin.”

Kirby argued it was “important” for the Kremlin to hold the conference “because Mr. Putin is incredibly much under strain and tension in Ukraine.”

The Biden administration introduced on Thursday night new army assist for Ukraine valued at approximately $600 million, bringing the complete navy aid due to the fact Russia invaded to more than $15 billion. It features additional ammunition for the Significant Mobility Artillery Rocket Devices, 36,000 105 mm artillery rounds, and 1,000 precision-guided 155 mm artillery rounds, among the other methods and gear.

The HIMARS, a Lockheed Martin product or service, have confirmed to have a profound impression on the war and played a job in Ukraine's most up-to-date and most profitable counterattack to date. In excess of the past week or so, Ukrainian forces released two offensives, just one in the south and just one in the northeast, the latter of which has resulted in a significant liberation of Russian-occupied territory.

"Some models retreated in rather good buy and under command, although others fled in apparent worry," the United Kingdom's Protection Ministry mentioned Thursday. "Higher-value products deserted by retreating Russian forces included abilities necessary to allow Russia’s artillery-centric design of warfare. Amongst these are at minimum a single ZOOPARK counter-battery radar and at minimum just one IV14 artillery command and command motor vehicle."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited a single of the freshly liberated towns, Izium, which is where by he said there was a "mass burial internet site," although aspects continue to be unclear. A Ukrainian formal told Sky Information that 440 graves were being located in the town. This is not the very first time that Ukrainians have uncovered horrific scenes following liberating territory previously occupied by Russia.

Even with the Russian retreat, Kremlin officers have stated they will not phone up their reserve forces. They have explained the war as a "particular armed forces procedure" to the Russian citizens, and contacting up their reserves would most likely drive them to acknowledge the reality — that they are engaged in a war that is not heading properly with no a obvious conclude in sight.

What’s in a identify? A few words between Taiwan and war

Joel Gehrke

September 12, 06:00 AM September 12, 06:00 AM

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping would invade Taiwan if authorities in Taipei cease referring to their authorities as the Republic of China, analysts and Taiwanese officials think.

All those a few smaller words and phrases have verified capacious more than enough to accommodate both equally the Chinese Communist Party's intention to subjugate Taiwan and the aspirations of a Taiwanese political movement hostile to rulers from Beijing — be they communist or nationalist ROC forces led to Taiwan by Chiang Kai-shek just after the Chinese Communist victory in 1949. The paradoxical value that each sides now connect to that defeated power’s title is essential to preserving a so-named status quo and averting a conflict that could result in an unprecedented clash concerning the United States and a nuclear-armed adversary.

"Taiwan, with the official name of the Republic of China, and People’s Republic of China — you know, the other facet — are not subordinated to just about every other,” Taiwan’s Catherine Y. M. Hsu, who sales opportunities her Ministry of Overseas Affairs’s worldwide information expert services office, informed reporters. “The policy of the federal government is not shifting towards an speedy declaration of Taiwan independence.”

That in close proximity to-doublethink is in the mildew of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s assertion pursuing her reelection in 2020. "We really do not have a need to have to declare ourselves an independent point out. We are an impartial state now, and we phone ourselves the Republic of China, Taiwan. We have a individual identification, and we’re a state of our have. We are entitled to regard from China," she said.

BARGAINING CHIP: TAIWAN Strategies TO Keep MOST SEMICONDUCTOR Manufacturing

That statement attempts to strike an suave harmony concerning the political heritage of the Democratic Progressive Bash that run Tsai’s rise to superior office and the hazard posed by the routine throughout the strait.

“There are a sequence of purple strains, but the clearest just one is a de jure declaration of independence,” the American Organization Institute’s Zack Cooper reported.“What China desires is to have this possibility for 'peaceful reunification,' as they would call it. So that has to imply that Taiwan cannot be formally unbiased, or else, items would be going the improper direction.”

Chinese Communist officers assert sovereignty about Taiwan in spite of by no means having ruled there.

“They had a civil war, they shaped the PRC, but they didn't wipe out [the] ROC,” as an additional senior Taiwanese formal, speaking on situation of anonymity, set it. “So we are continue to below.”

Their survival has depended, in aspect, on guidance from the U.S. by way of a period of official and “unofficial” relations. The Republic of China was fashioned in 1912, one calendar year soon after the collapse of the imperial Qing dynasty. The ROC and the U.S. formed an alliance towards Japan through Environment War II, which ongoing for many years after Chiang withdrew to Taiwan.

The U.S. cut diplomatic relations with the ROC in 1979, as Cold War priorities heightened the appeal of getting an embassy in Beijing, and the Chinese Communist authorities took that diplomatic victory as a enhance to their target of ruling all the territory held by the late Qing dynasty. They outlined a proposal in which “the ROC would disappear,” as Richard C. Bush has created, subsumed into the PRC, and reserved the right to use military services force in service of that aim if Taiwanese officers (Chiang’s army dictatorship, recognised as the Kuomintang) refused to acquiesce.

In parallel, a “pro-independence” motion of Taiwanese dissidents fashioned against the Chiang routine and grew more than the many years into the DPP.

“It was normally there to counter Chiang Kai-shek’s maintain on ability,” the senior Taiwanese formal said, adding that they regarded the ROC autocrat as “a foreigner” to Taiwan. “But at some point, they turned a drive, and the KMT experienced to produce ability, and they grew to become a democracy.”

The transition to democracy occurred only soon after a assembly in Hong Kong, then ruled by the United Kingdom, involving KMT and Chinese Communist officials that experienced ambiguous, if not controversial, results. This assembly is the origin of the so-identified as 1992 Consensus that “there is only one particular China,” as KMT officials acknowledged, with the caveat that "the two sides of the Strait have various viewpoints as to the indicating of 'one China.'" For Taipei, that "one particular China" remained the ROC, although Chinese Communist officers took the assertion as a watershed acknowledgment that Taiwan should to be matter to Beijing’s authority.

“Taiwan is an inalienable aspect of China’s territory, and the Federal government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole lawful authorities symbolizing the complete of China,” the Chinese Overseas Ministry mentioned on Aug. 2 in a protest of Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s go to to Taiwan. “The Taiwan authorities have held trying to find U.S. aid for their independence agenda. They refuse to realize the 1992 Consensus, go all out to drive ahead ‘de-sinicization,’ and advertise ‘incremental independence.’”

DPP officers have never ever accepted the 1992 Consensus. U.S. efforts to stay clear of a conflict in the Taiwan Strait have included a balancing act in between deterring China, supporting Taiwan’s democracy, and restraining the professional-independence impulses of the DPP. George W. Bush, who pledged in 2001 to do “whatever it took to support Taiwan protect herself” from a Chinese Communist invasion, yet opposed a DPP-favored referendum to find membership in the United Nations.

“The PRC has always said, ‘Oh, they are [separatists]’ — ‘they’ which means the DPP — because they've constantly needed to type a Republic of Taiwan, not [Republic of] China, but Taiwan. But DPP people today here have also evolved,” the senior Taiwanese official said. “The [DPP] notion is that we will not really require to declare independence [as] Republic of Taiwan because Taiwan, as Republic of China, is essentially now a political entity that is absent from mainland China. And by not declaring a new title, it is essentially very risk-free simply because we’ve always known as ourselves Republic of China.”

So the two sides have competing definitions of the “status quo,” but the continued use of the “Republic of China” name will help permit the Chinese Communist and Taiwanese definitions of the standing quo to coexist.

“There's no great resolution to this. The problem is, can you prolong the present standing quo so that you stay away from a conflict?” reported Cooper, the AEI scholar. "A main section of that position quo is that none of us essentially agree on what the position quo is. ... And so, some of this nuanced things is basically part of allowing all people to disagree about the position quo, but not feel like they have to forcibly make the other sides get on the same web page.”

White Home will never say no matter if Biden brought up COVID-19 origins with Xi

Haisten Willis

July 28, 06:01 PM July 28, 06:01 PM

The White Household did not remedy instantly when pressed by two reporters about regardless of whether President Joe Biden introduced up the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Biden and Xi spoke on the mobile phone for much more than two hrs Thursday early morning, with a readout stating the two talked about "worldwide problems," together with "wellbeing safety," but not mentioning the pandemic right. Two reporters from conservative-leaning retailers requested White Property push secretary Karine Jean-Pierre for much more details.

BIDEN PANNED FOR SILENCE ON COVID-19 ORIGINS AT PANDEMIC SUMMIT

"On the cellular phone now, did President Biden question President Xi just about anything about having to the base of the origins of COVID?" Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked.

Jean-Pierre's reaction largely reflected the language in the readout.

"The two presidents did talk about overall health stability, and transparency is a key component of that," she claimed. "As we have repeatedly stated, the [People's Republic of China] is not dwelling up to scientific and general public overall health norms for information and facts sharing. We have mentioned this before. ... The worldwide community — we have claimed this requirements far more data — they will need more information and facts to make clear the determination on the origins of the pandemic."

When Doocy requested all over again no matter if the subject matter arrived up during the simply call, Jean-Pierre stated, "The two presidents did focus on wellbeing safety. That did appear up."

Theories about how the pandemic commenced have been debated between scientists given that COVID-19 emerged just about three yrs ago. Some concern whether the virus transpired by natural means or accidentally leaked from a lab found in China.

A Earth Wellbeing Firm report launched in June prompted renewed friction with the Chinese Communist Celebration following it refused to rule out the theory that the COVID-19 pandemic originated for the reason that of a lab leak.

When requested, Biden administration officials have frequently reported they are pressing China to be far more transparent in cooperating with investigations. But the topic not often will come up when officers usually are not asked directly. A White House-led worldwide COVID-19 summit held in May well did not mention how the virus came to be, and a history simply call with reporters held soon after Biden's get in touch with with Xi also did not go over the origins problem.

RealClearPolitics reporter Philip Wegmann observed the discrepancy later in the push briefing.

"I was still just a minor baffled about the get in touch with nowadays," he claimed. "You mentioned that the two presidents talked over well being security. That's very vague. Did President Biden tell Xi to begin cooperating in the investigations into the origins of COVID that has killed at minimum a million Americans?"

Jean-Pierre responded by indicating she's informed of the demise toll and pointed out Biden's modern bout with the condition ahead of contrasting his handling of the condition with that of previous President Donald Trump, declaring fatalities have fallen 90% since Biden took business.

"Which is not an response to my query," Wegmann mentioned. "You are not able to inform us no matter whether or not the president pressed Xi to be additional cooperative with an investigation?"

Jean-Pierre again pointed back again to the readout.

"I am not likely to go outside of the readout that I just gave you," she explained.

‘Practical cooperation' on the rise as China’s Xi extends olive branch to Putin

Mike Brest

June 15, 11:14 AM June 15, 11:14 AM

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, a pariah on the international stage next his orders to invade Ukraine, promoted their countries' shut ties next a conference concerning the two leaders.

The two leaders spoke more than the phone Wednesday, their 1st such discussion considering that the days right after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, and the authorities readouts demonstrate the energy of their commitment to one particular another.

US Formal CITES RUSSIAN 'LABORATORY OF HORRORS' AND Achievable 'SHAM REFERENDUM' IN UKRAINE

“Xi Jinping pointed out that due to the fact the beginning of this year, in the encounter of international turmoil and adjustments, China-Russia relations have maintained a fantastic momentum of growth,” the Chinese International Ministry claimed in a readout of the simply call. “Since the starting of this calendar year, Russia-China useful cooperation has formulated steadily.“

Xi also said his country is “willing to, together with Russia, continue on to assist just about every other on troubles about core passions and big considerations this sort of as sovereignty and protection, intensify strategic coordination amongst the two international locations, and reinforce conversation and coordination in main global and regional organizations.”

The apparent willingness to support each individual others' promises on "sovereignty and protection" could elevate pink flags for Western allies as each countries' heads of state have produced territorial claims about smaller sized neighboring territories, specifically Ukraine for Russia and Taiwan for China.

"The Russian side supports the world safety initiative proposed by the Chinese aspect, and opposes any forces to interfere in China's inside affairs underneath the pretext of the so-called Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other issues," the readout also read. The two nations really should “promote emerging current market international locations and establishing countries must unite and cooperate to encourage the progress of the worldwide buy and world wide governance in a far more just and acceptable path.”

The friendly tone of the readout demonstrates the energy of the alliance concerning the two anti-Western leaders who are going up in opposition to a additional unified NATO and the Western world, which fortified alone following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a subject they reviewed as perfectly.

"The two heads of point out exchanged views on the Ukraine difficulty," the readout ongoing. "Xi Jinping emphasized that China has always proceeded from the historical latitude and appropriate and incorrect of the Ukraine situation, produced judgments independently, actively promoted world peace, and promoted the security of the global economic order. All events should thrust for a right settlement of the Ukraine crisis in a liable manner. China is prepared to continue on to play its owing purpose in this regard."

Final week, the two international locations opened a bridge connecting Heihe, a border metropolis in northeast China, to the Russian metropolis of Blagoveshchensk, and the readout indicated that it "has been opened to website traffic, opening up a new channel for connectivity concerning the two nations."

These two countries released a communique prior to the war that outlined a vast variety of ideas for economic and diplomatic cooperation, although Russia has considering the fact that become an intercontinental pariah. Although the Chinese federal government has claimed to endorse "peace" involving Russia and Ukraine, the country has concurrently been amplifying Russian disinformation and claims of justification.

Xi and Putin's dialogue arrived the identical working day NATO defense ministers satisfied in Brussels to focus on Ukraine's military services wants and how to guide them. Both of those NATO Secretary-Normal Jens Stoltenberg and U.S. Secretary of Protection Lloyd Austin pledged to deliver further weapons Wednesday.