Xu Zhangrun at Sixty

Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium Appendix XX 花甲 Professor Xu Zhangrun’s sixtieth birthday falls on the 25th October 2022. He was born in an impoverished village in Anhui, a province that has been devastated both by the murderous policies of the Great Leap Forward and by torrential rains and flooding.… Read

Exit Stage Right — Hu Jintao’s staggering departure from China’s political scene

Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium Appendix XIX 臺上臺下   In ‘China’s Political Silly Season’ we quoted an anonymous petition calling on Xi Jinping to retire at the Twentieth Party Congress. It read in part: From the Eighteenth Party Congress [in November 2012, the former Party General Secretary] Hu Jintao magnanimously ceded all of his positions and handed control over the party-state-army to you holus-bolus.… Read

A Hosanna for Chairman Mao & Canticles for Party General Secretary Xi

Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium
Chapter XX 咒   The 16th of October 2022 marked the day on which, 1332 years earlier Wu Mei (武媚 624-705 CE), formerly the empress consort of the Emperor Gaozong) of the Tang and, after his death, empress dowager, ascended the throne as the Empress Regnant Wu Zhou 武周皇帝 of Zhao 曌.… Read