How Long Will Xi Jinping Rule China? 👑
Xi has faced growing skepticism and discontent within China due to strict Covid lockdowns, a slowing economy and attacks on entrepreneurs.
Now Trump has handed him a gift to rally support at home: an external enemy.
While the Communist Party’s pervasive censorship and meme-generating propaganda machine makes it difficult to assess public opinion, authorities in Beijing can’t always control the message.
That was seen vividly in late 2022 when rare simultaneous street protests broke out against Xi’s pandemic policies, prompting the Chinese leader to abruptly end the world’s strictest virus-containment measures.
Now another wave is sweeping China, only this time it’s in Xi’s favor. Interviews with dozens of people in China across business and government circles, many who asked not to be named to speak freely about a sensitive topic, showed a solid consensus is emerging to fight back hard against Trump’s move to rapidly increase tariffs on many Chinese goods to 145% — a level that threatens to effectively wipe out trade between the world’s biggest economies.
Financial investors, manufacturers in China’s eastern coastal region, policymakers in a range of departments and even elite factions that have lost out from Xi’s power grab are all rallying behind him.
Even regular critics and entrepreneurs who have been pummeled by his policies in recent years want him to stand firm in the face of an unprecedented economic attack.
Trump has repeatedly called for Xi to get on the phone and strike a deal, betting that large tariffs would force his hand. Instead, they’ve unleashed a surge of patriotism that has provided space for China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong to dig in.
While China is open to talks, officials in Beijing are uncertain what Trump wants and wary of putting Xi in an unpredictable situation that could make him look weak.
The worry among government officials is that any concessions will just lead to more demands from Trump, who can threaten to lift and lower tariffs whenever it suits him.
Trump’s calculation of the tariffs based solely on trade deficits, as well as efforts to cajole other countries into taking action against Beijing, has reinforced concerns that his administration simply wants to contain China’s rise and have the US win at all costs.
National Security Council spokesman James Hewitt said.
In the short term, China’s nationalist moment buys Xi time to find solutions for an economy that was already hobbled by a real estate crisis and deflationary slowdown before Trump’s tariffs, leading to rising social discontent.
#Xi #China #rule
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Xi has faced growing skepticism and discontent within China due to strict Covid lockdowns, a slowing economy and attacks on entrepreneurs.
Now Trump has handed him a gift to rally support at home: an external enemy.
While the Communist Party’s pervasive censorship and meme-generating propaganda machine makes it difficult to assess public opinion, authorities in Beijing can’t always control the message.
That was seen vividly in late 2022 when rare simultaneous street protests broke out against Xi’s pandemic policies, prompting the Chinese leader to abruptly end the world’s strictest virus-containment measures.
Now another wave is sweeping China, only this time it’s in Xi’s favor. Interviews with dozens of people in China across business and government circles, many who asked not to be named to speak freely about a sensitive topic, showed a solid consensus is emerging to fight back hard against Trump’s move to rapidly increase tariffs on many Chinese goods to 145% — a level that threatens to effectively wipe out trade between the world’s biggest economies.
Financial investors, manufacturers in China’s eastern coastal region, policymakers in a range of departments and even elite factions that have lost out from Xi’s power grab are all rallying behind him.
Even regular critics and entrepreneurs who have been pummeled by his policies in recent years want him to stand firm in the face of an unprecedented economic attack.
Trump has repeatedly called for Xi to get on the phone and strike a deal, betting that large tariffs would force his hand. Instead, they’ve unleashed a surge of patriotism that has provided space for China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong to dig in.
While China is open to talks, officials in Beijing are uncertain what Trump wants and wary of putting Xi in an unpredictable situation that could make him look weak.
The worry among government officials is that any concessions will just lead to more demands from Trump, who can threaten to lift and lower tariffs whenever it suits him.
Trump’s calculation of the tariffs based solely on trade deficits, as well as efforts to cajole other countries into taking action against Beijing, has reinforced concerns that his administration simply wants to contain China’s rise and have the US win at all costs.
“The Trump Administration has made clear it will not tolerate Chinese-supplied fentanyl and unfair trade practices that hurt the American people,”
National Security Council spokesman James Hewitt said.
“China should work with us in good faith or they risk losing access to the biggest market in the world.”
In the short term, China’s nationalist moment buys Xi time to find solutions for an economy that was already hobbled by a real estate crisis and deflationary slowdown before Trump’s tariffs, leading to rising social discontent.
#Xi #China #rule
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Ali Khamenei’s Second Son Took His Place
Who is He?
⌨️ ⌨️ ⌨️ ⌨️ ⌨️
Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of the late Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been chosen as his successor, as the war enters its 10th day and fresh missile and drone strikes reverberate across the Middle East.
After members of the clerical body responsible for selecting Iran’s highest authority announced the decision on Sunday, Iranian institutions and politicians, from the foreign ministry to lawmakers, issued statements expressing their allegiance.
“We will obey the commander-in-chief until the last drop of our blood,” a statement from the defence council said.
The move could lead to a further escalation of the war, given Donald Trump had already acknowledged that Mojtaba Khamenei was the most likely successor and made clear he considered him an “unacceptable” choice.
The US president said earlier on Sunday that Iran’s next supreme leader was “not going to last long” if Tehran did not get his approval first.
When asked about the appointment during an interview with the Times of Israel published late on Sunday, Trump was reported as saying: “We’ll see what happens.”
In the same interview, Trump said a decision on when to end the war would be a “mutual” one, together with Netanyahu.
Trump also asserted that Iran would have destroyed Israel if he and Netanyahu had not been around. “Iran was going to destroy Israel and everything else around it (…) We’ve worked together. We’ve destroyed a country that wanted to destroy Israel,” he was quoted as saying.
The Israeli military said it had launched a wave of strikes on Monday targeting “regime infrastructure” in central Iran, the first such announcement since the appointment of the new supreme leader.
The military also announced strikes on the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Iran and its proxies appeared to have launched attacks, too, with rocket and drone strikes targeting a US diplomatic facility near Baghdad’s international airport that were intercepted by the C-RAM defence system, said police sources.
A drone strike targeted a US military base near Erbil airport in Iraqi Kurdistan, security sources said, while Saudi authorities reported intercepting a drone east of its northern al-Jawf region.
In Bahrain, the health ministry reported 32 people were wounded overnight by an Iranian drone attack on the island of Sitra.
They include a 17-year-old girl who suffered severe head and eye injuries, and a two-month-old baby, according to the ministry.
Iranian state media also showed a projectile said to have been launched at Israel bearing the slogan: “At your command, Sayyid Mojtaba,” using an Islamic honorific.
#khamenei #mojtaba #son #iran #leader #rule
📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸
Who is He?
Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of the late Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been chosen as his successor, as the war enters its 10th day and fresh missile and drone strikes reverberate across the Middle East.
After members of the clerical body responsible for selecting Iran’s highest authority announced the decision on Sunday, Iranian institutions and politicians, from the foreign ministry to lawmakers, issued statements expressing their allegiance.
“We will obey the commander-in-chief until the last drop of our blood,” a statement from the defence council said.
The move could lead to a further escalation of the war, given Donald Trump had already acknowledged that Mojtaba Khamenei was the most likely successor and made clear he considered him an “unacceptable” choice.
The US president said earlier on Sunday that Iran’s next supreme leader was “not going to last long” if Tehran did not get his approval first.
When asked about the appointment during an interview with the Times of Israel published late on Sunday, Trump was reported as saying: “We’ll see what happens.”
In the same interview, Trump said a decision on when to end the war would be a “mutual” one, together with Netanyahu.
Trump also asserted that Iran would have destroyed Israel if he and Netanyahu had not been around. “Iran was going to destroy Israel and everything else around it (…) We’ve worked together. We’ve destroyed a country that wanted to destroy Israel,” he was quoted as saying.
The Israeli military said it had launched a wave of strikes on Monday targeting “regime infrastructure” in central Iran, the first such announcement since the appointment of the new supreme leader.
The military also announced strikes on the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Iran and its proxies appeared to have launched attacks, too, with rocket and drone strikes targeting a US diplomatic facility near Baghdad’s international airport that were intercepted by the C-RAM defence system, said police sources.
A drone strike targeted a US military base near Erbil airport in Iraqi Kurdistan, security sources said, while Saudi authorities reported intercepting a drone east of its northern al-Jawf region.
In Bahrain, the health ministry reported 32 people were wounded overnight by an Iranian drone attack on the island of Sitra.
They include a 17-year-old girl who suffered severe head and eye injuries, and a two-month-old baby, according to the ministry.
Iranian state media also showed a projectile said to have been launched at Israel bearing the slogan: “At your command, Sayyid Mojtaba,” using an Islamic honorific.
#khamenei #mojtaba #son #iran #leader #rule
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The appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei was welcomed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who are backed by the Iranian regime.
“We congratulate the Islamic Republic of Iran, its leadership and people, on the selection of Sayyid Mojtaba Khamenei as Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution at this important and pivotal juncture,” the group said in a statement on Telegram.
Mojtaba Khamenei’s elevation marks the first time since the 1979 Islamic revolution that Iran’s supreme leadership has passed from father to son.
It is a development likely to ignite debate inside Iran about the emergence of a dynastic system in a state founded explicitly to overthrow hereditary rule after the shah.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who ruled for 37 years, was killed in a US-Israeli strike on Tehran on 28 February, on the first day of the war with Iran.
Across Iran’s political and security establishment, officials moved swiftly to welcome the appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei as the country’s new supreme leader.
The Revolutionary Guards declared they stood ready to follow him, signalling broad backing from the country’s core institutions.
Earlier in the day, in a post on X in Farsi, the Israeli military said it would continue pursuing every successor of Ali Khamenei and would pursue every person who sought to appoint a successor for him.
For many analysts, Khamenei’s appointment is a symbolic move designed to make the regime still appear strong and determined not to bow to western pressure.
The 56-year-old cleric has never held elected office nor formally occupied a senior position within Iran’s government. He has spent much of his life at the centre of power in Iran while remaining largely out of public view.
To his supporters, Khamenei represents continuity with the ideological line established by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and maintained by his father. To critics, his rise raises uncomfortable questions about the concentration of power – and the possibility of hereditary leadership in a state founded in revolt against monarchy.
Oil prices surged more than 25% on Monday to their highest levels since mid-2022, as major Middle Eastern oil producers cut supply because they cannot safely send shipments through the strait of Hormuz to refiners worldwide.
Traffic through the strait was largely closed after Iran attacked at least five ships, with a limited number of tankers transiting, choking off a key artery accounting for about 20% of global oil and LNG supply.
#khamenei #mojtaba #son #iran #leader #rule
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