Monday, October 8, 2007

17th CPC meeting heads up

Every 5 years the Congress of the Communist Party of China is held. Whenever you hear about '5 year Plans' you're hearing about policy created at this meeting. Right now there isn't much going on other than hype. It only happens every 5 years do it'd kind of a big deal.

http://english.cpcnews.cn/ is where you can get all of the information available. A 'media center' has just opened in Beijing to support the media, both domestic and foreign. Kind of like a hotel/convention center but just for this congress. This year the meeting seems like a bigger deal than usual because a large number of senior party members will be appointed to some very high positions. I would go into the messy politics of China when it comes to the consolidation of power on the part of the Current President, but Blogger is already blocked in China and I don't want the Chinese police knocking on my door tomorrow. If you want to get an idea of how Chinese politics works just take a good close look at the (now jailed) Ex-Mayor of Shanghai (wikipedia will help). But I digress

i figured at an event as important and encompassing as the 17th CCPC they would at the very least gloss over environmental issues. So far the only document provided is the 'Communique of the Sixth Plenum of the 16th CPC Central Committee', so it's dated, but provides the most basic, bare bones goals of the Party. Kind of. It's vague and aggrandizing, but it's something. So keep on eye on it.

on another note, this website is blocked, but I can still make updates through my gmail account, kind of weird.

and yet another note: let me know what you want me to keep on eye on. I'm planning some trips and not only do I need suggestions of where to go, but what to look out for. If you do this class again, or anything like it, i'd love to send you some pictures or whatever information i might be able to pass on.

2 comments:

Stephen Robinson said...

Hey Nate...glad to hear you're alive and well in China.

I would really like to see some posts on environmental issues discussed during the CPC meeting.

How's the smog situation now the summer is over?

Nate said...

the coal factory in town hasn't started up yet. Only in the past couple of weeks has it been cooling down (rapidly). Soon enough coal smog (apparently) makes cleanliness in our apartments a bit of a labored task from all of the dust.

i'll dig see if I can dig up some stuff on the CPC, so far it's all been pretty self-congratulatory stuff to kick it off.