Xi Jinping learned from his father to 'eat bitterness', now China must believe it | De Volkskrant |

Xi Zhongxun with his sons Jinping (left) and Yuanping (center) in 1958 (History / Universal Images Group)

Do you see his influence in Xi's dealings with the US?

"Xi Jinping and his father believe that American society is at the service of capitalism. The rich get richer, and for the rest, capitalism has no story. In short: spiritual poverty.

[New America founded in 1776, no history, lacking culture, no social cohesion ... missing link for a nation ... resorts to white supremacy and militarism ... living an illusion, no not a ’dream’]

"China has a party with a good story, an end goal, and the means to enforce discipline and sacrifice. To understand why Xi believes he has backed the right horse with his loyalty to the party, you only have to look at China today."

The world's second-largest economy is leading the way in high-tech, so much so that Western countries are worried about falling behind. Chinese export restrictions on rare earth metals are paralyzing the international auto industry. Fear of armed conflict with the Chinese military is causing defense budgets to skyrocket across Asia.

Xi Zhongxun in Disneyland, 1980. (National Committee on U.S.-China Relations)

China book review ...

What Xi Jinping Learnt from His Father

Xi Zhongxun was once a reformist voice within the Communist Party -- and was purged multiple times for it. So how did his son Xi Jinping become such a loyalist?

What Xi Jinping Learned--And Didn't Learn--From His Father About Xinjiang | The Diplomat - 2019 |

Xi Zhongxun's "soft touch" approach to the region contrasts dramatically with his son's crackdown.

Other classified materials available in American libraries, however, demonstrate that the Chinese Communist Party has at other times used a much softer approach toward Xinjiang - and that such policies happen to be most closely associated with Xi's own father, Xi Zhongxun.

After the Communist victory in 1949, Zhongxun ran the Northwest Bureau, which managed a segment of the country about as big as India, including Xinjiang. The region is full of numerous Muslim peoples, including Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and Hui. In 1949, Zhongxun said, "If it can be said that the Northwest has a defining characteristic, that defining characteristic is ethnic work."

Incorporating the Northwest into the People's Republic of China (PRC) was far from peaceful - about 90,000 so-called bandits were eliminated through defeat, surrender, or killing, and the famous Kazakh leader Osman Batur was executed.

But, especially after the "Pingliang Incident" in May 1950, which led to a series of Muslim insurrections in Gansu province, Zhongxun increasingly believed that "ethnic work" needed a soft touch. He argued that co-opting Muslim leaders into the PRC's state apparatus could help persuade skeptics to give up violence.

In 1952, the two top leaders in Xinjiang, Wang Zhen and Deng Liqun, rejected the Northwest Bureau's decision not to pursue major reform in nomadic areas. Zhongxun, their boss as leader of the Northwest Bureau, was furious.

[...]

Zhongxun believed that Wang and Deng had made a series of mistakes that were linked by "incorrect adventurist-radical thinking." He concluded that attacks on "Greater Turkestan" (a call for all Turkic people to be linked together politically)  had led to the wrongful arrests of many people. In the future, "oppose Greater Turkestan" would no longer be used as a slogan. Both Wang and Deng were fired.

For much of the 1950s and early 1960s, Zhongxun's responsibilities as vice premier under Zhou Enlai included religious issues. On a trip to the Aksay Kazakh Autonomous County in 1958, Zhongxun criticized mass arrests and asked, "How could there be so many bad people?" He explicitly criticized the habit of seeing "ethnic customs" as "backwards feudal things": "What is the logic for treating minority women wearing the veil and wearing a dress or men growing a beard as feudal things?" he asked.

In early 1987, Zhongxun helped prevent the new ethnic policies from defeat after Hu Yaobang was removed from the leadership. But he left the Politburo later that year, and then a series of protests in Tibet and Xinjiang led the party leadership to decide that the brief period of openness had been a mistake. Zhongxun's tenure is now seen by many in the party as a lesson in why more open policies can only end in disaster.

Politicians, media experts and scholars slam Japan's PM over Taiwan remarks | CGTN |

China-Taiwan Conflict: Beijing Draws A ’Red Line', Sends Out A Stern Message To Japan

China accused Japan on Tuesday of crossing a “red line” after Tokyo awarded the Order of the Rising Sun to Taiwan’s representative in Japan. Beijing called the move a “wrong step,” warning it violated the one-China principle and endangered the political foundation of bilateral ties.

Takaichi called ’worst PM for destroying peaceful diplomacy’ as domestic backlash against her Taiwan remarks continues in Japan | Global Times |

Illustration: Liu Rui /GT

Kyodo reported Saturday that calling Takaichi's remarks "extremely wrong and dangerous," Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong warned in his meeting with envoy Kenji Kanasugi on Thursday that "anyone who dares to interfere in China's reunification cause in any form will surely be dealt a heavy blow," the ministry said.

Sun was also quoted as saying the Japanese leader's "provocative" remarks, which implied "the possibility of armed intervention in the Taiwan Strait," seriously undermined the political foundation of bilateral relations and hurt the feelings of the Chinese people."The 1.4 billion Chinese people will never tolerate this," he added.

The Chinese government's warning to its citizens not to visit Japan — a move that could have a significant impact on tourism — was the first concrete move to punish Tokyo over Takaichi's remarks, it said.

Netherlands intervenes at Chinese-owned chip firm Nexperia [_link]

— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) October 13, 2025

Interview English spoken today in Buitenhof …

Major chip industry of ASML in Eindhoven, the Netherlands

Christophe Fouquet, CEO of ASML, is our guest. His company has been discussed by leading figures such as Xi Jinping and Donald Trump, and is the global market leader in the development of chip-making machines. What is the impact of the changing world on ASML? Why did ASML enter the world of AI? And does the company have any advice for the informateurs?

The U.S. sabotaging the European Union 🇪🇺 in competitiveness by the Neocon wars Middle East spurning war refugees causing political unrest, and the choice of a proxy war in Ukraine 🇺🇦 against Russia 🇷🇺.