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Showing posts with label History. Show all posts
Showing posts with label History. Show all posts

Saturday, October 24, 2026

Ninety years on, the great Long March spirit is a light shining on the world

 

Marching toward prosperity.

The great Long March spirit has been deeply etched into the DNA of Chinese society. It is the determination to rise to challenges and to persist for the long haul; it is the courage to fear no sacrifice and to dare to try; it is the clarity to face reality and actively seek change; and above all, it is the original aspiration of standing with the people through life and death, sharing weal and woe, and striving arduously.

The 90th anniversary of the victory of the Long March of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army was commemorated at a grand gathering in Beijing on Thursday morning. General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Xi Jinping, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, attended the gathering and delivered an important speech.

Xi stressed that the great spirit of the Long March demonstrates the power of loyalty, truth, justice and unity. As an important part of the spiritual lineage of the CPC, it transcends time and space and remains evergreen. It will always be a precious treasure and a powerful driving force inspiring us to overcome difficulties and forge ahead courageously. 

The Long March was a beam of light that burst forth from the Chinese nation at its darkest hour. It showed the world clearly that, even in an old China mired in darkness with no visible way out, there was a group of people striving with all their might to build a new China. In the book The Life Millennium: The 100 Most Important Events and People of the Past 1000 Years, published by the American Time-Life Books, scholars from around the world jointly selected 100 events that shaped the world from 1000 to 2000 AD. The Long March of the Red Army was one of three historical events from China to make the list. It profoundly inspires people that as long as one remains firm in will and unyielding in the face of setbacks, a way out can always be found through continuous exploration, and an entirely new path can be opened.

From Edgar Snow to Henry Kissinger, from Nelson Mandela to Fidel Castro, many observers and strategists have pondered why this Long March in the East was able to succeed. To this day, whenever China astonishes the world with technological breakthroughs or reshapes perceptions with development miracles, the world still asks: "How do the Chinese do it?" These questions all point to the same answer: We have found the right path - a path of never yielding, always moving forward, and never retreating. The Long March is both a spiritual treasure that inspires the Chinese people and a display of the Chinese nation's resilient character to the world.

Today, the term "Long March" has become a shared name for any arduous journey that ultimately reaches its destination. In this sense, the value of the Long March lies not only in the arrival itself, but in the act of continuing to set forth, again and again. After the victory of the Long March, the nation did not stop: It kept marching through the flames of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, kept advancing on the tide of reform and opening-up, and continues to advance under the call of the new era, all the way toward the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. 

Today, the great Long March spirit has been deeply etched into the DNA of Chinese society. It is the determination to rise to challenges and to persist for the long haul; it is the courage to fear no sacrifice and to dare to try; it is the clarity to face reality and actively seek change; and above all, it is the original aspiration of standing with the people through life and death, sharing weal and woe, and striving arduously.

Ninety years on, the great Long March spirit no longer belongs only to history; it is a light that grows ever brighter and shines upon the world. Currently, global governance is experiencing a "darkest hour": climate change, the North-South divide, geopolitical conflicts, and the undercurrents of deglobalization. 

Old paradigms are failing, and new rules have yet to take shape. Solving many major issues requires long-term planning and sustained effort that transcend political cycles and short-term gains and losses. 

The spirit of firm conviction, unity and cooperation, and unyielding struggle transcends national borders and ideologies. It inspires humanity to overcome adversity and pursue a brighter future. This both suggests that global governance needs to blaze new trails toward common development, common security, and common prosperity, and helps the world better understand the spiritual bedrock of the Chinese nation, enabling outsiders to better grasp where this "enabling great power" is heading. 

"Where the spirit lies, there lies the strength." The great Long March spirit resonates with the Chinese nation's cultural tradition of constant self-improvement and has gained new contemporary meaning in the process of Chinese modernization. While it is no longer possible for China today to replicate the march back then, this spirit will always remain, proving to the world that the Chinese nation possesses extraordinary resilience. 

After decades of struggle, China has long since become the world's second-largest economy and is comprehensively advancing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through Chinese modernization. 

The enduring national resilience behind the great Long March spirit has been a key factor in creating this development miracle. It is the confidence that allows China to navigate storms and seize the historical initiative, and it also provides a stabilizing expectation for a world full of uncertainty.

In the 1980s, Zbigniew Brzezinski, who once served as US national security advisor, walked with his family along the route once taken by the Red Army. He later reflected: "The Long March is more than an epic of almost unmatched heroism." Today, more and more foreigners are coming to China to retrace the Long March route, and places like Loushan Pass have once again become a popular destination for visitors. This is one indication that the great Long March spirit is increasingly needed by the world. As a spiritual monument that the Chinese nation has offered to the world, its importance will become even more prominent in the future. As military writer Wang Shuzeng once described: "The Long March belongs to that category of events in human history which, even after the passage of long years, continue to be sought after by people." 

"The history of the Long March has never faded; the road of the Long March continues to extend." For China, on the new journey, the Long March has no endpoint. 

To carry forward the great Long March spirit is to always maintain a high-spirited posture of storming passes and seizing fortresses, to continue the arduous trek on the journey of Chinese modernization, and to respond to all risks and challenges with an unstoppable fighting spirit. It is to both successfully navigate the Long March of our own generation and infuse a world marked by turbulence and transformation with confidence and strength from the East.

Source link: https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202610/1372832.shtml

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Wednesday, June 17, 2026

Japan at a crossroads; inside unit 731


Unpopular move? Protesters hold placards and lights during a rally against Takaichi’s administration for its military expansion policies in front of the parliament building in Tokyo last month. — Reuters 
 

LAST Octo­ber Sanae Takai­chi became Japan’s first female leader of both the Lib­eral Demo­cratic Party (LDP) and the gov­ern­ment.

The “lib­eral” in the LDP actu­ally means con­ser­vat­ive. Takai­chi her­self belongs to the hard­line rightwing Nip­pon Kaigi fac­tion of the party.

Soon enough, she would come to brush against China. Respond­ing to a ques­tion, she said Japan would take mil­it­ary action if China moved on Taiwan and affected Japan’s interests.

That soured China-japan rela­tions, trig­ger­ing bit­ter WWII memor­ies of a rightwing mil­it­ar­ist Japan invad­ing, occupy­ing and com­mit­ting war crimes in China. Those wounds have yet to heal.

Mod­el­ling her­self after Bri­tain’s brazen first female Prime Min­is­ter Mar­garet Thatcher, Takai­chi was unapo­lo­getic. She fur­ther prod­ded Beijing by seek­ing to revise Japan’s post­war Con­sti­tu­tion to favour mil­it­ar­ism, and work­ing with the US and its allies to con­tain China.

Other coun­tries began to regard Takai­chi’s Japan as poten­tially revi­sion­ist, bent on white­wash­ing its his­tory of war atro­cit­ies and may even repeat them. So is Japan get­ting ready to remil­it­ar­ise?

At issue is Art­icle 9 of the Con­sti­tu­tion on Japan’s mil­it­ary forces, offi­cially the Self-defence Forces (SDF) after Japan’s sur­render in 1945. Takai­chi wants to remove the SDF’S con­sti­tu­tional con­straints to enable an assert­ive mil­it­ary pos­ture abroad.

That is chal­len­ging because it requires two-thirds major­it­ies in both the Lower and Upper Houses of the Diet. While the LDP lacks sup­port from the lat­ter, it is work­ing to boost mil­it­ary power, capa­city and reach in other ways.

For the first time since 1945, Japan par­ti­cip­ated prom­in­ently in this year’s Us-led Balikatan mil­it­ary exer­cises with live-fire drills in the South China Sea. Japan will also be export­ing lethal weapons, man­u­fac­tur­ing to scale and expand­ing mil­it­ary links abroad.

Must this mean Japan is return­ing to its mil­it­ar­ist past of a cen­tury ago? Much depends on the pre­vail­ing regional real­it­ies.

The US is encour­aging other coun­tries to play a big­ger regional defence role. This is as true for Asia as it is for Europe, and applies for both Repub­lican and Demo­cratic admin­is­tra­tions.

A 2012 Us-japan treaty would halve the 19,000 Mar­ines in Okinawa by return­ing them to Guam, Hawaii and the US main­land. Deploy­ments to the Phil­ip­pines tend to be more lim­ited and ad hoc.

In post-wwii East Asia, US mil­it­ary hege­mony is seen to keep the peace by remov­ing the need for Japan’s mil­it­ary build-up. The same applies with Ger­many in Europe.

However, US bipar­tisan policy is retrench­ing long-term regional mil­it­ary post­ings. Mil­it­ary forces will still be deployed for lim­ited mis­sions, such as in Iran or Venezuela, but major post­ings in far-flung regions are another mat­ter.

Regard­less of who is head­ing Japan’s gov­ern­ment, Tokyo will want to look more to itself for its defence role and com­mit­ments.

Unlike Ger­many, Japan is not seen by other coun­tries to have fully atoned for its imper­ial wars and the dev­ast­a­tion they unleashed. An unre­pent­ant rightwing leader now lead­ing an appar­ent mil­it­ary revival only exacer­bates Japan’s trust defi­cits.

Non­ethe­less, mod­ern East Asia’s real­it­ies would inhibit if not pro­hibit any ultra-nation­al­ist Japan­ese leader from return­ing to the coun­try’s imper­i­al­ist past.

Such an out­come will not be accept­able to West­ern powers because Japan­ese nation­al­ism is anti-west­ern. A rampant nation­al­ist Japan will ali­en­ate all other sig­ni­fic­ant powers in a more developed Asia and a more mul­ti­polar world.

Eco­nom­ic­ally, Japan’s best days are over so it has insuf­fi­cient resources to chal­lenge the sov­er­eignty of other global stake­hold­ers includ­ing Asia’s middle powers. Its eco­nomy has slipped below Ger­many’s and India’s to fifth place, and con­tin­ues slid­ing.

Socially and insti­tu­tion­ally, Japan­ese hawks may be in a minor­ity even in Japan. Groups and indi­vidu­als stage protests against per­ceived drifts towards mil­it­ar­ism, in a coun­try where dis­sent­ing voices mat­ter.

Even within the LDP and other main­stream insti­tu­tions, evid­ence of an exclus­ive, mono­lithic bloc favour­ing mil­it­ar­ism is sparse. The gen­eral pub­lic still tends to be averse to rad­ical con­sti­tu­tional changes.

Former Prime Min­is­ter Yukio Hat­oy­ama cri­ti­cised Takai­chi’s petty pop­u­lism, stress­ing that Taiwan’s status is China’s internal affair. Former Deputy Prime Min­is­ter Yohei Kono inves­ted a life­time in build­ing bridges with China.

Another former Prime Min­is­ter, Yasuo Fukuda, accepts rein­ter­pret­a­tion of Art­icle 9 without des­cend­ing into pop­u­list mil­it­ar­ism. In 2017, then Prime Min­is­ter Shinzo Abe declared that Japan was ready to cooper­ate with China in the Belt and Road Ini­ti­at­ive, des­pite Abe being another mem­ber of the LDP’S Nip­pon Kaigi fac­tion.

Pro­fessor Mike Moch­izuki says the way for Japan to work with a way­ward Trump-led US is not to ali­en­ate China, but instead to improve rela­tions with Beijing and deepen Tokyo’s stake in the region. Takai­chi also hap­pens to be reach­ing out to Asean coun­tries like Malay­sia in busi­ness deals, and this should be encour­aged.

Kono passed away last Monday, while fine-tun­ing new plans for cooper­at­ing with China. Whether Takai­chi’s real­ism will even­tu­ally out­live her pop­u­lism remains to be seen.

Bunn Nagara is dir­ector and senior fel­low of the Renais­sance Stra­tegic Research Insti­tute, and hon­or­ary fel­low at the Perak Academy. The views expressed here are solely the writer’s own.


By BUNN NAGARA
Bunn Nagara

Bunn Nagara is dir­ector and senior fel­low of the Renais­sance Stra­tegic Research Insti­tute, and hon­or­ary fel­low at the Perak Academy. The views expressed here are solely the writer’s own.

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Thursday, October 2, 2025

US GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

 

https://bbc.com/news/articles/crrj1znp0pyo

Anthony ZurcherNorth America correspondent and
James FitzGerald  
Watch: What could happen during the US government shutdown?

The US federal government has shut down after Republican and Democratic politicians failed to resolve a budget dispute.

It means that some, but not all, US government services are temporarily suspended, and 40% of the federal workforce – about 750,000 people – are expected to be put on unpaid leave.

Although budget confrontations are common in US politics, this spending fight is especially tense because President Donald Trump has drastically reduced the size of the national government since taking office, and has suggested he may use the current impasse to make further cuts.

Why has the US government shut down?

The shutdown happened because Republicans and Democrats could not agree to pass a bill funding government services into October and beyond.

Under the US system, the different branches of government have to reach an agreement on spending plans before they can become law.

The Republicans currently control both chambers of Congress. But in the Senate - or upper chamber - they are short of the 60 votes needed to pass the spending bill, which gives opposition Democrats some negotiating power.

They want to see an extension of expiring tax credits which make health insurance cheaper for millions of Americans, and for a reversal of Trump's cuts to Medicaid, a government healthcare programme used by millions of elderly, disabled and low-income people.

Democrats also oppose spending cuts to government health agencies.

A stopgap bill designed to avoid the shutdown was passed in the House, or lower chamber, but did not clear the Senate.

And so, at 00:01 EDT on Wednesday 1 October (04:01 GMT), it became official: the US had its first shutdown for nearly seven years.

Which government services will stop, and which will carry on?

Not all aspects of government will shut down - services deemed essential will continue as normal, although in many cases staff will not be paid for the duration of the shutdown.

Border protection and law enforcement staff, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, in-hospital medical care and air-traffic control workers are expected to operate as usual.

Social security and Medicare cheques will still be sent out, although benefit verification and card issuance work may stop.

Government employees deemed non-essential will be temporarily put on unpaid leave. Contractors who work for federal agencies but are not directly employed by the government will miss out on work, too.

Services like the food assistance programme and federally-funded pre-school and institutions like the Smithsonian museums will likely be reduced or closed.

Several agencies, like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are also expected to furlough many workers, affecting ongoing research projects.

National parks and forests remained open during the last shutdown in 2018, but with few or no staff, which experts said led to a rise in vandalism, littering and looting of historical sites.

There could also be travel delays. The Airlines for America trade body warned that flight systems might "need to slow down, reducing efficiency". Passport agencies have also warned that it could take longer than usual to process travel documents.

Mail will still be delivered and post offices will remain open because the US Postal Service does not depend on Congress for funding.

Most American schools are state-funded, but the federal government is responsible for billions of dollars in grants and student loans, which could effectively come to a halt.

However, because the grants are typically awarded during the summer, they will be largely unaffected during this shutdown, according to the education secretary.

Members of Congress will also still be paid, a convention that has been criticised by some politicians.

How has the White House responded to the shutdown?

In the past, lengthy government shutdowns were usually seen as politically dangerous, hampering voters' everyday lives and the reputation of lawmakers and the president.

After previous shutdowns were resolved, government operations mostly returned to normal, with staff and spending levels largely going back to what they had been before.

However this time, the White House appears more than happy to shutter large parts of the US government for an extended period.

Over the past nine months the Trump administration has slashed government spending and sacked many federal workers, testing the boundaries of presidential power.

Officials have threatened to use the shutdown to identify more "non-essential" workers who could be permanently let go.

"We'll be laying off a lot of people," Trump said on Tuesday 30 September, the day before the shutdown began.

While both Democrats and Republicans are blaming each other for the current standoff, they did make last-ditch efforts to try to avoid it.

On Monday 29 September, Trump met all four congressional leaders - the top Democrats in the House and Senate as well as their Republican counterparts, but little progress was made, and both sides appeared to dig deeper into their positions.

How long will the current shutdown last?

It is difficult to say. In this case, it really depends when - or if - either of the parties will agree to a compromise.

The Republicans could negotiate an extension to the healthcare subsidies demanded by the Democrats.

Alternatively the shutdown could become so disruptive that the Democrats decide to back down and agree to fund the government - at least temporarily - to get things up and running again.

So far, the Trump administration has been been unwilling to offer substantive concessions. It believes the Democrats will bear the brunt of the public's blame because it argues the party's demands caused the shutdown.

Meanwhile the Democrats believe their efforts to secure cheaper healthcare are popular.

The party's congressional leaders provoked the ire of some left-wing activists for backing down during the last budget dispute in March.

Many Democrats seem to be itching for a bigger fight this time around – and funding the government is one of the only places where the party has some leverage.

How could the shutdown affect the economy?

The scale of the damage will depend in part on how long the shutdown lasts - and how wide ranging it is.

Analysts estimate it could shave roughly 0.1 to 0.2 percentage points off economic growth for each week that it continues - although much of that could be recouped, as has happened after previous shutdowns.

That relatively muted impact may be why the stock market seems to be shrugging off this latest threat.

But if Trump ends up firing workers, rather than temporarily putting them on furlough, the impact could be more substantial.

The US economy has already been hit by the effects of Trump's tariffs, with the likely delay of key data - such as the official US monthly jobs report - expected to add to the uncertainty.

What happened during the last US government shutdown?

Shutdowns over budgets are a unique aspect of US politics.

They have become quite common over the past 50 years - with three taking place during Trump's first presidential term.

The last shutdown in late 2018 lasted 35 days - the longest in history.

It was brought about by disagreements over funding a wall on the Mexico border. It finally ended in part because air traffic controllers, who had been working for a month without pay, started calling in sick en masse.

Flights were cancelled or delayed because of the lack of staff, and the shutdown came to an end shortly afterwards.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the 2018-2019 shutdown reduced economic output by about $11bn, including $3bn that it never regained.

But shutdowns pre-date Trump.

The second longest to date was 21 days, under Democrat President Bill Clinton in 1995. His fellow Democrat Barack Obama had a 16-day shutdown during his time in the White House, and Republican Ronald Reagan oversaw eight shutdowns during his presidency in the 1980s - though all were relatively brief.