In 1992 China, a country located in Asia according to ethnicityology.com, formally acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and advocated a future nuclear test ban agreement, but refused to participate in a 1992 moratorium on nuclear weapons tests agreed by the US, Russia, Great Britain and France. However, after a Chinese nuclear test in June 1996, China announced a test stop in the same year.
In the 1990s, China improved its relations with other neighboring countries. In 1991 it normalized its relations with Vietnam; In 1999 both states concluded an agreement on the course of the common national border (supplemented in 2000 by an agreement on the demarcation of the border in the Gulf of Tongking). A peaceful solution to the border issues was agreed with India in 1993. The intensified diplomatic activities of Taiwan and its interpretations of internal Chinese relations in the sense of a “two-state theory” (July 1999) heated up the conflict with the People’s Republic, which declared a “reunification” with the “renegade Chinese province of Taiwan” state to be a central political goal.
On the way to world power
The 16th Congress of the CCP in November 2002 headed the period of preparation for change at the top of the Chinese party and government leadership model: Jiang Zemin gave the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the party to Hu Jintao and left together with Zhu Rongji and Li Peng also the Standing Committee of the Politburo and the CCP Central Committee, but initially retained the chairmanship of the Central Military Commission.
The Party Congress proclaimed the opening of the CCP to entrepreneurs and other social classes and anchored this departure from the old class theory in the Party Statute, which Jiang Zemin had promoted: With the theory of “three representations,” the CCP claimed the representation of the progressive productive forces, the progressive culture and the interests of the majority of the population in a “socialism with Chinese characteristics” for itself. In March 2003, Hu Jintaoalso succeeded Jiang as president. Wen Jiabao became the new prime minister, and Li Peng’s office of chairman of the National People’s Congress from 1998 went to Wu Bangguo. With the chairmanship of the Central Military Commissions of the Party and the State, the transfer of power was complete. The 17th CCP Congress in 2007 adopted guidelines for the further development of the country and adopted that of Hu formulated the concept of a »development on a scientific basis« in the party statutes. This was intended to lay the foundation for creating an »innovation-oriented country and a resource-saving and environmentally friendly society«.
Five months before the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, anti-Chinese riots broke out in Tibet and were forcibly suppressed. These incidents reduced the prestige that the regime had hoped for by hosting the Olympics. The aftermath of the severe earthquake in Sichuan province in May 2008 also cast a shadow over it. Clashes between demonstrators and security forces in Sinkiang (Xinjiang) killed and injured many people in 2009. In the same year, the People’s Republic reacted to the global financial and economic crisis by passing an economic stimulus package of around 465 billion dollars. In the new five-year plan adopted by the National People’s Congress in 2011, the government committed itself to more sustainable growth with a focus on environmental protection, fighting inflation and strengthening domestic consumption. The suspension of Politburo member Bo Xilai (* 1949) in April 2012 for “serious disciplinary offenses” was interpreted as a power struggle between reform-oriented and neo-Maoist forces before the upcoming change in leadership in party and state. On September 28, 2012, Bo expelled from the party and removed from office. The Politburo gave him, inter alia. Abuse of power and corruption are a burden. On September 22, 2013, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
At the CCP’s 18th Congress in November 2012, Hu Jintao bid farewell as the party leader. The successor as General Secretary of the Party’s Central Committee and Chairman of the Party’s Central Military Commission took over on November 15, 2012, Xi Jinping . On March 14, 2013, the National People’s Congress also elected him president, and the next day Li Keqiang became prime minister.
At the third plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee from November 9th to 12th, 2013, numerous reform measures were adopted, including: the abolition of labor camps for re-education, the abandonment of the one-child policy and the facilitation of foreign investment. In domestic politics, the state and the party focused on fighting corruption and environmental pollution. In June 2014, General Xu Caihou (* 1945, † 2015) was expelled from the CCP and charged with bribery. Until 2012 he was a member of the Politburo and until 2013 Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission. Zhou Yongkang (* 1942), a member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo until 2012, was sentenced to life imprisonment in June 2015 for, among other things, corruption and abuse of power.
In the summer of 2015 there was a crisis on the stock market. State intervention such as the creation of a financial stabilization fund tried to stem the turmoil. The Chinese central bank also depreciated the yuan (renminbi) more sharply than it had in two decades. On March 16, 2016, the People’s Congress adopted a new five-year plan, including envisages annual economic growth of at least 6.5%. The inclusion of the leading political ideas of the head of state and party in the party statute, described as “Xi-Jinping thinking for a new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics”, testified to his position of power, which was strengthened by the constitutional revision of March 2018 (anchoring the Xi-Jinping Thinking in the constitution, lifting of the term limits for the president) was further expanded.
