France approves a same-sex marriage bill, the Vietnamese Communist Party struggles with growing dissent and China is planning …
Communist Party
Must-Reads from Around the World
On deck for Thursday: The world’s biggest money manager says the Chinese economy will improve after the leadership transition, Burma turns to Japan for investments, and Lance Armstrong’s problems go from bad to worse.
Must-Reads from Around the World, June 8, 2012
Internal Democracy – The South China Morning Post reports that senior members of the Communist Party held an internal poll in May to select their favored top leaders for the party’s 25-member Politburo and the Politburo Standing Committee, its inner-most cabinet, for the next 10 years. It writes: “If this experiment goes well and …
Must-Reads from Around the World, May 14, 2012
Hunger Pains - The Guardian writes that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has warned Israel of “disaster that no one could control” as Palestinian hunger strikers near death. Tony Blair, the Middle East quartet representative, …
Must-Reads From Around the World: April 24, 2012
China’s Crisis – As the Bo Xilai saga continues, the New York Times reveals that for much of the last decade, while the now-disgraced official was moving up the ranks of the Communist Party, his relatives were using his …
The Pope and Fidel: A Meeting of Two Old Dogmatics
Sure, Fidel Castro kept the Roman Catholic Church in Cuba buried under his cigar ash for decades, shutting down its schools, exiling priests and declaring the Communist island an atheist state until the 1990s. But it’s likely …
In Beijing, the Party Elite and the Police All Have a Say on Culture
Top officials of China’s ruling Communist Party began a four-day, closed-door session Saturday which will be scrutinized for clues into the leadership transition that begins next year. The Central Committee’s annual plenum may also offer insight into how the authorities intend to promote, and control, cultural expression. The …
Castro’s Resignation: A Look Back at the ‘Vengeful Visionary’
News that Fidel Castro has resigned from the Central Committee of Cuba’s Communist Party isn’t very surprising — slowed by chronic health problems, the 84-year-old has effectively been out of political life since passing over the reins to his brother Raul in 2006. He now looks more familiar to us in a loose track suit than his once …
Ripples of a Revolution: A Jasmine Crackdown in Vietnam
Nguyen Dan Que heard the call for revolution. But so did the government. On Feb. 28, the 68-year-old doctor and dissident was detained by Vietnamese authorities for posting internet messages that threatened the “stability and strength” of the country’s ruling party. He has since been released, but must attend daily “interrogation …
