Latest news with #CPPCC
The Standard
22-07-2025
- Politics
- The Standard
China probes Tibet ex-leader over bribes, 'superstitious activities'
This file photo shows Qizhala, a member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the CPPCC. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
South China Morning Post
05-07-2025
- Automotive
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong should keep southbound travel plan's 100-car quota flexible: CY Leung
Hong Kong should consider relaxing a proposed 100-vehicle quota for a scheme set to allow Guangdong motorists to drive to the city, former leader Leung Chun-ying has said, suggesting the limit could be adjusted for weekdays and holidays. Advertisement Leung, who now serves as a vice-chairman of the nation's top political advisory body, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, raised the suggestion on Saturday. Earlier this week, transport officials said drivers could start applying for the Southbound Travel for Guangdong Vehicles scheme from November, with 100 motorists set to be allowed to cross into the city via the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge each day. Leung said the policy was a small progressive step towards a larger breakthrough, adding that the government could relax the quota if no accidents or traffic problems arose in the weeks after the scheme's launch. The cap could also be applied flexibly for weekdays and various holidays, he said. Advertisement 'For example, we have Christmas holidays, but mainland China doesn't. The mainland has many Golden Week holidays that we don't,' he told a television programme.
Straits Times
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
The two Panchen Lamas: China's role in Tibet and the clash with the Dalai Lama
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox FILE PHOTO: Gyaltsen Norbu, the 11th Panchen Lama and a delegate of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), speaks to an elderly delegate as they leave after the opening session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, March 3, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo BEIJING/DHARAMSHALA, India - Weeks before the Dalai Lama ruled out China's role in choosing his successor, President Xi Jinping met a Tibetan Buddhist monk installed three decades ago by Beijing as the faith's No. 2 leader, the Panchen Lama. The monk was appointed after the six-year-old chosen by the Dalai Lama for the position disappeared. The June 6 meeting, in which the Panchen Lama affirmed his support for the Communist Party, and the Dalai Lama's rejection this week of a role for China in his reincarnation underline the schism between Beijing and the Buddhist spiritual leader, who fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet. China considers the Dalai Lama a separatist and wants to bring Tibetan Buddhism under its control but the Dalai Lama and his huge following have been obstacles to that ambition. The declaration by the Dalai Lama that he will be reincarnated was welcomed by his followers as signifying the continuation of the 600-year-old institution central to Tibetan Buddhism. But many of them also fear Beijing will use his eventual death and succession to split the faith, with one new Dalai Lama named by followers of the Dalai Lama and one by the government. The possibility is not lost on the Dalai Lama, who told Reuters in 2019 that "in case you see two Dalai Lamas come ... nobody will respect (the one chosen by China)". The Dalai Lama turns 90 on Sunday and he said this week that upon his death only a non-profit organisation he has set up in India would be able to identify his successor. He previously said his reincarnation will be born outside China. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Seller's stamp duty hike will curb short-term speculation; market effect likely minimal: Analysts Singapore Foreigners taking on platform work illegally; NTUC calls for work group to look into issue World Trump says countries to start paying tariffs on Aug 1, floats range of 10% to 70% Singapore Sengkang murder: Man accused of killing elderly mother escorted back to crime scene Singapore Tourism bump from Lady Gaga concerts raked in up to estimated $150m for Singapore economy Singapore Jail for man who recruited 2 Japanese women for prostitution at MBS Asia Malaysia dismantles ISIS network involving workers from Bangladesh Life Book review: OB Markers sequel Ink And Influence makes catch-22 proposal for The Straits Times Beijing though says it has the right to approve the Dalai Lama's successor as a legacy from imperial times. The Panchen Lama is one of the senior Buddhist clerics who are supposed to help identify the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. The child in Tibet who the Dalai Lama chose as the 11th Panchen Lama disappeared in May, 1995 and has not been seen since. A few months later, the Chinese government appointed Gyaltsen Norbu as the Panchen Lama. "The reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, Panchen and other great living Buddhas is carried out in accordance with strict religious rituals and historical customs... and approved by the central government," China's foreign ministry spokesperson said on Friday. At the meeting with Xi, Norbu vowed to "firmly support the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party", Chinese state media said. Tibetan officials living in exile in India, like the Dalai Lama, said it was exactly the kind of political interference that they wanted to avoid in the eventual succession of the Dalai Lama. "Many people call him a fake Panchen, but officially, we call him the Chinese Panchen," Tenzin Lekshay, an official of the Tibetan government in exile in India, said about Norbu. "Once he was appointed by China, he had to show allegiance to them." LIVES IN BEIJING Norbu is a senior member of the Chinese People's Consultative Conference, a rubber-stamp political advisory body, and vice president of the state-controlled Buddhist Association of China. He does not live at the Panchen Lama's traditional seat, Tashi Lunpo monastery in Tibet's Shigatse city, but in Beijing and visits Tibet for a few months each year to meet government officials and take part in religious ceremonies, according to Chinese state media. Norbu's movements are heavily controlled by the Chinese government and he does not have unfettered access to the public, according to foreign scholars. He went to Buddhist-majority Thailand in 2019, his first visit outside greater China. Local media in Nepal said last year that the government there shot down a proposal by Norbu to visit Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha. A spokesperson for Nepal's foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment. Tibetan activists living abroad and Tibetan officials in India say, based on their conversations with friends and family in Tibet, that Norbu is not held in high esteem among ethnic Tibetans in China. Photos of his predecessor, the 10th Panchen Lama Choekyi Gyaltsen, are widely displayed in monasteries and religious buildings across Tibet and Tibetan-majority areas of China, as seen during various visits across the region by Reuters journalists. At last month's meeting in Zhongnanhai, the Communist Party's leadership compound in Beijing, Xi implored Norbu to "advance the systematic promotion of the Sinicisation of religion', according to state news agency Xinhua. The term refers to a years-long push to bring all organised religions in China under greater Communist Party ideological control. It was part of a series of pronouncements taken by China's senior leadership in the weeks leading up to the Dalai Lama's 90th birthday on Sunday, according to state media reports. These include security czar Chen Wenqing's warning against separatism during a visit last month to Qinghai province, which has a large ethnic Tibetan population. For ordinary Tibetans living abroad, Norbu is just another monk from their community. "I don't believe him as a Panchen Lama," said Tenzin Kunsel, an Indian-born Tibetan who is now an Australian citizen. "I still strongly believe in the Panchen Lama who was selected by His Holiness." REUTERS
South China Morning Post
04-07-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Beijing taps personnel veteran Xu Qifang for Hong Kong and Macau post
Beijing has appointed Xu Qifang, a former Communist Party personnel official, to the second-most senior position in its top body managing Hong Kong and Macau affairs. Advertisement Xu, 60, the former deputy chief of the party's Organisation Department has become the executive deputy director of the Central Committee's Hong Kong and Macau Work Office, according to several sources. The sources said Xu would be promoted from deputy ministerial to full ministerial rank. As the office's executive director, Xu reports to director Xia Baolong , who oversees the office's daily operations. '[Xu] has reported to work at the Hong Kong and Macau Work Office. Senior officials in the office have met with him,' said one source who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter. He has been a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, China's top political advisory body, since 2023. Advertisement Xu fills the vacancy left by Zhou Ji , who was parachuted south to become the director of Beijing's liaison office in Hong Kong after former liaison office chief Zheng Yanxiong was abruptly removed at the end of May after two years in the position. At the end of June, Beijing announced Zheng's appointment as deputy director of the National People's Congress' Education, Science, Culture and Health Committee, confirming an earlier report by the Post.
South China Morning Post
28-06-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
China's No 4 official joins in mourning death of Hong Kong tycoon Charles Ho
China's No 4 politician was among senior Beijing officials and other heavyweights who sent wreaths to the wake for Hong Kong tobacco and media tycoon Charles Ho Tsu-kwok. Advertisement The ceremony for Ho, former chairman of the Sing Tao News Corporation who died at the age of 75 earlier this month, was held at the Hong Kong Funeral Home in North Point on Saturday. Ho became a standing committee member of China's top political advisory body, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in 1998 and controlled Sing Tao News before selling his shares in 2021. Wreaths were sent by Wang Huning, the fourth-most senior official in the Communist Party of China and who oversees the CPPCC, and Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang, who chairs the leading work group for Hong Kong and Macau affairs. Xia Baolong, the director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs office, the office itself and Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu also sent wreaths. Advertisement Retired central government officials, including ex-top political adviser Yu Zhengsheng, former vice-premier Liu Yandong and Liao Hui, who served as director of the HKMAO, sent flowers under their names.
