Poking with Chopsticks (China Podcast‪)‬ Qin Liwen & Marcel Grzanna

China's President Xi Jinping has established himself in Mafia style as a leader for lifetime. That's not good news neither for 1,4 billion in the country nor for the rest of the world. His reign of fear will make lots of people suffer.

The UN believes the victims of human rights violations more than Beijing's threadbare explanations. Thisfact will deepen the cleavage lines in international institutions. And it assures China's nationalists that they're on the right track with pushing social decoupling from the West.

Lockdowns in Shanghai and other Chinese cities are apparently intended to combat the corona virus. But the main question is whether President Xi is powerful enough to become president for life. For that purpose nothing else matters. Not even more and more raging foreigners willing to leave the country.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a welcome opportunity for China's domestic propaganda to tell a story of a needled Russian regime. For that purpose it even accepts flooding of it's scoial media platforms with fake news.   

For the Chinese government the Beijing Winter Olympics are less about sports. The event is a stage to demonstrate the superiority of its authoritarian political system. The IOC passionately helps to cover up all the dirt.

A former Wimbledon champion goes missing in China after disclosing accusations of sexual coercion by former high-ranking party official Zhang Gaoli. The case displays the country's leadership's disdain of #MeToo. What will happen to Peng Shuai after the Beijing Olympics?