By Nantoo Banerjee Only six months in power, Japan’s first female prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, has emerged as the world’s most powerful woman reshaping the country’s domestic social and economic policies and international relations, taking a hard line on China. Takaichi has taken a firm stance on China suggesting that a “Taiwan contingency is a […]
By K Raveendran Over 70 Opposition members of the Rajya Sabha have opened a new constitutional front against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, submitting a fresh notice for his removal on grounds they describe as “proven misbehaviour”. The move comes after an earlier attempt was rejected and is centred on allegations including partisan enforcement of […]
Etihad Airways has set out one of its biggest Africa pushes in years, unveiling six new destinations across the continent as Abu Dhabi’s flag carrier deepens its reach into markets it says are being shaped by trade growth, cargo demand and rising cross-border mobility. The expansion adds services to Accra, Asmara, Kinshasa, Lagos, Harare and Lubumbashi, with the first of the new routes due to begin in […]
By Dr. Gyan Pathak Election Commission of India (ECI) has caused miscarriage of democracy in West Bengal, which is rejoiced by the Union Government of India led by PM Narendra Modi and RSS-BJP clan, lamented by millions of voters whose names were deleted from the electoral roll under Special Intensive Revision (SIR), and strongly resisted […]
China has announced 10 measures aimed at signalling goodwill towards Taiwan after a rare meeting between President Xi Jinping and Cheng Li-wun, chairwoman of Taiwan’s main opposition Kuomintang, offering easier tourism, broader trade access and a possible new party-to-party contact channel even as Beijing kept its conditions on sovereignty unchanged.
The package, unveiled on Sunday at the close of Cheng’s visit to China, includes moves to restore more flights across the Taiwan Strait, permit some residents of Shanghai and Fujian to visit Taiwan, ease standards affecting food and fishery imports, and allow selected Taiwanese television dramas, documentaries and animation to be broadcast on the mainland provided they meet Beijing’s content requirements. Chinese state media also said officials would explore a regular communication mechanism between the Communist Party and the KMT.
The announcement followed Cheng’s meeting with Xi at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Friday, a politically sensitive encounter that stood out because China has refused to engage with Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te, branding him a separatist. During the talks, Xi repeated Beijing’s long-held position that both sides of the strait belong to “one China”, said Taiwan independence was the main threat to peace, and called for efforts toward what he described as reunification. Cheng, presenting her trip as a peace mission, said people on both sides wanted stability, development and more balanced exchanges.
That combination of outreach and warning is central to the significance of Sunday’s measures. Beijing appears to be trying to show Taiwanese voters that practical benefits may be available through engagement with the opposition, while keeping pressure on the ruling Democratic Progressive Party and preserving the political precondition that any improvement in ties must rest on opposition to formal independence. The trade and tourism sweeteners may carry appeal for sectors in Taiwan that have long depended on mainland visitors and mainland demand for agricultural and aquatic products, both of which have been disrupted by years of political tension, pandemic-era restrictions and Chinese import curbs.
Taipei’s response was sharply critical. Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council said Beijing’s unilateral concessions were “poisoned pills” dressed up as generous gifts and argued that healthy cross-strait exchanges should not be tied to political conditions. That reaction underscored the core divide between the two governments: China says the issue is domestic and insists on a one-China framework, while Taiwan’s administration says only the island’s people can decide their future and that Beijing should talk directly to its democratically elected government rather than sidestepping it.
The KMT, by contrast, welcomed the package and cast it as beneficial to ordinary people in Taiwan. That stance is consistent with the party’s longstanding preference for deeper economic and diplomatic engagement with the mainland than the ruling DPP supports. Cheng’s trip was the first by a KMT leader to China in a decade, making it symbolically important as well as politically divisive at home, where critics say opposition outreach risks strengthening Beijing’s narrative while weakening Taiwan’s bargaining position.
Any goodwill message from Beijing has also been complicated by events in the skies and seas around Taiwan. Reuters reported that Chinese military activity around the island continued during Cheng’s visit, and Taiwan’s defence ministry said warplanes were detected near the island as Xi met the opposition leader. That has allowed Lai’s administration and its supporters to argue that China is offering conciliation in public while maintaining coercion in practice. The contrast has sharpened a broader political argument inside Taiwan between those who say deterrence and defence spending are indispensable, and those who believe dialogue must have a larger role in reducing risk.
Washington has added another layer to the story. Raymond Greene, the top United States diplomat in Taiwan, said Beijing should abandon threats and military pressure and keep communication open with all of Taiwan’s political parties, especially leaders elected by the Taiwanese people. His remarks reflected a familiar United States position: support for dialogue across the strait, opposition to unilateral changes to the status quo, and insistence that talks cannot be divorced from the balance of deterrence.
By K Raveendran Election regulation in India is trapped in a contradiction that has become harder to defend with each passing cycle. The Election Commission continues to apply old assumptions about influence, persuasion and voter exposure to a media and political environment that has been transformed by technology, scale and the permanent visibility of public […]
Kamala Harris has said she is considering another run for the White House in 2028, offering her clearest public signal yet that she may seek a political comeback after losing the 2024 presidential election to Donald Trump. Speaking on Friday at the National Action Network convention in New York, the former vice-president responded to a question from Rev. Al Sharpton by saying, “I might, I might. I’m […]
By Nitya Chakraborty After getting political and diplomatic advantage from the latest US-Iran ceasefire, China has started its preparation for hosting the U.S. President Donald Trump in its crucial summit in Beijing on May 14 and 15 this year. Earlier the summit was scheduled for March 31 and April 1 but Trump postponed that after […]
By Asad Mirza It seems that President Trump’s Tuesday morning Truth Social post, which threatened “a whole civilisation will die tonight” and raised the spectre of nuclear war, has jolted the American lawmakers, and it has begun a chorus of calls either for Trump’s impeachment or for his removal via the invocation of the 25th […]
Drift Protocol has said the theft of about $270 million to $286 million from its platform was the result of a six-month operation by North Korea-linked actors who built trust slowly, posed as a legitimate trading firm and used face-to-face meetings, capital deposits and carefully timed social engineering to prepare the strike. The Solana-based exchange’s account adds a new layer to an attack that security researchers had […]
By K Raveendran Passage of the Jan Vishwas amendment bill marks a significant moment in the long and uneven effort to make the legal system less hostile to ordinary citizens. Its importance lies not merely in the number of provisions it has altered, diluted or removed, but in the political and moral signal it sends. […]
Anger over the war with Iran has widened the scope of the anti-Trump “No Kings” protests across the United States, turning what began as a broad movement against executive overreach into a sharper rebuke of the White House’s foreign and domestic agenda. Demonstrations on Saturday spread through more than 3,100 locations across all 50 states, with organisers and news reports describing one of the largest coordinated days […]
By Arun Srivastava The Naxalite movement, originating from a 1967 peasant uprising in Naxalbari, West Bengal, has witnessed numerous “twists and turns,” evolving from a localized armed insurrection into a fragmented insurgency and, in recent years, a shrinking threat experiencing mass surrenders and gruesome killings of cadres by the security forces. But one evolution is […]
Crowds are expected to gather across major cities this weekend under the banner of “No Kings”, a decentralised protest movement that organisers say could mark one of the largest coordinated demonstrations in years, driven by mounting political polarisation and public frustration over executive power. Activists behind the campaign describe it as a response to what they view as expanding authority within the executive branch and a perceived […]
Democracy is on the defensive. This is shown by the Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Transformation Index 2026 (BTI). The BTI was first surveyed twenty years ago, when democracies were still in the majority. Today, 56 percent of the 137 countries surveyed by the BTI are ruled autocratically. However, this rarely leads to better governance. Autocracies are more susceptible to corruption, less capable of shaping the future, and less consensus-oriented. However, examples such as Poland and Brazil show that social resistance and political competition can pave the way back to democracy.
GÜTERSLOH, GERMANY – Newsaktuell – 26 March 2026 – A majority of 77 of the 137 states surveyed by the BTI are now ruled autocratically and are taking increasingly repressive action against the opposition, the media and civil society. Of these countries, 52 are hard-line autocracies in which fundamental rights are completely disregarded – more than at any time since the survey began in 2006. But autocratic tendencies are also gaining ground in numerous democracies. “Many elected governments have undermined core democratic institutions in order to stay in power, and this paves the way for autocracy,” says democracy expert Sabine Donner.
In 54 percent of the countries, elections no longer meet minimum standards. In some countries, such as Gabon or Niger, they were suspended after military coups, while in Belarus, Russia and Rwanda they are strictly controlled legitimizating rituals. However, numerous free and fair elections also led to peaceful changes of government. In Madagascar, Tanzania and Venezuela, mass protests following rigged elections were violently suppressed, but strengthened political mobilization beyond the election date.
Examples such as El Salvador, Serbia and Turkey show that the repeatedly touted promise of authoritarian efficiency is rarely fulfilled. Corruption is insufficiently combated in more than 100 countries, two thirds of which are autocracies. “In autocracies, loyalty must be rewarded and positions secured,” says BTI expert Hauke Hartmann. “The supposed efficiency of authoritarian regimes is a myth.”
However, persistent grievances continue to ensure that protests by dissatisfied citizens show no sign of abating. In Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, protests forced a democratic opening, while a democratic turnaround was achieved in Brazil and Poland. “The BTI shows how much pressure democratic institutions are coming under – at the same time, we are seeing remarkably lively resistance to their erosion in many places,” says Daniela Schwarzer, Member of the Executive Board, Bertelsmann Stiftung. “This ability to mobilize, which comes above all from an active civil society, is a key potential for democratic renewal.”
Additional information: Since 2006, the Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Transformation Index has analyzed the quality of democracy, market economy and governance in 137 countries every two years. Currently, 23 OECD countries, such as Germany and the USA, are not part of the study. The study was carried out between February 1, 2023 and January 31, 2025.
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About the Bertelsmann Stiftung
The Bertelsmann Stiftung is committed to ensuring that everyone can participate in society – politically, economically and culturally. We put people at the center of everything we do. Because it is people who can move the world, change it and make it a better place. To this end, we develop knowledge, impart skills and develop solutions. The non-profit Bertelsmann Stiftung was founded in 1977 by Reinhard Mohn.
A Federal High Court ruling in Nigeria has affirmed that citizens are entitled to record police officers performing their duties in public, while also awarding damages in a case that challenged unlawful stop-and-search practices. The decision marks a significant judicial intervention in ongoing debates over police accountability and civil liberties in Africa’s most populous nation. Justice in the case brought through a public interest action by rights […]
Pressure from Washington for allies to help secure shipping lanes in West Asia has placed Tokyo in a delicate strategic position, with senior figures signalling that dispatching Japanese military vessels to the Middle East would face formidable political and legal barriers. Takayuki Kobayashi, policy chief of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, stated that any move to send Japanese naval assets to escort commercial vessels through the Strait […]
Growing scrutiny surrounds a deadly missile strike that destroyed a girls’ school in southern Iran, after a Republican senator said the United States must acknowledge responsibility if investigations confirm that American forces carried out the attack. The remarks followed mounting evidence that a Tomahawk missile used during joint military operations against Iranian targets may have struck the school in the town of Minab, killing scores of civilians, […]
Concerns about the long-term security of Greenland have not disappeared despite the fading public rhetoric from U. S. President Donald Trump about acquiring the Arctic island, according to Canada’s Governor General, who warned that geopolitical interest in the territory remains strong and could resurface. Speaking during remarks on Arctic security and sovereignty, Governor General Mary Simon said the strategic importance of Greenland means questions surrounding control and […]
Senior hardware executive Caitlin Kalinowski has resigned from OpenAI, citing ethical concerns over the company’s agreement to provide artificial intelligence capabilities to the United States Department of Defense, a move that has triggered debate within the technology sector about the role of AI in military and surveillance systems. Kalinowski, who led OpenAI’s robotics and consumer hardware initiatives, announced her decision in a public statement, saying the partnership […]
BEIJING, CHINA – Media OutReach Newswire – 7 March 2026 – CGTN published an article on the opening meeting of the fourth session of the 14th CPPCC National Committee. Reviewing the work of the CPPCC National Committee in 2025 in areas like its consultative and deliberative work and assisting in the formulation of the 15th Five-Year Plan, the article highlights the CPPCC’s role as a dedicated consultative body through which people’s democracy is practiced.
Committed to addressing the difficulties regarding people’s livelihood through the rule of law, Pi Jianlong, a lawyer and a national political advisor, has spent years going deep into factories, workshops, law firms and juvenile probation and rehabilitation centers, making sure that his proposals, grounded in rigorous field research, are precise, practical and responsive to real needs.
Noting the predicament faced by food delivery riders, including the lack of contracts, social security and basic protection, he proposed targeted suggestions such as innovating social security models and strengthening platform responsibilities. In 2025, platforms such as JD.com and Meituan successively introduced social security plans, providing full social insurance coverage for full-time riders and accident and medical insurance for part-time riders.
Awarded for his outstanding performance in 2025 by the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee recently, Pi exemplifies the commitment of thousands of CPPCC members to serving the people through high-quality duty fulfillment, underscoring the CPPCC’s role as a major vehicle through which people’s democracy is practiced.
On Wednesday afternoon, China’s top political advisory body, the CPPCC National Committee, kicked off its annual session in Beijing. Chinese President Xi Jinping, together with other leaders, attended the opening meeting of the fourth session of the 14th CPPCC National Committee.
99.9% proposals handled
Acting as a dedicated consultative body, the CPPCC has pooled extensive consensus and strength to support the successful conclusion of the 14th Five-Year Plan and a solid start to the 15th Five-Year Plan over the past year, injecting strong vitality into the practice of whole-process people’s democracy – a key concept put forward by Xi himself to advance China’s political landscape.
Over the years, China has made all-around progress in improving the institutions, standards and procedures of socialist democracy and advanced socialist consultative democracy by way of extensive participation.
According to a work report delivered at the opening meeting, in 2025, the CPPCC National Committee received 5,992 proposals from its members, of which 5,061 were accepted for processing. The response rate for the accepted proposals stood at 99.9%.
The CPPCC National Committee members carried out 6,778 activities to serve the people, along with 11,115 outreach activities engaging people from relevant sectors. These efforts benefited more than 4 million people.
By innovating consultative and deliberative methods, improving consultative democracy institutions, and fostering a culture of consultation, the CPPCC has further strengthened its role in promoting democracy and offering policy advice while building consensus.
Over the past year, the CPPCC National Committee held 98 consultative and deliberative events, ranging from promoting the country’s green and low-carbon transition for the 15th Five-Year Plan and developing the silver economy to improving and innovating social governance. These efforts demonstrate that consultative democracy is grounded in reality and responsive to public needs, pooling support, consensus, wisdom and strength to advance Chinese modernization.
Securing a strong start to the 15th Five-Year Plan
Supporting the formulation of the 15th Five-Year Plan serves as a key task of the CPPCC in 2025, representing a vivid practice of whole-process people’s democracy.
From May 20 to June 20 last year, China launched an online public consultation to gather opinions for its next five-year plan. The initiative drew over 3.11 million valid submissions, yielding more than 1,500 constructive suggestions across 27 topics.
A summary of these findings was submitted to the Party leadership, ensuring that the people’s voices were heard at the highest level. By September, a total of 2,112 suggestions had been collected from various regions, departments and sectors, resulting in 218 revisions to the document.
To contribute to the 15th Five-Year Plan, the CPPCC, over the past year, held a special standing committee meeting and carried out 54 special studies, yielding a series of high-quality outcomes. Meanwhile, it launched a special research column, publishing 55 issues to provide evidence-based references for policy-making.
This broad-based participation highlights that national development strategies are rooted in public will, gathering strong momentum for Chinese modernization.
According to the work report, in 2026, the CPPCC will conduct in-depth research and thorough consultations on major tasks and strategic measures of the 15th Five-Year Plan and carry out cross-committee, cross-sector and cross-disciplinary studies, aiming to put forward forward-looking, targeted and operable policy suggestions, according to the report.
Focusing on key issues in areas such as economic development, technological innovation, reform and opening up, social development, and people’s livelihood, the CPPCC will truthfully reflect public opinions based on facts and implement the CPPCC National Committee’s democratic oversight work plan during the 15th Five-Year Plan period.
For more information, please click: https://news.cgtn.com/news/2026-03-04/How-China-builds-consensus-boosts-growth-via-consultative-democracy-1LeSOfZLbk4/p.html
Hashtag: #CGTN
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Tension between Silicon Valley’s artificial-intelligence developers and defence officials has surfaced again as Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei re-engages in discussions with the Pentagon over potential collaboration on advanced AI systems. The renewed talks follow a disagreement that underscored deep divisions over the role of powerful generative AI models in military applications and the ethical boundaries technology companies seek to maintain. Dialogue between Anthropic and the US […]
By Dr. Gyan Pathak Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s exit from Bihar politics not only marks the most consequential political transition in Bihar but also has greater implications on BJP’s national strategy and realization of its dream that it may appear at first glance. With negotiated removal of the CM Nitish Kumar, a significant regional political […]
Kenya holds sufficient petroleum stocks to cushion the country and its regional partners from supply disruptions linked to conflict in the Middle East, Energy and Petroleum Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi has said, seeking to calm fears of shortages and price spikes. Wandayi stated that the country’s strategic and commercial fuel inventories remain within statutory requirements, with diesel, petrol and jet fuel volumes adequate to meet domestic consumption […]
