GOOD MORNING FROM LONDON
#1 SURGE IN CHINA’S TOURISTS
#2 WANG HUNING – CHINA’S POLITICAL SYSTEM
#3 CHINA AND JACK PERRY – PART NINE – JACK REFLECTS
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#1 SURGE IN CHINA’S TOURISTS
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST (SCMP)
“Europe is basking in summer, with sunny skies, high temperatures – and a surge in Chinese tourists.
“We’re pretty optimistic. I work at the centre of Brussels and we see a lot of Chinese. I hear Mandarin everywhere,” said Ludivine Destrée, senior marketing manager at the European Travel Commission (ETC).
Europe as a whole, including Switzerland, recorded a 13 per cent year-on-year increase in Chinese tourists during the first half of 2025, according to Destrée.
This momentum is only expected to continue. A recent report by the ETC found that 72% of Chinese tourists expressed a willingness to travel long-haul to the continent. That was well above the global average of 39%, and higher than the US and Japan – two traditionally strong markets – at 33% and 13%.
Chinese enthusiasm is driven by an economic rebound and a renewed appetite for long-distance travel, according to the report. Geopolitics may also be playing a role. US President Donald Trump’s harsh tone and tariffs against China have likely made America a less attractive holiday destination for many Chinese, Destrée said.
A group of Chinese tourists pose for a photo at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France, on March 20, 2019. Photo: Xinhua
“Sometimes Trump is also good news for us,” Destree said with a laugh.
GRAHAM PERRY COMMENTS;-
SCMP reports that the Chinese tourist numbers to Europe remain below pre-pandemic levels, due to two main obstacles: visa requirements and airline restrictions according to Destrée. Chinese nationals still need to apply for visas to visit most European countries, putting the continent at a disadvantage compared to parts of Southeast Asia that offer visa-free access, she added.
SCMP reports that Spain has emerged as the biggest winner in the scramble for Chinese tourists. Visitors from China during the first four months of 2025 surpassed a pre-pandemic high in 2019 by 15% largely thanks to increased airline capacity, Destrée said.
From April to September, scheduled air capacity between China and Spain is set to rise by 35.9 per cent to 337,524 seats – the largest increase among European countries, according to data from Turespaña, the Tourism Institute of Spain. Chinese tourists spent a total of US$2.13 billion in Spain in 2024, according to Turespaña.
Many people still bracket China with the old USSR focusing, incorrectly, on the similarities rather than the differences. But a significant contrast between the two countries was that there was no tourism of note to or from the USSR. The Soviet authorities feared that Soviet citizens would seek asylum if allowed to travel abroad. China, however, encourages overseas travel with 200m of their people forecast to travel to foreign destinations in 2030 – according to Travelux, the leading international provider of foreign currencies.
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#2 WANG HUNING – MEMBER OF
NEW YORK TIMES
“Wang Huning is a Chinese politician who is one of the top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party. He is currently the chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. He has been a leading ideologist in the country since the 1980s and is a member of the seven man Politburo – the most senior organisation in the China hierarchy.
Political Life is a diary written by Wang in 1995. It records his personal life, political theory research, reviews of books, film, and television, as well as his thoughts on China, the world, and social issues.
In the book’s preface, Wang said: “The reason why I named it “Political Life” is not to refer to a political experience, but to say that as a political scholar, I have spent most of my time on my professional studies, and this study has occupied most of my life… People living today often say that our predecessors were incompetent and made China the way it is now. I hope that Chinese people in the future will not say that Chinese people today are incompetent and made China like this. This is my greatest wish.”[1]
GRAHAM PERRY COMMENTS;-
It is reported in his book, that Wang Huning criticizes corruption and proposes a fight against “super corruption”, which he says is both more harmful and incomparable to general corruption activities in scale and nature. He says “super corruption” has two characteristics; one is that it operates with the participation of certain public powers and the other that it appears in the form of a group rather than an individual.
A big issue under discussion in China has been the future path of development. In essence there are two views – one focuses on civic society; the public airing of conflicting views about the future direction of democracy and the promotion of Western style human rights. The alternative view – and also the prevailing view – asserts the centrality of the leading role of the Party and the maintenance of the principle of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. The two views cannot be reconciled and they stand in opposition to each other. Under Xi Jinping – closely supported by Wang Huning – the civic society option has lost out to the leading role of the Party option.
The West hopes that proponents of civic society in Chins will prevail and the future path of China’s political development will tend towards the rule of law, the separation of the Executive from the Legislature and the Judiciary and the adoption of habeas corpus and one man one vote. The ultimate goal of this approach is to remove the Party from its leading role. This goal is resisted by Xi and Wang and remains the prevailing view of the Party leadership. China is not for turning. Why?
The West struggles to understand the political issues that have led China’s leadership to reject the Civic Society approach. The answer lies in the quite different paths trodden to the present day respectively by the U.K. and China. In a phrase, the two countries have reached the present by experiencing quite different political journeys.
The U.K. narrative commences with the Magna Carta of 1215, the struggle between Parliament and the Crown in the Civil War of the 1640’s and the Great Reform Act of 1832 that led to the embrace of OMOV – one man one vote, the inclusion of votes for women, and the Westminster System of Government.
The China narrative begins with the twenty-two year Civil War between the CPC – the Communist Party of China – led by Mao Tsetung and the KMT – the Kuomintang – led by Chiang Kaishek. The Civil War commenced in 1927 and culminated in the victory of the Communist Party in 1949. This victory was underlined by the nationwide acceptance of the CPC and the rushed departure of the KMT to Taiwan. The popularity of the CPC was reinforced by the dominant role it played in the victory over Japan in the National Patriotic War.
The UK and China, therefore, reach 2025 having pursued quite different historical paths. The UK is committed to Civic Society and the Rule of Law and China is committed to the socialist market economy and the leading role of the Party. The two political systems are quite different. The Chinese system works for China and the Westminster system works for the UK. There is a corollary – the Chinese system would not work in the U.K. and the Westminster system would not work in China. In fairness, whilst the U.K. seeks to promote the Western democratic model in China, China is less interested in persuading the U.K. to adopt the Chinese system of government. Each To Their Own – as the saying goes.
It is with these differences in mind we consider China’s future path and again it works best to review the past in order to assess the future. So much of China today is viewed through the destruction and chaos that occurred during the Cultural Revolution. The Left in the guise of the Gang of Four took charge and China entered upon a very dark period of its history. In a phrase the mindset of Xi’s leadership recalls with chilling clarity the chaos that prevailed between 1966 and 1976. China was almost brought to its knees as it became a very violent political society. Red Guards were rampant. Outrages occurred and there were many deaths. It is the memory of that breakdown of law and order that has encouraged the party leadership to approach government of China with an authoritarian perspective.
The Tiananmin Deaths of 3 June 1989 play a role in underlining the importance of the socialist market economy and the leading role of the Party. Hu Yaobang, the displaced Secretary-General of the Party supported the move to introduce Western political concepts into China and his death – through bad health – prompted his followers to revive a campaign to convert these concepts into political reality.
This initiative occurred as student complaints were growing in protest against the re-emergence of a “Them And Us” approach adopted by the newly emerging commercial class who pressed their own interests ahead of that of the people. The Chinese leadership faced a choice between opening the door to Civic Society and political fragmentation on the one hand or the re-assertion of Party leadership with an authoritarian character on the other hand. The intervention of the Army made clear that the latter option prevailed.
The West is critical because its way is to encourage a pluralist political society, the emergence of a multi-party system, periodic general elections and the adoption of the Western liberal mainstream. China’s path is, therefore, much derided by conventional Western commentators. But uppermost in the minds of China’s leaders is not so much their own prestige, status and power – as the West would stress – but the fear of the return to the chaos that was the major consequence of the failed Cultural Revolution. China can only progress – not by ratcheting up the political temperature and encouraging a return to the class war anarchy of the Left political leadership – but by focusing on economic progress, an increase in living standards and converting China into a prosperous society by 2049.
“The proof of the pudding is in the eating”. China is on the move and the people are the beneficiaries and not the victims. Almost one billion people have been lifted out of poverty; 200 million Chinese citizens are predicted to travel abroad in 2030; the Chinese have choice and variety in the shops at a level of prosperity unimaginable during the chaos of the Cultural Revolution. China can achieve more and at a faster pace but not by adopting Western political norms. China has to do what China does well – a strong Party leadership, the distribution of economic power and initiative away from Beijing, and an unchanging focus on prosperity, stability and achievement. One Man One Vote will not help China. On the contrary it will only hinder China.
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#3 CHINA AND JACK PERRY – PART 9
CHINA’S BUSINESS PROPOSAL – JACK REFLECTS
“Dr Ji Chaoting added words of significance ‘I have watched you carefully since we met at Joan Robinson’s dinner party all those months ago. I took you to Copenhagen because I wanted you to meet some Chinese friends. Joan asked you to become the organiser of the British delegation on my recommendation. I suggested you become a member of the organising bureau of the Conference. So our proposal does not come out of the air. We do not think we are taking any chances. I would like to convince you that you will build a new career with the Chinese government and the Chinese people as your friends.’
Ji continued “I realise that you know very little about China, but I am confident that should you feel able to accept and implement our proposal it will be a decision you will never have cause to regret.”
Jack recorded his reactions “It was clear to me that these Chinese colleagues had thought through the whole proposal with clarity and common sense. The proposal was tremendously attractive – it opened up for me an entirely new career in an area of he world about which I knew little – yet a challenge beyond anything I had ever contemplated. Could I do it? Would I be able to stand up under new pressures? What about the political side? Might I have to suffer some character assassination, be called an opportunist.”
Jack confidently concluded “All this I felt I could handle, but the most important question of all was financial security for my family – could that security be preserved in the new circumstances. I felt I had no right to jeopardise the future security of Doris and our five children. So, on this question it was a matter of self-confidence! I know I was excited but pensive. The proposal had come so unexpectedly that there must be further anxieties to be faced. Yet, one doubt never arose – confidence in these new Chinese friends. To a man, they were all intelligent, experienced, frank and in a strange way comforting.
I could readily understand that a new company based in Western Europe – Britain – could be a material factor in developing interest in trade with China, Whether I could fulfil the role allotted to me was a matter I had to prove. If the Chinese were not reasonably assured, they would not, I was certain, commit themselves to this significant extent. The conference would end the next day and I would leave for London. ‘What are the nest steps, I enquired.”
Ji Chaoting responded; the Chinese delegation would leave soon but Ji, Lu and two colleagues would leave for East Berlin where a new office was to be opened by the CNIEC – the China National Import-Export Corporation as a contact base for West Europeans who could visit East Berlin without formality, passports, visas etc. As the Chinese had no diplomatic relations in Europe except Switzerland, the Johannesof Hotel in East Berlin would become their European Branch. The office would formally open on 1 May 1952 and Chaoting suggested that I attend the opening when I could give a considered response to the proposal outlined by Lu Hsuchang.
Jack continued – This seemed very practical. It would give me time to discuss these developments with Doris and then start the difficult negotiations with my dress company colleagues and their purchase of my shares. This, of course, on the assumption that my future would now be bound up with China. I still had to think this through” .
CHINA AND JACK PERRY – PART 10. JACK RESPONDS
GRAHAM PERRY
