China

The stated GDP increase of 6.9% in 2015 is based on data manipulated by provincial authorities. They tend to inflate figures on investment, consumption, wages, trade, projects, and tax revenue. Xinhua reports allegations to this effect.

In a message to the Davos Forum, Francis says, “We must never allow the culture of prosperity to deaden us, to make us incapable of ‘feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people’s pain’, especially since “our own actions are a cause of injustice and inequality”.

Tulkus, custodians of the spirit of the great lamas of the past, are legion. To prevent fraud against believers, China’s Communist authorities have created an online database to authenticate them. However, its list leaves out those studied abroad. Above all, the measure seeks to justify Beijing’s claim that it can recognise future Tibetan leaders, including the Dalai Lama and his closest advisers.

Peter Dahlin was arrested early in the new year. In his “confession” on state television he said he was involved in "instigat[ing] confrontations" and gathering information to produce "distorted" reports. He founded an NGO that helps human rights lawyers and provides legal aid to rural areas. In China, the situation of the rule of law is more and more critical, even for non-Chinese.

Commenting on the story of King David, Francis notes that God chose a boy, that human judgment "did not count". The latter was "A saint and a sinner. A man who managed to unite the Kingdom, he was able to lead the people of Israel.” But he too committed sins, and was a murderer. “When God sent the prophet Nathan to point this reality out to him, because he was not aware of the barbarity he had ordered, he acknowledged his sin and asked for forgiveness.”

Government figures indicate that growth reached 6.9 per cent in 2015. Growth in investment, a key economic driver, weakened to 12 per cent in 2015. As the government insists on the need to change the country’s development model "at any cost", it focuses on services and domestic consumption in lieu of manufacturing. However, this increases the risk of social instability as well as party repression.

China’s president has staked everything on controlling the media and the military. If he succeeds, he can control the situation in the short term. However, this is unlikely. In the last three years, nothing has gone smoothly for him, including his latest steps. This is because Xi Jinping’s basic ideas are wrong. The analysis of a great dissident follows.

“This is the message the Church gives us today. This is what Jesus says so forcefully: ‘New wine in new wineskins.’ Habits must be renewed in the newness of the Spirit, in the surprises of God.”

Official media have launched intensive slash to one the missing bookseller Gui Minhai. Gui was accused driving death and fleeing to foreign countries. Lee Bo's new letter also accused Gui. Netizens suspect the report.

The prelate, 59, was until now auxiliary bishop in Hong Kong. Vicar of Opus Dei for East Asia, he studied in Europe (London and Navarre). Fluent in four languages, he was in charge of bioethics and social communications in the diocese, and has been especially involved in pastoral outreach in schools.

The disappearance of Lee Bo and four other people involved in publishing books critical of China’s Communist Party is undermining the oasis of freedom that the Territory once was. Surveillance, fear and self-censorship are growing. Scholars make “odd” visits to activists and foreign missionaries. Whilst Hong Kong is described as a cultural desert, the mainland sees violent repression against lawyers, Protestants, Catholics, Uighur Muslims, and Tibetan Buddhists. Like Jerzy Popieluszko, Fr Wei Heping is a martyr. Freedom in Hong Kong will be no more unless the same freedom comes to China.

Wei Hong, 61, is the second provincial leader to go under as part of Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign. A former protégé of Zhou Yongkang, he once was in charge of the appointment of Communist Party cadres. For many observers, it is increasingly clear that the president’s anti-graft probe is turning into a power struggle.