Basic

The People’s Republic of China is marking its 70th anniversary today with a mass parade in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. For the Chinese Community Party (CCP), which has ruled such a vast country for 70 years, this is a rare and precious occasion worth celebrating in a grandiose way. China has a rich history of celebratory parades, the nature of which can help track the changing priorities of the state over the past 70 years. But this year, writes Xun Zhou, the CCP is anxious. Alongside continued unrest in Hong Kong and tensions with Taiwan, China’s economy is flagging, the wealth gap growing and health scandals increasing.

Just five months after his election as president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky probably didn’t expect to be at the centre of a political storm in Washington. But the controversy over a July phone call between Zelensky and Donald Trump continues, and it’s an unwelcome distraction for Ukraine’s new president to be caught up in a US impeachment investigation. Liana Semchuk explains, however, that the affair is not getting widespread attention back in Kyiv, where Ukrainians are used to being trapped between a rock and a hard place.