Whole Dude – Whole Concept

SUPREME RULER OF TIBET’S LONG JOURNEY IN QUEST OF PEACE

SUPREME RULER OF TIBET’S LONG JOURNEY IN QUEST OF PEACE

Following the failed Uprising of Tibetans in March 1959, the Supreme Ruler of Tibet has been forced to live in exile. His long, tedious journey in quest of Peace still continues with no hope for finding Natural Peace, Natural Harmony, and Natural Equilibrium in Occupied Tibet.

If human interventions cannot restore Peace in Tibet, I do invite Heavenly Strike to restore Tibet Equilibrium.

Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada

DOOM DOOMA DOOMSAYER

OBAMA MEETS WITH DALAI LAMA IN NEW DELHI

Clipped from: http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/01/politics/barack-obama-dalai-lama-meeting/index.html

(CNN)Former US President Barack Obama met with the Dalai Lama on Friday in India, where they discussed "compassion and altruism," according to a representative from the Tibetan spiritual leader’s office.

The meeting in New Delhi was the sixth between the two Nobel Peace Prize laureates, and the first since Obama left office in January. Obama is on a five-day world tour, including stops in China and France.

The Dalai Lama said the meeting with Obama was "very good, I think we are really two old trusted friend(s)," according to a report from the India-based Central Tibetan Administration, which is essentially a government in exile.

Kasur Tempa Tsering, a representative from the Dalai Lama’s office, told the administration’s Department of Information and International Relations that the 45-minute meeting included a discussion about "promoting peace in today’s world torn by strife and violence."

"To Obama, His Holiness said, ‘You are not only a former US president but you are a Nobel laureate, you are young and you can do a lot. We should fulfill our aspiration for world peace. Maybe my generation will not see the results, but your generation will definitely see the results,’ " Kasur Tempa Tsering said, according to the report.

The Dalai Lama officially retired in 2011 from his political role as the leader of the exiled Tibetan government but remains the head of Tibetan Buddhists and is scorned by the Chinese government.

While Obama’s meetings as president with the Dalai Lama angered the Chinese, the US under his administration did not support an independent Tibet or consider the Dalai Lama a head of state. Instead, Obama backed what some Tibetans call a "middle way" that preserves the country’s religious and cultural heritage while maintaining China’s political rule.

The Dalai Lama himself has backed such an arrangement, repeatedly insisting that he is not a "separatist" despite Chinese accusations.

A spokesman for Obama could not be immediately reached on Friday for comment on the meeting.

According to the Central Tibetan Administration, Obama hosted the Dalai Lama four times in the White House: February 18, 2010, July 16, 2011, February 21, 2014, and June 15, 2016, and the two first met in 2005, when Obama was a member of the Senate.

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

Virus-free. www.avast.com

DALAI LAMA SAYS, "PAST IS PAST." – I SAY, "THE PAST IS NOT DEAD. IN FACT IT’S NOT EVEN PAST."

DALAI LAMA SAYS, "PAST IS PAST." – I SAY, "THE PAST IS NOT DEAD. IN FACT, IT’S NOT EVEN PAST."

Speaking about Tibet’s future, Dalai Lama says, "Past is past,…. Stressing that Tibetans wants to stay with China."

“We are not seeking independence… We want to stay with China. We want more development,” the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people said.

In my analysis, Tibet is blessed with Natural Freedom. Natural Forces acting over millions of years established Natural Conditions in Tibetan Plateau giving its denizens Natural Independence which man cannot take away through human efforts characterized as ‘Development’.

Tibet’s Past is not Dead. Indeed, it’s not even Past.

Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada

DOOM DOOMA DOOMSAYER

"PAST IS PAST": DALAI LAMA SAYS TIBET WANTS TO STAY WITH CHINA, WANTS DEVELOPMENT

Clipped from: http://tibet.net/2017/11/past-is-past-dalai-lama-says-tibet-wants-to-stay-with-china-wants-development/

Reproduced from Hindustan Times, 24 November 2017.

Tibet does not seek independence from China but wants greater development, Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama said in Kolkata Thursday.

China and Tibet enjoyed a close relationship, though there were occasional “fights”, he said at an interactive session organized by the Indian Chamber of Commerce.

“The past is past. We will have to look into the future,” he said, stressing that Tibetans wanted to stay with China.

“We are not seeking independence… We want to stay with China. We want more development,” the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people said.

The Dalai Lama also said China must respect Tibetans’ culture and heritage.

“Tibet has a different culture and a different script… The Chinese people love their own country. We love our own country,” he said.

Holding that no Chinese “understand what had happened in the last few decades”, he said the country had changed over the years.

“With China joining the world, it has changed 40% to 50% of what it was earlier,” he said.

The Dalai Lama referred to the ecological significance of the Tibetan Plateau and recalled that a Chinese ecologist had said its environmental impact was like that of the South Pole and the North Pole.

“The ecologist called it the Third Pole,” the Buddhist leader said.

The Dalai Lama said, “From Yangtze to Sindhu rivers, major rivers … come from Tibet. Billions of lives are involved. Taking care of the Tibetan Plateau is not only good for Tibet but for billions of people.”

The Dalai Lama also pitched for respect and recognition of the ‘Hindi-Chini bhai bhai’ spirit to take Sino-India relations forward.

“India and China should eventually find respect for ‘Hindi-Chini bhai bhai’,” he told the media when asked on China’s objections to President Ram Nath Kovind’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh.

He said “China needs India, India needs China” and “they have to live side by side”.

“There is no other way except to live peacefully and help each other,” he said.

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

Virus-free. www.avast.com

FIVE YEARS OF XI JINPING TRANSFORMS TIBET INTO GULAG ARCHIPELAGO

FIVE YEARS OF XI JINPING TRANSFORMS TIBET INTO GULAG ARCHIPELAGO

Five years of Xi Jinping’s rule transforms Tibet into Gulag Archipelago, a giant open-air prison. If nations of the world cannot reverse Communist China’s repression in Tibet, I invite Heavenly Strike to reestablish Natural Freedom, Natural Balance, Natural Harmony, and Natural Peace across Tibetan Plateau liberating Tibetans from Chinese Oppression and Suppression.

Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada

DOOM DOOMA DOOMSAYER

FIVE YEARS OF XI JINPING: TIBET REMAINS A GIANT OPEN-AIR PRISON

Clipped from: http://tibet.net/2017/11/five-years-of-xi-jinping-tibet-remains-a-giant-open-air-prison/

Hong Kong Free Press, 18 November

This week marks Xi Jinping’s fifth year in power. Head of the Communist Party and the nation’s armed forces, Xi has made the journey from unassuming CCP member to arguably the most powerful leader in China’s recent history.

His political ideology has been incorporated into the CCP’s party constitution, the upper echelons of the party have been filled with his allies and his political opponents have been rooted out by a nationwide anti-corruption campaign. The emperor reigns supreme.

Xi Jinping at the 2017 National People’s Congress. Photo: Lukas Messmer/HKFP.

Outside of the party, Xi and the CCP hold on to power through a mix of old and new methods of intimidation. Over the past five years, the regime has maintained its dismal record on freedom of speech and its harassment of human rights defenders, along with the unfair trials and harsh prison sentences meted out by a judiciary that few would even bother to pretend is independent.

These abuses have been compounded by new methods introduced under Xi, such as laws to restrict the activities of foreign non-governmental organizations.

The objective is to maintain a rigid stability across China, where dissent is eradicated and any change takes place strictly on the terms of the party.

At the CCP’s 19th National Party Congress in late October, an emboldened Xi used his opening speech to threaten those who would dare to upend this stability, including those who do not recognize the CCP or Xi as their rulers: “We will never allow anyone, any organization, or any political party, at any time or in any form, to separate any part of Chinese territory from China.”

Tibetans will be wearily familiar with these words. They have been among those worst affected by Beijing’s desire to hold the People’s Republic of China together by force. Yet they steadfastly refuse to give in to CCP rule, remaining resolute not only through five years of Xi but also nearly 70 years of military occupation.

File photo: HKFP.

The CCP’s response has been to transform Tibet into one of the most repressive places on earth, a giant open-air prison.

The country remains under de-facto marshal law with police and security forces ever present. Protesters are beaten and Tibetans who fly their flag or display pictures of their exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, risk being snatched from the street or their home, and made to disappear inside a vast network of detention centers and prisons where beatings and torture are routine.

Under Xi the policy has been to suffocate Tibet by massively ramping up security and surveillance while cutting it off from the wider world.

Hundreds of police stations have been established in urban areas to segment towns and cities into grid systems, allowing police and security services to monitor residents. Over 20,000 security personnel have been deployed across the country to track the daily lives of Tibet’s village population.

These measures, along with tight control of the internet and the spread of CCTV, even into monasteries, are designed to root out any would-be “splittists” or “saboteurs”, the enemies of Xi’s prized stability. The results have been stark: in Xi’s first two years in power Human Rights Watch recorded 479 cases of individuals being detained or tried for political expression or criticism of government policy.

The size and scope of these security measures were on show during the CCP National Congress in late October. For the duration of the event, the entire Tibet Autonomous Region was closed to visitors while Chinese security forces were deployed in even greater numbers. Further restrictions were imposed on the internet and social media.

The one thing Tibetans could do during this period was watch Xi’s three-hour opening speech. In fact, the authorities insisted. According to local sources, students, including children in kindergarten, hospital patients and prisoners were all required to watch the speech.

Chinese soldiers in the Tibetan capital. Photo: Free Tibet.

Xi’s iron rule in China and Tibet has been accompanied by a more assertive foreign policy, visible in Beijing’s attempts to scare foreign governments and businesses into silence over human rights in Tibet. The fear of losing access to Chinese markets has forced governments and businesses to avoid any behavior that could antagonize Beijing.

In September The Financial Times revealed that German publishing group Springer Nature – which is expanding its China-based operations – had “blocked access to at least 1,000 academic articles in China that mention subjects deemed sensitive by Beijing, including Taiwan, Tibet and Hong Kong.”

Beijing’s attempts to cut Tibet off from the world and shut down talk of human rights have been accompanied by risible claims of record levels of happiness among Tibet’s people. Independent journalists, human rights organizations and other experts keen to check these claims are barred from Tibet, but how Tibetans really feel about the occupation can be seen in the fact that since 2009, almost 150 Tibetans have set themselves on fire in protest against the occupation.

Typically, the Xi regime has attempted to stamp such protests out by threatening would-be protesters rather than listening to their grievances. But despite new regulations to punish the families and communities of self-immolation protesters, at least four Tibetans carried out such protests this year, each shouting for freedom as they set themselves alight.

Tibetan monk Jampa Tenzin and protesters in Tibetan capital Lhasa, 1987. Photo: John Ackerly.

Other Tibetans continue to challenge the authorities and protest in defense of their environment, their culture and their freedom, showing remarkable bravery in the face of overwhelming pressure.

My organization, Free Tibet, was formed almost exactly 30 years ago in response to a series of large uprisings in Lhasa and the brutal police crackdown that followed. Ever since, we have played a key role in bringing footage and testimonies of CCP crimes and Tibetan resistance to the world’s attention, defying Beijing’s information blackout.

Those of us who live in freedom and who hear these stories from Tibet cannot afford to be silent.

As Xi Jinping looks forward to another five years in power, five more years of police crackdowns in Tibet and attempts to silence potential critics abroad, it is vital that people around the world, especially governments and world leaders, find their voice and speak out in support of Tibetans with courage and conviction.

Tibetans living under the shadow of Xi and his police state refuse to be intimidated. So must we.

John Jones is the Campaigns and Communications Manager at Free Tibet.

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

WHAT IS “KSHAMA?” or PATIENCE?

Whoever may be the person praying, whatever may be the place of prayer, the act of praying imparts virtue called “KSHAMA” or Patience.

Patience leads to Tolerance and Perseverance which give the ability to survive under adverse circumstances over which man has no control. For patience, tolerance, and perseverance involve factor called ‘time’ which always plays role in the natural healing procees, Time is recognized as Divine Healer.

Prayer is not act of begging for favors. Prayer is communication of our needs to God as man exists at all stages of his mortal existence on account of Divine Mercy, Grace, and Compassion.

Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada

Ann Arbor, MI, 48104-4162, USA.

MS Subbulakshmi-Kara charana Kritamva ShambhoMahadeva-Bowli-Adi-NilakantaSivan

MS Subbulakshmi-Kara charana Kritamva ShambhoMahadeva-Bowli-Adi-NilakantaSivan Bombay-1959 Concert Live Recording. -uploaded in HD at http://www.TunesToTube.com

BHAVANAJAGAT.ORG

On www.drikpanchang.com

On vedasartham.blogspot.com

On www.youtube.com

Virus-free. www.avast.com

BORN SLAVE – FREEDOM OF MAN

Martin Luther (1483-1547) examined ‘The Freedom of a Christian’ by proofs from Scriptures or Christian Theology. I examine ‘Freedom of Man’ by interpretation of verified information provided by Science. I examine the issue of Freedom by verifying or accounting for Man’s existence in Natural World.

The issue of Man’s Freedom, Freedom of Choice and Action, is always preceded by the fact of existence which depends upon structures and functions of cells, tissues, organs, and organ systems that constitute entity called Man.

Not all genes are involved in determining structures of body. The problem comes with functional genes that get turned on and off on their own without giving man any chance to choose or act. For example, if a particular gene sends signal directing the cell to initiate cell division, man cannot intervene to stop that choice made by the gene to perform action called cell division.

As man has no ‘free will’, man depends upon medical and surgical interventions to interfere with independent choices and actions of genes of his own body. There is no known human language which man can use to communicate with genes of his body to guide their functions.

Cells and Tissues are the constituents of Man’s Human Body. Man lacks both Constitutive as well as Regulative Power to rule or govern cells of his own body. Man has no choice for his living condition or living state called ‘EXISTENCE’ is conditioned without concern for Freedom of Man.

Martin Luther says Man is saved not by his actions but by his Faith and Grace. However, that Faith and its gift of Everlasting Life or Salvation may still demand Man to live his mortal existence without Freedom.

Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA
BHAVANAJAGAT.ORG

WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE AGAINST CAPITALIST CLASS WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS

 
 

In my analysis, a new era of Capitalist Class with Chinese Characteristics has usurped power to impose its doctrine of Neocolonialism. I am asking Workers of the World to Unite Against Capitalist Class with Chinese Characteristics. Red China’s Plan to impose Social, and Economic Injustice using Force will be rejected by Working Class of all her Colonies.

 
 

Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada

DOOM DOOMA DOOMSAYER

 
 

 
 

China’s Communist leadership has a model of totalitarianism for the 21st century

 
 

The Washington Post – Opinion

By Jackson Diehl

 
 

Clipped from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/chinas-communist-leadership-has-a-model-of-totalitarianism-for-the-21st-century/2017/10/29/8b32fb10-ba74-11e7-a908-a3470754bbb9_story.html?

While the Trump White House wallowed in its usual trifling controversies, China’s Communist leadership this month staged what will be remembered as the most important political event of the year, and maybe of the century so far. As the party Congress concluded last week, Xi Jinping was confirmed as most powerful leader in Beijing since Mao Zedong — and he proclaimed the regime’s intention not just to become the world’s leading power, but to establish a new model of totalitarianism.

Xi’s “new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics” was written into the party constitution, making anyone who opposes it an enemy of the state. Its aim is to make China “a leading global power” by 2050, with a “world class military” built to fight and win wars. These aims will be achieved by reinforcing Xi’s dictatorial powers, and those of the party, over every area of life, using cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence. It’s a Stalinism for the 21st century.

Perhaps most ominously, Xi envisions his updated police state as a model for the rest of the world. Twenty-five years ago, the liberal democratic system of the West was supposed to represent the “end of history,” the definitive paradigm for human governance. Now, Xi imagines, it will be the regime he is in the process of creating. “It offers a new option for other countries and nations,” he said during a three-hour, 25-minute speech that was its own statement of grandiosity. “It offers Chinese wisdom and a Chinese approach to solving the problems facing mankind.”

Plenty of strongmen and would-be strongmen around the world were likely applauding, from Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Hungary’s Viktor Orban and, it seems, Stephen K. Bannon. The oracle of the alt-right called Xi’s 30,000-word text “an adult speech to adults,” in contrast to the “Pablum” of John McCain and George W. Bush, who delivered contemporaneous speeches defending democratic values and U.S. global leadership.

It’s worth considering what the world might look like 30 years from now if Xi’s ambitions are realized. A few broad themes stand out:

Concentration of power.

Xi is returning China to the era when a single, emperor-like figure ruled without the constraints of legal checks or term limits. In a break with the practice of the past two decades, no potential successor was named at the congress to the party’s standing committee, meaning that Xi aims to remain in power after his second five-year term as president ends in 2023. At 64, he could conceivably dominate China until 2035, the year he set for achieving many of his goals.

State control of all behavior.

In the past five years, Xi’s regime has wiped out the modest avenues for dissent his predecessors allowed, from human rights lawyers to non-government groups and cautiously critical journalists. Now it is developing a far more ambitious system of social control driven by new technologies. Every citizen will be given a “social credit” rating based on data collected through the Internet, the financial system and public surveillance, which will be stored along with facial images. Those with bad ratings will have good reason to fear being recognized by the regime’s ubiquitous cameras. At last, the overused term “Orwellian” will be accurate.

A global imperial system.

Xi’s “belt and road ” initiative, which will invest hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure projects across Eurasia, is meant to create a Beijing-dominated geopolitical block that overshadows the transatlantic alliance. Meanwhile, the regime is seeking to control how it is portrayed even in the West. It has kidnapped dissenters in other countries and sought to suppress critical discussion of China on university campuses. Western journalists who probe corruption are denied visas. If Xi has his way, even countries that remain democratic won’t practice free speech where China is concerned.

Of course, it is possible that Xi is overreaching. As it watches the United States and much of the rest of the West struggle with populist and nationalist movements, the political consequence of the last crisis of capitalism, the Chinese elite may overestimate the attraction of their totalitarian alternative. Centralized control of society and the stifling of individual freedom led China and other Communist nations to catastrophe in the late 20th century; Xi’s bet that a modified, technologically updated system can work in the 21st century could easily fail.

It would nevertheless be dangerous not to take China’s strongman seriously. He is imagining a world where human freedom would be drastically curtailed and global order dominated by a clique of dictators. When a former chief political adviser to the U.S. president applauds that “adult” vision, it’s not hard to imagine how it might prevail.

Read more from Jackson Diehl’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.

 
 

PICK A NAME FOR CHINA’S XI JINPING – PRESIDENT, KING, OR DICTATOR

Pick a name for China’s Xi Jinping. “Some people might call him the King of China. But he’s called president” says President Donald Trump.

Special Frontier Force picked up a name for China’s Xi Jinping – ‘The Great Dictator of Communist China.’ His ‘Greatness’ overshadows the Greatness of Dictator, Chairman Mao Zedong.

 
 

Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada

SPECIAL FRONTIER FORCE

 
 

PRESIDENT TRUMP: SOME MAY CALL XI JINPING ‘KING OF CHINA’

Clipped from: http://time.com/4998720/donald-trump-kind-china-xi-jinping/

“Some people might call him the king of China. But he’s called president”

President Trump congratulated Xi Jinping in an interview for cementing his power as China’s leader, noting that some people refer to him as royalty and the bond between them is unparalleled.

“He represents China, I represent the USA, so, you know, there’s going to always be conflict. But we have a very good relationship. People say we have the best relationship of any president-president, because he’s called president also,” Trump told Fox Business Network’s Lou Dobbs in an interview that aired Wednesday night.

“Now some people might call him the king of China,” Trump continued. “But he’s called president. But we have a very good relationship and that’s a positive thing.”

Trump’s comments come just days after Xi Jinping not only consolidated his lock on the Chinese presidency for another five years, but had his name enshrined in the national constitution, making him the country’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong.

Trump told Dobbs he had just spoken with Xi before their interview, but did not provide any details about the call. The White House said in an official readout that the two leaders spoke about cooperation between their countries, which included efforts to rid North Korea of its nuclear weapons, and Trump’s upcoming visit.

But Trump has criticized China in the past. On the campaign trail, he said China was “raping” the United States with its trade deficits, and he has criticized the country for inaction on North Korea since he took office.

 
 

 
 

TRUMP HAS NO EXCUSE FOR NOT MEETING DALAI LAMA

 
 

President Trump has no excuse for not meeting Dalai Lama at The White House. His predecessors had good reasons for meeting Dalai Lama at The White House.

 
 

Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada

SPECIAL FRONTIER FORCE

 
 

CHINA SAYS NO EXCUSES FOR FOREIGN OFFICIALS MEETING DALAI LAMA

 
 

Clipped from: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-congress-tibet/china-says-no-excuses-for-foreign-officials-meeting-dalai-lama-idUSKBN1CQ057

BEIJING (Reuters) – Foreign leaders can’t think they can get away with meeting exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama just because they are doing it in a personal capacity, as they still represent their government, a senior Chinese official said on Saturday.

The 14th Dalai Lama won in 1989 for “his struggle for the liberation of Tibet” as well as his consistent opposition to the use of violence. REUTERS/Yuan Jia-hung

China considers the Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, to be a dangerous separatist. The Nobel Peace Prize winning monk says he simply seeks genuine autonomy for his Himalayan homeland.

Visits by the Dalai Lama to foreign countries infuriate China, and fewer and fewer national leaders are willing to meet him, fearing the consequences of Chinese anger, though some have tried to placate Beijing by saying they are meeting him in a personal not official capacity.

Zhang Yijiong, who heads the Communist Party’s Tibet working group, told reporters on the sidelines of a party congress that there could be no excuses to meeting the Dalai Lama.

“Although some people say, the Dalai is a religious figure, our government didn’t put in an appearance, it was just individual officials, this is incorrect,” said Zhang, who is also a vice minister at the United Front Work Department, which has led failed talks with the Dalai Lama’s representatives.

“Officials, in their capacity as officials, attending all foreign-related activities represent their governments. So I hope governments around the world speak and act with caution and give full consideration their friendship with China and their respect for China’s sovereignty,” he added.

China took control of Tibet in 1950 in what it calls a “peaceful liberation” and has piled pressure on foreign governments to shun the Dalai Lama, using economic means to punish those who allow him in.

China strongly denies accusations of rights abuses in Tibet, saying its rule has brought prosperity to what was a remote and backward region, and that it fully respects the religious and cultural rights of the Tibetan people.

China also insists that Tibet in an integral part of its territory and has been for centuries.

Zhang, who worked in Tibet from 2006-2010 as a deputy Communist Party boss, said that Tibetan Buddhism was a special religion “born in our ancient China”.

“It’s a Chinese religion. It didn’t come in from the outside,” he said.

Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Kim Coghill

 
 

XI JINPING vs SENIOR ALIEN – BOTH HAVE NO RETIREMENT PLANS

 
 

Communist China’s President Xi Jinping has no retirement plan for China’s Communist Party finds no successor. Senior Alien has no retirement plan for he lives in Free World called USA where the US Social Security Commissioner imposes Slavery, Forced Labor, Compulsory Service, Labor Against Will, and Involuntary Servitude withholding payment of monthly retirement income benefits.

However, Senior Alien enjoys Freedom of Speech to oppose “Xi Thought” with his promise of ‘Heavenly Strike’ on The Evil Red Empire.

 
 

Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada

SPECIAL FRONTIER FORCE

 
 

XI JINPING’S ‘NEW ERA’ CHINA A NEW ERA FOR THE WORLD?

 
 

Clipped from: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-41744675

Carrie Gracie China editor

Image copyright Getty Images

China’s new leadership line-up was the last scene to play in the carefully scripted drama of the Communist Party Congress. Yet again Xi Jinping defied convention.

Halfway through one Party chief’s decade in power, a leader-in-waiting would normally appear in a red carpet ceremony at the Great Hall of the People.

But the men beside Mr. Xi were all in their 60s and late 50s, too old to be an heir.

Breaking the mould on the succession, as with so much else, is part of the Chinese president’s New Era, as he has termed it.

But don’t imagine that now the Congress is over, you can forget about Mr. Xi’s New Era.

In the clash of political civilizations, he has put China on the offensive.

In his three-and-a-half hour speech to Congress, he set out a vision not just for the five years ahead but for 30, and talked of a socialist model which provides, “a new option for other countries and nations who want to speed up their development while preserving their independence”.

At home China is already a surveillance state accelerating its ability to listen to every call and track every face, online posting, movement and purchase. Expect it now to export not just the governance model but the cyber weapons to make that work.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Mr. Xi wants China’s socialism to be a model for others to follow

Gone is the insistence that China must hide its light under a bushel and be a modest player abroad. Mr. Xi told Congress that China must be a “great power” with a first class military “built to fight”.

Winning hearts and minds

But the president’s New Era doesn’t rely solely on hard power.

Over the past four decades China has built a market economy under a one party state. Now Mr. Xi hopes to correct its flaws to deliver his citizens a better quality of life.

He dreams of an innovative powerhouse driven by well-educated citizens with unshakeable faith in the superiority of their system. His speech to Congress promised more control of the internet to “oppose and resist the whole range of erroneous viewpoints”.

But he hopes to win the battle for hearts and minds even earlier and his education minister said schoolchildren would soon begin to study “‘Xi Thought'”.

The full slogan is “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era”. Behind the rhetoric, this means an enormous centralization of power for Xi and his Party over China’s economy and society.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption ‘Xi thought’ puts Xi Jinping (left) on par with Mao Zedong

Official media have dwelled on the “lies” of western democracy and the failures of capitalism, a system “swamped by crisis and chaos”. In the words of one commentary by state news agency Xinhua, “The wealth gap widens, the working class suffers, and the society remains divided”.

In absolute GDP, the United States may still be the world’s largest economy, but President Trump has withdrawn American leadership on free trade and climate change and Xi’s China has neatly stepped into the gap.

A future global leader?

Mr. Xi talks about guiding the international community “towards a more just and rational new world order”. The latest Pew opinion survey across 37 countries suggests more people now trust the Chinese leader to do the right thing than the American one.

On its current trajectory, the Chinese economy will overtake the US sometime in the next decade to become the world’s largest.

Critics dismiss the challenge of the China model, predicting that rigid politics will cramp innovation and growth will succumb to market distortions. Certainly most countries that make it to the world’s rich club go democratic first.

But China has always seen itself as exceptional by virtue of its scale, its history and its culture. Xi Jinping says China’s road to a great nation will be “different from that of traditional great powers”. He is no keener to adopt what he sees as American values than the US is to adopt Chinese ones.

Cementing control

Several things follow from this control mission. Firstly, the values of liberal democracy are by definition the enemy. The appeal of free media, independent judiciary and pluralistic civil society are discredited wherever possible. In fact, since Mr. Xi came to power, public discussion of these values has become taboo in China.

By contrast, Mr. Xi is expanding his formal and informal control network through Communist Party cells. They now operate not just in domestic companies but in more than two thirds of foreign invested ones on Chinese soil. All foreign economic engagement in China is increasingly on the Party’s terms, permitted only in sectors and at a pace which is designed to meet China’s interests rather than those of its trading partners.

And for those partners, the debate over how to respond is likely to become more polarized in this New Era.

Mr. Xi’s admirers will insist that China’s ruling party deserves credit for pulling many millions of its citizens out of poverty and point out that at nearly 7% Chinese growth is one of the engines of the global economy.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Mr. Xi wants China center stage in a new world order

His detractors will argue that his Party deserves little credit for an economic miracle won by the hard work and ingenuity of the Chinese people despite its rulers rather than because of them. Some will even point to the rise of Hitler and Stalin as lessons in the cost of not confronting dictatorships.

‘Awesome China’?

Four trillion dollars in foreign reserves, and control over the fastest growing consumer market in the world, give Xi Jinping powerful weapons to influence this debate.

Even as the Communist Party unveiled its new leadership on Wednesday, it excluded several major western news organizations from the ceremony.

Officially no reason was given for barring the BBC, Financial Times, Economist, New York Times and Guardian, but unofficially journalists were told that their reporting was to blame. Another sign of Xi’s determination to control the message at home and abroad.

As Mr. Xi declares China ready “to move towards center stage in the world”, it’s not clear whether his mission to control will help or hinder him.

For his public the slogan of the moment is not “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics For a New Era”. It is the far simpler “awesome China” in red and gold on banners, bicycle wheels and social media posts.

Few would deny that China is awesome. But exactly how is in the eye of the beholder. For many Chinese patriots, “awesome China” signals pride. For many outsiders it means admiration. But for others there’s an undercurrent of ambivalence and even fear.

The only certainty is that none will be untouched by China in Mr. Xi’s New Era.