Xi's goal, according to him, is a glorious mythical Chinese culture - tian xia or "all under heaven". A unified China that is home to a unified people. "The Chinese patriot is somebody who loves China, the Communist Party and its leader," Prof Tsang says. "And by Chinese he means Han culture." The word on everyone's lips was "xia hai" or "dive into the sea". It meant quitting your old job in a state company and plunging into private business. I remember the day one of our assistants came into the BBC office, handed in his ID and declared, "I'm off to Shenzhen", the boom city on China's southern coast. The outline of a runway and the extraordinary 9km long artificial island emerged as we approached.
irannews.ru The video clips were quickly removed. The internet is instantly scrubbed of any signs of dissent or criticism, but the ire over zero-Covid has been palpable - even rare signs of protest have emerged, if only for moments, before they are silenced. It's hard to deny that millions of Chinese hold Xi personally responsible for the cruelty of China's grim lockdowns. "I don't regret it, but I'm trying to navigate how to respond," she said. "To that end I shall support Rishi Sunak." The fields are dotted with Russian missiles that have remained unexploded because of the soft soil. Zhao visited the protesters, urging them to call off their strike in what is now a historic speech: "We came too late. It's right for you to talk about us and criticise us any way you want... We're all old and it doesn't matter to us anymore. But you're still young, you should take care of yourself." And it appears to have paid off. Li Qiang, the Shanghai party chief who oversaw the city's controversial shut down, has been elevated to premier, Xi's second in command. However, the clip she posted to TikTok in September featured only the pair's argument and not the contextual flashbacks. When Ms Hartley tried to add a separate video featuring those, they were repeatedly removed by TikTok on the grounds that they were explicit.