By Douglas Holtz-Eakin
The young drop coverage to avoid higher premiums
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
Xi Jinping, anointed last month as China's new leader, was an impressionable 9-year-old in 1962 when his father, a prominent revolutionary and vice premier, fell out of favor with Mao Zedong.
At a time when China's economy and society are under considerable strain and the country is embroiled in increasingly tense border disputes with its neighbors, the relatively peaceful once-in-a-decade political transition in Beijing has helped deflect attention from the underlying turbulence in the Chinese system.
Long-anointed successor Xi Jinping assumed the leadership of China on Thursday, as the ruling Communist Party confronts slower economic growth, a public clamor to end corruption and demands for change that threaten its hold on power.
Xi Jinping succeeded Hu Jintao as China's leader on Thursday, assuming the top posts in the Communist Party and the powerful military in a once-a-decade political transition unbowed by scandals, a slower economy and public demands for reforms.
President Hu Jintao stepped aside as ruling party leader Wednesday to clear the way for Vice President Xi Jinping to take China's helm as part of only the second orderly transfer of power in 63 years of Communist rule.
With the U.S. elections now concluded with another Obama administration, across the Pacific another major political event may shape world affairs for years to come. The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the expected inauguration of Xi Jinping is a curiosity from afar.
A glance at history suggests it is easier for a Chinese woman to orbit Earth than to land a spot on the highest rung of Chinese politics.
The son of fallen Chinese politician Bo Xilai defended his academic record and social life while at universities in England and the United States in a letter that is the latest example of the extraordinary public evolution of China's messiest political scandal.
A massive hacker attack has crippled an overseas website that has reported extensively on China's biggest political turmoil in years, underscoring the pivotal role the Internet has played in the unfolding scandal.
China's two biggest microblog sites resumed normal service Tuesday after a three-day ban on posting comments that sparked complaints about censorship amid the country's worst high-level political crisis in years.
Britain has asked China to investigate the death last year of a British man with reported ties to a high-profile politician who was dismissed this month in a massive scandal.
The late Chinese scientist and defector Qian Xuesen won lavish praise from Chinese Communist Party leaders in early December on 100th anniversary of his birth.
The ruling Communist Party approved a program Tuesday to enhance its popularity at home and China's image abroad at a time when the leadership is struggling with domestic unrest and a delicate succession.
