A US-based analyst compared the Chinese president Xi Jinping‘s regime to that of the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un after his one-month last trip to shanghai and Beijing.
What happened: Visit to Beijing ‘felt more like Pyongyang this time’ Scott Kennedya senior advisor in Chinese business and economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Interview with Bloomberg.
Compared to his visit three years ago, Kennedy added that the former city is more international. Kennedy met government officials, businessmen, journalists and academics in China.
“I say half-jokingly that in 2019 I left a Beijing that was on the way to becoming like London – and when I came back in September it felt more like Pyongyang,” he said.
Why it matters: This comes after Beijing’s extreme border controls amid Xi’s zero-COVID policy in the past three years it has made it difficult for foreigners to enter the country.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, North Korea has closed its borders to all foreign tourists and cut ties with the rest of the world to prevent the spread of the virus.
Late last month, North Korea resumed cross-border freight train service with China, which is also Pyongyang’s main trading partner.
North Korea has also turned a former airport near the border with China into a massive quarantine center, commercial satellite imagery has shown imported goods sit for months.
Continue reading: As Xi Jinping tightened his grip on China, foreign investors said they were exiting mainland stocks at record speed
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