标签： Asia

Eighty years after the World War II-era partnership between Chinese and American combatants and civilians, a delegation led by Jeffrey Greene, chairman of the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation, has traveled to northern China’s Shanxi province to commemorate the enduring friendship forged by the legendary Flying Tigers and renew cross-cultural people-to-people bonds.

During the April 2026 visit, Greene lauded Shanxi’s consistent efforts to preserve the historical record of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-1945) and expand people-centered international educational exchange. He emphasized that the shared history of Sino-U.S. wartime collaboration remains deeply rooted in collective Chinese memory, noting that the mutual trust and joint effort displayed by Chinese and American people 80 years ago proved that partners can overcome even the most daunting obstacles when they stand side by side.

“This spirit of cross-border cooperation is a treasure that must be passed from one generation to the next,” Greene said. “In today’s deeply interconnected global landscape, the core values of the Flying Tigers legacy hold growing contemporary relevance. It continues to inspire both our peoples to rise above ideological and political differences, and work collaboratively toward shared goals that benefit everyone.”

A key focus of Greene’s visit was expanding the Flying Tigers Friendship Schools initiative, a program designed to connect secondary and postsecondary institutions in China and the United States. Greene called on more Shanxi-based schools to join the network, saying that structured exchange activities — including virtual dialogues, in-person student visits, and themed academic competitions — will deepen mutual understanding and foster genuine friendship between young people from both nations, ensuring the Flying Tigers spirit is carried forward into the new era.

Shanxi holds profound historical significance for this wartime legacy: it was one of the most critical battlefields of the Chinese resistance, served as the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, and hosted multiple key revolutionary bases during the war. During their trip, delegation members visited two local educational institutions — Taiyuan University of Technology and Shanxi Experimental Secondary School — to tour campuses, learn about the schools’ unique academic profiles and existing international exchange programs, and hold open discussions with students and faculty on topics ranging from Flying Tigers history to U.S.-China cultural differences and youth people-to-people exchange.

Ma Xiaomin, deputy director-general of the Foreign Affairs Office of Shanxi Province, reaffirmed the province’s commitment to advancing the Flying Tigers legacy during the visit. He noted that the Flying Tigers spirit is far more than a historical footnote: it is a tangible, living witness to the joint struggle and mutual assistance between the Chinese and American people, and a precious spiritual asset that preserves the longstanding friendship between the two nations.

“The Foreign Affairs Office of Shanxi will fully support local schools to join the Flying Tigers Friendship Schools network,” Ma said. “We hope that by using this program as a binding link, we can build a strong bridge for exchange and mutual learning between Chinese and American young people, carry forward the great Flying Tigers spirit, and advance more practical cooperation between Shanxi and the United States in education, culture, and other key fields. In doing so, we can contribute our part to strengthening the non-governmental friendship between our two nations.”

NEW DELHI – A sweeping, decades-in-the-making proposal to reshape India’s political landscape by guaranteeing 33 percent female representation in national and state legislatures collapsed Friday in the country’s parliamentary lower house, derailed by bitter partisan conflict over a tied constituency redrawing plan that critics argued would skew power toward Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party. The defeat of the bill marked a stunning end to two days of tense debate during a special three-day parliamentary session called by the Modi government, and left one of the most ambitious proposed political reforms since India’s 1947 independence from British colonial rule deadlocked for the foreseeable future.

The core of the legislation was designed to address a longstanding gender gap in India’s political institutions, where women have remained drastically underrepresented despite making up nearly half of the country’s population. By mandating that one out of every three seats in Parliament and state legislative assemblies be reserved for female candidates, supporters framed the bill as a transformative step toward equal political participation for women across India. But from its introduction, the gender quota was inextricably linked to a separate, highly contentious proposal to redraw national voting boundaries, known as delimitation, and expand the total size of the lower house of Parliament.

Under the delimitation plan, the number of lower house seats would have jumped from the current 543 to roughly 850 ahead of the 2029 national elections, with boundaries redrawn using 2011 population census data. This framework sparked immediate pushback from opposition parties, which raised two overlapping sets of objections. First, opposition leaders argued that basing seat allocations on 2011 population figures would shift political power away from India’s southern states, which have seen slower population growth in recent decades, toward the faster-growing northern states where the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) maintains its strongest base of support. Second, opponents warned that the entire restructuring would alter the national political balance to deliver a structural advantage to the BJP, a claim the government has forcefully denied.

To secure passage, both bills were required to win approval from a two-thirds majority of sitting lawmakers. When the votes were counted, the linked legislation failed to hit that threshold, prompting the Modi government to withdraw the delimitation proposal entirely and leaving the women’s quota bill without the tied provision it was paired with, resulting in its defeat.

Modi defended the government’s proposal in a post on X hours ahead of the vote, claiming that all stakeholder concerns had been addressed and that “misconceptions surrounding the legislation” had been debunked with factual evidence and logical reasoning. The government also sought to ease opposition worries by stating the plan would mandate a uniform 50 percent increase in seats across all Indian states to preserve proportional representation at the national level. But critics quickly pointed out that this guarantee was not explicitly written into the draft legislation, leaving it unenforceable.

Top opposition leaders remained steadfast in their rejection of the paired bills in the lead-up to the vote. Rahul Gandhi, leader of the main opposition Congress party, characterized the entire proposal as “an attempt to change the electoral map of India” to benefit the ruling party. While there was broad cross-party consensus in favor of increasing women’s political representation, the deep partisan divisions over the delimitation provision ultimately derailed the entire reform package, leaving the future of gender quota reform in India uncertain as the country heads into a national election cycle.

China’s top prosecutorial body announced Friday that Yu Wenming, the former director of the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (NATCM), has been formally indicted for alleged bribery by prosecutors in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin.

The case against Yu follows a full investigation conducted by the National Commission of Supervision, China’s top anti-corruption watchdog. After investigators concluded their probe, the case was transferred to prosecutorial organs for formal review and indictment proceedings. The central authority assigned Tianjin’s prosecuting team to handle the case, and legal documents were recently filed with the Tianjin No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court to move the trial process forward.

According to the indictment filed by Tianjin prosecutors, Yu abused his authority during his tenure as deputy head of the NATCM to secure improper benefits for multiple individuals and entities. In exchange for these favors, the former official accepted substantial sums of money and high-value valuables, prosecutors allege.

Prosecutorial officials confirmed that the legal process has adhered to all required criminal procedures: Yu has been formally notified of his full legal rights throughout the review and prosecution stage, and legal representatives have accepted and reviewed arguments submitted by Yu’s defense team.

A 62-year-old native of East China’s Shandong Province, Yu has a decades-long career rooted in the medical and pharmaceutical sectors. He began his professional career in August 1988, and joined the NATCM’s leadership as deputy director in April 2004. He was promoted to head of the national TCM administration in 2018, and was first placed under formal corruption investigation by supervisory authorities in June 2025. Yu is a member of the Chinese Peasants and Workers Democratic Party, one of China’s eight non-communist political parties that participate in state governance consultation.

The indictment marks a key milestone in China’s ongoing national anti-corruption campaign, which has targeted officials across all sectors of government, including public health and regulatory agencies, since it was launched in 2012.