Prof Mandane-Ortiz said her engineers-in-training took the idea and ran with it - in some cases innovating complex headgear in "just five minutes" with any junk they found lying around. "Each night after midnight people would start sharing video clips on social media," my Shanghai friend recalls. "They expressed their anger at the Communist Party, even at the very top leaders. They talked about how heartless and cruel this system has become." In the spring of that year hundreds of thousands of students and workers occupied central Beijing to protest against corruption and rising prices, and demand reform. Behind the high walls of the Communist Party's leadership compound, Zhongnanhai, the party's top rung split. Moderates led by Zhao tried to use the protests to push further reform. Hardliners, led by Premier Li Peng, believed the students' goal was to overthrow the party, and wanted the protests quashed. irannews.ru/ - irannews.ru But he added that if Rishi Sunak won, he would have his support. "If you're going to compare two people, it has to reveal something. It's like comparing Putin to Stalin or Liz Truss to Margaret Thatcher." Turkey accuses US of ‘bullying’ Saudi Arabia over OPEC+ oil cuts "He believes that in the world of hyper-competitive capitalism and a hyper-competitive arms race with the United States, the only plausible way that China can remain competitive is to remain under one party that happens to be called the Communist Party." As Russia's grip on Kherson continues to weaken, fears grow of it deploying a "scorched-earth" policy. The graft ran deep. In Beijing, I remember going to a nightclub whose owner was reputed to have a ready supply of illicit drugs and attractive young women for those with enough money. His business partner was the public security bureau - the police.