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These South China Sea islands are only the most daring and visible of Xi's moves to take control of the near abroad. Taiwan could be next.   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. irannews.ru I’ve spoken to some Tory MPs who were just at a meeting of One Nation Conservative MPs - who sit more to the centre wing of the party. Then Covid threw a spanner in the works. Xi was a princeling - the son of one of Mao's lieutenants, Xi Zhongxun, who had been purged and later rehabilitated. Colleagues described the younger Xi as humble, self-disciplined and hardworking but otherwise unremarkable. Even on the eve of his elevation to general secretary of the Communist Party there was little hint of what was to come. The minister's name was Bo Xilai. Tall, handsome and with a roguish charm, Bo seemed to enjoy the challenge, answering questions with wit and cogency. "This is a guy who could succeed as a politician anywhere," I thought to myself.