president to take the job beyond ten years the limit was meant to ensure there was no repeat of the mao zedong era we will get to our guests in a moment but first adrian brown reports from beijing tiananmen square has been the setting for some of the most defining moments in recent chinese history not all of them peaceful now a new political drama is unfolding this carefully choreographed gathering involves almost three thousand delegates and almost as many journalists like parliament the media in china is controlled by the policy offering uniform coverage. the national people's congress normally last for ten days but this year it's being extended by five days possibly to give delegates more time to discuss proposed changes to china's constitution which could mean she. being president for life the issue is overshadowing this congress but most delegates we spoke to didn't want to talk about it i don't want to discuss it i asked them he said. and no comment from him either. party discipline though would ensure the amendment is passed that. those capable people should stay in their posts a

ned, china is no longer the inward looking isolated country it was at the death of mao.ry corner of the globe. what are the risks here, are there any for the rest of us? i think there is a risk for the world, and i don't want to overstate this notion of china taking over the world, but there are initiatives, there is obviously a huge expansion, not onlyjust politically, but in terms of trade, economics, infrastructure, by china in the wider world. i think the danger is more general, that there is a kind of dawning of an age of new authoritarianism. you have people like erdogan in turkey, you have xi without term limits, you have putin in moscow doing his soviet shtick before the election, we have bigger missiles than you do. and there was always a balance of kind of this ballast of western european democracy and particularly the united states, an imperfect country that sometimes did imperfect things, but when it was present in the international arena, and when it was led in such a way that the world looked to it for leadership, there was always a kind of curb on overly i

we turn mao to the aptly named march madness. where 68 u.s.ollege basketball teams compete in a two and a half week tournament. the clock has already struck midnight for this year's favorite cinderella team. university of maryland, baltimore county lost sunday to kansas state university after their historic win over the university of virginia. >> we were just talking about this, though. what an amazing story. what an amazing game. this is the first time in the men's tournament that the school ranked number 16, the 16th beat the number-one ranked team. "sports illustrated" honored the significant moment with a digital only cover. on the magazine you see umbc's twitter account also scored points that night with the man behind the tweets getting almost as much attention as the team itself. and now via skype we have zack seidel, director of multimedia communications and digital for the athletic department at the university of maryland, baltimore county. zack, good to have you with us. i know tonight's game didn't go exactly the way you would have

"all we need are chairman mao and president xi, says this visitor.i lived here for years in the early '70s, transformed recently from an unknown backwater to a shrine for a living president. the smartly dressed tour guide showed us where she slept, an old picture on the wall. we saw a well he helped dig and a sewing shop he set up. old farmers who new xi back then still rome about. the pseudo mascots of this bizarre theme park. three of us including xi and i joined the communist party together, says this man. communist cadres flood the village each day, paying homage there is a practical purpose for making this visit if you are an ambitious communist party member. it shows you want to learn from the experiences of the party's most important person in decades. it's the kind of propaganda push driven by a cult of personality that the country hasn't seen since the days of mao zedong, founder of communist china. not far from xi's village, we see where mao once lived during world war two. similar caves, similar photos. mao held up as a great revolutionary

archive footage: chairman mao says the sick must be healed. a real shakeup in health services in china. every commune, they say, now has hospitals and clinics, providing medical attention where there was none before. perhaps the most striking development has been the training of a vast core of barefoot doctors. they have their farm work to do as well, and their training is limited, but even if you can teach people simple hygiene it saves countless lives. we provided very basic services to villagers, mostly in common cold conditions, infections, diarrhoea, things like that. a doctor described, sometimes we had to take shoes off to work in the farmland. we were not always barefoot. i do have shoes! i started as a barefoot doctor to not only treat people, but animals. we had horses, pigs, so actually in the beginning, i practised the injecting by giving shots to pigs and horses, not as difficult as humans. of course all the people in the village believed my care would be good enough for them to take care enough for them to take care of their heal

first word headlines and cross back out to debra mao. a targetina has set for 2018 growth of 6.5% as the national people's congress opens in beijing. the chinese premiers report omitted the intention last year of hitting a faster pace as possible and signal plans to rein in the growth of debt and set a lower budget deficit target of 6.6% -- 2.6% of gdp. polsono is swinging as suggests silvio berlusconi center-right bloc will win the most seats in the italian election. the five-star movement is seen performing better than expected, pushing the centerleft into third place. no group is seen winning an overall majority with a country facing a hung parliament. asresa may has ruled out sporting after brexit, saying it would lock britain into roles that have not been set by the u.k. passporting allows financial

i'm debra mao. this is bloomberg. day's market action, let's get over to juliette saly in singapore. juliette: debra, we are looking better, seeing asian stocks gain for the first time in six sessions the positive lead come through from wall street. it does look as if that this point, those trade tensions have started to ease somewhat. you have the japanese nikkei index up over 2%, leading gains in the region. we see a little bit of a switch out of the yen, which was being strongly bid on. yesterday it was holding to november 2016 highs, but the yen switched out by 1/3 of 1%. ae rba left rates on hold today, as widely expected and we had strength coming through on the aussi today, on the back of exports data, which added to the positive gdp potential. the philippines peso, off by 1/3 of 1%. there was talk that a rate hike could still be pushed out to 2019. elsewhere, south korea's coffee supported by samsung, and good gains in singapore as well. let's switch that out and look at the commodity space because of course,

had at his time so there is a clear reference that she didn't ping is using to the great hams man as mao was called there is however a very big difference in style and personality between these two leaders mao was. chaotic leader who was very impulsive who used the masses called the masses to spontaneous protest against his adverse or is within the party where is she is it is a party leader he relies heavily on the party security apparent his he is a very cautious leader building a power center around himself eliminating his adverse series by using the organization the party itself and his anti graft body. and why did the communist party decide to do this and why now. well see him selfe it seems launched this idea in september that was before the last party congress before he consolidated his power it has it's no secret that he wanted to stay in office longer that he sees himself as a leader who should be who should keep the country's fate in his hands it's it is however a surprise that this comes now and nobody was expecting it at the time and during the six months. the party. commissio

before we do that, let's head over to debra mao. debra: tracy, u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson says the president's cash and his daughter in your carry clearly came from russia. and it has warned that the event will trigger a response. earlier the british government explained bosco for the use of the nerve agent and president putin -- and gave president putin until midnight tuesday. >> russia's record of sponsoring ,tate-sponsored assassination the government has concluded that it is likely that russia was responsible for the act against sergei. ended alicans have investigation into -- the move comes despite intense objectives from the democrats, however the probe by special counsel robert mueller continues with four people leave -- facing criminal charges. president trump has issued an order blocking broadcom's bid for qualcomm on the grounds of national security. his decision came after the quote -- in addition to address washington's concerns. the president said there is evidence that the takeover would undermine all comes lead in 5g threaten

he also married a japanese wifee n fe back in the village w bacth >> reporter: when mao ze communist party took control ins 1949 chinalosed its doors. collectivizing agriculture helped cause a famine that killed up to 40 million people. and a new generationf cosmopolitan tongs found themselves on the wrong side of history. >> my father was ten years old and he got to ta theiwaneventually comes to u.s. for graduate school and has this great, white-collar, american ceer. gets left behind. hi>> rr eporanter: ad nd hisot r left behind because? >> my grandfather decides that he is just going to take his older son with him. and he leaves one son and the wife he leaves behind is pregnant with another son. >> reporter: those left behindfo were punishetheir family's ties to mao's opposition. >> my uncle was a great student, but he wasn't allowed to go to the best schools. during the great leap fo fard, during tine period, they had fewer rations than other families. they're eating the, they're taking the, scraping tree bark tofes f >> rofeporterer: j tust heto t down. >> just to be able to get

he said mao were doing the rounds that can steal your private data however by highlighting the threat the firm is now being accused of undermining u.s. anti terror operations because he hasn't identified who is behind the mao web but a media company called cyber scoop claims it's part of a classified u.s. program that targets potential terrorists and that by revealing it because berkeley has essentially burned the operation the antivirus lab explained it aims to protect people against such malware and gave its own warning about the malicious program fall into the wrong hands but exacting remaining eight all forms of malicious programs regardless of origin or purpose furthermore the company does not whitelist any malware samples not even mild we're used for so-called legal surveillance one can easily imagine the situation in which such malware falls into the wrong hands and can be used to launch attacks against law enforcement we're just regular users the cyber espionage program is allegedly code named slingshot and is able to steal large amounts of data including images and passwords

it people say he is the most powerful leader, maybe since mao. i would say it from the.u define the power as the capacity to do work with the rate that you do work, he is more powerful than mao, using that definition. he knows how to use the resources of china, you have seen the government restructuring and streamlining, ministries are no longer overlapping you have two a major national supervision commissions against corruption and sustainability and development. you have seen a really control of the government. very briefly, what about his speech dealt with today? what are some things that he said? his speech dealt with today? what are some things that he said7m his speech dealt with today? what are some things that he said? it was are some things that he said? it was a grand speeches. the grand vision. the valedictory of this whole season from the party congress until now. it began with chinese history, looking to the future. but sending a message to the world that china will uphold the international order, not undermine it. he also talked about chinese wisdom, chines

as the delegates left, they may have glanced at this, chairman mao's portrait, a stark reminder of thefetime rule. john sudworth, bbc news, beijing. 0ur correspondent in beijing, stephen mcdonell, joins us now. stephen, how much debate was there on lifting these term limits? well, you know, china has woken up today to co m plete you know, china has woken up today to complete overhaul of its political system. 0ut to complete overhaul of its political system. out with collective leadership, in with 1—man rule. now, you would think that such a massive change would have prompted quite a public debate, but there has been none. i mean, to give you indication, our coverage, even, over the last 2a hours, has been massively censored, so most of the time we talk about this issue, the screens go black all over mainland china. and, you know, one of the things, if they had been such a debate, that would be talked about, is the role the anti—corruption crackdown has played in really empowering xijinping, crackdown has played in really empowering xi jinping, and crackdown has played in really empower

the likes of which we have not seen since the guy right behind me, mao zedong, the pounder of communist china. what you now have seen xi jinping do is completely take over the government apparatus here in china, and really it started late last year during the 19th party congress where xi jinping was re-elected as general secretary of the communist party, also he had xi jinping thought, as it's known, written into the party constitution. what analysts will tell you is by doing that, that made him the most powerful chinese political figure since mao zedong. if you criticize xi, in essence you're criticizing the communist party itself. if you ask why these delegates at the national people's congress are going along with this, even if many of them have differing opinions as to whether this is a good thing, they're not going to speak out because the reality is xi jinping is too powerful for that at this point. he is an incredibly powerful politician. he is now the head of the general -- the head of the communist party, the head of the military, did and now he could be president for life if h

building a personality cult indoctrinating the masses with his political philosophy just as chairman mao once did it was done shopping the other towering figure in recent chinese history who'd insisted on two term limits for the president he wanted to avoid a repeat of the cultish devotion that had surrounded mao but analysts say one party rule is once more turning into one man rule the fact of the matter is seeming has hijacked the entire communist party in the country so we are back to just one person doing the talking one person making the decisions for the entitled party in the entire country we are back to the period of the so-called one wars echo chamber. the president's influence is now felt in many aspects of life here she jingping thought is now required reading for all party members study groups of spread to businesses and universities. parliament also voted to expand the president's campaign against corruption joining a five year purge more than one and a half million party officials have been punished analysts say the campaign is a guys for getting rid of potential rivals for

as the delegates left, they may have glanced at this, chairman mao's portrait, a stark reminder of theinping. tell jinping. us what this constitutional change tell us what this constitutional change means for ordinary chinese citizens. you can sometimes tell how significant a story is in china by how little coverage it gets and that is certainly the case here, the constitutional change is being given very scant mention bike coming as controlled news sources, alongside massive and heavy censorship of social media, where china to hold the debate, they would argue that xi jinping is no chairman mao, that the country is lastly different, more sophisticated, more wealthy, and the public would never tolerate his level of terror and tyranny. critics would point out that this is now the second largest economy in the world, governments decisions are highly complex, and the concentration of power on this scale in the hands of just one man is fraught with danger. both for the country and for him. the chancellor philip hammond, has rejected calls to announce the end of austerity. has rejected call

building a personality cult indoctrinating the people with his political philosophy just as chairman mao did but his supporters argue the china faces many challenges right now and to confront those challenges china needs a strong leader and a united party. well the operation china is taking place on the same day as a by election in hong kong where the pro-democracy camp is aiming to win back veto power in the lead. police have detained a number of protesters gather outside the polling station where the city's leader cast her ballot as civic appall and reports the election is seen as a test to gauge reaction to beijing's increased interference in the city's governance. edward you knows too well that victory doesn't guarantee is placed on the legislative council. the former professor won in the twenty sixteen elections and while being sworn in he added to fray saying he would fight for universal suffrage after a year in office the beijing government reinterpreted hong kong's constitution to deem him ineligible because of that this time he promises his supporters he has a plan ranging if yo

he simply encouraging people to study his political philosophy and it's all very reminiscent of the mao era but supporters of the president say that the changes to this constitution are needed because of the challenges china faces right now and china for that reason needs a united party and a strong leader and this congress is all about president xi jinping stamping his authority on the party shooting thing in many ways is a paradox on the one hand he's holding high the banner of free trade but on the other he's pushing back at any form of sort of political reform is going in the opposite direction of his predecessors and any mention critics that there are plenty of them this move to remove limits but have been silent. yes and a lot of them have been silenced because of this ongoing and corruption campaign the president xi jinping began after he came into office five years but that campaign by the way has rounded up some one point five million officials and many of those were of course opponents of the president so if there are any opposition figures out there they are keeping their hea

eighty two and the reason for that was that he wanted to avoid a repeat of the chaotic final years of mao tse tung's life when we had the cultural revolution and that was when we saw this sort of slavish devotion to chairman mao and he wants to he wanted to prevent a repeat of that well a lot of chinese people today i think have a deep sense of unease about this change to the constitution a feeling that perhaps that china is going backwards and also a realisation the now there is so much power in the hands of one man because president xi is not just president he's chairman of the military commission and also general secretary of the communist party and core leader and you know throughout the premier speech today it was quite interesting there were repeated references to thought so on the one hand we had this outline of a sort of modern china that the premier wanted to see develop but on the other we had this sort of clunky language that harks back to to to another era a g m a jim brown live for us there in beijing. now in italy the anti establishment five star movement is projected to win

well now we have xijinping, who chairman mao coming along. 1.5 million communist party members have been punished in his anti—corru ption crackdown. party members have been punished in his anti—corruption crackdown. there was the belief he could not actually afford to stand down as leader because he has made so many enemies in the party. certainly after this vote today, there is no question it will be so difficult for anybody to challenge him. in the old system you had collective leadership. there was some discussion and a politburo standing at committee level. that is all gone. he is a powerful leader who will probably be around for decades to come. i know there has been a lot of censorship of negative comment about this in the media and in social media. what will happen to those two people who voted against, oi’ those two people who voted against, or those who abstained ? those two people who voted against, or those who abstained? and what will happen to those people who say on social media they do not want a president for life? we are told

building a personality called indoctrinating the people with his political philosophy just as chairman mao did but his supporters argue the china faces many challenges right now and to confront those challenges china needs a strong leader and a united party. syrian government and russian air strikes have killed at least forty people on sas and injured dozens in rebel held eastern ghouta women and children are among the latest victims of the offensive to take the last remaining rebel stronghold mysterious capital. in the volunteer group syrian civil defense is reporting that several people have been killed in a barrel bomb attack on a rebel a residential area of the rebel held town of been all syrian government forces have made significant gains in their battle to take the last remaining rebel stronghold near the capital damascus the orange stripes shown here show how much territory the rebels had in eastern goose and for bray the eighteenth when the government stepped up its offensive three weeks of heavy bombardment and russianness support and the rebel stronghold has dramatically shrunk

the changes have revived memories of mao zedong whose leadership was marred by bloodshed after mar rules were drafted to prevent a repeat analysts say these reforms undo those safeguards. quite obvious the worse and i do believe that this recent. within the party leadership among the intelligentsia because they are concerned with the potential of a return of them our style of leadership. maoist china's past and she is china's future for no only he knows which direction he will choose to take the rising asian superpower. in today's early bundesliga game strip that we're up against rb leipzig but neither side managed to find the net and that draw means leipsic failed to gain ground in the race for europe next season a stock that meanwhile is the sixth match unbeaten in germany is going to sleep at the top clash yesterday so leverkusen locking horns with local rivals with both teams hoping for a spot in next season's champions league there was a lot at stake in what is often a grudge match between these two sides. but for. here and. to achieve their aim of a ticket to europe next season. th

building a personality cult indoctrinating the masses with his political philosophy just as chairman mao once did it was done shopping the other towering figure in recent chinese history who'd insisted on two term limits for the president he wanted to avoid a repeat of the cultish devotion that had surrounded mao but analysts say one party rule is once more turning into one man rule the fact of the matter this seeming has hijacked the entire communist party in the country so we are back to just one person doing the talking one person making the decisions for the entitled party in the entire country we are back to the period of the so-called one wars echo chamber. the president's influence is now felt in many aspects of life here she jean ping thought is now required reading for all party members study groups of spread to businesses and universities. parliament also voted to expand the president's campaign against corruption joining a five year purge more than one and a half million party officials have been punished analysts say the campaign is a guys for getting rid of potential rivals

very different personalities and they have a very different style of ruling mao was somebody who liked to incite chaos to. just to get rid of his opponents who relied on spontaneous movements of the masses or as he is some buddy who wants to keep who tries to keep everything under control who heavily relies on the security of parishes and the party of parrots and can you tell us why did the communist party decide to do this and why now. well it seems that this has been passed quietly since september that is before seeds of paying. a consolidated his power at the last party congress it has been kept very silent the rules were out that this is going to come now because people have been expecting him to extend his his power beyond the two terms but this was quite a surprise that it's coming now and my only explanation is that he feels secure to do it now and he would probably might it might be a week i took in week in a few years time when his term and so he decided to seize the opportunity and get this done. are there fears or criticism among the chinese people about this. and there are

building a personality called indoctrinating the people with his political philosophy just as chairman mao did but his supporters argue the china faces many challenges right now and to confront those challenges china needs a strong leader and a united party syrian government and russian air strikes has killed at least forty people on saturday and injured dozens in rebel held. women and children are among the latest victims in the offensive to take the last remaining rebel stronghold near syria's capital and the volunteer groups a syrian civil defense has reported that several people have been killed in a barrel bomb attack on a residential area of the rebel held town of. and kurdish forces in syria have announced they're mobilizing a human shield resistance around africa and in the north as turkish and free syrian army troops approach the town bus loads of people are believed to be on their way to a friend. the u.s. president says north korea's government is halting its missile tests ahead of president trump's meeting with kim jong un mr trump was speaking at a rally in pennsylvania where

i am debra mao. this is bloomberg. market action today, let's get over to juliette saly in singapore. we are seeing asian stocks lower for a fifth consecutive session, still concerns about a potential trade war as trumps tariffs are weighing on sentiment. .7%.sx 200 down fed concerns also weighing heavily into emerging markets. the philippines is being sold off today. india's market coming back after a holiday and being sold off, down .6% in the but upside in the rupee. the japanese yen maintaining its gain, up .2%. japanese stocks at october lows with the yen holding at a 16 concern about potential trade war and investors moving into safe havens. let's look at how aluminum is doing. most of these metals are weakened today. ore under pressure, not helped by the fact we did hear from china, setting that gdp target around 6.5%, omitting the aim to go higher, weakness coming through in the metals. the iron and steel index fell sharply friday, off 2%. , but down by another 1.3% some players hit heavily on bargain hunting l

and it not o o o o o o o o o o o 2.0,come president mao but like the united states, they have a long-term plan to project economic power, of which the biggest element is called one b elt, one raod, the new silk road they use the foreign investment to project economic power through the eurasian landmass in africa. they bought up the port of courageous and later announced -- very controversially so, not just to finance tech companies for the city grid, but a secret state but described the agency. but,it comes to forward when we w w w w w w w w w w w we have got to bring this up. we have got to get them to the table and say, we are paying attention and we have got to talk about this, so maybe this is the way to do it. situations where, taking unorthodox measures might influence away to country not playing by the rules. it comes to china, it is anybody who agrees with how that is working. on message. if they want to buy stakes in other companies, they are and it isy -- aitely a ver very different situation whether you look at the trade in the u.s. and china or the u.s. you cannot even compare

the changes have revived memories of mao zedong whose leadership was marred by bloodshed after model rules were drafted to prevent a repeat analysts say these reforms undo those safeguards. there is quite obviously a step backwards and i do believe that this ten year race any sentiment. within the party leadership among the intelligentsia because they are concerned with the potential of a return of the maoist style of leadership. maoist china's past and she is china's future for now only he knows which direction he will choose to take the rising asian superpower. trying to understand the context of this move now we're going to talk to our correspondent in beijing but she has berlinger . she already had a firm grip on power now he has had term limits strapped why is he doing this now. well i think he feels now in the position to do this he seems to be sure to get this to get through with this he it seems that he initiated this half a year ago and the party or those involved have kept very quiet about it because as we heard the expert in the report. a lot of people believe that there w

commissioner for trade cecilia mao strong will continue the discussions in washington it's not clear what the e.u. intends to offer the americans but donald trump has frequently criticized the e.u. use high import taxes on u.s. cars and foods like meat. and should the european union not reach an exemption from a fresh u.s. import tariffs the block has announced it would strike back with levees of its own that as divisive as that would be hit is ten pages long and includes some of the most iconic products made in the usa we're talking highly davidson motorcycles for one straight out of wisconsin additional tariffs could hit the company just as it seeking to find new custom is. that sound is worth around thirty thousand euros and holly davidson's munich branch is busy the first rays of spring sunshine see customers flocking here. is now threatening to levy import tariffs on highly davidson's as a response to new u.s. tariffs on steel an element approved by president trump penalties could amount to twenty percent on the famous american cycles twenty yeah twenty percent would be a real b

the party statutes only one other chinese statesman has achieved this during his lifetime chairman mao tse tung. ji has used his power to crackdown on dissent he denied fatally ill nobel peace prize laureate lucia bo released on bail until his death president she was the son of a high ranking party official but his father fell out of favor during mouse cultural revolution g.m. self was banished to the countryside where he lived in a cave and worked in the fields the cave is now a shrine to the cult of personality around she one of the few people who still dared to criticize him publicly his political scientist would sooner or later he thinks she will get into trouble. she so far dissatisfied chinese have claimed local authorities in particular for their problems. but the more power she gathers around himself. the more people will blame him for their dissatisfaction. the sounds are going so but for the time being no one appears ready to challenge his authority yet and no one doubts that he will succeed with his plans to abolish term limits and extend his rule over china possibly for lif

but there were excesses when chairman mao was running china, and i think that is why the law was changedso only time will tell whether he behaves himself. shall we move onto oppressing matter, in the express, on page three, no less... clotted cream clots cornish fury at tea—time treat blunder... you just know where this is going. it is all about which order you put your cream and your charm on your scorn. now, you are from devon, so which is the correct way? the correct way, for everybody, who is cream and then jam. iwill everybody, who is cream and then jam. i will not have those people in cornwall telling me otherwise!

but there were excesses when chairman mao was running china, and i think that is why the law was changed, to try and stop a repeat of that, so only time will tell whether he behaves himself. shall we move onto oppressing matter, in the express, on page three, no less... clotted cream clots cornish fury at tea—time treat blunder... you just know where this is going. it is all about which order you put your cream and your charm on your scorn. now, you are from devon, so which is the correct way? the correct way, for everybody, who is cream and then jam. iwill everybody, who is cream and then jam. i will not have those people in cornwall telling me otherwise! basically there was a national trust house who put on their facebook page a picture of the devon way of doing things and in cornwall they got lots of people very angry saying, it was wrong! and they put out a very good statement to say, we would like to sincerely apologise, the person who made this error has been marched back over the river. saying rest assured, your mothers are safe here! do you think it was a devonian interloper? i c