AHS Comparative Government

The Nigerian military has made little headway against Boko Haram insurgents in northern Nigeria or against rampant oil "bunkering" in the Niger Delta.  Accordingly, on 16 January, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan fired the chiefs of staff of the Nigerian Army and Navy, and replaced the Chief of the Defense Staff (the equivalent of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the US) with the chief of staff of the Nigerian Air Force:

http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21595042-president-sacks-his-generals-heads

Xi Jinping, who serves as the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and as the President of China, has launched an aggressive campaign against corruption within the Party.  Despite the campaign, corruption persists at the Party's highest levels.  Chinese activists who point this out, moreover, do so at their peril:

http://www.economist.com/news/china/21595029-communist-partys-anti-graft-campaign-has-had-surprising-impact-new-report-shows-how

Earlier this month, Ilham Tohti, an Economics professor at Beijing's Minzu University, was taken into custody by Chinese authorities.  Tohti, a Uyghur, has criticized the Chinese government's administration of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region; in statements made to foreign media outlets, Tohti has argued that the high levels of unemployment among young Uyghurs in Xinjiang, and the harsh security measures in place in the region, have led to increasing violence.  Although Tohti has condemned that violence, he stands accused of inciting separatism and ethnic hatred:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/26/world/asia/china.html?ref=todayspaper

Today, a Beijing court sentenced Xu Zhiyong, a well-known political reform advocate, to four years' imprisonment for "gathering a crowd to disturb public order."  According to The New York Times, "[i]n 2012, Mr. ... helped promote the New Citizens Movement, an organization that drew up to 5,000 members dedicated to fighting government graft and education policies restricting the children of rural migrants from attending big city schools."

Jacobs, Andrew and Chris Buckley. "China Sentences Legal Activist to 4 Years for Role in Protests." The New York Times  26 Jan. 2014: 9. Web. 26 Jan. 2014.

Under the fiscal reform package recently enacted by the Mexican Congress and signed into law by President Enrique Peña Nieto, taxes will increase on public transportation and on such high-calorie, low-nutrition foods as soft drinks.  These tax hikes, coming on top of steep hikes in public transportation and food prices, will hit Mexico's poor (an estimated 45% of the population) hard:

http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21592622-introduction-new-taxes-will-hit-poor-hardest-few-more-pesos-lot-more-stress

Earlier this week, suicide bombers carried out successive attacks in the southern Russian city of Volgograd, killing 34 people and injuring 50 more.  Volgograd is less than 500 miles from Grozny, the capital city of Chechnya; it is about 400 miles from Sochi, where the winter Olympic games will be held in February.  The bombings in Volgograd are thus a warning by jihadi groups in the North Caucasus of potential attacks at the Olympics.  Volgograd is also a crucial symbolic target.  Known as Stalingrad during World War II, the Red Army's victory in the brutal battle for the city in 1942-43 marked the turning point of the Soviet Union's struggle against Nazi Germany.

This week's issue of The Economist examines the persistence of terrorist violence in Russia.  The article notes that, in recent years, the nationalist struggles for independence from Russia carried out by various separatist groups in the North Caucasus have become a Islamist campaign to establish a Shari'a-governed emirate in the region.  The article also contends that Russia's pursuit of scorched-earth tactics in the North Caucasus has served only to strengthen jihadi groups in the area:

http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21592672-russians-feel-vulnerable-after-two-bombings-volgograd-will-there-be-more