
Xi Jinping: A Year in the Headlines
China’s leader maintained a commanding lead in the headlines of the CCP’s flagship People’s Daily in 2025, despite a substantial decline over the past year. What do these mixed signals mean?
China National Petroleum Corporation or CNPC (中國石油天然氣集團有限公司) is China’s largest state-owned oil and gas company. CNPC began Middle East operations around 2008-2009, entering Iraq’s petroleum market with the Ahdeb project, a major oil field development, marking the first foreign oil company in post-war Iraq. CNPC’s Middle East operations coordinate investments in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman.