Conversation

08.25.15

Is the Bloom Off the Rose of China’s Economic Miracle?

Arthur R. Kroeber, David Schlesinger & more
On Monday, August 24, the Shanghai Composite Index dropped 8.5 percent, its second such steep fall since late July, and its worst since 2007. On Tuesday, stocks fell an additional 7.6 percent. The steep slide translates into more than $4 trillion in...

Chinese Investment in Africa: Surprisingly Small, but Growing Fast

Eric Olander, Cobus van Staden & more
It’s a widespread misconception that just because China is Africa’s top trading partner, it’s also the continent’s largest foreign investor. In fact, China ranks seventh overall in FDI, far behind the United States, long Africa’s largest source of...

What’s Scarier Than a Strong China? A Weak China.

Joshua Keating
Slate
When China actually does take a tumble, Americans feel it in their pocketbooks and portfolios.

Why is China’s Stock Market Falling and How Might it Affect the Global Economy?

Katie Allen
Guardian
Concerns about inflation, shares and interest rates raised after ‘Black Monday’ wiped billions off global markets.

Great Fall of China Sinks World Stocks, Dollar

Sinead Carew
Reuters
A near 9-percent dive in China shares and a sharp drop in the dollar and major commodities sent investors rushing for the exit.

Caixin Media

08.24.15

How to Solve China’s Currency Parity Puzzle?

Boosting exports, controlling outbound capital flow and supporting the Chinese currency’s bid for Special Drawing Rights (SDR) status are just some of the reasons cited by analysts for the yuan's unexpected devaluation in mid-August.The yuan...

China Shares Brush New Low Since Depth of Selloff

Mark Magnier and Chao Deng
Wall Street Journal
Shanghai Composite closes down 4.3%, a fraction above July 8 low.

Features

08.20.15

Is China About to Plunge the World Into Recession?

David Wertime
On Aug. 18, China’s stock market plummeted by a vertigo-inducing 6.2 percent in one day of trading, part of a months-long decline that’s erased over $3 trillion worth of market value from the country’s equity markets. That followed last week’s...

China’s Special Economic Zones in Africa: Lots of Hype, Little Hope

Eric Olander, Cobus van Staden & more
A decade ago, China announced it would develop of a series of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in Africa to boost trade and industrialization. Given the phenomenal success of China’s SEZs that helped to spark the PRC’s three decades of history-making...

Conversation

08.18.15

How Should the U.S. Conduct the Xi Jinping State Visit?

Evan A. Feigenbaum, Arthur Waldron & more
As tensions increase between China and the United States over the value of the yuan, human rights violations, alleged cyber attacks, and disputed maritime territories, among other issues, how should the Obama administration conduct the upcoming...

China Seeks to Calm Markets as It Devalues Currency for 3rd Consecutive Day

Neil Gough
New York Times
Since Tuesday, the currency, the renminbi, has fallen 4.4 percent, the biggest drop in decades.

Bearish Bets Multiply as China Slows

Henry Sender
Financial Times
A slowdown in China is harder for its trading partners and manufacturing competitors than it is for China itself.

China Devalues Its Currency as Worries Rise About Economic Slowdown

Neil Gough and Keith Bradsher
New York Times
The clearest sign yet of Beijing's concern about falling short of its goal of roughly 7 percent economic growth.

China’s Role in Africa’s ‘Looting Machine’

Eric Olander, Cobus van Staden & more
China goes to great lengths to differentiate its engagement in Africa from the continent’s former European colonizers by emphasizing so-called “win-win development.” Chinese leaders regularly visit Africa where they emphatically reject the...

China Shares Post Biggest One-Day Gain in a Month

Chao Deng
Wall Street Journal
Weak economic data boosts stimulus hopes; investors signal confidence in Beijing’s support.

The Singapore Lesson China Missed

Michael Schuman
Wall Street Journal
It’s impossible to understand Singapore’s success without recognizing the importance of state constraint. Since Mr. Xi acknowledges no such limits, he will have a hard time achieving Singapore’s results.

Viewpoint

08.07.15

Here’s What’s Wrong With Most Commentary on the Beijing 2022 Olympics

Taisu Zhang & Paul H. Haagen
Upon hearing that Beijing would be hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics, we wondered what the Chinese government was thinking. The decision seemed counterintuitive, to say the least: For one thing, it barely snows in Beijing, or even in Zhangjiakou, the...

Conversation

08.05.15

Should the U.S. Extradite Chinese Wanted by Beijing?

Jerome A. Cohen, Chen Weihua & more
This week, The New York Times reported that Chinese officials have asked the U.S. government to help in apprehending Ling Wancheng, a wealthy Chinese business man and the brother of one of the highest-level officials to have been targeted in Xi...

Alibaba Names Former Goldman Sachs Executive as President

Michael De La Merced
New York Times
Alibaba on Tuesday named J. Michael Evans, who already serves on its board, as its president.

Media

08.04.15

Beijing’s Winter Doldrums

Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian
On July 31, the International Olympic Committee awarded the 2022 Winter Olympics to Beijing, the arid northern capital of a country with little tradition of winter sports. Beijing will be the first city in history to host both the winter games and...

U.S. Not Concerned About Chinese Competition in Africa ... But It Probably Should Be

Eric Olander & Cobus van Staden
The difference between U.S. and Chinese foreign policies in Africa was on stark display in July when president Barack Obama made his landmark visits to Kenya and Ethiopia. The president brought along with him a vast agenda that transcended trade,...

For China’s Gay Men, Beijing Park Offers Haven

Harvard Zhang
Los Angeles Times
Though illegal, Chinese media regularly report on gay home weddings and gay couples getting marriage certificates in the U.S. 

Caixin Media

08.03.15

Villain or Hero for Stock Market Saga?

An obscure equities-trading finance agency that brokers often slighted in favor of bank loans has suddenly taken center stage in the drama playing out in the stock market.But reviews are mixed over whether the four-year-old, quasi-governmental China...

Guo Boxiong Expelled From Chinese Communist Party in Bid to Reform Military

Philip Wen
Sydney Morning Herald
The military has been a core focus of President Xi Jinping's campaign against official corruption.

China’s Naked Emperors

Paul Krugman
New York Times
By trying to control the market China's rulers show that despite 25 years of success they have no idea what they’re doing.

China Shares Suffer Worst Month in Nearly Six Years

Chao Deng
Wall Street Journal
Shaken confidence in Beijing’s role in market led to wild swings in recent days.

China’s Shares Tumble Again

Neil Gough
New York Times
Artists, essayists, lawyers, bloggers and others deemed to be online troublemakers have been hauled into police stations and investigated or imprisoned for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” a charge that was once confined to physical...

China’s Un-separation of Powers

Christopher K. Johnson and Scott Kennedy
Foreign Affairs
U.S. industry has figured out how to pull the levers of power in China but also points to a substantial change in how China is governed. In the past, there was at least some separation between party and government roles, but it seems that the line...

China’s “New Normal” is Shifting the Country’s Economic Center of Gravity

Richard Macauley
Quartz
But it is not only because more developed cities are slowing that the rest of China is advancing. Smaller, poorer cities are also innovating their way out of the doldrums. Guiyang, capital of Guizhou, China’s poorest province, tops this year’s...

Sinica Podcast

07.27.15

Beijing’s Great Leap Forward: Microbrew in China

Kaiser Kuo & Carl Setzer from Sinica Podcast
Great Leap Brewing is an institution. As one of the earliest American-style microbreweries in China, not only has the company rescued us from endless nights of Snow and Yanjing, but it has also given us something uniquely Chinese with its assortment...

In Quirky Hong Kong Voting System, Fishermen Play Key Role

Kelvin Chan
Associated Press
Fishing and farming make up less than 1 percent of Hong Kong's $274 billion economy but command 60 votes in the leadership committee.

China's '300': When Spartans Meet the Beijing Police

Shen Lu
CNN
Half-naked models, dressed as Spartan warriors were subdued by Beijing police after a marketing stunt, promoting a salad delivery service.

A Kenyan Columnist’s Provocative Views on the Chinese in Africa

Eric Olander, Cobus van Staden & more
In Mark Kapchanga’s view, the West, particularly the media, really does not understand what the Chinese are doing in Africa. Kapchanga, a provocative Nairobi-based journalist and columnist, isn’t shy in arguing his case that on balance China’s...

China Feared CIA Worked with Sheldon Adelson's Casinos to Bust Officials

Chris McGreal
Guardian
China fears that casinos owned by Sheldon Adelson were used by the CIA to blackmail Chinese officials.

Myanmar Gives 153 Chinese Life in Jail for Illegal Logging

Aye Aye Win
Associated Press
A court in Myanmar sentenced 153 Chinese nationals to life in prison on after convicting them of illegal logging in a case that has already strained relations with Beijing.

This Instagram Account Offers a New Perspective on China

Time
Some photographs show the surprisingly mundane moments in the life of regular Chinese, such as Albertazzi’s image of a group of men playing cards in their swim shorts on a hot summer afternoon in Beijing; others are images from long-term documentary...

Chinese Stocks Rise as Shenzen Gains 20% on July Low

Chao Deng
MarketWatch
Pressure remains from a continuing unwinding of leveraged positions and analysts said they aren’t optimistic about cash-backed state support.

Two Way Street

07.20.15

How China and the U.S. Will Manage Competition for Influence

Ian Bremmer from Two Way Street
Washington refuses to accept that though the United States is not in decline, its international influence is not what it was. It is unlikely to regain the leverage it once wielded, because China and so many others now have more than enough economic...

Xi Warns China Military Amid Anti-Corruption Purge

Charles Clover
Financial Times
Xi delivered the stern message to the home unit of Xu Caihou, formerly one of China’s highest ranking generals, arrested last year for bribery scandal.

Caixin Media

07.20.15

How Beijing Intervened to Save China’s Stocks

Top executives from 21 securities firms spent the morning of Saturday July 4 pinned to government office chairs while the future of China’s stock markets hung in the balance.They’d been summoned on a day off to the Beijing office of the China...

As Beijing Becomes a Supercity, the Rapid Growth Brings Pains

New York Times
The planned megalopolis, a metropolitan area that would be about six times the size of New York's, is meant to revamp northern China's economy.

China Warns Japan Over Laws to Allow Troops to Fight Abroad

Julian Borger
Guardian
China warns Japan against “crippling regional peace and security” after Tokyo passes bills to allow Japanese troops to fight abroad.

Could China Be the Next Japan?

Enda Curran
Bloomberg
Even as China's economy shows signs of recovering from a slowdown, it is vulnerable to the crash that dragged Japan into falling consumer prices and stagnant growth.

Amazon Prime sale--a Chinese import?

Elizabeth Weise
USA Today
Prime Day is "Amazon's effort to try and capture the magic that Alibaba has captured with its November 11 Singles' Day promotion," said Kevin Carter, founder of EMQQ

Why China’s Sock Market Bubble Was Always Bound to Burst

Orville Schell
Guardian
The sudden collapse of the nation’s share boom left tens of millions of investors in shock. But a massive government intervention to prop up the market has laid bare the contradictions of a capitalist China.

Tibetans Protest to Demand Release of Monk's Body in China

Sui-Lee Wee
Reuters
Dozens of Tibetans shouting "return the body" protested outside a prison in China after a prominent Tibetan monk died in jail, reflecting anger amongst his supporters and family, who believe he was murdered.

The Real Risk Behind China’s Stock-Market Drama

Evan Osnos
New Yorker
More recently, the Party has offered annual targets for economic growth that almost always bear out, no matter what sort of creative policy, or accounting, steps are required

China Surprises With 7% Growth in Second Quarter

Mark Magnier
Wall Street Journal
China’s growth remained at 7% in the second quarter, a level economists had thought would be hard to reach amid broad signs that Beijing’s policies to jump-start the economy hadn’t taken hold. 

China's Pollution Quagmire

Jeff McMahon
Forbes
China’s efforts to reduce air pollution could be negated by its unregulated and unmonitored burning of petcoke, a fuel dirtier than coal, an expert on Chinese climate and energy policy said.

Caixin Media

07.14.15

Uber CEO Enjoying a Fast China Ride

Demand for cross-town transportation is at the heart of an urban lifestyle that is defining modern China. It is also giving the American car-hire service Uber Technologies Inc. an incredible ride.Few are enjoying the ride more than Uber CEO Travis...

Media

07.14.15

Megacity Chongqing Now

Tim Franco & David M. Barreda
Earlier this month, photographer Tim Franco visited Asia Society to show his work from Chongqing, a city of more than 25 million where he has been reporting since 2009. Many of the images Franco showed appear in his latest book, Metamorpolis (...

Viewpoint

07.12.15

Making Sense of China’s Market Mess

Arthur R. Kroeber
Nearly two years ago China’s Communist Party released a major economic reform blueprint, whose signature phrase was that market forces would be given a “decisive role” in resource allocation. That Third Plenum Decision and other policy...

Angolans Resentful as China Tightens its Grip

Herculano Coroado and Joe Brock
Reuters
After oil prices fell, leaving a huge hole in Angola's finances, it became clear sub-Saharan Africa's third largest economy needed - and President Jose Eduardo dos Santos signed multi billion dollar loans with China.

Oil Prices Rise on China Recovery and Iran Deadlock

Nicole Friedman and Matthew Cowley
Wall Street Journal
Oil prices climb as Chinese stocks rebounded, easing concerns about China’s economic growth, and expectations of higher Iranian crude-oil exports receded.

China's Richest Lost $195 bn In One Month

Liyan Chen
Wall Street Journal
The country’s stock market has been a wild ride this year, especially for millions of rookie retail investors who rushed to open their accounts for the first time.

Why Worry About China?

Alen Mattich
Wall Street Journal
The Chinese government has stepped in to the market, the police are involved, and short selling is under fire. 

China’s Web Users Find NYSE Shutdown Hilarious

Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian
Within 30 minutes of the NYSE shutdown, the word spread on the Chinese Internet, and jokes came pouring in on China’s Twitter-like microblogging platform Weibo.

Why Russia’s Turn to China is a Mirage

Björn Düben
Reuters
Chinese companies provide Russian companies with technology which they cannot access due to sanctions, and Chinese banks are a source of loans for Russian businesses.

China's Stock Market Crash, Explained

Timothy B. Lee
Vox
Chinese stocks surged last year, but those gains didn't reflect broader economic gains. They were a result of more people investing in the stock market with borrowed funds.

China Takes More Steps to Stop ‘Irrational’ Selling'

Grace Zhu
Wall Street Journal
Chinese government agencies step up efforts to shore up China’s plunging stock markets that the securities regulator described as facing panic and irrational selling.