China’s Trade Surplus Hits New High

Mark Magnier
Wall Street Journal
Trade surplus widened for the second month in a row in August to record of $49.8 billion.

For Australia, a Celebration of China in Theme Park Form

Bree Feng
New York Times
Get ready for Chappypie China Time, a $500 million, 39-acre Chinese culture theme park that aims to bring Australia a replica of the Forbidden City.

Can Frank Underwood Beat China’s Censors?

Adam Minter
Bloomberg
At first glance, the Chinese government’s announcement of regulations restricting foreign programming that can be shown on Chinese streaming-video sites would appear to be very bad news for business.

China Eases Credit Rules for Some Property Developers

Esther Fung
Wall Street Journal
The biggest of China's some 85,000 property developers are the only ones likely to benefit from this credit loosening. Authorities have been trying to streamline the number of companies as part of economic overhauls.

As Its Initial Offering Nears, Alibaba Gets Ready for a Splashy Debut

Michael J. De La Merced
New York Times
The Chinese Internet commerce giant's whirlwind tour, which will encompass 100 meetings in 10 days, will begin not in Hong Kong but in New York, where shares of the company are expected to begin trading on Sept. 19

The Struggle for Hong Kong

Economist
The territory’s citizens must not give up demanding full democracy—for their sake and for China’s.

Books

09.02.14

Cities and Stability

Jeremy L. Wallace
China's management of urbanization is an under-appreciated factor in the regime's longevity. The Chinese Communist Party fears "Latin Americanization"—the emergence of highly unequal megacities with their attendant slums and social unrest. Such cities threaten the survival of nondemocratic regimes. To combat the threat, many regimes, including China's, favor cities in policymaking. Cities and Stability shows this "urban bias" to be a Faustian Bargain: cities may be stabilized for a time, but the massive in-migration from the countryside that results can generate the conditions for political upheaval. Through its hukou system of internal migration restrictions, China has avoided this dilemma, simultaneously aiding urbanites and keeping farmers in the countryside. The system helped prevent social upheaval even during the Great Recession, when tens of millions of laid-off migrant workers dispersed from coastal cities. Jeremy Wallace's powerful account forces us to rethink the relationship between cities and political stability throughout the developing world. —Oxford University Press {chop}

China Targeting Foreign Companies, American Chamber Says

Scott Lanman
Bloomberg
China is targeting foreign companies with opaque laws and rules, according to a group representing U.S. businesses there, contributing to a deteriorating environment for investment in the nation.

China-Africa Trade May Be Booming, But Big Problems Loom

Eric Olander, Cobus van Staden & more
Trade between China and Africa will break another new record this year as it’s expected to top $200 billion. As trade continues to grow, officials from both regions frequently point to these figures as evidence of steadily improving ties. However,...

Trust-busting in China

Economist
 Unequal before the law? China’s antitrust crackdown turns ugly, with foreign carmakers at the forefront.

Environment

08.21.14

Who Will Feed China’s Pigs?

from chinadialogue
He's been called China’s richest chicken farmer, but Liu Yonghao has come a long way from his days breeding birds in rural Sichuan province.As the billionaire founder of the New Hope Group, China’s largest producer of animal feed, Liu’s rise...

Infographics

08.19.14

Landed

Chinese are the largest foreign buyers of U.S. real estate, spending around $22 billion in total in from April 2013 to March 2014, about a quarter of the United States’ total sales to foreigners, according to a July 8 report by the National...

Can Enigmatic Chinese Businessman Complete Nicaraguan Canal?

Matt Schiavenza
International Business Times
As Nicaragua granted a 50-year concession to a new development authority that would build a canal through the country, President Daniel Ortega celebrated a moment that would cement “total and complete independence.”

China Home Prices Fall in Most Cities on Weak Demand

Bonnie Cao
Bloomberg
China’s property market has become a drag on the world’s second-biggest economy, prompting cities to start easing local curbs in June.

Foreign Direct Investment Into China Falls to Lowest Level in 2 Years

Liyan Qi and Richard Silk
Wall Street Journal
 Government denies that antitrust probes Into overseas companies is to blame.

China’s Carbon Plans: Secrecy and Oversupply Darken Outlook

Stian Reklev and Kathy Chen
Reuters
The world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases risks repeating mistakes made in carbon trading in Europe by flooding its pilot markets with free permits.

China Pushes Cleanup of Banks

Daniel Inman and Fiona Law
Wall Street Journal
Top four lenders are raising capital and 'Bad Banks' are being created to absorb soured loans.

Features

08.14.14

Making It in China and the U.S.

Jonathan Landreth & Emily Parker
Emily Parker is a creator of Green Electronics: A U.S.-China Maker Challenge. The Green Electronics Challenge was an unprecedented collaboration between the New America Foundation, Arizona State University, Slate Magazine, China’s Tsinghua...

Video

08.12.14

Chinese Dreamers

Sharron Lovell & Tom Wang
A dream, in the truest sense, is a solo act. It can’t be created by committee or replicated en masse. Try as you might, you can’t compel your neighbor to conjure up the reverie that you envision. And therein lies the latent, uncertain energy in the...

China Says Over 150 “Economic Fugitives” at Large in the U.S.

Sui-Lee Wee
Reuters
The United States "has become the top destination for Chinese fugitives fleeing the law," the China Daily newspaper said, citing Liao Jinrong, director general of the ministry's International Cooperation Bureau.

Books

08.06.14

China’s Second Continent

Howard W. French
An exciting, hugely revealing account of China’s burgeoning presence in Africa—a developing empire already shaping, and reshaping, the future of millions of people. A prizewinning foreign correspondent and former New York Times bureau chief in Shanghai and in West and Central Africa, Howard French is uniquely positioned to tell the story of China in Africa. Through meticulous on-the-ground reporting—conducted in Mandarin, French, and Portuguese, among other languages—Howard French crafts a layered investigation of astonishing depth and breadth as he engages not only with policy-shaping moguls and diplomats, but also with the  ordinary men and women navigating the street-level realities of cooperation, prejudice, corruption, and opportunity forged by this seismic geopolitical development. With incisiveness and empathy, French reveals the human face of China’s economic, political, and human presence across the African continent—and in doing so reveals what is at stake for everyone involved.We meet a broad spectrum of China’s dogged emigrant population, from those singlehandedly reshaping African infrastructure, commerce, and even environment (a self-made tycoon who harnessed Zambia’s now-booming copper trade; a timber entrepreneur determined to harvest the entirety of Liberia’s old-growth redwoods), to those just barely scraping by (a sibling pair running small businesses despite total illiteracy; a karaoke bar owner–cum–brothel madam), still convinced that Africa affords them better opportunities than their homeland. And we encounter an equally panoramic array of African responses: a citizens’ backlash in Senegal against a “Trojan horse” Chinese construction project (a tower complex to be built over a beloved soccer field, which locals thought would lead to overbearing Chinese pressure on their economy); a Zambian political candidate who, having protested China’s intrusiveness during the previous election and lost, now turns accommodating; the ascendant middle class of an industrial boomtown; African mine workers bitterly condemning their foreign employers, citing inadequate safety precautions and wages a fraction of their immigrant counterparts’.French’s nuanced portraits reveal the paradigms forming around this new world order, from the all-too-familiar echoes of colonial ambition—exploitation of resources and labor; cut-rate infrastructure projects; dubious treaties—to new frontiers of cultural and economic exchange, where dichotomies of suspicion and trust, assimilation and isolation, idealism and disillusionment are in dynamic flux.Part intrepid travelogue, part cultural census, part industrial and political exposé, French’s keenly observed account ultimately offers a fresh perspective on the most pressing unknowns of modern Sino-African relations: why China is making the incursions it is, just how extensive its cultural and economic inroads are, what Africa’s role in the equation is, and just what the ramifications for both parties—and the watching world—will be in the foreseeable future. —Knopf {chop}

Viewpoint

08.05.14

Equal in Inequality?

Marc Blecher
For the past several months, readers around the world have been buying, discussing, and even occasionally reading Capital in the Twenty-First Century, French economist Thomas Piketty’s magisterial analysis of the relationship between capitalist...

Caixin Media

08.05.14

Top One Percent Has One-Third of China’s Wealth

A recent academic report on wealth inequality in China shows that the top one percent of households holds one-third of total assets, while the bottom fourth holds only one percent.The report, published by a research institute in Peking University,...

In Twist, China Stock Market is Haven Amid Storm

Adam Shell
USA Today
When you think of safe-haven investments, Chinese stocks don’t normally come to mind. But shares listed in Shanghai have been soaring recently at a time when most stock markets around the globe have been sliding.

Death Toll Rises to 75 in Chinese Factory Blast

Jack Chang
Associated Press
The death toll in for an explosion at a Chinese auto parts factory has risen to 75 people, as investigators fault poor safety measures and news reports reveal that workers had long complained of dangerous levels of dust.

Caixin Media

07.31.14

Ex-Politburo Members Accused of ‘Serious Discipline Violations’ Always Face Courts

After much speculation, the axe has finally fallen on Zhou Yongkang, the former public security chief and member of the Politburo Standing Committee, indicating the Communist Party’s campaign against corruption will grant no exceptions to the...

Books

07.31.14

Leftover Women

Leta Hong Fincher
A century ago, Chinese feminists fighting for the emancipation of women helped spark the Republican Revolution, which overthrew the Qing empire. After China's Communist revolution of 1949, Chairman Mao famously proclaimed that "women hold up half the sky." In the early years of the People's Republic, the Communist Party sought to transform gender relations with expansive initiatives such as assigning urban women jobs in the planned economy. Yet those gains are now being eroded in China's post-socialist era. Contrary to many claims made in the mainstream media, women in China have experienced a dramatic rollback of many rights and gains relative to men.Leftover Women debunks the popular myth that women have fared well as a result of post-socialist China's economic reforms and breakneck growth. Laying out the structural discrimination against women in China will speak to broader problems with China's economy, politics, and development.—Zed Books {chop}

The Diplomatic Battle Between China and Japan is Taking a Latin American Road Trip

Lily Kuo
Quartz
When Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe appeals to officials and business people in Central and South America this week, his hosts will be comparing him to another recent visitor: Chinese president Xi Jinping.

China Needs to Import More Food to Ease Water, Energy Shortages

David Stanway
Reuters
China should boost imports of food so it can dedicate more of its scarce water supplies to energy production, especially in arid but coal-rich regions like Xinjiang and Ningxia

Beijing Has Top-Secret View of China’s Employment

ALEX FRANGOS
Wall Street Journal
China’s government knows something investors don’t—well, a lot of things actually. But that is especially true when it comes to the country’s labor market.

China Manufacturing Gauge Rises to 18-Month High on Stimulus

Bloomberg
A Chinese manufacturing gauge rose to an 18-month high in July, bolstering the government’s chances of meeting its 2014 economic-growth target of about 7.5 percent.

Market Reforms, Fight against Corruption Go Hand in Hand, Expert Says

Zhou Dongxu
Peking University’s Li Chengyan argues the party is taking a two-pronged approach to reform, and institutional changes at local level will help make anti-graft campaign’s gains permanent.

Caixin Media

07.22.14

Stability the Watchword for Progress in China

Chinese diplomacy has had a busy few months, with numerous visits abroad by leaders and a constant stream of foreign leaders coming to the country.Amid the flurry of activity, two meetings were particularly noteworthy: the sixth U.S.-China Strategic...

Does Multimillion Dollar Chinese Investment Signal Detroit’s Rebirth?

Jonathan Kaiman
Guardian
With a weak US dollar, strong yuan and China’s own real estate market cooling after years of explosive growth, Detroit is an attractive—but high-risk—option for Chinese property developers.

China's Rich Look Abroad as Home Prices Fall, Others Stay Put

Xiaoyi Shao and Koh Gui Qing
Reuters
"Smart money" checking the exit is a bad omen for any market, especially one considered frothy after a five-year record-breaking bull run, but analysts say there is no reason for alarm yet.

China's Support of Latin America 'Doesn't Come for Free'

Víctor M. Mijares
Deutsche Welle
After the BRICS summit and a visit to Brazil, China's President Xi Jinping is embarking on a tour of Argentina, Venezuela and Cuba in a bid to boost ties and gain clout in the region.

China Home Prices Fall in Record Cities, Signaling More Easing

Bonnie Cao
Bloomberg
Prices fell in 55 of the 70 cities last month from May, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement today, the most since January 2011 when the government changed the way it compiles the statistics.

With Tensions Rising, Japanese Investment in China Plummets

Dexter Roberts
Businessweek
Another consequence of the worsening Sino-Japanese relations: Japanese investment into China dropped by nearly half in the first six month of 2014, according to a new report by China’s Ministry of Commerce.

China Tells U.S. To Stay Out of South China Seas Dispute

Ben Blanchard
Reuters
China told the United States on Tuesday to stay out of disputes over the South China Sea and leave countries in the region to resolve problems themselves, after Washington said it wanted a freeze on stoking tension.

Books

07.15.14

The Forbidden Game

Dan Washburn
In China, just because something is banned, doesn't mean it can't boom. Statistically, zero percent of the Chinese population plays golf, still known as the "rich man’s game" and considered taboo. Yet China is in the midst of a golf boom—hundreds of new courses have opened in the past decade, despite it being illegal for anyone to build them. Award-winning journalist Dan Washburn charts a vivid path through this contradictory country by following the lives of three men intimately involved in China's bizarre golf scene. We meet Zhou, a peasant turned golf pro who discovered the game when he won a job as a security guard at one of the new, exclusive clubs and who sees himself entering the emerging Chinese middle class as a result; Wang, a lychee farmer whose life is turned upside down when a massive, top-secret golf resort moves in next door to his tiny village; and Martin, a Western executive maneuvering through China’s byzantine and highly political business environment, ever watchful for Beijing's "golf police." The Forbidden Game is a rich and arresting portrait of the world’s newest superpower and three different paths to the new Chinese Dream. —Oneworld Publications {chop}

Chinese Banks Halt Experimental Yuan-Remittance Program

LingLing Wei
Wall Street Journal
China’s major banks have halted an experimental program, sanctioned by the country’s central bank, that helped citizens transfer large sums overseas despite government capital controls, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

China Looking to Play Larger Role in Funding Brazil’s Infrastructure

Paulo Trevisani and Rogerio Jelmayer
Wall Street Journal
Chinese officials are expected to announce investments in Brazil's transportation, energy and food sectors.

How Will Cyber Spying Impact U.S., China Relations?

Bloomberg
Bloomberg
Asia Society Senior Fellow Jamie Metzl discusses cyber spying and U.S., China relations and the re-militarization of Japan on “Bloomberg Surveillance.”

Watchdog Alleges Child Labor at Samsung Supplier Plant

Yun-Hee Kim
Wall Street Journal
A China Labor Watch reports alleges that one of Samsung's suppliers in China employs and underpays and undertrains children. Samsung says it is investigating the claims.

China Aims to Justify New Media Restrictions

Te-Ping Chen
Wall Street Journal
China moved to justify and explain a series of new restrictions on its media that tightened the government’s control of information in the world's No. 2 economy.

President Xi Welcomes Obama to Visit China for APEC Summit

Xinhua
Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Thursday that he welcomes and expects talks with Barack Obama when the U.S. president visits China to attend the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in November.

Conversation

07.09.14

The U.S. and China Are At the Table: What’s At Stake?

William Adams & Zha Daojiong
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew are in Beijing this week for the sixth session of the high level bilateral diplomatic exchange known as the Strategic and Economic Dialogue. We asked contributors what's likely...

Caixin Media

07.08.14

Hard Choices for Family Planners and Parents

The technocrats in charge of China's one-child policy have the power to force sterilizations, abortions, and intra-uterine device (IUD) implants, as well as punish uncooperative parents by denying them jobs, denying their children schooling,...

What You Need to Know About the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue

Richard C. Bush III, David Dollar,...
Since 2009, the Strategic and Economic Dialogue has offered a platform for both countries to address bilateral, regional and global challenges and opportunities, and this year’s meeting comes at a critical time to stabilize the U.S.-China...

China Says Consensus Reached on $100 Billion BRICS Bank

Reuters
The five BRICS nations have reached a broad consensus on their $100 billion development bank though some differences remain, a senior Chinese diplomat said ahead of a summit in Brazil next week.

Two Studies of Modern China: ‘Age of Ambition’ & ‘The New Emperors’

Isabel Hilton
Guardian
Evan Osnos examines a changing China through gentle reportage, while Kerry Brown provides illuminating forensic analysis of its vicious power struggles

Media

07.02.14

The Mogul Takes Manhattan

Lunch at Central Park's Loeb Boathouse is an elegant affair, popular among well-heeled tourists and alumni networking associations for its lakeside view and excellent service. But on Wednesday, June 25, the restaurant hosted hundreds of...

Billionaire South African Family Sells Wine to China Rich

Dylan Griffiths
Bloomberg
When 45 alumni of Tsinghua University, the alma mater of China’s last two leaders, stopped for lunch at La Motte vineyard in South Africa two years ago, they ordered 1.5 million rand ($141,000) of wine to take away.

China Housing Bubble Won’t Impact Global Financial Markets, Says Treasury Secretary Lew

Kenneth Rapoza
Forbes
The Treasury Secretary said China’s housing market was not connected to the rest of the world, and was generally not over leveraged like it was in the U.S. and Europe.

China Official Makes Rare Cross-Strait Trip in Effort to Forge Ties With Taiwan

Jenny W. Hsu
Wall Street Journal
China's top cross-strait negotiator began a landmark visit to Taiwan aimed at forging ties with the Taiwanese people amid growing skepticism toward Beijing.

Australia Says China Free Trade Deal Likely by End of Year

Michael Martina
Reuters
China and Australia, which have been trying to set up a bilateral free trade agreement for years, are determined to sign a deal by the end of this year, Australia's trade chief said on Tuesday after talks with Chinese leaders.

China’s Economic Power Buys British Silence on Human Rights

Jonathan Sullivan
South China Morning Post
For Prime Minister David Cameron and the British government, Premier Li Keqiang’s recent visit could not have gone better. Diplomatic relations, which turned frosty following Cameron's meeting with the Dalai Lama in 2012, are back on track.

Bangladesh Woos China in Snub to West

Syed Tashfin Chowdhury
Al Jazeera
India is likely to be watching closely as Sheikh Hasina bolsters ties with Beijing to repair dented legitimacy.

Bangladesh Woos China in Snub to West

Syed Tashfin Chowdhury
Al Jazeera
India is likely to be watching closely as Sheikh Hasina bolsters ties with Beijing to repair dented legitimacy.