Video
09.18.14
Collecting Insanity
Every country has a past it likes to celebrate and another it would rather forget. In China, where history still falls under the tight control of government-run museums and officially approved textbooks, the omissions appear especially stark. An...
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09.17.14Misunderstanding China
Wall Street Journal
How did Western policy makers and academics repeatedly get China so wrong?
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09.15.14Q. and A.: Yong Zhao on Education and Authoritarianism in China
New York Times
Yong Zhao, a professor of education at the University of Oregon, is the author of "Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon: Why China Has the Best (and Worst) Education System in the World.”
The NYRB China Archive
09.14.14
Sex in China: An Interview with Li Yinhe
from New York Review of Books
Li Yinhe is one of China’s best-known experts on sex and the family. A member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, she has published widely on sexual mores, women, and family issues. Li also runs a popular blog, where she has advocated for...
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09.12.14ChinaFile Recommends
09.12.14Foreign Journalists in China See Decline in Reporting Conditions
New York Times
Conditions for foreign journalists working in China have gone from bad to worse over the past year, according to a report issued on Friday by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China.
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09.11.14Majority in China Expect War with Japan
Financial Times
China and Japan are heading towards military conflict, according to a majority of Chinese surveyed on ties between the Asian powers in a Sino-Japanese poll.
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09.10.14China Asks U.S. to End Close-Up Military Surveillance
New York Times
The United States should halt its “close-in” aerial and naval surveillance of China, a senior Chinese military officer told Susan E. Rice, President Obama’s national security adviser.
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09.10.14Japanese People Hate China More Than Ever
Wall Street Journal
More than half of Japanese respondents who had a negative impression of China thought the country’s actions were incompatible with international rules.
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09.09.14Could China’s Anti-Japan Propaganda Hurt Alibaba’s Image at Home?
Offbeat China
With Alibaba's IPO price set between $60 to $66, the company’s market valuation could hit as much as $200 billion, if everything goes as planned.
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09.09.14Xi Calls for More Strategic Trust Between China, U.S.
Xinhua
Xi said China stands ready to build a new model of major-country relations with the United States based on non-confrontation, non-conflict, mutual respect and win-win cooperation.
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09.08.14U.S. Group Says China Could Be Violating Trade Accords
New York Times
The US Chamber of Commerce, which is based in Washington, raises the possibility of a new approach to China’s increasingly vigilant antitrust actions: lodging a complaint at the World Trade Organization, which China joined in 2001.
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09.05.14'Capture' of Chinese national fighting with ISIS gives China jitters
CNN
It's not clear how many Chinese nationals may be fighting with the ISIS. Wu Sike, until recently China's special envoy to the Middle East, earlier stated that there could be about 100 of them.
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09.04.14The Struggle for Hong Kong
Economist
The territory’s citizens must not give up demanding full democracy—for their sake and for China’s.
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09.04.14Iraqis Identify Prisoner as Chinese Islamist Fighter
New York Times
Chinese officials have in the past expressed concerns about citizens’ venturing abroad to join ISIS or other jihadist groups in the Middle East, or of their being influenced by such groups to carry out attacks within China.
Photo Gallery
09.03.14
Xinjiang Unsettled
My first trip to Xinjiang was in 1995; it was also my first trip to China. The UN’s World Conference on Women was taking place in Beijing and I could only manage to secure a visa for China on the condition that I would not go to Beijing (the...
Viewpoint
09.02.14
The Danger of China’s ‘Chosen Trauma’
When we see young Chinese people at a state event collectively chant, “Do not forget national humiliation and realize the Chinese dream!” we may be tempted to dismiss it as yet another piece of CCP propaganda. But we may also find ourselves...
Conversation
09.02.14
Hong Kong—Now What?
David Schlesinger:Hong Kong’s tragedy is that its political consciousness began to awaken precisely at the time when its leverage with China was at its lowest ebb.Where once China needed Hong Kong as an entrepôt, legal center, financial center,...
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09.02.14Hong Kong’s Democracy Dilemma
New York Times
In a huge rally on Sunday in Hong Kong, democratic groups already were declaring a new era of civil disobedience.
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09.02.14China Opposes Proposed EU Sanctions Against Russia
Reuters
EU proposed sanctions against Russia over accusations Moscow was sending troops into Ukrainian territory, saying the European Union's push to draw up more measures would only complicate the crisis.
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09.02.14China Accuses MPs of Hong Kong ‘Interference’
BBC
The Chinese authorities have accused British MPs of interfering in Hong Kong's affairs.
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09.02.14Mongolia's ‘Rebalance’ Towards Russia and China
Deutsche Welle
In a bid to boost its ailing economy, Mongolia is refocusing its foreign policy on its traditional partners Russia and China. But experts warn Ulan Bator runs the risk of becoming increasingly dependent.
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09.02.14China’s Hong Kong Mistake
New Yorker
The Beijing government has rejected demands for free, open elections for Hong Kong’s next chief executive, in 2017, enraging protesters who had called for broad rights to nominate candidates.
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08.29.14Will China Vet Hong Kong Election?
Christian Science Monitor
The occupation of Hong Kong's central financial district could start early next week, after Beijing releases its guidelines Sunday on how the city's next leader will be elected.
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08.29.14China’s Toilet Paper Makers Flush With Cash
Forbes
China’s invention of toilet paper in the 6th century, came well ahead of the availability of modern toilet paper in the United States, where inventor Joseph Gayetty first marketed it in 1857.
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08.27.14Xi Eyes Mended China-Vietnam Ties
Xinhua
China and Vietnam will earnestly implement a basic guideline for the resolution of China-Vietnam maritime issues signed in October 2011.
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08.25.14China Says 8 Executed in Western Region; Charges Stem From Separatist Attacks
New York Times
The executions were the latest in a succession of displays of might and resolve by the Chinese government, which is trying to extinguish increasingly violent discontent among Uighurs in Xinjiang.
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08.23.14Xi Jinping Wants to be Seen As on a Par with Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping
South China Morning Post
Xi Jinping has amassed more power in 20 months than his two immediate predecessors, but it may be premature to call him China's new strongman.
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08.21.14New Map Shows China’s True Expanse, General Says
New York Times
A new vertical map of China issued in June by the Hunan Map Publishing House, uses 10 dashes around the South China Sea to broadly delineate China’s claims to contested waters, shoals, rocks, reefs and islands there.
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08.21.14ChinaFile Recommends
08.21.14Reading Howl in China
Aeon Magazine
My generation, once impassioned by the Western literature of rebellion, is now lulled by ‘Wealthy Socialism.’
The NYRB China Archive
08.21.14
Wang Lixiong and Woeser: A Way Out of China’s Ethnic Unrest?
from New York Review of Books
Woeser and Wang Lixiong are two of China’s best-known thinkers on the government’s policy toward ethnic minorities. With violence in Tibet and Xinjiang now almost a monthly occurrence, I met them at their apartment in Beijing to talk about the issue...
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08.20.14Chinese Rights Lawyer Grilled by Police Over Meetings with US Envoy, ‘Insults’ to Officials
Reuters
Lawyer says timing of police questioning about well-known events could mean that authorities plan to charge Pu Zhiqiang with collusion.
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08.20.14China’s Xi Jinping Seeks Launch of New Media Clusters
Variety
Xi said that the new groups should be “diversified,” “advanced,” and “competitive” and said that state authorities should properly integrate and manage traditional and new media.”
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08.19.14China Chides U.S. Over Ferguson Violence, American Racism
McClatchy
State media of the world’s largest country has stepped up coverage of the Ferguson violence and protests, publishing commentaries accusing the United States of hypocrisy in seeking to be a global guardian of human rights.Read more here: http://www...
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08.19.14China Said to Deploy Drones After Unrest in Xinjiang
New York Times
Three days after an eruption of violence in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang this summer left nearly 100 people dead, the region’s “antiterrorist command” asked the country’s biggest space and defense contractor for help.
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08.18.14Mao’s Little Red Book, Meet Xi Jinping’s Collected Speeches
Wall Street Journal
Since its publication not quite two months ago, the somewhat turgidly named “A Reader of General-Secretary Xi Jinping’s Important Speeches” has already sold 10 million copies, its publisher reports.
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08.16.14Japan’s Abe Avoids Yasukuni Shrine
Washington Post
Japanese prime minister skips visit to controversial shrine to war dead in hopes of meeting with China’s Presidnet Xi Jinping.
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08.16.14In China’s Shadow, U.S. Courts Old Foe Vietnam
New York Times
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, courted Vietnam over the past several days.
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08.16.14Vietnam and China—Through a Border Darkly
Economist
Relations between two Communist neighbors are at their lowest point in decades.
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08.14.14My Chinese Education
New York Times
One Tibetan recounts how Beijing’s education system suffocates minority culture serving to unify the country under the rule of the dominant Han ethnic group.
Conversation
08.11.14
Simon Leys Remembered
Isabel Hilton: When I heard the news of the death of Pierre Ryckmans, better known by his pen name, Simon Leys, I began to hunt in my bookshelves for the now yellowing and grimy copies of Chinese Shadows and The Chairman’s New Clothes: Mao and the...
Culture
08.11.14
The Bard in Beijing
At the end of a rollicking production of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream—directed by Tim Robbins and staged in China in June by the Los Angeles-based Actors’ Gang—the director and actors returned to the stage for a dialogue with the...
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08.07.14China Says Japan Fighter Jets Shadowed its Planes over Disputed Waters
Reuters
Tension has been high between Asia's two largest economies in recent months, with each accusing the other of flying military aircraft too close to its own jets in a long-running territorial dispute.
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08.04.14China Says Can Build What it Wants on South China Sea Isles
Reuters
China can build whatever it wants on its islands in the South China Sea, a senior Chinese official said, rejecting proposals ahead of a key regional meeting to freeze any activity that may raise tensions in disputed waters there.
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07.31.14Zhang Tiesheng: From Leftist Hero to Multimillionaire
Guardian
Zhang was 22 when he came to national attention in 1973, after he wrote to leaders excoriating the examination as a return to the capitalist model of education. Now 63, he is a major shareholder in the publicly-traded Wellhope Agri-Tech.
Conversation
07.31.14
Zhou Yongkang’s Downfall
On July 29, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Chinese Communisty Party announced it was investigating ex-security czar Zhou Yongkang “on suspicion of grave violations of discipline.” Zhou, who retired from the Politburo...
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07.30.14Beijing Begins Apparent Corruption Probe Into High-Level Official
NPR
China has begun investigations into one of the country's senior politicians. Zhou Yongkang was a former domestic security chief, and he's suspected of "serious disciplinary violations" — a phrase which usually stands for...
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07.28.14China’s Leaders Draw Lessons From War of ‘Humiliation’
New York Times
The lessons from the twilight of the Qing Dynasty have become all the more pointed today, when Chinese-Japanese ties are tenser than they have been for decades, and President Xi Jinping of China has embarked on an ambitious program to overhaul the...
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07.22.14Defining Taiwan’s Status Quo
Thinking Taiwan
This month, the Democratic Progressive Party chairperson proposed a controversial amednment to the party charter that includes a freeze on the party’s independence clause.
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07.17.14Japan’s Opposition Leader Visits Beijing, Vows Candid Talks
China Daily
Banri Kaieda, who arrived in Beijing on July 15, told journalists that he would discuss with high-ranking Chinese officials ways to break the impasse in ties and smooth out disputes China has with current Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Environment
07.10.14
U.S.-China Climate Cooperation More Crucial Than Ever
from chinadialogue
As the governments of the United States and China meet in Beijing this week for the Sixth U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED), one area worth watching closely is clean energy and climate change cooperation. While this topic may...
The NYRB China Archive
07.10.14
Tibet Resists
from New York Review of Books
Tsering Woeser was born in Lhasa in 1966, the daughter of a senior officer in the Chinese army. She became a passionate supporter of the Dalai Lama. When she was very young the family moved to Tibetan towns inside China proper. In school, only...
Conversation
07.09.14
The U.S. and China Are At the Table: What’s At Stake?
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...
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07.07.14China’s Rise and Asian Tensions Send U.S. Relations Into Downward Spiral
Washington Post
Hundreds of rocky islands, islets, sandbanks, reefs and cays lie scattered across Asia’s eastern waters, unimportant-looking to the naked eye but significant enough to spark what may be the most worrying deterioration in U.S.-China relations in...
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07.07.14China’s State Media Goes Into Overdrive Over the Marco Polo Incident
Wall Street Journal
President Xi Jinping led other members of the leadership to the area on the western outskirts of Beijing where 77 years ago Japanese troops attacked Chinese soldiers. The 1937 skirmish led to Japan invading much of eastern China and...
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07.07.14Shadow of Brutal ’79 War Darkens Vietnam’s View of China Relations
New York Times
She was 14 when Chinese artillery fire echoed across the hills around her home in northern Vietnam, and hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers swarmed across the border.
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07.07.14Is Xi Jinping Trying to Provoke Anger Against Japan?
BBC
More than 1,000 top Communist officials, military veterans and young children, turned out for a highly choreographed memorial marking the Marco Polo bridge incident which sparked the Sino-Japanese in 1937.
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07.06.14Two Studies of Modern China: ‘Age of Ambition’ & ‘The New Emperors’
Guardian
Evan Osnos examines a changing China through gentle reportage, while Kerry Brown provides illuminating forensic analysis of its vicious power struggles
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07.01.14Is Japan Targeting China in Next Move?
Xinhua
The Japanese government’s endorsing of a reinterpretation of its pacifist Constitution on Tuesday for the right to collective self-defense is a dangerous move that will lead to security worries for other Asian countries.