Media
02.15.13
Free Coffee for North Korea?
What should China do to persuade its moody ally North Korea to comply with international restrictions on its nuclear ambitions?“Free conference rooms, free coffee, free soft drinks and dessert,” was the surprising and quickly viral Internet...
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02.15.13Vows of Change in China Belie Private Warning
New York Times
Xi Jinping told party insiders during a visit to Guangdong Province in December, China must still heed the “deeply profound” lessons of the former Soviet Union.
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02.15.13A War Between China and Japan: What it Could Cost You
Online MBA
Global economists are keeping their eyes glued to the Asia-Pacific region, where a bitter feud is brewing between two of the world’s most powerful nations over a small collectivity of islands in the East China Sea. The Chinese government argues that...
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02.14.13North Korea, China Do Their Usual Dance
Christian Science Monitor
North Korea and China have done it again—call it the Pyongyang-Beijing two-step. Though Beijing registered ‘firm opposition’ to North Korea’s nuclear weapons test, it is unlikely to exercise its unique leverage on North Korea to encourage change.
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02.14.13American Policy Towards China: Getting Beyond the Friend-Or-Foe Fallacy
New American Foundation
It is not widely accepted that any meaningful relationship can be boiled down to a single index that quantifies where it is at any moment and whether it is “better’’ or “worse” than a week or a month ago.
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02.13.13Rebuilding a Relationship, an Interview with Japan’s Ambassador to China
Japan's new envoy to Beijing, Masato Kitera, says his country will never escalate tensions with China, and points out the two countries have a range of issues they cooperate on...
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02.13.13North Korea Nuclear Test Irks Ally China
Los Angeles Times
The test, held during a major Chinese holiday, is seen as a slap in the face to Beijing. But experts say China has more to lose by downgrading its bumpy ties.
Conversation
02.13.13
North Korea: How Much More Will China Take and How Should the U.S. Respond?
China is increasingly frustrated with North Korea and may even see more clearly that its actions only serve to increase allied unity, stimulate Japanese militarism and accelerate missile defense. For all these reasons the U.S. should lean on Beijing...
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02.12.13Not a Shred of Face: China Reacts to North Korean Nuke Test
Wall Street Journal
Is Kim Jong Eun deliberately trying to insult China? That was the question on the minds of some Chinese following a nuclear test in North Korea that left even the Hermit Kingdom’s closest ally feeling flustered.
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02.12.13North Korea’s Nuclear Test: Are You Listening America?
Economist
EARS shut to the impending chorus of international condemnation, North Korea conducted its third nuclear test on February 12th. It said the detonation was of a “smaller and light” atomic bomb that was different from its previous two, and that it had...
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02.12.13Nuclear Test Poses Big Challenge to China’s New Leader
New York Times
North Korea's nuclear test in defiance of China’s warnings leaves that country’s new leader, Xi Jinping, with a choice: Does he upset North Korea just a bit by agreeing to stepped up United Nations sanctions, or does he rattle the regime by...
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02.05.13Japan Protests to China After Radar Pointed At Vessel
Reuters
A Chinese vessel pointed a type of radar normally used to help guide missiles at a Japanese navy ship near disputed East China Sea islets, prompting the Japanese government to lodge a protest with China, Japanese public broadcaster NHK said.
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02.03.13China’s String of Fake Pearls (Blog)
Foreign Policy
For the past few years, a low level theme that occasionally pops into my news feed is the idea of greater Sino-Pakistani cooperation. Now this has a certain amount of realpolitik sense to it. The United States and Pakistan are...
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01.31.13China to Tibetans: Stay Put
Atlantic
The Chinese Communist Party's repression of its Tibetan minority now extends, apparently, to travel. Few Tibetans have been issued passports since last spring. Beijing has yet to comment officially about this issue, but its approach to Tibet...
Conversation
01.30.13
China, Japan and the Islands: What Do the Tensions Mean?
How did the Diaoyu, Spratly, and Paracel islands come to replace Taiwan as the main source of tension for maritime Asia? And how are we to explain the fact that China’s foreign policy toward its Asian neighbors has now morphed from such slogans as...
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01.30.13China Announces Naval Exercises Amid Japan Tensions
Associated Press
China said Wednesday that its navy would proceed with a deep-water training exercise amid a continuing spat with Japan over disputed islands in the East China Sea that has sparked regular confrontations among patrol boats from each side.
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01.30.13China Leader Affirms Policy on Islands
New York Times
China won't bargain over what it deems to be “core” territorial and security interests, the country’s top leader, Xi Jinping, said in his first published speech setting out his foreign policy views since taking over as head of the Communist...
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01.28.13Xi Jinping’s Opposition to Political Reforms Laid out in Leaked Internal Speech
South China Morning Post
Beijing-based writer Gao Yu’s writing on a speech Xi Jinping made during his “southern tour” in December, suggests Xi, who blames those not “man enough” to do what had to be done to save the Soviet Communist Party from itself, has even...
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01.28.13Beijing Observation: Xi Jinping the Man
Seeing Red in China
Xi Jinping’s “new southern tour speech,” made in December, began circulating last week in the party. It reads like a confirmation of Harvard Professor Roderick MacFarquhar’s prediction that the likelihood of the Chinese Communist Party reforming...
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01.26.13New Komeito, LDP at Odds Over How to Improve Ties with China
Asahi Shimbun
New Komeito leader Natsuo Yamaguchi's meeting on Jan. 25 with Chinese leader Xi Jinping highlighted the differences emerging within the ruling coalition over how to improve ties with Beijing...
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01.25.13China Wouldn’t Mind a Unified Korea--Just Not Yet
Atlantic
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, China has had the dubious distinction of being North Korea’s only ally and friend on the world stage.
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01.23.13Pressures at Home, Tensions Offshore
Deal Book
It is tempting to conclude that the increasingly dangerous dispute between China and Japan over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands is driven in part by Beijing’s need to distract its populace from problems at home
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01.22.13The Next War?
TomDispatch
China, Japan, and various other Asian countries insist a group of tiny islands are theirs alone. Toss in national pride and you have the potential for one of the dumber, more destructive face-offs in recent history.
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01.21.13China Says U.S. Culpable in Japan Island Dispute
Associated Press
China says the U.S. has "undeniable historical responsibility" in Beijing's dispute with Japan over islands in the East China Sea...
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01.21.13China Urges Cautious U.N. Resolution on North Korea
Reuters
China says the United Nations Security Council need pass a cautious resolution on North Korea's December rocket launch, saying that was the way to ensure regional tensions do not escalate further...
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01.21.13A New Opportunity for China-South Korea Relations Under Park Geun-hye and Xi Jinping?
Council on Foreign Relations
South Korea and China are natural economic partners, but North Korea continues to rear its head as a challenging sticking point between the two sides.
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01.20.13China’s Risky Path, from Revolution to War
Daily Beast
The scenario of abrupt bottom-up revolution occurring in China has recently generated much debate.
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01.20.13China Seeks Peaceful End to Dispute as Japan Pledges Calm
Bloomberg
China wants to settle territorial issues peacefully and criticized U.S. Secretary of State Clinton for comments made after she met Japan’s Foreign Minister.
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01.19.13Infographic Map: Territorial Disputes Involving Japan
New York Times
Territorial disputes linked to Japan’s 20th-century military expansion across Asia, which ended in World War II, persist today.
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01.19.13Abe Adviser: Japan, China Need “Rules of the Game”
Reuters
China scrambled two J-10 fighters last week after two Japanese F-15s followed a Chinese military aircraft on a "routine patrol"...
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01.17.13The Drums of War: China and Japan Square Up
Economist
Watch Chinese TV these days and you might conclude that the outbreak of war with Japan over what it calls the Senkaku and China the Diaoyu islands is imminent.
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01.15.13Talking Trust with China's Army
New York Times
With suspicion apparently the order of the day in East and Southeast Asia, an American scholar's visit to a Chinese military forum turned up some fascinating things to say...
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01.07.13Why China and Japan Can't Get Along (Opinion)
New York Times
There are few societies on earth more complementary than China's and Japan's. But Japan is afraid of China’s rise, and China is troubled by Japan...
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12.28.12China's Central Bank, Aircraft Carrier Style
Wall Street Journal
The People’s Bank of China will issue gold and silver coins celebrating the nation's first aircraft carrier. ...
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12.27.12China's Giant New Warplane Will Look Awfully Familiar to the U.S. Air Force
Wired
China's military has released photos of a prototype heavy transport warplane resembling the U.S. Air Force’s workhorse C-17...
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12.26.12Pentagon Preps Stealth Strike Force to Counter China
Wired
The U.S. military will over the next five years see each of its three main stealth warplane types deployed to bases near China.
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12.24.12China Assails U.S. Over Alliance with Japan and Possible F-16 Sales to Taiwan
New York Times
State-run news media attacked the passage of a new U.S. military spending bill that is awaiting President Obama’s signature.
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12.13.12Beijing’s Test of Tokyo
Council on Foreign Relations
China and Japan have been drawing lines in the waters around the Senkaku Islands (Diaoyu Islands for the Chinese) almost daily since the Japanese government under Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda purchased these islands from a private owner on...
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12.12.12In the People’s Liberation Army
New York Review of Books
Mo Yan, recent recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, describes an experience in the People's Liberation Army in the 1970s. This text is excerpted from his part fiction, part memoir Change...
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12.06.12Mongolia Finds China Can Be Too Close for Comfort
Associated Press
In a global rush to get rich off China, Mongolia works to ensure that Chinese investment doesn't become Chinese dominance...
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12.02.12Alarm as China Issues Rules for Disputed Area
New York Times
New rules announced by a Chinese province last week to allow interceptions of ships in the South China Sea are raising concerns in the region, and in Washington, that simmering disputes with Southeast Asian countries over the waters will escalate.
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11.29.12Opinion: Triumverate Puts China in Crosshairs, but Future Joint Accord Unlikely
Global Times
A Cold War mentality pitting the U.S., India and Japan against China will lead nowhere because of reluctance to overly provoke Beijing, a Chinese Japan scholar says.
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11.27.12China's Passport Propaganda Baffles Experts
Christian Science Monitor
Vietnam and India are angry at new P.R.C. passports picturing disputed land and sea as China's. ...
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11.20.12Op-Ed: Japan-China Relations at a Crossroads
New York Times
Japan's foreign minister argues that there is no doubt that the Senkaku Islands, known as the Diaoyu in China, are a part of Japan...
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11.17.12The Saturday Profile: Peng Liyuan, First Lady of China
New York Times
The top pop-folk icon is beloved for a glass-cracking soprano and her range of roles, from Tibetan yak herder to stiff-lipped general.
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11.17.12China Says Does Not Want South China Sea Overshadowing Summit
Reuters
China's claim to a stretch of water off its south coast also claimed by neighbors makes it Asia's biggest potential military hot spot. ...
Viewpoint
11.13.12
China’s Next Leaders: A Guide to What’s at Stake
Just a little more than a week after the American presidential election, China will choose its own leaders in its own highly secretive way entirely inside the Communist Party. What’s at stake for China—and for the rest of the world—is not just who...
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11.13.12The U.S.-China Reset
New York Times
The leaders of the U.S. and China may not want to say it out loud, but they would privately admit that U.S.-China relations are in trouble.
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11.11.12Exclusive: Hu Jintao Set to Step Down as Military Chief
South China Morning Post
Outgoing President Hu Jintao will formally relinquish his position as military chief at the end of the 18th party congress this week, according to sources.His decision to opt for complete retirement surprised many analysts, who had expected him to...
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11.10.12China to Launch New Manned Spaceship in 2013-Xinhua
Reuters
The launch marks a step forward in Beijing's ambitions for a bigger space presence, including construction of a space station by 2020...
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10.23.12China Reshuffles Top Military
Reuters
Outgoing air force commander General Xu Qiliang, 62, promoted to vice-chairman of the military's top decision-making body. ...
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10.20.12"The Revolutionary": An Unrequited Love for China
NPR
In a new documentary on his life, Sidney Rittenberg, who once translated for Mao, refers to his jailer as both a hero and criminal.
Reports
10.18.12
Cyber Detente Between the United States and China
EastWest Institute
In May 2012, the United States and China agreed publicly for the first time to begin talks on military aspects of cybersecurity. The agenda and expectations for this process at the official level remain to be set. Through Track 2 processes some very...
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10.14.12Against Backdrop of Dispute with China, Japan Shows Off Navy
Associated Press
Japan’s navy marked 60th year with major exercise, showing off maritime strength amid territorial dispute with China.
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10.12.12Japan and China Agree to Talks on Rift after Noda Call
Bloomberg
Talks aim to reduce tensions over territorial dispute, avoid suffering in Asia’s biggest economies.
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10.10.12Noda Calls for China Talks as Island Spat Threatens Growth
Bloomberg
PM calls for talks to contain economic damage from dispute with Japan's No. 1 trade partner...
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10.10.12Five Points on the Deeply Flawed U.S. Congress Huawei Report
Transpacifica
Chinese telecomms firms painted as shady, but evidence to back up allegations is hidden in report's classified sections...
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10.09.12The Pivot (Video)
University of Southern California, U.S.-China Institute
The Obama administration has made Asia a top priority for U.S. foreign policy. The move has been dubbed "The Pivot," and it has the potential to be one of the most enduring legacies of the Obama presidency...
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09.25.12China Shows Off an Aircraft Carrier but Experts Are Skeptical
New York Times
In a ceremony attended by the country’s top leaders, China put its first aircraft carrier into service on Tuesday, a move intended to signal its growing military might as tensions escalate between Beijing and its neighbors over islands in nearby...
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09.24.12Flag Raising Ceremony Held on China’s First Aircraft Carrier
Danwei
Various front pages in China today feature glowing reports of China’s first aircraft carrier on whose platform a flag raising ceremony was held yesterday. Yet the fact that it happened is just about everything we know for sure about the ship. The...