ChinaFile Recommends
10.29.15White House Moves to Reassure Allies With South China Sea Patrol, but Quietly
New York Times
Lawmakers and national security hawks have urged President Obama to stand up to China’s land reclamation of disputed islands.
Media
10.29.15Ai Weiwei Doesn’t Need Anyone to Give Him Legos
The noted Chinese artist and perennial dissident Ai Weiwei recently announced that Lego, a Denmark-based company, had refused his request to purchase more than a million of the tiny toy bricks for an Australian display of his work “Trace,” a...
Conversation
10.28.15Making Waves in the South China Sea
Challenging China’s newly assertive behavior in the South China Sea, this week the U.S. Navy sailed some of its biggest ships inside the nine-dash line, exercising its claim to freedom of movement in international waters plied by billions in trade...
Media
10.28.15‘Stop Boasting and Fight’
On October 27, the high-stakes maritime game of chicken that has been playing out in the South China Sea came to a head. In a long-discussed freedom of navigation patrol, the United States sailed the USS Lassen, a guided missile destroyer, within 12...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.28.15Can Xi Jinping Control China’s Wave of Change?
Washington Post
“Party tightens grip on dissenting voices,” headlined the South China Morning Post on Friday.
Caixin Media
10.27.15Does the Punishment Fit the Corruption?
After Chen Bokui, the deputy head of a government advisory body in the central province of Hubei, was convicted of taking 2.8 million yuan in bribes by a court in the eastern province of Fujian in April, he received a somewhat stiff sentence—17...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.27.15Criticism of the UK’s New Approach to China Is Misplaced
Diplomat
Wait for some evidence before assuming that only bad can come from good relations.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.27.15America’s Society Is Wealthier Than China’s – And It Doesn’t Matter
Diplomat
The large gap in private wealth has limited significance.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.27.15Where Does Britain Draw the Line with Saudi Arabia and China?
Guardian
UK economy needs the cash flowing in, but politicians should be wary of throwing out all principle in favour of business.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.27.15In the Race for Africa, India and China Aren’t All That Different
Quartz
During the third India-Africa Summit, Indian officials are working hard to differentiate their country from China.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.27.15Psychedelic Video Sings Praises of China's Five Year-Plan
Agence France-Presse
"If you wanna know what China's gonna do, best pay attention to the shisanwu."
ChinaFile Recommends
10.27.15China Says It Warned and Tracked U.S. Warship in South China Sea
CNN
Chinese government: Don't push us
ChinaFile Recommends
10.27.15President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe Turns Down Confucius Peace Prize
New York Times
Mr. Mugabe decided to reject the prize after learning that it had nothing to do with the Chinese government.
Sinica Podcast
10.27.15Hope and Fear in the Age of Asia
from Sinica Podcast
The West has spent decades pleading with China to become a responsible stakeholder in the global community, but what happens now that China is starting to take a more proactive role internationally? In this podcast, Kaiser Kuo and David Moser are...
Culture
10.26.15Xi Jinping on What’s Wrong with Contemporary Chinese Culture
from China Film Insider
At the Beijing Forum on Literature and Art last October, President Xi Jinping spoke to a high-level audience of arts professionals about the role of arts and culture in China. The event, along with excerpts of the October 15, 2014 speech, given in...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.26.15Two-Child Policy Is Too Little, Too Late
Bloomberg
When Chinese leaders convene this week for a four-day meeting on the future of the country’s economy, the biggest news might have to do with babies.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.26.15India Is Spending Billions to Populate a Remote Area Claimed by China
Bloomberg
"If China is developing on their side of the territory, we should develop on our side."
ChinaFile Recommends
10.26.15Leaving China? Your books, Maps and DVDs May Be Confiscated
Los Angeles Times
An odd thing happened when movers came to box up Ruth Kirchner's furnishings as she was preparing to return to Berlin after a decade in China.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.26.15Mark Zuckerberg Courts China With Speech on People and Perseverance
New York Times
Mark Zuckerberg knows how to court Chinese users.
Media
10.23.15The Eagle, the Dragon, and the ‘Excellent Sheep’
Former Yale University English professor William Deresiewicz’s book, Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life, created a firestorm in the United States when it was released in August 2014. “The...
Caixin Media
10.23.15Hemingway's Literary Escape
One noonday in 2002, a friendly acquaintance of mine—I’ll call him Q—left his office in a Beijing concert hall to go to lunch and never returned. After a series of inquiries, his wife and colleagues learned that he had been arrested. Various charges...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.23.151 Month Later: What Are the Long-Term Implications of Xi's U.S. Trip?
Diplomat
While political and security matters dominated headlines, Xi’s U.S. trip was actually driven by economics.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.23.15How Hungry Is China for the World's Food?
CNBC
China's transformation from an agrarian economy remains a work in progress.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.23.15Beijing Says Won't Give up Position that Taiwan's Part of China
Reuters
Chinese people have a "sacred mission" to ensure Taiwan is always considered part of China.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.23.15Xi’s Visit to Britain Highlights Broader Shift in Concerns About China
New York Times
The visit to Britain by Xi Jinping is underscoring how European nations are de-emphasizing human rights and security concerns.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.23.15China Hopes to See A United EU, Xi Tells Britain on Visit
Reuters
Chinese President Xi Jinping has told Britain he wants to see a united European Union.
Environment
10.22.15China's Boom Has Hurt Wetlands, Threatens Extinction of Rare Birds
from chinadialogue
The destruction of China’s wetlands, which are critical stopping points for birds migrating as far away as the Arctic or the South Pacific, threatens mass extinctions of species across East Asia, new research has found.Besides providing shelter and...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.22.15China Golf: Communist Party Bans Club Membership
BBC
Extravagant eating and drinking, and abuse of power, are also formally banned.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.22.15Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe Awarded 'China's Nobel Peace Prize'
Guardian
Confucius peace prize chairman defends decision to give award to leader accused of using systematic violence to maintain power.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.22.15Human Rights: What Is China Accused of?
BBC
China's human rights record has been criticised for years.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.22.15China Plans 2020 Deadline for Dismantling Capital Controls
Bloomberg
Top officials in the Communist Party will discuss pledging to “make the yuan convertible under the capital account".
ChinaFile Recommends
10.22.15Philippines Says Handing China Suspects in Diplomats' Shooting
Reuters
Two Chinese diplomats suspected of killing two colleagues will be granted diplomatic immunity and handed over to Chinese authorities.
The NYRB China Archive
10.22.15The Bloodthirsty Deng We Didn’t Know
from New York Review of Books
“Deng was…a bloody dictator who, along with Mao, was responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent people, thanks to the terrible social reforms and unprecedented famine of 1958–1962.” This is the conclusion of Alexander Pantsov and Steven...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.21.15Many in the West Fear Chinese ‘Aid’ to Africa. They’re Wrong. Here’s Why.
Washington Post
Western pundits have a narrative about China’s activities in Africa.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.21.15As Britain Greets Xi With Pageantry, Magna Carta Gets Less-Than-Royal Treatment in China
WSJ: China Real Time Report
ChinaFile Recommends
10.21.15Britain Should Harness the Power of China's Red Tech Revolution
Telegraph
China's start-up culture means the best jobs of the future may soon be, not here, but in the East.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.21.15China Turns to Online Courses, and Mao, for Soft-Power Mission
New York Times
“It was like watching propaganda.”
ChinaFile Recommends
10.21.15This Nuclear Power Deal With China Is One of the Maddest Ever Struck
Guardian
The grand kowtow continues its humiliating progress today, but beggars can’t be choosers.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.21.15Britain 'Sucking up' to China Is a National Humiliation, Says PM's Former Adviser
Guardian
Steve Hilton denounces lavish treatment of President Xi Jinping, saying UK should consider sanctions on China ‘not rolling out red carpet’.
Sinica Podcast
10.21.15Tu Youyou and the Nobel Prize
from Sinica Podcast
This week on Sinica, hosts Kaiser Kuo, Jeremy Goldkorn, and David Moser speak with Christina Larson and Ian Johnson about Tu Youyou, the scientist who recently shared a Nobel Prize in Medicine for her discovery of the anti-malaria compound...
Caixin Media
10.20.15Moving 2 Million People for Beijing’s Urban Reset
Nearly 2 million Beijing residents will be moved to the city’s outlying districts from the center by 2020 as part of a massive urban revamp designed to better control people, traffic, and smog.The movers include up to 1 million government workers...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.20.15The Real Story Behind China’s Alleged Conquest of African Farmland
Quartz
“A common perception is that China is supporting Chinese enterprises to acquire land abroad as part of a national food security strategy.”
ChinaFile Recommends
10.20.15China Says South China Sea Lighthouses Not Meant to Alter 'Status Quo'
Reuters
China says its lighthouses on Cuarteron Reef and Johnson South Reef in the Spratly islands will assist navigational security.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.20.15Xi Jinping Visit: Chinese Leader Given Ceremonial Welcome
BBC
China's President Xi Jinping is receiving a ceremonial welcome by the Queen as he begins the first full day of his visit to the UK.
Conversation
10.20.15Britain: ‘China’s Best Partner in the West’?
This week, Xi Jinping is in Great Britain for a state visit, his first since assuming leadership of China nearly three years ago. Britain’s government under David Cameron has signaled—increasingly loudly in recent months—that it hopes to usher in a...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.19.15Feminism With Chinese Characteristics
Diplomat
China is making progress on women’s issues, but anyone trying to publicize remaining issues faces a serious backlash.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.19.15Here’s Why Xi Jinping’s ‘Chinese Dream’ Differs Radically From the American Dream
Time
Xi’s Chinese Dream is protean.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.19.15In a Region Disturbed by Ethnic Tensions, China Keeps Tight Lid on a Massacre
New York Times
Armed with only knives, the assailants struck at the coal mine in the dead of night.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.19.15Prince William to Give Ivory Trade Speech as China's President Xi Arrives
BBC
The Duke of Cambridge is to deliver a speech on the illegal ivory trade for broadcast on Chinese state TV.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.19.15China and UK: Signs of a New 'Special Relationship?'
CNN
Does the UK have a new "special relationship?"
Environment
10.19.15Can the South-North Water Transfer Project and Industry Co-Exist?
from chinadialogue
Sixty-two years after Chairman Mao first envisioned the South-North Water Transfer project, the Middle Route (SNWT-MR) formally began transferring supplies of water from Danjiangkou reservoir on the border of Hubei and Henan in December 2014.In the...
Conversation
10.16.15Is There a China Model?
The most recent public event in our ChinaFile Presents series, which we held October 15 in New York, was a discussion of the philosopher Daniel A. Bell’s controversial book, The China Model: Political Meritocracy and the Limits of Democracy, co-...
Viewpoint
10.16.15How Contagious is Taiwan’s Democracy?
The old barriers have crumbled, the old animosities have abated, and as a result, millions of people from the authoritarian mainland of China now spend various lengths of time on democratic Taiwan. In fact, the two-way traffic is tremendous. On...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.16.15A Remote Corner of China Wants Access to the Sea. The Obstacle Is North Korea.
Washington Post
You can almost smell the sea air from here, at the point where China, Russia and North Korea meet.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.16.15China Suggests Joint South China Sea Drills With Asean
BBC
China's Defence Minister Chang Wanquan has suggested drills for "maritime rescues and disaster relief".