Viewpoint
04.01.15China’s Government Is Serious About Fundamentally Reshaping Itself
Respected China scholar David Shambaugh recently set off a firestorm among other China specialists when he predicted the collapse of China’s ruling Communist Party in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal. Beneath many of the arguments in his defense...
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04.01.15Xi Jinping Forever
Foreign Policy
Is China’s increasingly powerful president angling to break tradition and extend his rule indefinitely?
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04.01.15U.S. Navy Alarmed at Beijing’s ‘Great Wall of Sand’ in So China Sea
Washington Post
US Admiral says competing territorial claims in the South China Sea are “increasing regional tensions and the potential for miscalculation."
Reports
04.01.15Revising U.S. Grand Strategy Toward China
Council on Foreign Relations
China represents and will remain the most significant competitor to the United States for decades to come. As such, the need for a more coherent U.S. response to increasing Chinese power is long overdue. Because the American effort to “integrate”...
Reports
04.01.15U.S.-China 21: The Future of U.S.-China Relations Under Xi Jinping
Harvard University
We are, therefore, seeing the emergence of an asymmetric world in which the fulcrums of economic and military power are no longer co-located, but, in fact, are beginning to diverge significantly. Political power, through the agency of foreign policy...
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03.31.15China Regulates Against Officials’ Judicial Meddling
Xinhua
To advance the rule of law China plans to name and shame officials who commonly interfere in judicial cases.
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03.31.15Mystery Surrounds Disappearance of Xinjiang Article and Related Apology
New York Times
An article on a Muslim couple jailed for beard and burqa appeared Sunday in state media but was gone Monday.
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03.31.15Chinese Authorities Compromise Millions in Cyberattacks
Great Firewall of China
Hijacking the computers of millions of innocent Internet users around the world shows China's disregard for Internet governance norms.
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03.31.15Why Chinese Students Find it Hard to Make Friends on US Campuses
Hong Kong Economic Journal
Chinese students complain that American students are misinformed, prejudiced and offensive on Chinese current events.
Reports
03.31.15Navigating Choppy Waters
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
China faces increasing economic headwinds that call into question not only its near-term growth outlook but the longer-term sustainability of its economic success. At a time of leadership transition in Beijing, global markets and policymakers alike...
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03.30.15China Appears to Attack GitHub by Diverting Web Traffic
New York Times
In recent attacks on sites that try to help Internet users in China circumvent censorship, the Great Firewall appears to have been used as a weapon.
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03.30.15How China Plans to Shape New Asian Order
Wall Street Journal
At the center of these efforts is the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and plans for pan-Asian infrastructure .
Caixin Media
03.30.15Plan for Next Five Years Must Free Up Disposable Income
The government's 12th Five-Year Plan concludes this year, and work on drafting the 13th will begin soon.Which way will China turn? In its work report to legislators at the National People's Congress meeting in March, the government pledged...
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03.30.15Iran Nuclear Talks: What China Brings to the Negotiating Table
Christian Science Monitor
China is reportedly proposing a compromise between Iran's insistence on an end to all UN sanctions and US desires for gradual relief.
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03.30.15Full Text of Chinese President’s Speech at Boao Forum for Asia
Xinhua
Xi's speech, entitled, "Towards a Community of Common Destiny and A New Future for Asia"
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03.30.15China’s Zhou Says PBOC Has Room to Act on Growth Slowdown
Bloomberg
The central bank chief's remarks follow China's weakest expansion since 1990.
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03.27.15Beyond Ai Weiwei: How China’s Artists Handle Politics (or Avoid Them)
New Yorker
Westerners are often criticized for looking at Chinese art through a narrow political lens.
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03.27.15Lee Kuan Yew, the Man Who Remade Asia
Wall Street Journal
He preached ‘Asian values’ and turned a tiny, poor city-state into an astonishing economic success. Is Lee’s ‘Singapore model’ the future of Asia?
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03.27.15U.S. About-Face on AIIB Would be Welcomed
China Daily
US leaders have for years said Asia-Pacific nations do not have to choose between China and the US.
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03.26.15South Korea Says It Will Join China-Led Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank
Wall Street Journal
Seoul makes assurances about AIIB’s governance, which U.S. has been wary about.
Media
03.25.15Was Lee Kuan Yew an Inspiration or a Race Traitor? Chinese Can’t Agree
When Lee Kuan Yew, the founding father of Singapore, passed away at the ripe age of 91 on March 23, the elderly statesman was as controversial in death as in life—and nowhere was the debate more vigorous than in China. While state media was full of...
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03.24.15China Eyes Innovation in Face of Economic “New Normal”
Xinhua
The growth target for 2015 was set at "approximately 7 percent," down from 7.5 percent in 2014.
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03.24.15Seeing Through the Smog
China Open Research Network
Potential impacts of the documentary Under the Domes on China’s Civic Participation.
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03.24.15China Reiterates Openness of AIIB After Shift in US Attitude
Xinhua
The China-proposed AIIB, has an expected initial subscribed capital of $50 billion.
Conversation
03.24.15What Went Wrong With U.S. Strategy on China’s New Bank and What Should Washington Do Now?
Now that much of Europe has announced its intentions to join the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), was Washington’s initial opposition a mistake? Assuming the AIIB does get off the ground, what might it mean for future...
Caixin Media
03.24.15Kissinger: China, U.S. Must ‘Lead in Cooperation’
Henry Kissinger, the former U.S. Secretary of State and the architect of former president Richard Nixon's historic visit to China in 1972, has continued to influence the shaping of the two countries' relations and America's foreign...
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03.23.15In Lee Kuan Yew, China Saw a Leader to Emulate
New York Times
Singapore won an outsize influence with China after they embarked on an experiment with controlled capitalism.
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03.23.15Singapore’s Lee Seen as an Inspiration for Modern China
Associated Press
Chinese leaders admired Singapore's founder Lee Kuan Yew for toughness, economic pragmatism, and insistence on respect for authority.
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03.23.15IBM to Share Technology with China in Strategy Shift: CEO
Reuters
IBM must help China build its IT industry rather than viewing the country solely as a sales destination or manufacturing base.
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03.23.15Chinese Relic Experts Claim 1,000-year-old Mummified Monk Was Stolen
CNN
Fujian officials found photos and historical records suggesting the statue belonged to a village temple.
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03.23.15Singapore Former PM Meets with Chinese Leaders
People’s Daily Online
Pepople's Daily photo archive of the late Lee Kwan Yew's meetings with five of China's top leaders.
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03.23.15How ‘Old Friend’ Lee Kuan Yew Influenced China
Wall Street Journal
“Mr. Lee Kuan Yew was an old friend of the Chinese people,” Chinese President Xi Jinping wrote to Singapore President Tony Tan.
Media
03.20.15China Has Its Own Anti-Vaxxers—Blame the Internet
While health officials in the United States and parts of Europe wrestle with a growing anti-vaccination, or “anti-vaxxer” movement, China is dealing with a less organized but similarly serious fear of immunizations. Social media reveals traces of...
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03.20.15China’s ‘Comfort Women’
Financial Times
Thousands of Chinese women were forced into sex slavery during the second world war. Here is one survivor’s story.
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03.20.15Chinese High School Students Riot Over Mass Food Poisoning
Radio Free Asia
Thousands of disgruntled students smashed up their high school campus in Guizhou in the early hours of March 20 .
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03.20.15China on the World Stage: A Bridge Not Far Enough
Economist
China plans a new bank to help match Asia’s vast savings with its even vaster need for infrastructure.
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03.19.15Coal Boomtowns Fade as China Declares War on Pollution
Science
China is headed towards peak coal which means cities reliant on coal mining struggle.
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03.19.15Yahoo to Shutter China Office and Cut “Around 350” Jobs
BBC
The move not a huge surprise as Yahoo has been retreating since 2013 when it ended email servies in China.
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03.19.15China Gloats as Europeans Rush to Join Asian Bank
Washington Post
Xinhua described the U.S. as “petulant and cynical” for declining to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
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03.19.15Global Push Aims to Change China’s Mind on Bank Rules: U.S. Official
Reuters
Lobby wants China to stop rules that would force tech vendors to Chinese banks to hand over source code.
Environment
03.19.15World Coal Investments Increasingly Risky, Especially China’s
from chinadialogue
The investment case for coal-fired power is looking increasingly unconvincing, but more plants will need to be cancelled if the world is to avoid runaway climate change, a report published on Monday said.The report which was co-authored by green...
Conversation
03.18.15Dark Days for Women in China?
With China’s recent criminal detention of five feminist activists, gender inequality in China is back in the spotlight. What does a crackdown on Chinese women fighting for equal representation say about the current state of the nation’s political...
Books
03.18.15Confucius
Confucius is perhaps the most important philosopher in history. Today, his teachings shape the daily lives of more than 1.6 billion people. Throughout East Asia, Confucius’s influence can be seen in everything from business practices and family relationships to educational standards and government policies. Even as western ideas from Christianity to Communism have bombarded the region, Confucius’s doctrine has endured as the foundation of East Asian culture. It is impossible to understand East Asia, journalist Michael Schuman demonstrates, without first engaging with Confucius and his vast legacy.Confucius created a worldview that is in many respects distinct from, and in conflict with, Western culture. As Schuman shows, the way that East Asian companies are managed, how family members interact with each other, and how governments see their role in society all differ from the norm in the West due to Confucius’s lasting impact. Confucius has been credited with giving East Asia an advantage in today’s world, by instilling its people with a devotion to learning, and propelling the region’s economic progress. Still, the sage has also been highly controversial. For the past 100 years, East Asians have questioned if the region can become truly modern while Confucius remains so entrenched in society. He has been criticized for causing the inequality of women, promoting authoritarian regimes, and suppressing human rights.Despite these debates, East Asians today are turning to Confucius to help them solve the ills of modern life more than they have in a century. As a wealthy and increasingly powerful Asia rises on the world stage, Confucius, too, will command a more prominent place in global culture.Touching on philosophy, history, and current affairs, Confucius tells the vivid, dramatic story of the enigmatic philosopher whose ideas remain at the heart of East Asian civilization. —Basic Books {chop}
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03.18.15U.S. Urges Allies to Think Twice Before Joining China-led Bank
Reuters
The move by U.S. allies to participate in Beijing's flagship economic outreach a diplomatic blow to Washington.
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03.18.15Party Investigates CNPC Executive Once Seen as Company’s Next Leader
Liao Yongyuan, who oversaw gas pipeline project crossing country, becomes target of inquiry by party graft-buster.
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03.18.15Xi Meets with Kissinger, Calls for More Trust Between China, U.S.
Xinhua
Kissinger hailed the ongoing historic reform in China.
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03.17.15The Constant Adaptations of China’s Great Firewall
Wall Street Journal
Firewall-hopping technologies see activist programmers and Chinese censors engaged in a cat-and-mouse game.
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03.17.15China-Taiwan Relations: China's Bottom Line
Economist
Tensions will rise again if the winner of Taiwan’s next presidential election fails to back the One China notion.
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03.17.15South Korea Tells China Not to Meddle in Decision Over Missile System
New York Times
The United States has made it increasingly clear that it wants South Korea to install a American missile defense system.
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03.17.15Defying U.S., European Allies Say They’ll Join China-Led Bank
Reuters
Germany, France and Italy have agreed to join a new China-led Asian investment bank.
Excerpts
03.16.15The Education of Detained Chinese Feminist Li Tingting
It is probably fair to say no woman has ever taken more flak for walking into a men’s room than Li Tingting. In the run-up to Women’s Day in 2012, the feminist college student was distressed by the one-to-one ratio of public restroom facilities for...
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03.16.15Stiffer Bank-Technology Rules Loom in China
Wall Street Journal
Beijing presses for secure and controllable systems; suppliers fear intrusive measures.
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03.16.15Was News of Xu Caihou’s Death Buried?
South China Morning Post
Speculation mounts on demise of former PLA general.
Books
03.16.15The China Boom
Many thought China’s rise would fundamentally remake the global order. Yet, much like other developing nations, the Chinese state now finds itself entrenched in a status quo characterized by free trade and American domination. Through a cutting-edge historical, sociological, and political analysis, Ho-fung Hung exposes the competing interests and economic realities that temper the dream of Chinese supremacy—forces that are stymieing growth throughout the global South. Hung focuses on four common misconceptions about China’s boom: that China could undermine orthodoxy by offering an alternative model of growth; that China is radically altering power relations between the East and the West; that China is capable of diminishing the global power of the United States; and that the Chinese economy would restore the world’s wealth after the 2008 financial crisis. His work reveals how much China depends on the existing order and how the interests of the Chinese elites maintain these ties. Through its perpetuation of the dollar standard and its addiction to U.S. Treasury bonds, China remains bound to the terms of its own prosperity, and its economic practices of exploiting debt bubbles are destined to fail. Dispelling many of the world’s fantasies and fears, Hung warns of a post-miracle China that will grow increasingly assertive in attitude while remaining constrained in capability. —Columbia University Press{chop}
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03.16.15China to Reveal Detailed “Belt and Road” Roadmap
Xinhua
Hundreds of major infrastructure projects could spread into Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Pakistan.
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03.16.15India Should Play Bigger Role in South China Sea, Says Singapore
Bloomberg
India’s involvement in the region could give Southeast Asian nations a further buffer against China.
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03.16.15Qiu He, top Yunnan Official, Ousted for Corrupt Land Deals
East by Southeast
Qiu was the catalyst for a swath of controversial infrastructure projects, including a new international airport finished in 2012.