Caixin Media
04.23.14Graft Inquiry at CNPC Uncovers Shady Deal
A little-known deal related to an equally little-known, yet highly productive oilfield has come to light as a graft investigation unfolds at oil giant China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC). A businessman with strong ties to officials is behind the...
Media
04.23.14Welcome to Uighur Web—Now Watch What You Say
China’s Internet is vast, with millions of sites and more than 618 million users. But nested within that universe is a tiny virtual community comprising just a few thousand websites where China’s Uighur, the country’s fifth-largest ethnic minority...
ChinaFile Recommends
04.22.14Obama Faces Headwinds on Trans-Pacific Partnership in East Asia trip
South China Morning Post
Negotiations with Japan on a 12-nation transpacific trade liberalisation deal are bogged down, while support for it is waning in Malaysia, which could pull out altogether under pressure from business concerns. Analysts say the negotiations...
ChinaFile Recommends
04.22.14China’s Growing Human Rights Movement Can Claim Many Accomplishments
Washington Post
Since Xi Jinping became president of China, there has been a sustained crackdown on advocates of democracy and civil society. A couple hundred Chinese citizens have been arrested and tried or await trial. Lawyer and activist Xu Zhiyong&...
ChinaFile Recommends
04.22.14Xi’s Corruption Crackdown Hits China's Restaurants
Businessweek
Dirty officials aren’t the only ones getting slammed as Xi Jinping continues his crackdown on corruption and waste. China’s restaurant industry grew 9 percent, to 2.56 trillion yuan ($411 billion), last year, its slowest growth in more than two...
ChinaFile Recommends
04.22.14U.S. Department of State: Preview of President Obama's Upcoming Trip to Asia
U.S. State Department
This is the President’s fifth trip to the Asia Pacific region, which has been a focus of our foreign policy. It makes up in part for the trip he was not able to take last fall because of the government shutdown, with the stops in Malaysia and the...
Conversation
04.22.14What Obama Should Say About China in Japan
On Wednesday, Barack Obama will land in Tokyo beginning a week-long trip to four of China's neighbors—but not to China itself.In Obama’s stops in Tokyo, Seoul, Manila, and Kuala Lampur, the specter of China will loom large. This will be...
Viewpoint
04.20.14The Specter of June Fourth
If yesterday was typical, about 1,400 children in Africa died of malaria. It is a preventable, treatable disease, and the young victims lost their lives through no faults of their own. Why it is that human beings accept a fact like this as an...
ChinaFile Recommends
04.19.14Zhou Family Ties
New York Times
Zhou Yongkang, a member of China’s ruling Politburo Standing Committee from 2007 to 2012, is the subject of one of the highest-level corruption investigations in the history of the People’s Republic of China. Several members of his family, over the...
Media
04.17.14Ai Weiwei’s Reach Draws New Yorkers’ Attention to Free Speech
“Ai Weiwei retweeted me!” exclaimed a young blonde woman, laughing and waving her iPhone in the air with excitement. She and some two hundred other New Yorkers had gathered on the steps of the Brooklyn Public Library at Grand Army Plaza to show her...
Environment
04.16.14Ten Steps to Cleaner Air in China’s Cities
from chinadialogue
Earlier this year, former San Francisco planning advisor Eugene Leong looked at the legacy of air pollution in San Francisco. Here he draws out ten key policy lessons for China's leadership.Recognize PM2.5 pollution as a complex problem that...
ChinaFile Recommends
04.16.14A Role for Taiwan in Promoting Peace in the South China Sea
Center for Strategic and International Studies
Taiwan has a chance to set a positive example and chart a peaceful course in managing and eventually resolving East Asian maritime disputes.
ChinaFile Recommends
04.16.14China’s Losers: Disillusioned Office Workers
Economist
Amid spreading prosperity, a generation of self-styled also-rans emerges.
ChinaFile Recommends
04.16.14China Gets First Bitcoin ATM, Skirting Bank Crackdown
Reuters
Strong interest from Chinese speculators drove up global bitcoin prices last year to above $1,000, sparking a crackdown by the People's Bank of China.
ChinaFile Recommends
04.15.14China is Reportedly Screwing Up the Search For MH370
Gawker
With a handful of countries still searching the Indian Ocean for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, the one country annoying the others is China.
ChinaFile Recommends
04.15.14The Mystery Shrouding China’s Communist Party Suicides
Wall Street Journal
At least 54 Chinese officials died of “unnatural causes” in 2013, and that more than 40 percent of those deaths were suicides.
ChinaFile Recommends
04.15.14Bitcoin’s Status in China Not So Black-and-White
Wall Street Journal
The Chinese government has disseminated what amounts to a “confidential” policy governing the digital currency, which has led to uneven enforcement.
Caixin Media
04.15.14New Sichuan Petchem Plant on Shaky Ground
A controversial petrochemical project in the southwestern province of Sichuan quietly went into operation in March, but questions about the China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) facility continue to linger.The project is in Pengzhou, a city of 763,...
ChinaFile Recommends
04.14.14China Cancels Human Rights Dialogue with Britain
Guardian
Beijing accuses UK of using rights issues to interfere in its internal affairs and axes dialogue that resumed after diplomatic freeze over Dalai Lama
ChinaFile Recommends
04.14.14Chinese Signaling in the East China Sea?
Washington Post
What to make in the decline of Chinese patrols of the territorial waters around the Diaoyu / Senkaku Islands since September 2013.
Conversation
04.12.14China, Japan, and the U.S.—Will Cooler Heads Prevail?
U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel's whirlwind tour of China this week saw a tense exchange with his Chinese counterpart, Chang Wanquan, over the intention behind America's "pivot" to Asia, followed by a more measured back-and...
Media
04.11.14Is Jesus Really Hotter Than Mao on China’s Social Media?
It’s easier to talk about Jesus than Chinese President and Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping on Weibo, China’s massive Twitter-like social media platform.The atheist Chinese Communist Party, known for its sometimes heavy-handed policies...
ChinaFile Recommends
04.10.14The Princeling of Private Equity
Reuters
A firm co-founded by the grandson of China's former leader landed a sweet deal in a state-controlled sector of the economy. Now, many in the industry are flocking to invest with Alvin Jiang.
Photo Gallery
04.09.14Sunflower Protestors Open Up
On March 18 some 200 Taiwanese, mostly college students, stormed the offices of Taiwan’s legislature, beginning a protest over a proposed trade agreement between the self-governed island and mainland China, which considers it a “renegade province.”...
Viewpoint
04.09.14Why Taiwan’s Protestors Stuck It Out
Some might say, “a half-million Taiwanese can’t be wrong.” That’s how many islanders descended upon their capital city, Taipei, on March 30 to shout their support for the several thousand students who have occupied the nation’s legislature for the...
Books
04.09.14Poseidon
Royal Navy submarine HMS Poseidon sank in collision with a Chinese freighter during routine exercises in 1931 off Weihaiwei. Thirty of its fifty-six-man crew scrambled out of the hatches as it went down. Of the twenty-six who remained inside, eight attempted to surface using "Davis gear," an early form of diving equipment: six of them made it safely to the surface in the first escape of this kind in submarine history and became heroes. The incident was then forgotten, eclipsed by the greater drama that followed in World War II, until news emerged that, for obscure reasons, the Chinese government had salvaged the wrecked submarine in 1972. This lively account of the Poseidon incident tells the story of the accident and its aftermath, and of the author’s own quest to find out about the 1972 salvage. —Hong Kong University Press {chop}{node, 4183, 3}
ChinaFile Recommends
04.08.14In a Test of Wills With China, U.S. Sticks Up for Japan
New York Times
For the first time, China will host the Western Pacific Naval Symposium, a meeting every two years of countries that border the Pacific Ocean.
ChinaFile Recommends
04.08.14As China Turns Toward Middle East, China and Israel Seek Closer Ties
Diplomat
Israeli President Shimon Peres is visiting China, the latest sign of growing Chinese-Israeli ties.
Caixin Media
04.08.14Crimea Rattles the Chinese Dream
At the Sochi Winter Olympics, President Xi Jinping professed his affection for Russian letters. Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, and other literary giants made up the reading list of his youth, and his generation was raised on a diet of Russian culture...
ChinaFile Recommends
04.08.14Conflicting Reports of Potential Flight 370 Pings shows China’s confused status in investigation
Washington Post
Despite China's interest in finding Flight 370 and its efforts in the search, the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation does not offer it an official role.
Conversation
04.06.14Spy Vs. Spy: When is Cyberhacking Crossing the Line?
Vincent Ni: For a long time, Huawei has been accused by some American politicians of “spying on Americans for the Chinese government,” but their evidence has always been sketchy. They played on fear and possibility. I don’t agree or disagree with...
ChinaFile Recommends
04.06.14U.S. Tries Candor to Assure China on Cyberattacks
New York Times
The Pentagon’s emerging doctrine includes defending against cyberattacks on the United States and also using its cybertechnology against adversaries, including the Chinese.
Environment
04.03.14China’s Air Pollution Reporting is Misleading
from chinadialogue
China’s air pollution is being reported in a misleading way, blocking public understanding and enabling official inaction. Outdoor air pollution in China causes an estimated 1.2 million premature deaths and 25 million healthy years of life lost...
ChinaFile Recommends
04.02.14China Maoming Environmental Protest Violence Condemned
BBC
Authorities have condemned an environmental protest in southern China that turned violent, calling it "serious criminal behavior.”
ChinaFile Recommends
04.02.14Apology to Wife in Sex Scandal Breaks Online Record in China
Associated Press
Actor Wen Zhang’s apology to his actress wife following rumors of his infidelity has set a record for comments and retweets on China’s version of Twitter.
ChinaFile Recommends
04.02.14Maybe Heads of State Shouldn’t Give Maps as Presents
Time
An antique map of China gifted by the German Chancellor to China's President is at odds with how China views its historical boundaries.
ChinaFile Recommends
04.02.14While Warning Of Chinese Cyberthreat, U.S. Launches Its Own Attack
NPR
New documents show that the U.S. National Security Agency penetrated the large Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei, gathering information about its operations.
Media
04.02.14The Future of Democracy in Hong Kong
Veteran Hong Kong political leaders Anson Chan and Martin Lee describe some of the core values—such as freedom of the press—that they seek to maintain as Beijing asserts greater control over the territory seventeen years after Britain handed it back...
Media
04.02.14A Merkel, a Map, a Message to China?
On March 28, German Chancellor Angela Merkel hosted visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping at a dinner where they exchanged gifts. Merkel presented to Xi a 1735 map of China made by prolific French cartographer Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville and...
Caixin Media
04.01.14Eviction by Arson: Land-Seizure Turns Deadly
A village head and the boss of a building company were among the seven people arrested over an arson attack on a protest against a land seizure in Shandong Province in which one man died and three others were hurt.The government of Pingdu, a county...
Books
04.01.14The Contest of the Century
From the former Financial Times Beijing bureau chief, a balanced and far-seeing analysis of the emerging competition between China and the United States that will dominate twenty-first-century world affairs—an inside account of Beijing’s quest for influence and an explanation of how America can come out on top. The structure of global politics is shifting rapidly. After decades of rising, China has entered a new and critical phase where it seeks to turn its economic heft into global power. In this deeply informed book, Geoff Dyer makes a lucid and convincing argument that China and the United States are now embarking on a great power–style competition that will dominate the century. This contest will take place in every arena: from control of the seas, where China’s new navy is trying to ease the United States out of Asia and reassert its traditional leadership, to rewriting the rules of the global economy, with attempts to turn the renminbi into the predominant international currency, toppling the dominance of the U.S. dollar. And by investing billions to send its media groups overseas, Beijing hopes to shift the global debate about democracy and individual rights. Eyeing the high ground of international politics, China is taking the first steps in an ambitious global agenda. Yet Dyer explains how China will struggle to unseat the United States. China’s new ambitions are provoking intense anxiety, especially in Asia, while America’s global influence has deep roots. If Washington can adjust to a world in which it is no longer dominant but still immensely powerful, it can withstand China’s challenge. With keen insight based on a deep local knowledge—offering the reader visions of coastal Chinese beauty pageants and secret submarine bases, lockstep Beijing military parades and the neon media screens of Xinhua exported to New York City’s Times Square—The Contest of the Century is essential reading at a time of great uncertainty about America’s future, a road map for retaining a central role in the world. —Knopf {chop}
ChinaFile Recommends
04.01.14Is the American Middle Class Losing Out to China and India?
New York Times
CUNY professor Branko Milanovic says the middle class in China and India experienced 60 to 70 percent income growth from 1998 to 2008, while middle class growth stalled in the United States.
Reports
04.01.14High Tech: The Next Wave of Chinese Investment in America
Asia Society
In this report, we explore the advent of Chinese investment in U.S. high-tech sectors in order to provide an objective starting point for debate about this nascent trend. We use a unique dataset on Chinese FDI transactions in the United States to...
Media
03.28.14Ang Lee and Zhang Yimou Talk Movies
Ang Lee, the Oscar-winning American film director with Taiwan roots, and Zhang Yimou, the storied veteran of mainland Chinese moviemaking, joined together on March 27 at Cooper Union in New York in a discussion billed “Chinese Film, Chinese...
Conversation
03.26.14The Bloomberg Fallout: Where Does Journalism in China Go from Here?
On Monday, March 24, a thirteen-year veteran of Bloomberg News, Ben Richardson, news editor at large for Asia, resigned. A few days earlier, company Chairman Peter Grauer said that the news and financial information services company founded in 1981...
Media
03.25.14China, We Fear You
On March 18, thousands of students began a sit-in of Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan in the capital, Taipei, a historic first that has paralyzed the island’s lawmaking body. Students have amassed to protest an attempt by the Kuomintang, the island’s...
Caixin Media
03.25.14State-Owned Oil Firms Invite Outside Investors
Since February, state-owned oil majors have taken steps toward pilots in mixed-share ownership, following central government calls for reforms to state-owned enterprises (SOEs). After the Chinese New Year, China Petroleum and Chemical...
Media
03.21.14“We’ll Know It When We’re There”
Martin Johnson (not his real name), is a co-founder of the China-based Internet freedom advocacy collective GreatFire.org. On the condition that he not be photographed, he gave the following interview to ChinaFile at an outdoor cafe in Manhattan...
Features
03.21.14Punching a Hole in the Great Firewall
In January, when the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists published its exposé of the use of offshore tax havens by Chinese politicians and business moguls, the Chinese government blocked access to the consortium’s website and to...
Infographics
03.20.14Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright
from EG365
The greatest unsolved mystery in China right now is not the disappearance of Malaysian airliner MH370 but the fate of Zhou Yongkang, the feared former head of China’s security apparatus. From 2007 to 2012 a member of China’s top political body, the...
The NYRB China Archive
03.20.14Paddling to Peking
from New York Review of Books
For Richard Nixon’s foreign policy, 1971 was the best of years and the worst of years. He revealed his opening to China, but he connived at genocide in East Pakistan. Fortunately for him, the world marveled at the one, but was largely ignorant of...
Environment
03.19.14Is China Underfunding its ‘War on Pollution’?
from chinadialogue
China’s environmental spending showed a year-on-year drop of almost ten percent in 2013, according to the budget report delivered at China’s annual parliamentary gathering.Despite premier Li Keqiang’s vow to declare “war on pollution”, the 2013...
Books
03.19.14Unbalanced
The Chinese and U.S. economies have been locked in an uncomfortable embrace since the late 1970s. Although the relationship initially arose out of mutual benefits, in recent years it has taken on the trappings of an unstable codependence, with the two largest economies in the world losing their sense of self, increasing the risk of their turning on one another in a destructive fashion.In Unbalanced: The Codependency of America and China Stephen Roach lays bare the pitfalls of the current China-U.S. economic relationship. He highlights the conflicts at the center of current tensions, including disputes over trade policies and intellectual property rights, sharp contrasts in leadership styles, the role of the Internet, the recent dispute over cyberhacking, and more.A firsthand witness to the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s, Roach likely knows more about the U.S.-China economic relationship than any other Westerner. Here he discusses:Why America saving too little and China saving too much creates mounting problems for bothHow China is planning to re-boot its economic growth model by moving from an external export-led model to one of internal consumerism with a new focus on service industriesHow America shows a disturbing lack of strategy, preferring a short-term reactive approach over a more coherent Chinese-style planning frameworkThe way out: what America could do to turn its own economic fate around and position itself for a healthy economic and political relationship with ChinaIn the wake of the 2008 crisis, both unbalanced economies face urgent and mutually beneficial rebalancings. Unbalanced concludes with a recipe for resolving the escalating tensions of codependence. Roach argues that the Next China offers much for the Next America—and vice versa.—Yale University Press{chop}
Conversation
03.19.14What Should Michelle Obama Accomplish on Her Trip to China?
Orville Schell: Looking at the challenges of rectifying U.S.-China relations and building some semblance of the "new kind of a big power relationship" alluded to by presidents Obama and Xi at Sunnylands last year, will most...
Caixin Media
03.18.14How Xinjiang Real Estate Takes Its Shape
Police nabbed property developer Zhao Xingru and detained her for more than thirty days in late 2012 and early 2013 based on fraud allegations filed by executives at one of the country's largest developers, Hangzhou-based Greentown China Group...
Sinica Podcast
03.17.14Will China Dominate the Twenty-first Century?
from Sinica Podcast
This week on Sinica, we are pleased to present a live show recorded earlier this week at The Bookworm in Beijing, where Kaiser Kuo interviewed Jonathan Fenby, author of the book Will China Dominate the 21st Century?If you haven’t heard of Jonathan...
Media
03.17.14‘Self-Media’ Pushes and Beijing Pushes Back
Michelle Song, twenty-four, studies international relations at Beijing’s prestigious Peking University and lives in a dormitory, so she doesn’t watch television regularly and doesn’t subscribe to newspapers. But this has not hampered her ability to...
Media
03.14.14The Other Shoe Drops
Welcome to the big leagues, WeChat.For the past year, the mobile chat app WeChat, or Weixinin Chinese, has been the fresh new face in China’s hyperactive social media, stealing millions of members—not to mention mojo—from its wounded but still...
Viewpoint
03.13.14How Chinese Internet Censorship Works, Sometimes
Earlier this week, Chinese Internet services blocked searches for the phrase mìshū bāng (秘书帮). Roughly translated as “secretaries gang,” the term relates to the speculation surrounding government probes into public officials linked to former...
ChinaFile Recommends
03.11.14After 3/1: The Dangers of China’s Ethnic Divide
New Yorker
The pressure posed by ethnic unrest is the biggest story on the Chinese horizon, and that struggle—the pressure from below, and the response it will bring—just moved into the foreground.