ChinaFile Recommends
06.28.13China and South Korea Reaffirm Efforts Aimed at North
New York Times
A joint statement issued after the meeting between the leaders, President Xi Jinping of China and President Park Geun-hye of South Korea, said they had agreed on the importance of faithfully carrying out United Nations Security Council resolutions...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.28.13Xi's Call for "Mass Line" Answered by Actions
Xinhua
On June 18, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, said that the "mass line" is the lifeline of the Party and the CPC's upcoming year-long campaign will be a "thorough cleanup" of undesirable work styles...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.28.13Dalai Lama: No More ‘Wolf in Monk’s Robes’?
International Herald Tribune
“In an abrupt and unexpected reversal of policy, Chinese government officials have told monks in some Tibetan areas that they are now free to ‘worship’ the Dalai Lama as a ‘religious leader,’” Tsering Namgyal, a writer and journalist based...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.28.13U.S. Is a ‘Hacker Empire,’ Says Chinese Military Analyst
International Herald Tribune
For more than an hour Wednesday morning, a Chinese military analyst excoriated the United States over what state-run media here calls “Prismgate. He accused U.S. companies of using the fruits of the surveillance to make economic profit, and...
Conversation
06.27.13Is Xi Jinping’s Fight Against Corruption For Real?
Roderick MacFarquhar:Xi Jinping’s overriding aim is the preservation of Communist party rule in China, as he made clear in speeches shortly after his elevation to be China’s senior leader. Like his predecessors, he is obsessed with the...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.27.13Park Ready to Charm China
China Daily
Preparations started months ago for Republic of Korea President, Park Geun-hye's visit, which will take her to the ancient city of Xi'an in Shaanxi province after her summit with President Xi Jinping in Beijing. She is also set to make a...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.26.13Obama's goal in Africa: Counter China
CNN
Obama is likely to avoid any criticism of China but he has chosen to visit Senegal, Tanzania and South Africa, countries that are all relatively functional democracies, and he is likely to dwell on the issues of good governance and respect for human...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.25.13China Seeks Greater Influence in Arctic Region
South China Morning Post
The China-Nordic Arctic Research Centre, whose launch plan was announced in Shanghai in early June, may signal new intentions in Beijing's foreign policy, analysts say. Beijing has yet to articulate an official Arctic strategy, but it has...
Books
06.25.13Civil Society in China
This is the definitive book on the legal and fiscal framework for civil society organizations (CSOs) in China from earliest times to the present day. Civil Society in China traces the ways in which laws and regulations have shaped civil society over the 5,000 years of China’s history and looks at ways in which social and economic history have affected the legal changes that have occurred over the millennia.This book provides an historical and current analysis of the legal framework for civil society and citizen participation in China, focusing not merely on legal analysis, but also on the ways in which the legal framework influenced and was influenced in turn by social and economic developments. The principal emphasis is on ways in which the Chinese people—as opposed to high-ranking officials or cadres—have been able to play a part in the social and economic development of China through the associations in which they participateCivil Society in China sums up this rather complex journey through Chinese legal, social, and political history by assessing the ways in which social, economic, and legal system reforms in today’s China are bound to have an impact on civil society. The changes that have occurred in China’s civil society since the late 1980’s and, most especially, since the late 1990’s, are nothing short of remarkable. This volume is an essential guide for lawyers and scholars seeking an in depth understanding of social life in China written by one of its leading experts. —Oxford University Press
ChinaFile Recommends
06.25.13Putin: Snowden Still At Airport, Won’t Be Extradited
Washington Post
Putin said Snowden arrived in Moscow unexpectedly and had committed no crime in Russia. He has not crossed into a part of the airport that requires him to show his passport to Russian authorities. Because Russia does not have an extradition...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.25.13China and U.S. War Over Snowden, but No Lasting Damage Seen
Reuters
"China does not want this to affect the overall situation, the central government has always maintained a relatively calm and restrained attitude because Sino-U.S. relations are important," said Zhao Kejing, a professor of international...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.25.13China Brushes Aside U.S. Warnings on Snowden
New York Times
In Beijing, people with knowledge of how China handled Mr. Snowden’s exit from Hong Kong were claiming a tactical victory for China, saying that the government had acted in China’s best interests, and in the long-term interests of its relationship...
Caixin Media
06.25.13Legal, Economic Reforms Important At Coming Party Session
China’s blueprint for economic reform is finally taking shape. The government has appointed a taskforce to draft the plans, ahead of the third plenary meeting of the 18th Central Committee. With the country’s economy at the crossroads, these plans...
Conversation
06.25.13How Badly Have Snowden’s Leaks Hurt U.S.-China Relations?
Matt Schiavenza:In the understatement of the day, the United States is unhappy with the recent developments of the Edward Snowden situation. Just three days ago, Washington was in negotiations with Hong Kong to file a warrant for Snowden's...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.24.13Why China Let Edward Snowden Go
New Yorker
Edward Snowden evolved from a tourist to a fugitive to an icon, and, finally, an irritant. And, in the end, the governments with the power to decide his fate—Hong Kong and Beijing—faced a choice: the short-term pain of defying a U.S. request for...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.24.13Snowden Sought Booz Allen Job to Gather Evidence on NSA Surveillance
South China Morning Post
For the first time, Snowden has admitted he sought a position at Booz Allen Hamilton so he could collect proof about the US National Security Agency’s secret surveillance programmes ahead of planned leaks to the media. “My position with...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.24.13China Said to Have Made Call to Let Leaker Depart
New York Times
From China’s point of view, analysts said, the departure of Mr. Snowden solved two concerns: how to prevent Beijing’s relationship with the United States from being ensnared in a long legal wrangle in Hong Kong over Mr. Snowden, and how to deal with...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.24.13Snowden, in Russia, Seeks Asylum in Ecuador
New York Times
The foreign minister of Ecuador confirmed receiving an asylum request from Mr. Snowden. As of early Monday morning in Russia, Mr. Snowden was believed to be staying the night inside the transit zone of a Moscow airport where he was visited by an...
Sinica Podcast
06.22.13The Evan Osnos Exit Interview
from Sinica Podcast
In a summer when many reporters and their families are departing Beijing (including many people who have appeared on this podcast), perhaps the biggest loss to the foreign correspondents’ pool in the Chinese capital is the departure of Evan Osnos,...
Conversation
06.21.13How Should the World Prepare for a Slower China?
Get Ready for a Slower ChinaThe recent gyrations on the Chinese interbank market underscore that the chief risk to global growth now comes from China. Make no mistake: credit policy will tighten substantially in the coming months, as the government...
Books
06.21.13Why Has China Grown So Fast For So Long?
For analysts China presents a conundrum. It is clear that China has made rapid progress, and the landscape of the world is changing due to China’s unique position. Yet for decades, many have questioned this phenomenon, showing concern about cooked data, asset bubbles about to burst, and so on. Yet the Chinese economy has kept growing at a blistering pace, 9-10 per cent annually, and more at times, over a span of almost three decades.Analysing the last 30 years of reforms, this book helps us understand the Chinese growth success, the factors that made this possible, and the lessons that can be distilled from this experience for other developing countries. Arguing that traditional explanations are inadequate, the author applies the “development as transformation” thesis to provide answers to a wide range of questions: Why has China grown so rapidly over such a long time, and what are the country’s prospects in the future? Will it keep growing? Will it in the next few decades actually overtake the US as the largest economy in the world, as some observers have been forecasting, or will it implode as the many contradictions in the economy and society grind it to a halt? This is a unique book in that it is based on years of close interaction with the Chinese leadership, institutions, and society, as well as international organizations in the development community, when the author was posted in China. —Oxford University Press
ChinaFile Recommends
06.20.13Why India Trails China
New York Times
India’s underperformance can be traced to a failure to learn from the examples of so-called Asian economic development, in which rapid expansion of human capability is both a goal in itself and an integral element in achieving rapid growth.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.20.13The Chimerica Dream
TomDispatch
Whatever the confusions and difficulties the Chinese leadership faces, Beijing seems to understand the realities behind Washington’s strategic intentions. One wonders whether the reverse applies.
Books
06.19.13Confucianism as a World Religion
Is Confucianism a religion? If so, why do most Chinese think it isn’t? From ancient Confucian temples, to nineteenth-century archives, to the testimony of people interviewed by the author throughout China over a period of more than a decade, this book traces the birth and growth of the idea of Confucianism as a world religion.The book begins at Oxford, in the late nineteenth century, when Friedrich Max Müller and James Legge classified Confucianism as a world religion in the new discourse of “world religions” and the emerging discipline of comparative religion. Anna Sun shows how that decisive moment continues to influence the understanding of Confucianism in the contemporary world, not only in the West but also in China, where the politics of Confucianism have become important to the present regime in a time of transition. Contested histories of Confucianism are vital signs of social and political change.Sun also examines the revival of Confucianism in China today and the social significance of the ritual practice of Confucian temples. While the Chinese government turns to Confucianism to justify its political agenda, Confucian activists have started a movement to turn Confucianism into a religion. Confucianism as a world religion might have begun as a scholarly construction, but are we witnessing its transformation into a social and political reality? —Princeton University Press
ChinaFile Recommends
06.19.13Snowden is Reportedly Considering to Iceland
WSJ: China Real Time Report
Icelandic journalist Kristinn Hrafnsson confirmed with the Wall Street Journal that he received a message from Mr. Snowden on June 12 asking to notify the Icelandic government that the former government contractor is interested in seeking asylum in...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.19.13Let Hong Kong Decide Snowden’s Fate
Global Times
The Hong Kong SAR government might as well be more candid in dealing with this incident, without excessive consideration of Sino-American relations. Things will go much easier if Hong Kong plays a leading role in resolving this incident, rather than...
Conversation
06.18.13What’s Right or Wrong with This Chinese Stance on Edward Snowden?
For today’s ChinaFile Conversation we asked contributors to react to the following excerpt from an op-ed published on Monday June 17 in the Global Times about Edward Snowden, the 29-year-old American contract intelligence analyst who last...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.18.13Chinese State Media Warns Against Extradition of Edward Snowden
Independent
Chinese newspaper, The Global Times published an article calling for China to “safeguard its interests”, describing extraditing Snowden back to the US as a “betrayal of Snowden’s trust.” The editorial published...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.18.13In China, a Push for Cleaner Air
Deal Book
China’s State Council announced an ambitious package on Friday of 10 measures to combat air pollution. Air pollution is a major problem in China and steps to alleviate the problem are vital to the government’s stated goals of...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.14.13Calls Grow in China to Press Claim for Okinawa
New York Times
The Chinese government has not asserted a claim to Okinawa. But the seminar last month, which included state researchers and retired officers from the senior ranks of the People’s Liberation Army, was the latest act in what seems to be a...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.14.13China’s Jailed Nobel’s Wife Writes Open Letter to Chinese Leader to Protest Brother’s Sentence
Washington Post
In the letter, Liu Xiaobo’s wife Liu Xia said the sentencing was unfair and urged Xi to govern China in a way that respects the rights of individuals and avoids “ruthless suppression based on violence.”
ChinaFile Recommends
06.14.13Ex-N.S.A. Contractor’s Disclosures May Draw China’s Attention
New York Times
The decision by a former National Security Agency contractor to divulge classified data about the U.S. government’s surveillance of computers in mainland China and Hong Kong has complicated his legal position, but may also make China’s security...
Conversation
06.13.13Who’d You Rather Be Watched By: China or the U.S.?
Reports of U.S. gathering data on emails and phone calls have stoked fears of an over-reaching government spying on its citizens. Chinese artist Ai Weiwei worries that China will use the U.S. as an example to bolster its argument for surveillance on...
Books
06.12.13Cool War
The Cold War seemingly ended in a decisive victory for the West. But now, Noah Feldman argues, we are entering an era of renewed global struggle: the era of Cool War. Just as the Cold War matched the planet’s reigning superpowers in a contest for geopolitical supremacy, so this new age will pit the United States against a rising China in a contest for dominance, alliances, and resources. Already visible in Asia, the conflict will extend to the Middle East (U.S.-backed Israel versus Chinese-backed Iran), Africa, and beyond. Yet this Cool War differs fundamentally from the zero-sum showdowns of the past: The world’s major power and its leading challenger are economically interdependent to an unprecedented degree. Exports to the U.S. account for nearly a quarter of Chinese trade, while the Chinese government holds 8 percent of America’s outstanding debt. This positive-sum interdependence has profound implications for nations, corporations, and international institutions. It makes what looked to be a classic contest between two great powers into something much more complex, contradictory, and badly in need of the shrewd and carefully reasoned analysis that Feldman provides. The U.S. and China may be divided by political culture and belief, but they are also bound together by mutual self-interest. Cool War makes the case for competitive cooperation as the only way forward that can preserve the peace and make winners out of both sides. —Random House
ChinaFile Recommends
06.12.13A Hero’s Welcome for Snowden on Chinese Internet
Wall Street Journal
Chinese Internet users – who for years have lived with well-founded paranoia over the possibility that someone the government could be monitoring their activities online — lauded the self-described whistleblower for the risks he has taken in...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.12.13NSA surveillance: The US is behaving like China
Guardian
Officials always think what they do is necessary, and firmly believe they do what is best for the state and the people. But the lesson that people should learn from history is the need to limit state power, says Ai Weiwei.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.12.13Q&A: Edward Snowden and Hong Kong's Asylum Laws
South China Morning Post
There has been feverish speculation in recent days over the legal framework surrounding surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden and his presence in Hong Kong. Here, Professor Simon N.M. Young, director of the University of Hong Kong's Centre...
Media
06.11.13Chinese Web Users React to U.S. National Security Agency Surveillance Program
The online reactions to the PRISM incident, in which the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has been revealed to conduct a far-ranging surveillance program affecting many both in the U.S. and abroad, have been as fascinating as the event itself...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.11.13Liu Zhijun Admits to Taking 64.6 Mln Yuan in Bribes
The bribery charges involved securing favors for 11 people over the course of 25 years in project bidding, promotions and allocation of rail transport quotas. The court session ended in three and half hours without specifying a sentencing...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.11.13U.S. and China Pledge New Model of Cooperation
New York Times
The two presidents appeared eager to redefine the relationship in a way that would allow their countries to overcome their economic, political and diplomatic differences, rather than letting new — or old — crises derail progress.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.11.13Xi Jinping Appears More Maoist Than Reformer So Far
Los Angeles Times
During his first months in power, Xi has proven himself more hard-line than his recent predecessors. He has tightened censorship in academia and the media, and spearheaded China’s territorial assertions in the South China and East China...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.11.13At the U.S.-China Summit, Friendship Isn’t What Matters
Daily Beast
As the interactions between American and Chinese officials have increased dramatically, ties between the two nations have only become more strained. That’s one indication that Chinese leaders are not influenced by personal relations. &...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.11.13How China Views Obama-Xi Meeting in California
Time
Comments about Xi’s arrival in the Golden State barely made waves on China’s Twitter-like social-media service Sina Weibo. The bulk of Friday’s traffic focused on the annual university-entrance exams that are currently under way.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.11.13Both Sides Worried on Maintaining Relations (Video)
Bloomberg
Chinese leaders, during private meetings with U.S. officials, have moved past their previous denial of cyber-espionage, and are acknowledging a problem, CBS says, citing unnamed officials.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.11.13U.S.-China Relations: Stop Striving For “Trust”
Diplomat
The argument that trust leads to peace is built on the premise that the suspicions between China and the U.S. are unfounded and would evaporate with more and deeper dialogue.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.11.13Most View China as a Friend
Politico
According to a Gallup poll on Thursday, 55 percent of respondents thought China was either an ally or friendly nation. A total of 40 percent viewed China unfavorably.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.11.13Cui Tiankai, China’s Envoy to the U.S., Aims to Allay Tensions
New York Times
Cui Tiankai, the country’s ambassador in Washington, is its chief behind-the-scenes facilitator for the meeting that will bring together Mr. Xi and President Obama at Sunnylands starting June 7.
Books
06.10.13Anyuan
How do we explain the surprising trajectory of the Chinese Communist revolution? Why has it taken such a different route from its Russian prototype? An answer, Elizabeth Perry suggests, lies in the Chinese Communists’ creative development and deployment of cultural resources – during their revolutionary rise to power and afterwards. Skillful “cultural positioning” and “cultural patronage,” on the part of Mao Zedong, his comrades and successors, helped to construct a polity in which a once alien Communist system came to be accepted as familiarly “Chinese.” Perry traces this process through a case study of the Anyuan coal mine, a place where Mao and other early leaders of the Chinese Communist Party mobilized an influential labor movement at the beginning of their revolution, and whose history later became a touchstone of “political correctness” in the People’s Republic of China. Once known as “China’s Little Moscow,” Anyuan came over time to symbolize a distinctively Chinese revolutionary tradition. Yet the meanings of that tradition remain highly contested, as contemporary Chinese debate their revolutionary past in search of a new political future.—University of California Press
ChinaFile Recommends
06.07.13Getting China to Talk About Cyberespionage
Washington Post
There’s plenty of nasty stuff in cyberspace that both countries probably can’t control, but Mr. Xi could agree to a sustained and deeper engagement on the topic, perhaps with an accelerated pace of bilateral working groups.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.07.13Xi’s Not Ready
Foreign Policy
The U.S. needs to free itself from the idea that finding the soft spot in a foreign leader antagonistic towards it improves bilateral relationships. Summits like this one should be reserved for friends and allies.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.07.13U.S.-China Meeting’s Aim
New York Times
The two day meeting is an enormous bet on the power of personal diplomacy, in a setting carefully chosen to nurture a high-level friendship.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.07.13Obama Meets Xi: A Chance to Make History
NPR
This weekend's gathering is more informal than other meetings. The leaders of the world's two biggest economies have a rare chance to get to know one another on top of the official business about trades, security and global power.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.07.13New Idea for Sino-U.S. Relations: First-Lady Diplomacy
Atlantic
A potential partnership between the first ladies could go beyond forming a popular new image for the U.S.-China relationship. Obama and Peng have shown a mutual interest in areas of policy central to our shared future.
Sinica Podcast
06.07.13What China is Getting Right
from Sinica Podcast
Complain as we might about life in China, the last thirty-four years or so haven’t been all bad: we have seen three decades of roughly ten percent GDP growth, a whole lot of people eating a whole lot better than they did, and impressive progress...
Environment
06.06.13Wuxi-Düsseldorf and the Challenge of Green City Partnerships
from chinadialogue
At first glance, it isn’t an obvious pairing. Düsseldorf is the fashion and advertising capital of Germany. Wuxi is a fast-growing industrial city on China’s east coast, with probably more coal plants than catwalks. But a German environmental think-...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.06.13China’s New Leadership Has Ties to Tiananmen Era
New York Times
Many current top leaders served their political apprenticeship in the 1980s, when the boundaries between the permissible and the forbidden were not as stark and heavily policed as they are now.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.06.13Rare Protest in Vietnam Raises Call to Curb China
Associated Press
An anti-China march in the Vietnamese capital on Sunday showed the domestic pressure the government faces when dealing with Beijing’s muscular approach to territorial claims in the South China Sea.
Conversation
06.06.13What Would the Best U.S.-China Joint Statement Say?
As we approach the June 7-8 meeting in California of U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping we are holding a small contest. We have asked ChinaFile Conversation regulars and a few guests to envision their ideal Sunnylands...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.06.13How to Play Well With China
New York Times
There is no way to rebalance the global economy, slow climate change, manage the trouble kicked up by rogue states and keep the peace in Asia unless Washington and Beijing work together in as many areas as possible.