China’s Overseas Food Footprint

on July 18, 2012

For the last three decades, China’s factories have turned out goods for export markets, while Chinese citizens have paid the environmental price of industrialization in the pollution of their air and water and in the contamination of their land. But as China’s citizens grow richer and more concerned about the impacts of pollution on their health, there are signs, in one sector at least, that this pattern could be reversed: China’s growing demand for certain kinds of imported food is causing concern about pollution in producer countries.

Chinese Draft Rule Could Prohibit Citizens and NGOs From Monitoring Air

By Charles Zhu on July 18, 2012

Even as the Weibo account of the U.S. consulate in Shanghai was shut down, the fight for blue skies has continued to gain momentum. There’s the China Air Daily website, which posts pictures and air quality data in cities across the country. But lest we speak too soon, enter Rule 81 of the Chinese environmental protection agency’s April 2009 innocuously-named draft document, “Environmental Monitoring Management and Regulations: Consultative Report (For Public Comment).”

Environment
Air Quality, Censorship

As China Talks of Change, Fear Rises on the Risks

By Michael Wines on July 18, 2012

A heavyweight crowd gathered last October for a banquet in Beijing’s tallest skyscraper. The son of Mao Zedong’s immediate successor was there, as was the daughter of the country’s No. 2 military official for nearly three decades, along with the half sister of China’s president-in-waiting, and many more.

Politics
Chinese Communist Party, Political Reform

The Return of Activist Journalism in China

By Haiyan Wang on July 18, 2012

We journalists in China live in a paradoxical universe. There is much you in the west know that we do not, though some of it we can pick up from those websites to which we have access. We pick up news, for example, about the fate of Bo Xilai, the former party secretary of Chongqing, now held – somewhere – for investigation over “serious disciplinary violations”. But we cannot report on it; cannot report the divisions that western media say are appearing in the leadership. We could not even report the sacking of Mr. Bo in March (the front page story in the Financial Times!). Yet it is true Chinese journalism has changed greatly since Deng Xiaoping decreed in the 1980s that the media could be partly privatised and thus had to respond more to the wishes of their audience.
Media
Journalism, Activism, Media

The Chinese Media Reciprocity Act and Censorship of Foreign Journalists in China (Pt. 2)

By Elizabeth Lynch on July 18, 2012

Putting aside the shrill rhetoric surrounding the Chinese Media Reciprocity Act and the fact that it only deals with the harassment of a small segment of U.S. journalists in China (the VOA and RFA reporters), the Act does draw attention to an increasingly problematic issue: the Chinese governments harassment of foreign journalists through the visa process.  It also raises the question: what should the U.S. government be doing about this harassment?

Media, Politics
U.S. Congress, U.S.-China Relations, Media

What is Wrong With the Chinese Media Reciprocity Act (Pt. 1 of 3)

By Elizabeth Lynch on July 18, 2012

The Chinese Media Reciprocity Act attempts to combat China’s restrictive visa policies for U.S. government-employed journalists. In reality, the impact of the Chinese Media Reciprocity Act is anything but reciprocal.  The U.S. has two government-sponsored news agencies in (or trying to get in) China: Radio Free Asia (RFA) and Voice of America (VOA); the remaining U.S. journalists in China work for private media outlets.  China on the other hand, with its state-owned media, has 13government-run agencies and over 800 media personnel working in the U.S.  If passed, within 30 days, the State Department would be required to revoke the number of visas issued to Chinese journalists to equal the number of visas issued to American government journalists in China which currently stands at 2.  The Act would all but eliminate a Chinese media presence in the U.S.

Media, Politics
U.S. Congress, U.S.-China Relations, Media

China Law & Policy

on July 18, 2012

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China Law & Policy believes that an understanding of the development of the Chinese legal system is integral to an informed U.S. policy toward China.  In China, where the legal system is often indistinguishable from the political system, which laws are effectively implemented is not necessarily determined by an independent legal system, but instead reflects the political priorities of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.  U.S. policy needs to take this fact into consideration.

Financial Reform Has Only Begun

on July 18, 2012

The Chinese economy’s rapid growth over the past thirty years has fundamentally changed global economic structures. But our achievements have come at a price: We have run up against hard limits in many areas, including factor investment costs and resource allocation efficiency. It is both understandable and reasonable that our domestic economy has slowed since the beginning of the year.

Attitudes Toward Homosexuality

By Unattributed on July 17, 2012

ZHEN AI used a conventional method to uncover the truth about her husband’s “business trips”. She logged on to his computer. But what Ms Zhen, who was three months pregnant at the time, found was beyond her imaginings. She saw photos of her husband in some of China’s most exotic settings—Tibet, Hangzhou and Yunnan province—with another man. The pictures of them together in bed were particularly devastating.

 
Society
Sexuality, Marriage, Discrimination