Ai Weiwei, the dissident artist whose 81-day “disappearance” into secret police detention ignited protest around the world, is to switch his focus to heavy metal music and release an album parodying life in modern China.
The Health Ministry will merge with the National Population and Family Planning Commission, while other ministries and agencies, like the Chinese F.D.A., are being restructured or given more power.
A decade after recognizing that the middle class might be a signpost on the way to redemption, the government is failing to enact the will of the people it needs most, and thus it risks losing its greatest bulwark against the change it fears.
Personnel changes for State Councilor, Foreign Minister-designate, and ambassador to the U.S. suggest that China wants to improve the optics of its relationship with the United States, if not the substance.
China film consultant Robert Cain said the three companies behind “Iron Man 3” have likely opted out of trying to gain China’s co-production stamp in favor of winning global appeal.
A one-and-a-half-year-old girl wraps her arms around her mother’s neck, crying. Her mother, handcuffed, cannot hug her back—she can only squat down beside the police car to match her daughter’s height. “I’m sorry, mommy can’t hold you…”
On March 6, 2013, one Chinese female street fruit vendor, along with her husband and daughter, were arrested in Haizhu, a district in the southern metropolis of Guangzhou. They were released after a 24-hour detention.
China’s IPO action has been locked in ice since October by China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) officials intent on boosting investor confidence and improving scrutiny of stock market hopefuls.
Yet the heat is on for aspiring executives at more than 800 companies who, despite the freeze, have continued lobbying CSRC for permission to launch initial public offerings on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges.
Finally, it seems the railways ministry may soon be restructured as part of a wider exercise by the government to streamline its ministries. Putting railway reform on the agenda of this year’s meetings of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference will be highly significant.
Rail development has been an issue of major concern. We hope that restructuring will herald a new round of reform aimed at unraveling the tangled relationship between business and government in this country, to further boost development.
China signaled it is on the verge of shaking up its massive railway system, long plagued by corruption allegations and heavy debt. Reform of China’s Railways Ministry will start once a plan to merge it with China’s Transport Ministry is approved.
As China's economic and defense tactics appear to become more and more successful, David Brooks expects other countries' policies will start to resemble them, whether or not they run counter to our principles.
