Recent news stories and industry studies show that fewer international visitors are choosing China as their destination. January-June arrivals in Beijing are down 15% from the same period in 2012 and more Chinese than ever before are spending their money to travel abroad, “opting out” rather than exploring their vast and varied home country.
Near the beginning of Simon Leys’ marvelous collection of essays is an odd polemic between the author and the late Christopher Hitchens, fought out in these very pages. Leys takes Hitchens to task for attacking Mother Teresa in a book entitled The Missionary Position. He writes: “Bashing an elderly nun under an obscene label does not seem to be a particularly brave or stylish thing to do.” Hitchens replies: What do you mean, obscene? You know perfectly well, answers Leys. And so on and on.
The recent announcement of plans to lower air pollution levels in the next five years are far greater than any proposed before, some being several times tougher than those included in the Twelfth Five Year Plan (FYP) period, which was only finalized in 2012.
French naturalist and missionary Armand David was one of the first westerners to set eyes on the giant panda, and contributed in familiarizing the West with other native Chinese species.
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The Catholic Herald is one of Britain's leading magazine bringing domestic and world Catholic news to 45,000 readers every week
P.L.A. psychological warfare efforts could potentially have a devastating effect on Taiwanese troops. Prior to, and during, a conflict with Taiwan, the Gaoxin-7 would likely be used to broadcast messages to demoralize Taiwanese troops, and persuade them to surrender.
The New York Times recently ran an article that detailed the struggles of three young college women from low-income backgrounds, raising questions about whether education remains the “great equalizer” in America. How does the picture look in China, where education has been prized since the days of Confucius as a way to advance in society?
Proceeds from a Taobao store go to support human rights activists and the families of jailed political dissidents. The site’s following means a growing number of Chinese are willing to take small actions that together pose a challenge to China’s one-party rulers.
M.P.A.A. chairman and C.E.O. Christopher Dodd announced late on Tuesday that the China Film Group will pay Hollywood studios in full for money owed to them from box office revenue for over a year.
China’s economy could be $1 trillion smaller than it says. A professor at Peking University lays out the case in a new working paper that finds some very strange patterns in China’s official statistics.
