A History of China and U.S. Leaders Meeting Through The Years

on September 29, 2014

When the first U.S. President visited China, he was no longer president. Ulysses S. Grant traveled in Asia in 1879. The Qing empire was embroiled in a dispute with Japan over territorial claims to the Ryuku Islands and wanted the U.S. to mediate. Grant met with many members of the imperial court, but his most significant meeting was in Tianjin with Li Hongzhang, the powerful Viceroy of Zhili (roughly modern day Hebei province) who, after leading a coup a few years earlier, was among the most powerful statesmen in the Qing court and the de facto leader of its military.

Taking Aim at Hong Kong

By Jonathan Mirsky on September 29, 2014

A surge of emotion washed through me on Sunday night as I watched tens of thousands of protesters fill the streets of Hong Kong on television. It was the same feeling I had in Beijing on the nights leading up to the killings in Tiananmen Square on June 3 and 4, 1989. Once more we are seeing highly disciplined but angry young Chinese demanding an old-fashioned kind of democracy: freedom to choose their own leaders.

Police Unleash Tear Gas in Hong Kong Protests

By ALAN WONG and CHRIS BUCKLEY on September 28, 2014

In a significant escalation of their efforts to suppress protests calling for democracy, the authorities in Hong Kong unleashed tear gas and mobilized riot police with long-barreled guns Sunday to disperse crowds that have besieged the city government for three days. But thousands of residents wielding only umbrellas and face masks defied police orders to clear the area.

Politics
Hong Kong, Hong Kong-Mainland Tension, Police, Protests

At least 34 injured as police and protesters clash in Hong Kong

By Ivan Watson, Elizabeth Joseph, Anjali Tsui and Steve Almasy on September 28, 2014

But as Sunday became early Monday, it appeared many of the protesters were set to continue to jam streets of the business district. The sometimes violent demonstrations follow a week of student-led boycotts and protests against what many see as the encroachment of China's political will on Hong Kong's governance. 

Politics
Hong Kong-Mainland Tension, Protests, Democracy, Hong Kong

Fu Hualing

on September 28, 2014

Fu Hualing is a professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Hong Kong. He teaches and researches constitutional law and criminal law with a focus on China.

Traces

From the Frontlines of Climate Change Along China’s Yellow River

By Ian Teh on September 28, 2014

One in five people in the world get their water from great Asian rivers linked to the Qinghai-Tibet plateau in northwestern China. Here, beneath a gently undulating landscape, spring the headwaters of the Yellow River, which sweep three thousands miles across China on their way to the sea. When they make it. The Yellow River now runs dry so often that some scientists have argued it ought to be considered a seasonal phenomenon. The plateau is also a beacon for climate change.

In Conversation with Mara Hvistendahl

By Kaiser Kuo & Jeremy Goldkorn on September 27, 2014

Kaiser and Jeremy are joined this week by Mara Hvistendahl, Pulitzer Prize-nominated author and long-standing resident of Shanghai, to discuss her two main works. Along with discussing the twists and turns of her murder novel, And the City Swallowed Them, we also touch upon law enforcement in China, the global modeling industry, the parallel lives of ex-pats and migrant workers in big Chinese cities, and the different philosophical approaches to punishment.