China’s Stalk-Burning Clampdown Shows Limits of Command-and-Control

on October 30, 2015

At the end of the National Day holiday earlier this month, Beijing bid farewell to weeks of relatively good air quality and experienced another episode of “Airpocalypse.” Levels of PM2.5, tiny pollution particles that are deemed particularly harmful to human health, hit 400 micrograms per cubic meter by the second week of October, more than a dozen times higher than the World Health Organization guideline level (25 micrograms per cubic meter).

20 Photos That Show How Insanely Crowded China Has Become

By Jack Sommer on October 30, 2015

China has reportedly dropped its long-standing one-child policy, which was first enacted decades ago in an effort to curb overpopulation.The current population rests at around 1.4 billion after having the policy in place for over 35 years. Only time will tell how the lifting of the rule will impact the numbers.

Society, Urban Life
Population, Photography, crowds, One-Child Policy

Sven Grimm

on October 30, 2015

Sven Grimm is a political scientist and has worked on external partners’ co-operation with Africa since 1999. He is a Senior Researcher and the Coordinator of the Rising Powers program at The German Development Institute (Deutsches Institut fuer Entwicklungspolitik pr DIE) in Bonn. Since 2006 his research has focused on emerging economies’ role in Africa, and specifically China-Africa relations. Grimm studied in Hamburg, Germany; Accra, Ghana; and Dakar, Senegal and he obtained his Ph.D. from Hamburg University in 2002 with a thesis on E.U.-Africa relations. He has previously worked with the London-based Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and was the former head of the Centre for Chinese Studies at Stellenbosch University in Cape Town, South Africa.

Grimm’s research interests include the comparative perspective on external partners in Africa; Chinese development cooperation with Africa; European Africa policy; African perspectives on development; and discussions around cooperation between Europe, China, and African states.