The deaths of two Chinese prompt widespread calls for retribution. Beijing, seeking favour in the region with its Belt and Road Initiative, remains curiously silent.
Gerald Roche is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Politics and Philosophy at La Trobe University. His research focuses on issues of ethnicity, nationalism, identity, and language in China’s Tibetan areas. His publications have appeared in China Quarterly, Modern Asian Studies, Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, and Asian Ethnicity. His edited volume of the International Journal of the Sociology of Language, on linguistic diversity and endangerment in Tibet, was published in May 2017.
Ben Hillman is a Senior Lecturer in the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University. He studies political development in Asia with a focus on China. Hillman is especially interested in the role of informal institutions in public policy making, and in policies and mechanisms for promoting political inclusion and protecting minority rights. His forthcoming book will be published in Chinese, Shangrila Inside Out: Ethnic Diversity and Development (Yunnan People’s Publishing House). He has recently co-edited (with Gray Tuttle) Ethnic Conflict and Protest in Tibet and Xinjiang: Unrest in China’s West (Columbia University Press, 2016), and previously authored Patronage and Power: Local State Networks and Party-State Resilience in Rural China (Stanford University Press, 2014).
Today, the Heilongjiang Public Security Bureau (PSB) Foreign NGO Management Office, in conjunction with Heilongjiang University, held a meeting on the Foreign NGO Law. In attendance were the university's international culture and education department, the international cooperation and exchange department, and representatives from some foreign NGOs. The PSB discussed the law itself, while a representative of the university spoke about the projects it has with foreign NGOs and provided information about the temporary activity application process.
Almost one hundred Chinese cities, from Beijing to Lhasa, now have bike-sharing schemes. The bikes, clad in various colors, have GPS trackers and can be unlocked simply by scanning a barcode on the frame with your phone. Some can even be reserved via a phone app.
On June 13, South China Morning Post published a thorough report by Nectar Gan that details the experiences of foreign NGOs since the Foreign NGO Law went into effect this year.
On June 12, the small Central American nation of Panama announced it was severing diplomatic ties with Taiwan so that it could establish relations with the People’s Republic of China. Now, only 19 countries and the Vatican recognize Taiwan. Why did this happen? How does it affect Taiwan’s relationship with the mainland? Should the United States get involved in preventing the further diplomatic isolation of Taiwan?
A rare street protest broke out in China’s biggest city and commercial capital on Saturday night, June 10, when residents of Shanghai marched against new housing rules that some residents claimed have caused the value of their property to plummet. Hundreds took to the streets, protestors were dragged off by police and detained, but by the next day, it appeared that the city’s housing authority made a concession to the protesters’ demands, tweaking the controversial policy. Chinese media were ordered not to cover the protests. What happened here?
The French retailer Carrefour has removed dog meat products from two supermarkets in China after an outcry from animal rights groups. Animals Asia said it had already asked the international chain, which operates more than 200 stores in China, to remove dog meat from its shelves in 2012. The company promised to do so, it said, but an inspection by the charity last month found two branches of Carrefour supermarkets in the eastern city of Xuzhou prominently featured dog meat products.
