Wan Li Obituary

John Gittings
Guardian
Former leader Wan Li, who died at age 98, was a reform-minded communist. In the post-Mao Zedong era, Wan achieved one great success only to fail dismally in another crucial enterprise.

Environment

02.12.14

China Unlikely to Reduce Coal Use in the Next Decade

from chinadialogue
Coal will account for no less than sixty percent of China’s total energy use in the next decade, said Zheng Xinye, an energy economist at Renmin University. Currently, coal accounts for seventy percent of China’s total energy consumption. The...

Members of the Xi Jinping Clique Revealed

Willy Lam
China Brief
Fourteen months after the watershed 18th Chinese Communist Party Congress, President Xi Jinping has emerged as a strongman more powerful than ex-presidents Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao.

Caixin Media

01.13.14

Leading the Battle for Reform

The turn of the year brought news that President Xi Jinping will take the helm of the new leading group for overall reform.This group is a key part of China’s reform drive. As soon as its formation was announced at the Third Plenum of the Communist...

Bremmer: China, Japan 2014’s Most Dangerous Spat

Rebecca Blumenstein
Wall Street Journal
Political-risk expert Ian Bremmer of the Eurasia Group calls the bilateral conflict between China and Japan the "greatest geopolitical danger in the world in 2014" and discusses what reform means for China under new leader Xi Jinping.

Conversation

01.06.14

Will Xi Jinping Bring a Positive New Day to China?

Paul Mooney, Andrew J. Nathan & more
Chinese President Xi Jinping, just over a year in office, recently made a rare appearance in public in a Beijing restaurant, buying a cheap lunch and paying for it himself. Shortly thereafter, President Xi delivered a brief televised New Year...

Media

11.21.13

For Cash-Strapped Parents, Two Babies Are Too Many

Call it reproduction with Chinese capitalist characteristics. On November 15, authorities announced that the country’s One-Child Policy would be loosened, adding couples in which one spouse is an only child to the list of families allowed to have...

Xi, in ‘Godfather’ Mold, Looks Assertive and Even Imperial

Christopher Buckley
New York Times
China’s president, Xi Jinping, has admitted to watching “The Godfather,” and this week he proved he could be a shrewd student of one of that film’s themes: the art of amassing and applying power in a small, secretive circle of men.

China Unveils Boldest Reforms in Decades, Shows Xi in Command

Kevin Yao and Ben Blanchard
Reuters
China has relaxed its longstanding one-child policy and further freed up the markets in order to put the world's second-largest economy on a more stable footing.

Conversation

09.05.13

To Reform or Not Reform?—Echoes of the Late Qing Dynasty

Orville Schell, John Delury & more
Orville Schell:It is true that China is no longer beset by threats of foreign incursion nor is it a laggard in the world of economic development and trade. But being there and being steeped in an atmosphere of seemingly endless political and...

Where Is China’s Gorbachev?

Matt Schiavenza
Atlantic
Why China hasn't had—and isn't likely to have—a political reformer in the mold of the former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

China Second Quarter GDP to Test Reformers’ Stomach for Slower Growth

Langi Chiang and Koh Gui Qing
Reuters
China's resolve to revamp its economy for the long-term good will be tested this month when a slew of data show growth is grinding towards a 23-year low, with no recovery in sight.

China Said to Crack Down on Censorship Protests

Edward Wong
New York Times
People across China have been detained or questioned for supporting protesting Southern Weekend journalists.

Top 10 Myths About China in 2012

Evan Osnos
New Yorker
This year may prove to be a pivot point, when the myths that China and the world had adopted about the politics and economics of the People’s Republic began to erode. 

China: The Mao Dynasty Moves Toward Democracy And Human Rights

Ralph Benko
Forbes
China is visibly evolving toward liberal republican governance.  Ten years, rather than life, tenure for its leaders is a major step.

Reports

11.08.12

China 3.0

Edited by Mark Leonard
European Council on Foreign Relations
China’s once-a-decade leadership change is currently underway in Beijing. The new leaders will take power at a crucial time for China, as it enters the third stage of its development since the revolution. How they deal with the challenges ahead will...

Viewpoint

11.05.12

The Big Enterprise

Orville Schell
In days of yore, when a new dynasty was established in China and a new emperor was enthroned, it was known as dashi, “The Big Enterprise,” and it usually involved mass social upheaval and civil war. The latter-day version of changing...

Reports

04.30.12

Guangdong Leads Calls to Break up “Vested Interests” and Revive Reform

Joseph Fewsmith
He Jianan
China Leadership Monitor
In September 2011, a protest in a Guangdong village threatened to embarrass the province and its party secretary, Wang Yang, who is a candidate for membership on the powerful Politburo Standing Committee when the 18th Party Congress meets later in...

Reports

01.01.11

Equity and Public Governance in Health System Reform: Challenges and Opportunities for China

Hana Brixi, Yan Mu, Beatrice Targa and David Hipgrave
Sara Segal-Williams
World Bank
Achieving the objective of China's current health system reform, namely equitable improvements in health outcomes, will be difficult not least because of the continuously growing income disparities in the country. The analysis in this paper...

Reports

04.01.08

Walking on Thin Ice: Control, Intimidation and Harassment of Lawyers in China

Human Rights Watch
While major gains have been made in terms of the rule of law over the past thirty years, this report from Human Rights Watch details consistent patterns of abuses against legal practitioners. These include intimidation, harassment, suspension of...

Reports

04.01.08

Real and Financial Sector Linkages in China and India

Jahangir Aziz
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
In the spirit of what is known as business cycle accounting, this paper finds that the investment wedge—the gap between household rates of intertemporal substitution and the marginal product of capital—is large and quantitatively significant in...

Reports

03.01.08

People’s Republic of China: The Olympics Countdown—Crackdown on Activists Threatens Olympics Legacy

Amnesty International
With little more than four months to go before the Beijing Olympics, few substantial reforms have been introduced that will have a significant, positive impact on human rights in China. This is particularly apparent in the plight of individual...

China on the Verge

Jonathan D. Spence from New York Review of Books
During the play-off matches for the intercollegiate East China soccer title in the early 1920s, passions ran high. The president of Shanghai’s prestigious Communications University was no less a soccer fan than anyone else, but he was also a...