Conversation
10.25.16
How Many U.S. Allies Can China Turn?
Rodrigo Duterte, President of the Philippines since June, visited China this week and signaled his interest in shifting Manila’s allegiance away from Washington toward Beijing. While his predecessor sued China in an international court to contest...
Viewpoint
10.14.16
Let One Hundred Panthers Bloom
“Chairman Mao says that death comes to all of us, but it varies in its significance: to die for the reactionary is lighter than a feather; to die for the revolution is heavier than Mount Tai.” So wrote Huey P. Newton, founder of the Black Panther...
Conversation
10.04.16
How Does the American Election Look to Chinese?
During the first presidential debate on September 26, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump mentioned China a dozen times. They spoke about China and jobs, currency, exports, infrastructure, cyberhacking, nuclear non-proliferation, trade, and North Korea...
Conversation
09.21.16
What Should the U.S. Presidential Candidates Be Saying on China?
Barely eight weeks before the United States presidential election, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and her Republican rival Donald Trump have said surprisingly little about how they plan to address China—in areas ranging from the global economy...
Sinica Podcast
09.20.16
What is the Chinese-American Identity?
from Sinica Podcast
What is the Chinese-American identity? How has the rise of China affected American attitudes toward ethnically Chinese people in the United States and elsewhere? How do the 3.8 million Chinese-Americans impact U.S.-China relations, and what role...
China in the World Podcast
09.16.16
Obama’s Asia Legacy
from Carnegie China
As President Obama enters his final months in office and a new administration prepares to take the helm in 2017, what will his legacy be in the Asia-Pacific? In this podcast, Paul Haenle and Michael Green, former senior director for Asian affairs at...
ChinaFile Recommends
09.07.16International Diplomatic Incidents Bring Benefits for China
Financial Times
Western officials say that negotiations and joint events often feel like exercises in humiliation.
Conversation
09.01.16
What Can We Expect from China at the G20?
On September 4-5, heads of the world’s major economies will meet in the southeastern city of Hangzhou for the G20 summit. The meeting represents “the most significant gathering of world leaders in China’s history,” according to The New York Times...
Viewpoint
09.01.16
How to Deal With China’s Human Rights Abuses
When world leaders touch down in early September in the city of Hangzhou for this year’s G20 leaders’ summit, which China will they see? The one of glossy skylines, enviable growth statistics, and perfectly choreographed diplomatic exchanges? Or the...
ChinaFile Recommends
08.25.16China Moves to Ease Foreign Concerns on Cybersecurity Controls
Wall Street Journal
China will allow Microsoft, Cisco, other foreign tech companies to join the influential Technical Committee 260.
ChinaFile Recommends
08.25.16FBI Files Say China Firm Pushed U.S. Experts for Nuclear Secrets
Bloomberg
Summaries of the consultants’ interviews with agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation were filed this month.
ChinaFile Recommends
08.25.16China’s Zika Fumigation Rules Raise Worries for U.S. Exporters
Wall Street Journal
Companies worry that requirement to fumigate all containers could result in costs, delays.
Conversation
08.25.16
Could China Now Defeat the United States in a Battle Over the South China Sea or Taiwan?
Chinese Communist Party Secretary Xi Jinping kicked off the latest round of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) reforms at a September 3, 2015 military parade. The reforms could result in a leaner, more combat-effective PLA. This could create new...
China in the World Podcast
08.04.16
What a Former CIA China Expert Has Learned from 30 Years in the Field
from Carnegie China
As tensions between the United States and China rise over security issues in the Asia-Pacific region, some are concerned about the possibility of conflict between the world’s two largest economies. Dennis Wilder, former Senior Director for East Asia...
The NYRB China Archive
07.28.16
China: The People’s Fury
from New York Review of Books
It has long been routine to find in both China’s official news organizations and its social media a barrage of anti-American comment, but rarely has it reached quite the intensity and fury of the last few days. There have been calls from citizens on...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.21.16China Upset by U.S. Republican Platform on South China Sea, Tibet
Reuters
China's Foreign Ministry urged the U.S. Republican Party to stop making “groundless accusations” against China.
Sinica Podcast
07.20.16
The Kaiser Kuo Exit Interview
from Sinica Podcast
This week, Kaiser sits in the guest chair and tells us about his 20-plus years of living in China. He recounts being the front man for the heavy metal band Tang Dynasty and the group’s tour stops in China’s backwater towns, shares his feelings on...
Conversation
07.20.16
How Should the Republican Party Approach China Policy?
On Tuesday, delegates to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, chose Donald J. Trump as their nominee for President of the United States. We asked a range of contributors how the Republican Party should approach China policy.
China in the World Podcast
07.19.16
Interpreting the South China Sea Tribunal Ruling
from Carnegie China
International responses to the tribunal’s ruling in the South China Sea have raised questions about the stability of the Asia-Pacific region and what roles the United States and China have in it. In this podcast, Paul Haenle and Elizabeth Economy...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.06.16US-China Gap on North Korea Policy Widening as Interests Diverge
Associated Press
U.S. President Donald Trump’s hopes for China’s help with restraining North Korea appear to have gone nowhere, with the two sides growing farther apart as their approaches and concerns diverge.
Books
06.28.16

John Birch
John Birch was better known in death than life. Shot and killed by Communists in China in 1945, he posthumously became the namesake for a right-wing organization whose influence is still visible in today’s Tea Party. This is the remarkable story of who he actually was: an American missionary-turned-soldier who wanted to save China, but instead became a victim. Terry Lautz, a longtime scholar of U.S.-China relations, has investigated archives, spoken with three of Birch’s brothers, found letters written to the women he loved, and visited sites in China where he lived and died. The result, John Birch: A Life, is the first authoritative biography of this fascinating figure whose name was appropriated for a political cause.Raised as a Baptist fundamentalist, Birch became a missionary to China prior to America’s entry into the Second World War. After Pearl Harbor, he volunteered for the U.S. Army in China, served with Claire Chennault, Commander of the famed Flying Tigers, and operated behind enemy lines as an intelligence officer. He planned to resume his missionary work after the war, but was killed in a dispute with Communist troops just days after Japan’s surrender. During the heyday of the Cold War in the 1950s, Robert Welch, a retired businessman from Boston, chose Birch as the figurehead for the John Birch Society, believing that his death was evidence of conspiracy at the highest levels of government. The Birch Society became one of the most polarizing organizations of its time, and the name of John Birch became synonymous with right-wing extremism.Cutting through the layers of mythology surrounding Birch, Lautz deftly presents his life and his afterlife, placing him not only in the context of anti-communism but in the longstanding American quest to shape China’s destiny. —Oxford University Press{chop}
Sinica Podcast
06.27.16
Patrolling China’s Cyberspace
from Sinica Podcast
Adam Segal is the Maurice R. Greenberg Senior Fellow for China Studies and Director of the Digital and Cyberspace Policy Program at the Council on Foreign Relations. His latest book, The Hacked World Order, provides an in-depth exploration of the...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.16.16China Business Climate Draws Fire From U.S. Treasury Secretary
Wall Street Journal
U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew says “high-standard bilateral investment treaty” would strengthen climate for U.S. businesses in China.
Conversation
06.13.16
A War of Words Over the South China Sea
Beginning earlier this year, four-star Admiral Harry Harris, the U.S. Navy’s top commander in the Pacific, has spoken out in speeches, interviews, private meetings, and testimony to Congress urging that the U.S. take more aggressive action against...
Sinica Podcast
06.13.16
50 Years of Work on U.S.-China Relations
from Sinica Podcast
In this week’s episode of Sinica, we are proud to announce that we’re joining forces with SupChina. We’re also delighted that our first episode with our new partner is a conversation with President Stephen Orlins and Vice President Jan Berris of the...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.09.16U.S. Throws China Off High-Speed Rail Project
Wall Street Journal
China state media says XpressWest’s move is irresponsible.
Caixin Media
06.06.16
Uncertain Future for China’s Market Status Bid
It’s been 15 years since China joined the World Trade Organization, and yet China is still waiting for the WTO to grant it market economy status. During this period, some Chinese businesses have expanded overseas while others have been accused of...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.06.16U.S. Chides China on Steel Glut, Treatment of Foreign Companies at Annual Talks
Washington Post
The U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Beijing is overshadowed by growing trade friction and the dispute over the South China Sea.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.25.16Why Obama's Asia Trip Is Not Playing Well in China
CBS News
President Obama arrived Wednesday morning in Japan for the next leg of his Asia tour.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.18.16China's 'Zombie' Steelmakers Hit With Huge U.S. Tariffs
NBC News
Similar dissatisfaction with dumping has been seen in Europe, India and Australia, where investigations and similar taxes have also been levied against Chinese steel.
Conversation
05.16.16
Escalation in the South China Sea
International tensions are rising over the shipping lanes and land formations in the South China Sea. Last week, the People’s Liberation Army Air Force scrambled fighter jets in response to a U.S. Navy ship sailing near the disputed Fiery Cross Reef...
China in the World Podcast
05.13.16
2016 Elections in a Changing Asia-Pacific
from Carnegie China
With Tsai Ing-wen taking office in Taipei next week and the U.S. presidential election approaching, new players will be taking the reins in the Asia-Pacific. In this podcast with Paul Haenle, Douglas Paal discusses the future of U.S.-China relations...
ChinaFile Recommends
05.12.16The Latest U.S.-China Trade Spat Is over Chicken
CNN
The Obama administration has accused China of unfairly blocking U.S. poultry imports, the latest in a series of election-year trade disputes between Washington and Beijing.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.10.16China Scrambles Fighters as U.S. Sails Warship near Chinese-Claimed Reef
Reuters
China denounced the U.S. patrol as an illegal threat to peace which only went to show its defense installations in the area were necessary.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.05.16As Trump Becomes Presumptive Nominee, China Urges Objectivity
Reuters
"We hope people in all fields can rationally and objectively view this relationship." Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.03.16China Is Building Its First Overseas Military Base in Djibouti—Right next to a Key US One
Public Radio International
China signed an initial 10-year lease for their base, and will pay $20 million per year in rent.
ChinaFile Recommends
04.21.16China Appears to Confirm New Missile Test
Military Times
China maintains that “technological research experiments ... within China’s boundaries are normal and are not aimed at any specific nations or targets.”
ChinaFile Recommends
04.18.16Chinese Official Calls Trump 'Irrational' on Trade
Reuters
Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei criticized Trump for his proposal that tariffs on imported Chinese goods be increased to up to 45%.
Conversation
04.12.16
Should Internet Censorship Be Considered a Trade Issue?
A new report from the Office of the United States Trade Representative lists, for the first time, Chinese Internet censorship as a trade barrier. The possible implications are complex: it could strengthen the hand of U.S. businesses, but also stands...
ChinaFile Recommends
04.08.164-Star Admiral Wants to Confront China. White House Says Not So Fast
Navy Times
Adm. Harry Harris is proposing a response to China's island-building that may include launching aircraft and conducting military operations.
ChinaFile Recommends
03.31.16Campaign Season’s Anti-China Tone Is Likely to Cloud Meeting With Obama
New York Times
While tarring China is a predictable election-year tactic, there were deeper corrosive forces at play this year.
ChinaFile Recommends
03.25.16How Trump’s Hard Line on Trade Could Backfire
Wall Street Journal
“If they don’t behave,” the Republican businessman warned at a debate, Chinese companies under a Trump presidency could face tariffs of 45%.
ChinaFile Recommends
03.24.16China's Xi to push Obama next week on North Korea talks
Reuters
On this issue, China's position is consistent. We are dedicated to the decentralization of the Korean peninsula.
ChinaFile Recommends
03.23.16U.S. Hopes for Talks with China about Possible THAAD Move to South Korea
Reuters
Beijing underscored its concerns but seemed to open the door to a diplomatic solution.
ChinaFile Recommends
03.04.16U.S. Proposes Reviving Naval Coalition to Balance China’s Expansion
New York Times
Chief of the U.S. Pacific Command proposed reviving a coalition that had collapsed because of protests from China.
ChinaFile Recommends
02.29.16China Warns U.S. After Trump Wins Nevada Caucus
Washington Free Beacon
China warned the U.S. not to adopt punitive currency policies that could disrupt U.S.-China relations after Donald Trump’s win in the Nevada caucus.
Books
02.23.16

The Diplomacy of Migration
During the Cold War, both Chinese and American officials employed a wide range of migration policies and practices to pursue legitimacy, security, and prestige. They focused on allowing or restricting immigration, assigning refugee status, facilitating student exchanges, and enforcing deportations. The Diplomacy of Migration focuses on the role these practices played in the relationship between the United States and the Republic of China both before and after the move to Taiwan. Meredith Oyen identifies three patterns of migration diplomacy: migration legislation as a tool to achieve foreign policy goals, migrants as subjects of diplomacy and propaganda, and migration controls that shaped the Chinese American community.Using sources from diplomatic and governmental archives in the United States, the Republic of China on Taiwan, the People’s Republic of China, and the United Kingdom, Oyen applies a truly transnational perspective. The Diplomacy of Migration combines important innovations in the field of diplomatic history with new international trends in migration history to show that even though migration issues were often considered “low stakes” or “low risk” by foreign policy professionals concerned with Cold War politics and the nuclear age, they were neither “no risk” nor unimportant to larger goals. Instead, migration diplomacy became a means of facilitating other foreign policy priorities, even when doing so came at great cost for migrants themselves. —Cornell University Press{chop}Correction: Meredith Oyen’s employer was misidentified in an earlier version of this video. She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Sinica Podcast
02.22.16
Allegiance
from Sinica Podcast
Kaiser and Jeremy recorded today’s show from New York, where they waylaid Holly Chang, founder of Project Pengyou and now Acting Executive Director of the Committee of 100, for a discussion on spying, stealing commercial spying, spying, and Broadway...
ChinaFile Recommends
02.09.16Q. and A.: Yan Xuetong Urges China to Adopt a More Assertive Foreign Policy
New York Times
Director at Tsinghua University advocates "moral realism" as China challenges the US for world leadership.
Conversation
02.02.16
How Close Was the Latest Close Call in the South China Sea?
Had things in fact calmed down in recent weeks as the Chinese official press claimed, only to be stirred up again needlessly by another Freedom of Navigation sail by the U.S. Navy?
Viewpoint
12.30.15
The Perils of Advising the Empire
Goodnow was not the first, nor would he be the last, foreign academic to have their views appropriated in support of illiberal regimes. Recent controversies involving Daniel Bell, whom The Economist once directly compared to Frank Goodnow, and his...
Books
12.29.15

Crouching Tiger
Will there be war with China? This book provides the most complete and accurate assessment of the probability of conflict between the United States and the rising Asian superpower. Equally important, it lays out an in-depth analysis of the possible pathways to peace. Written like a geopolitical detective story, the narrative encourages reader interaction by starting each chapter with an intriguing question that often challenges conventional wisdom.Based on interviews with more than thirty top experts, the author highlights a number of disturbing facts about China's recent military buildup and the shifting balance of power in Asia: the Chinese are deploying game-changing "carrier killer" ballistic missiles; some of America's supposed allies in Europe and Asia are selling highly lethal weapons systems to China in a perverse twist on globalization; and, on the U.S. side, debilitating cutbacks in the military budget send a message to the world that America is not serious about its "pivot to Asia."In the face of these threatening developments, the book stresses the importance of maintaining U.S. military strength and preparedness and strengthening alliances, while warning against a complacent optimism that relies on economic engagement, negotiations, and nuclear deterrence to ensure peace.Accessible to readers from all walks of life, this multidisciplinary work blends geopolitics, economics, history, international relations, military doctrine, and political science to provide a better understanding of one of the most vexing problems facing the world. —Prometheus Books{chop}
ChinaFile Recommends
12.28.15Is CES Still Relevant?
Re/code
[T]he CES show is international, and it embraces companies from all over the world. But make no mistake, the Chinese have arrived, and they plan to disrupt the traditional CE players as much as possible and take market share away from them fast.
Media
12.22.15
‘New Yorker’ Writers Reflect on ‘Extreme’ Reporting About China
from Asia Blog
While international reporting on China has improved by leaps and bounds since foreign journalists first started trickling into the country in the 1970s, major challenges remain in giving readers back home a balanced image. That was the message from...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.15.15U.S. Navy Commander Implies China Has Eroded Safety of South China Sea
New York Times
A senior American naval commander has implicitly accused China of creating artificial islands in the South China Sea.
Books
12.10.15

Pacific
Following his acclaimed Atlantic and The Men Who United the States, New York Times bestselling author Simon Winchester offers an enthralling biography of the Pacific Ocean and its role in the modern world, exploring our relationship with this imposing force of nature.As the Mediterranean shaped the classical world, and the Atlantic connected Europe to the New World, the Pacific Ocean defines our tomorrow. With China on the rise, so, too, are the American cities of the West coast, including Seattle, San Francisco, and the long cluster of towns down the Silicon Valley.Today, the Pacific is ascendant. Its geological history has long transformed us—tremendous earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis—but its human history, from a Western perspective, is quite young, beginning with Magellan’s sixteenth-century circumnavigation. It is a natural wonder whose most fascinating history is currently being made.In telling the story of the Pacific, Simon Winchester takes us from the Bering Strait to Cape Horn, the Yangtze River to the Panama Canal, and to the many small islands and archipelagos that lie in between. He observes the fall of a dictator in Manila, visits aboriginals in northern Queensland, and is jailed in Tierra del Fuego, the land at the end of the world. His journey encompasses a trip down the Alaska Highway, a stop at the isolated Pitcairn Islands, and a trek across South Korea and a glimpse of its mysterious northern neighbor.Winchester’s personal experience is vast and his storytelling second to none. And his historical understanding of the region is formidable, making Pacific a paean to this magnificent sea of beauty, myth, and imagination that is transforming our lives. —HarperCollins{chop}
Sinica Podcast
12.01.15
Live at the Bookworm, Part II
from Sinica Podcast
This is the second part of the Live Sinica discussion recorded last month during a special event at the Bookworm literary festival. In this show, David Moser and Kaiser Kuo were joined by China-newcomer Jeremy Goldkorn, fresh off the plane from...
ChinaFile Recommends
11.24.15China and U.S. Say They’ve Made Strides in Trade Talks
New York Times
The United States and China said that they had made progress on sticking points in trade.
Media
11.18.15
Chinese Students in America: 300,000 and Counting
In 1981, when Erhfei Liu entered Brandeis University as an undergraduate, he was only the second student from mainland China in the school’s history. “I was a rare animal from Red China,” Liu said in a September 1 interview with Foreign Policy, “an...