ChinaFile Recommends
03.10.15Sorry, America: China Is NOT Going to Collapse
National Interest
David Shambaugh bases his conclusion on flawed interpretations of recent socioeconomic and political developments.
ChinaFile Recommends
03.09.15China Blocks Web Access to ‘Under the Dome’ Documentary on Pollution
New York Times
The drama over the video has ignited speculation over which groups supported it and which sought to kill it.
Books
03.05.15
Has the American Media Misjudged China
Thirty-five years after China's opening to the world, some of the key assumptions that have guided coverage are being tested by the presidency of Xi Jinping. This book is must reading for anyone involved in U.S.-Chinese relations or for anyone who is just plain curious about how the assumptions that have guided American media coverage of China are now being challenged by the presidency of Xi Jinping. He has a very different vision of his country's future than the one often presented in some media accounts. —William J. Holstein {chop}
ChinaFile Recommends
03.04.15In Beijing, Political Pomp Abounds as China Kicks off 'Two Meetings'
Los Angeles Times
The dual sessions do telegraph the general national agenda for the coming year.
Conversation
02.27.15
Are China and Russia Forging a New Ideological Bloc?
With evidence of ties strengthening between Beijing and Moscow—over energy contracts, the handling of the Ukraine, and their diplomats' stance toward outside interference in internal affairs, especially if it's perceived as coming from...
ChinaFile Recommends
02.26.15Xi Jinping Hopes to Count in Chinese Political History With ‘Four Comprehensives’ -
Wall Street Journal
Chinese President Xi Jinping has uncorked his own ordinal political philosophy.
ChinaFile Recommends
02.25.15China Starts Massive Promotion of Xi Jinping’s Political Theory the ‘Four Comprehensives’
South China Morning Post
Xi has created a slogan and formulated principles to guide his style of government.
Viewpoint
02.19.15
Beijing Touts ‘Cyber-Sovereignty’ In Internet Governance
It has been a difficult few weeks for global technology companies operating in China.Chinese officials strengthened the Internet firewall by blocking the use of virtual private networks (VPNs), reasserted demands that web users register their real...
Conversation
02.12.15
Is Mao Still Dead?
It has long been standard operating procedure for China’s leaders to pay tribute to Mao. Even as the People’s Republic he wrought has embraced capitalist behavior with ever more heated ardor, the party he founded has remained firmly in power and his...
ChinaFile Recommends
02.11.15In Sharp Words From Xi, Ominous Implications for China’s Legal Reforms
Wall Street Journal
A Communist saying about the role of law states “the handle of the knife is firmly in the hands of the party and the people.”
ChinaFile Recommends
02.11.15Exclusive: U.S., China to Discuss Repatriation of Chinese Fugitives
Reuters
The issue is a thorny one, as no extradition treaty exists between the U.S. and China.
Conversation
01.29.15
Is China’s Internet Becoming an Intranet?
With Astrill and several other free and paid-subscription virtual private networks (VPNs) that make leaping China’s Great Firewall possible now harder to use themselves after government interference "gummed" them up, the world wide web...
Features
01.28.15
‘I Don’t Know Where Some Cadres Get Their Magical Powers’
Earlier this month, at the close of the Chinese Communist Party’s 5th Plenum, the official People’s Daily noted on its website that as this important agenda-setting meeting came to a close it was worth paying attention to the recent publication of a...
The China Africa Project
01.23.15
South Africa: China’s BFF in Africa
South Africa is emerging as one of China’s most important international partners as the relationship deepens across all levels. Economically, South Africa is the source of more Chinese investment than any other country on the continent. However,...
ChinaFile Recommends
01.22.15Obama’s Top Asia Adviser: Goal is for Complete Trade Pact in 2015
Reuters
Evan Medeiros, senior director for Asia at the U.S. National Security Council, asked about the Trans-Pacific Partnership, said: "We are confident we can and we will get it done."
ChinaFile Recommends
01.22.15China Says Ousted Security Tsar’s Influence Corrupted Others
Reuters
Last year, China arrested Zhou and expelled him from the party, accusing him of crimes ranging from taking bribes to leaking state secrets.
Media
01.22.15
Xi Jinping’s Pay Raise
It just got slightly less difficult to be a clean Chinese official. State media reported on January 20 that Chinese civil servants had received their first pay raise in ten years, a move that includes a 60 percent bump for President Xi Jinping and...
ChinaFile Recommends
01.16.15Macau Sex Ring Bust Shows China Expanding Crackdown on Graft
Bloomberg
Police in the former Portuguese colony arrested Alan Ho, handcuffing him and covering his head with a black hood, for allegedly operating a prostitution ring out of the casino complex of his uncle, Stanley Ho.
ChinaFile Recommends
01.16.15Is ‘China’s Machiavelli’ Now Its Most Important Political Philosopher?
Diplomat
Much like a dragon, “the ruler of men has bristling scales. Only if a speaker can avoid brushing against them can he have any hope of success.”
ChinaFile Recommends
01.14.15Xi Calls for More Anti-Corruption Efforts Despite Achievements
Xinhua
Misconduct may have abated but had not vanished, he said, and although counter-corruption mechanisms had been developed, they were not perfect and temptations still existed.
ChinaFile Recommends
01.11.15Compilation of Xi Jinping’s Anti-Graft Remarks Published
Xinhua
A circular issued jointly by the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and the CPC's discipline agency asked Party officials to take the essence of the remarks to heart and behave in line with the decisions so as to ensure an...
The China Africa Project
01.09.15
From ‘Made in China’ to ‘Made in Africa’
A growing number of Chinese companies are looking to outsource production overseas in a bid to lower costs and meet Beijing’s increasingly stringent environmental laws. Ethiopia and South Africa are among the beneficiaries of this new trend as...
ChinaFile Recommends
01.05.15Maoists in China, Given New Life, Attack Dissent
New York Times
They pounce on bloggers who dare mock their beloved Chairman Mao. They scour the nation’s classrooms and newspapers for strains of Western-inspired liberal heresies. And they have taken down professors, journalists and others deemed disloyal to...
The China Africa Project
12.23.14
China in Africa: 2014 Year in Review
Two thousand fourteen marked another landmark year in Sino-African relations as bilateral trade set new records while political, diplomatic, and military ties strengthened across the board. Yet despite the tangible progress made this year, this...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.17.14Maldives to Officially Join China's Maritime Silk Route Policy
Global Times
"With projects such as oil exploration and bridge construction in the agenda for discussion, the meeting will benefit economies of both countries. This is a great achievement to us as well," Minister of Economic Development Mohamed Saeed...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.15.14Mark Zuckerberg Wants to Make It Clear He's Cool with China
Huffington Post
Lu Wei, the Chinese Internet czar who heads a censorship system that keeps many popular American sites—including, of course, Facebook—out of China, was touring American tech companies recently. Chinese media reported that when he arrived at...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.12.14The Sony Hack: China’s Half-Hearted Defense of North Korea
Businessweek
It’s not easy being one of North Korea’s only allies. Chinese President Xi Jinping doesn’t seem particularly fond of Kim Jong Un, the third-generation Kim scion who rules China’s erstwhile client state.
Viewpoint
12.11.14
Here Is Xi’s China: Get Used To It
from China Economic Quarterly
The prevailing mood among China-watchers in 2014 was one of anxiety and skepticism. The year began in the shadow of Chinese assertiveness in the East and South China Seas. Economic concerns quickly took over: by February the property market seemed...
Features
12.10.14
Why Beijing’s Troubles Could Get a Lot Worse
from Barron’s
Few foreigners know China as intimately as Anne Stevenson-Yang does. She has spent the bulk of her professional life there since first arriving in 1985, working as a journalist, magazine publisher, and software executive, with stints in between...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.09.14Xi Jinping: The Growing Cult of China’s ‘Big Daddy Xi’
Telegraph
The construction of a cult of personality around president Xi represents a dramatic direction change for a country that sought to rule collectively after the devastation wrought during Chairman Mao's three-decade monopoly on power.
Caixin Media
12.09.14
With New Fund, China Hits a Silk Road Stride
China's ambitious plan to expand trade links westward into Central Asia in the spirit of the ancient Silk Road is taking shape now that the government has decided to shift foreign currency into a special fund.The State Council will tap the...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.05.14China Watchdog Says TV Censorship Rules Should Apply Online Too
Hollywood Reporter
A more censorious environment coincides with a boom in tie-ups between China and Hollywood. HBO and Tencent have agreed to make HBO content available on a broad basis in China, including shows like The Newsroom, Boardwalk Empire, Rome and Band of...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.01.14Leader Asserts China’s Growing Importance on Global Stage
New York Times
Sounding confident after a burst of high-profile diplomacy, President Xi Jinping told Communist Party officials in a major address here over the weekend that China would be nice to its neighbors in Asia but that he would run an active foreign policy...
ChinaFile Recommends
11.24.14Xi and Peng Now Have a Song of Their Own
South China Morning Post
After a series of high-profile events highlighting their marriage bonds, China’s president, Xi Jinping, and his wife, Peng Liyuan, now have a song praising their relationship.
The China Africa Project
11.22.14
Report: Chinese Diplomats & Officials Tied to Ivory Trade in Africa
A recent report by the U.K.-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) alleges Chinese diplomats and officials have been directly involved in the ivory trade in Africa. Most damaging, the EIA reports that even some members of visiting Chinese...
Conversation
11.19.14
Was the U.S.-China Climate Deal Worth the Wait?
Last week, Ann Carlson and Alex Wang, environmental experts at UCLA Law School, called the November 12 U.S.-China Joint Announcement on Climate Change "monumental." "No two countries are more important to tackling the problem than the...
ChinaFile Recommends
11.17.14China's ‘Fox Hunt’ Grabs 288 Suspects in Worldwide Anti-Graft Net
Reuters
China has conducted activities in 56 countries, including the United States, Canada, Spain, South Korea, and South Africa, it said, citing Vice Minister of Public Security Liu Jinguo.
Viewpoint
11.14.14
The Domestic Politics of the U.S.-China Climate Change Announcement
The news from Beijing this week that the U.S. and China are committing to ambitious goals on climate change is, we think, monumental. No two countries are more important to tackling the problem than the largest carbon emitter over the past two...
Sinica Podcast
11.14.14
Behind the Curtain at APEC
from Sinica Podcast
With tensions between the West and Russia running high over Ukraine, China and Japan still wrangling over the Diaoyu islands, and America and China fighting over pretty much the same old petty stuff, it's easy to be cynical about APEC. But this...
Conversation
11.12.14
Xi Jinping’s Culture Wars
Given China’s tightening restrictions on film, TV, art, writing, and journalism, and the reverberations from President Xi Jinping’s recent speech on culture, we asked contributors why they think Beijing has decided to ramp up its involvement in the...
ChinaFile Recommends
11.11.14What Brookings Experts Are Saying about Obama in Asia
Brookings Institution
Experts recently joined together in a full-day conference to examine the economic, environmental, political, and security implications of President Obama's trip to China and his interactions with President Xi Jinping.
ChinaFile Recommends
11.11.14Cut the Shawl Talk: Chinese Censors Wipe Putin’s Move on China’s First Lady
CNN
At an APEC event to watch the fireworks in Beijing on Monday night, Russian President Vladimir Putin created a few of his own by slipping a shawl over the shoulders of Peng Liyuan, wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
ChinaFile Recommends
11.11.14Obama’s Three-Day Visit to China: Charlie Rose
Bloomberg
On “Charlie Rose,” a conversation about President Obama's three-day visit to China. The president arrived on Monday morning. We are joined by Edward Luce of the Financial Times, Orville Schell of the Asia Society and Chengi Li of the John L...
ChinaFile Recommends
11.11.14Obama’s Focus in China Is on Leader, Not Public
New York Times
The White House has also changed its approach to the Chinese news media. In 2009, Mr. Obama gave an interview to Southern Weekly, a newspaper based in Guangdong Province that is known for pushing the limits of China’s censorship rules. The...
ChinaFile Recommends
11.10.14Frosty Meeting at APEC Could Be Start of Thaw Between China and Japan
New York Times
The meeting between President Xi Jinping of China and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan lasted only 25 minutes, less than half the time usually given to formal encounters between the leaders of two nations.
ChinaFile Recommends
11.10.14China’s ‘New Type’ of Ties Fails to Sway Obama
New York Times
Nearly three years ago, Xi Jinping was still China’s vice president and only the heir apparent to the Communist Party leadership. But even during that visit he spoke expansively of forging a “new type of great power relations” with the United States.
Viewpoint
11.08.14
Obama’s Chance to Get China Right
With much of his domestic agenda now stymied by the Republican sweep of Congress, President Obama’s room for maneuver remains greatest in foreign affairs. Yet with much of the Middle East in flames, an angry Vladimir Putin threatening Russian...
ChinaFile Recommends
11.07.14Ten Fun and Fascinating Facts About Xi Jinping
Council on Foreign Relations
While I can’t do justice to all the material presented in Xi Jinping: The Goverance of China, here are some things I learned from reading through Xi’s musings and the musings of others about him.
Conversation
10.31.14
What Should Obama and Xi Say to Each Other at APEC?
Next week's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Beijing (November 5-11) between Presidents Xi Jinping, Barack Obama, and other leaders from around the world, is billed as the Chinese capital's highest-profile international event...
Media
10.29.14
A Talking Heads Video: China Strikes Back
In the first episode of the new VICE News series Talking Heads, Orville Schell, the Arthur Ross Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at Asia Society, and publisher of ChinaFile, discusses his New York Review of Books essay, "China...
Media
10.27.14
What China’s Reading: ‘Broken Dreams, USA’
Zhou Xiaoping, a 33-year-old selfie-snapping blogger, has quickly become the new face of Chinese patriotism—or, some would say, nationalism. On October 15, Chinese President Xi Jinping held a forum in Beijing in which the president called for art to...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.24.14Zhou Xiaoping, Director of History
China Digital Times
Since nationalistic blogger Zhou Xiaoping’s “positive energy” won accolades from Xi Jinping at the Beijing Forum on Literature in Art last week, he has been the subject of much netizen scrutiny, and some have taken him to task for his blatant...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.21.14China, U.S. Working to Ensure Positive Results from Obama's Upcoming China Visit: Senior Chinese Official
Xinhua
Chinese State Councillor Yang Jiechi saluted "new and positive progress" that has been made in various aspects of the China-U.S. ties since last year's summit held by Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping in California.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.14.14Cultural Reflection Can Improve Modern Governance
Xinhua
During the latest in a series of collective studies among the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Xi said the CPC should follow successful examples in Chinese history to learn from their merits and avoid shortcomings.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.10.14China ‘Strongly Displeased’ by U.S. Rights Report
ABC
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a news briefing that the independent U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China "twisted facts and attacked China on purpose" in its report.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.07.14China Removes 160,000 ‘Phantom Staff’ from Government Payroll
CNN
Hebei province in central China was the worst offender, with 55,793 officials found to be getting paid even though they never worked, followed by Sichuan and Henan.
Reports
10.01.14
Avoiding the Blind Alley: China’s Economic Overhaul and Its Global Implications
Daniel H. Rosen
Asia Society
President Xi Jinping announced a sweeping overhaul for China’s economy in November 2013, with pledges to make market forces decisive, treat homegrown and foreign investors with the same laws and regulations, and change the mission statement of the...
The NYRB China Archive
09.29.14
China Strikes Back!
from New York Review of Books
When Deng Xiaoping arrived at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington in January 1979, his country was just emerging from a long revolutionary deep freeze. No one knew much about this 5-foot-tall Chinese leader. He had suddenly reappeared on the...
Viewpoint
09.26.14
‘The China-U.S. Relationship is Basically Good’
A few days ago, I was in Washington, D.C. for a conference. While there, I met some American friends. We had an interesting discussion about what seems to me to be a debate going on in the U.S. about China-U.S. relations: One side believes the China...
ChinaFile Recommends
09.25.14Is China Still a ‘Developing’ Country?
Foreign Policy
A look at Beijing’s favorite rhetorical trick.