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...
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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...
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.09.14Xi Calls for More Strategic Trust Between China, U.S.
Xinhua
Xi said China stands ready to build a new model of major-country relations with the United States based on non-confrontation, non-conflict, mutual respect and win-win cooperation.
ChinaFile Recommends
08.27.14Xi Eyes Mended China-Vietnam Ties
Xinhua
China and Vietnam will earnestly implement a basic guideline for the resolution of China-Vietnam maritime issues signed in October 2011.
ChinaFile Recommends
08.23.14Xi Jinping Wants to be Seen As on a Par with Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping
South China Morning Post
Xi Jinping has amassed more power in 20 months than his two immediate predecessors, but it may be premature to call him China's new strongman.
ChinaFile Recommends
08.20.14China’s Xi Jinping Seeks Launch of New Media Clusters
Variety
Xi said that the new groups should be “diversified,” “advanced,” and “competitive” and said that state authorities should properly integrate and manage traditional and new media.”
ChinaFile Recommends
08.18.14Mao’s Little Red Book, Meet Xi Jinping’s Collected Speeches
Wall Street Journal
Since its publication not quite two months ago, the somewhat turgidly named “A Reader of General-Secretary Xi Jinping’s Important Speeches” has already sold 10 million copies, its publisher reports.
Caixin Media
07.31.14
Ex-Politburo Members Accused of ‘Serious Discipline Violations’ Always Face Courts
After much speculation, the axe has finally fallen on Zhou Yongkang, the former public security chief and member of the Politburo Standing Committee, indicating the Communist Party’s campaign against corruption will grant no exceptions to the...
Conversation
07.31.14
Zhou Yongkang’s Downfall
On July 29, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Chinese Communisty Party announced it was investigating ex-security czar Zhou Yongkang “on suspicion of grave violations of discipline.” Zhou, who retired from the Politburo...
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07.29.14China Puts Ex-Security Chief Zhou Yongkang Under Investigation
Wall Street Journal
China launched a formal investigation into one of the Communist Party’s most senior figures, lifting a cloak of immunity that has shielded the country’s highest ranks for at least 25 years, in President Xi Jinping’s boldest move yet to solidify his...
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07.28.14China’s Leaders Draw Lessons From War of ‘Humiliation’
New York Times
The lessons from the twilight of the Qing Dynasty have become all the more pointed today, when Chinese-Japanese ties are tenser than they have been for decades, and President Xi Jinping of China has embarked on an ambitious program to overhaul the...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.28.14The Diplomatic Battle Between China and Japan is Taking a Latin American Road Trip
Quartz
When Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe appeals to officials and business people in Central and South America this week, his hosts will be comparing him to another recent visitor: Chinese president Xi Jinping.
Books
07.23.14
The New Emperors
How does one become the leader of the world's newest superpower? And who holds the real power in the Chinese system? China has become the powerhouse of the world economy and home to one in five of the world's population, yet we know almost nothing of the people who lead it. In The New Emperors, the noted China expert Kerry Brown journeys deep into the heart of the Communist Party. China's system might have its roots in peasant rebellion but it is now firmly under the control of a power-conscious Beijing elite, almost half of whose members are related directly to former senior Party leaders. Brown reveals the intrigue, scandal, and murder surrounding the internal battle raging between two China's: one founded by Mao on Communist principles, and a modern China in which 'to get rich is glorious.' At the center of it all sits the latest Party Secretary, Xi Jinping—the son of a revolutionary, with links both to big business and to the People's Liberation Army. His rise to power is symbolic of the new dragons leading the world's next superpower. —I.B. Tauris {chop}
ChinaFile Recommends
07.21.14More Internet Companies Should Go Abroad
Xinhua
More Chinese Internet companies should compete internationally, as they now have the ability and can make the world’s cyber environment more balanced and just.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.21.14Edelman, Rui Chenggang, and China PR
Silicon Hutong
Operating ethically is seen as naive at best, and culturally imperialist at worst (“how dare you impose your values on us!”).
ChinaFile Recommends
07.15.14China’s Campaign Against Corruption Is Huge. Will It Do Any Good?
Time
President Xi has netted more “tigers,” or top-level officials, than his predecessor Hu Jintao did during his entire decade in power.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.10.14President Xi Welcomes Obama to Visit China for APEC Summit
Xinhua
Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Thursday that he welcomes and expects talks with Barack Obama when the U.S. president visits China to attend the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in November.
Environment
06.19.14
What China Should Say at the U.N. Climate Change Summit
from chinadialogue
With a little more than 100 days to go, countries are gearing up for Ban Ki-moon’s New York climate summit, the first climate convention of world leaders since Copenhagen and a meeting that aims to catalyze new commitments and mobilize political...
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06.17.14As China’s Leader Fights Graft, His Relatives Shed Assets
New York Times
As President Xi Jinping prepares to tackle what may be the biggest cases of official corruption in more than six decades of Communist Party rule, new evidence suggests that he has been pushing his own family to sell hundreds of millions of dollars...
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06.10.14China’s Anti-Graft Drive “A Testament of Xi’s Power”
Deutsche Welle
Over 1,000 people have been marked as "naked officials" in China, suspected of funneling illicit gains to overseas relatives. Analyst Rebecca Liao says Beijing is resolved to block any escape route for corrupt officials.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.29.14India’s Modi and China’s Xi: Frenemies, or Just Plain Enemies?
Time
With two nationalists in power, relations between the world’s two most populous nations could turn even frostier.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.23.14China Sentences ‘Deeply Evil’ Billionaire Liu Han to Death
Washington Post
Billionaire Liu Han was a man with two lives. There was the philanthropist and political adviser, and then there was the warlord and murderer.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.23.14Special Report: The Power Struggle Behind China's Corruption Crackdown
Reuters
When Xi Jinping was named President in March last year, the 48-year-old billionaire Liu Han was detained and surrounded by corruption investigators and prison guards.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.22.14China and Russia: Best Frenemies
Economist
Does the new collaboration between Russia and China amount to a renewal of the alliance against America?
ChinaFile Recommends
05.21.14China’s Xi Issues Veiled Warning to Asia Over Military Alliances
Reuters
Chinese President Xi Jinping appeared to warn some Asian nations about strengthening military alliances to counter China, saying this would not benefit regional security.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.14.14China May Seek Extradition of Corrupt Officials from U.S.
Al Jazeera
The specter of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s sweeping anti-graft campaign has in recent months ousted officials of all ranks and even banned authorities from purchasing ostensible symbols of corruption.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.06.14China Denies Preparing for North Korean Collapse
Guardian
Experts say leaked contingency plans, which include the detention of leaders and establishment of refugee camps, may be valid but do not suggest that the alliance is weakening.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.04.14China's Half-Year Report Card on Economic Reform: Slow, Safe and Steady
Reuters
Incremental steps promise to reach enough critical mass to sustain reform momentum and help the world's second-largest economy shift down fairly smoothly after decades of red-hot growth.
ChinaFile Recommends
04.29.14China Denies Declaring War on Christians After Mega-Church is Razed
Telegraph
Communist Party officials have rejected claims they have launched an orchestrated campaign to slow the spread of Christianity in China, after the razing of a church in a city known as the "Jerusalem of the East".
ChinaFile Recommends
04.29.14China’s Income Inequality Surpasses U.S., Posing Risk for President Xi Jinping,
Bloomberg
The income gap between the rich and poor in China has surpassed that of the U.S. and is among the widest in the world, a report showed, adding to the challenges for President Xi Jinping as growth slows.
ChinaFile Recommends
04.25.14The Shadow over Obama’s Asia Trip: 3 Ways China Scares the U.S.
Washington Post
The Balance of Power in the Pacific; China’s global footprint; and friendship with Russia
ChinaFile Recommends
04.24.14Obama: U.S. To Defend Japan In Territorial Disputes With China
NPR
President Obama is in Japan for the start of his four-nation Asia visit. The trip aims to assure U.S. allies that they're not forgotten, even as China gets more bullish with its neighbors.
ChinaFile Recommends
04.23.14America Should Step Back from the East China Sea Dispute
New York Times
The Diaoyu Islands, which are of little real strategic or economic use, are hardly worth disrupting relations among the world’s three largest economies. It is time to put the issue back into a box.
ChinaFile Recommends
04.22.14Xi’s Corruption Crackdown Hits China's Restaurants
Businessweek
Dirty officials aren’t the only ones getting slammed as Xi Jinping continues his crackdown on corruption and waste. China’s restaurant industry grew 9 percent, to 2.56 trillion yuan ($411 billion), last year, its slowest growth in more than two...
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04.16.14Why Ukraine Crisis has China in a Bind
CNN
Concerns that Chinese hardliners could seek to use Crimea as a precedent for moves against disputed territories in the Asia-Pacific should not be overplayed.
Caixin Media
04.08.14
Crimea Rattles the Chinese Dream
At the Sochi Winter Olympics, President Xi Jinping professed his affection for Russian letters. Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, and other literary giants made up the reading list of his youth, and his generation was raised on a diet of Russian culture...
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04.02.14Maybe Heads of State Shouldn’t Give Maps as Presents
Time
An antique map of China gifted by the German Chancellor to China's President is at odds with how China views its historical boundaries.
Media
04.02.14
A Merkel, a Map, a Message to China?
On March 28, German Chancellor Angela Merkel hosted visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping at a dinner where they exchanged gifts. Merkel presented to Xi a 1735 map of China made by prolific French cartographer Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville and...
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03.11.14Xi Jinping’s Germany Trip: Berlin Nixes Holocaust Memorial Request
Spiegel Online
Amid tensions over Japan’s historical war crimes, Chinese President Xi Jinping had wanted Chancellor Angela Merkel to show him World War II memorials during his upcoming visit to Berlin. Germany, however, wants no part of Beijing’s propaganda...
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03.05.14China, Eyeing Japan, Seeks WWII Focus For Xi’s Germany Visit
Reuters
China wants to make World War Two a key part of a trip by President Xi Jinping to Germany next month, much to Berlin’s discomfort as Beijing tries to use German atonement for its wartime past to embarrass Japan.
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02.20.14Taiwan and China Edge Ever Closer
New York Times
Recent official talks between China and Taiwan were symbolic of the strengthening of cross-Strait ties under President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan.
ChinaFile Recommends
02.20.14China Set to Press North Korea Further on Nuclear Aims, Kerry Says
New York Times
Mr. Kerry urged President Xi Jinping and senior Chinese officials to “use every tool at their disposal” to persuade North Korea to rethink its decision to be a nuclear power.
Caixin Media
02.18.14
Lee Hsien Loong on What Singapore Can—and Can’t—Teach China
As one of the Four Asian Tigers, Singapore is known for its strong economy and orderly society. The city-state, with its population of 5.3 million people, is listed by the World Bank as fourth in the world in terms of per capita income. As a...
Media
02.13.14
Did President Xi’s Dumpling Outing Create a Pilgrimage Site?
Beijing, China—It’s well after lunch and Liu Fengju still hasn’t gotten her food. The sixty-seven-year-old wife of a retired railway worker came to Beijing to spend Spring Festival, the annual seven-day Chinese New Year celebration, with her niece...
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02.12.14An Offer They Can’t Refuse
Foreign Policy
Will China win its 65-year war with Taiwan—without firing a shot?
ChinaFile Recommends
02.08.14Members of the Xi Jinping Clique Revealed
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.
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01.28.14Publisher of Book Critical of China’s Leader Is Arrested
New York Times
Yiu Mantin, a retired engineer from Hong Kong, had plans to distribute a withering denunciation of Xi Jinping.
ChinaFile Recommends
01.28.14China's New Foreign Policy: Not Conflict But Convergence Of Interests
Guancha.cn
China will begin to underwrite domestic benefits in exchange for political support in Central and Southeast Asia.