ChinaFile Recommends
11.17.17Trump's First Asia-Pacific Tour: The View From Taiwan
Diplomat
What implications did Trump’s trip have for the U.S.-China-Taiwan triangle?
ChinaFile Recommends
11.17.17China Could Sell Trump the Brooklyn Bridge
New York Times
There is a saying — “When you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there” — and it perfectly sums up the contrast between China’s President Xi Jinping and President Trump.
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11.17.17"A Man Who Makes Things Happen": Chinese State Media's 8,000-Word Profile on Xi Jinping
Quartz
Chinese president Xi Jinping officially became the most powerful leader in China since Mao Zedong at a recently concluded Communist Party congress. Now, you can read all about why Xi is so great in a lengthy profile published today...
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11.16.17Donald Trump Tells UCLA Trio to Thank Xi Jinping for Releasing Them from China
South China Morning Post
US President Donald Trump has exhorted three suspended UCLA basketball players to thank Chinese President Xi Jinping for their freedom following a shoplifting incident while they were in China.
ChinaFile Recommends
11.16.17Donald Trump Tells UCLA Trio to Thank Xi Jinping for Releasing Them from China
South China Morning Post
U.S. President Donald Trump has exhorted three suspended UCLA basketball players to thank Chinese President Xi Jinping for their freedom following a shoplifting incident while they were in China.
ChinaFile Recommends
11.16.17China Appears to Have Crossed Trump on North Korea
Business Insider
After a 12-day trip to Asia in which President Donald Trump stressed his friendship and mutual understanding with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Beijing appears to have crossed Trump on a key issue: North Korea.
Media
11.15.17
What Happened When Trump Met Xi?
An edited transcript of “ChinaFile Presents: What Happened When Trump Met Xi?” a discussion of Donald Trump’s five-country trip to Asia with Daniel Russel, Bonnie Glaser, and Orville Schell, moderated by Susan Jakes. The panel took place at Asia...
Conversation
11.14.17
Was the Trump-Xi Summit in Beijing a Hit or a Miss?
On November 8 and 9, Communist Party Secretary Xi Jinping and Donald Trump held their first Beijing-based summit, a year after Trump’s surprise victory and just weeks after the predictable announcement Xi would serve a second term. During the visit...
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11.13.17Behind the Scenes, Communist Strategist Presses China’s Rise
New York Times
He was a brilliant student during the dark days of China’s Cultural Revolution. He visited America, and left unimpressed with democracy. Plucked from academia, he climbed the ladder of Beijing’s brutal politics.
ChinaFile Recommends
11.13.17Trump Humbled in China as Beijing Visit Underlines the New World Order in Asia
South China Morning Post
Of the stops on Donald Trump’s five-country trip to Asia, the one that stands out is Beijing. After all, China is considered America’s biggest regional rival, and often the object of the president’s non-stop tirades.
ChinaFile Recommends
11.10.17The Diplomatic Dishes China Picked to Keep Donald Trump Happy at a State Banquet
South China Morning Post
Safety-first menu for big set piece dinner shows Beijing was taking no risks when hosting a man who is not known for his adventurous palate
Viewpoint
11.10.17
Bathed in the Xi Jinping Bromance
Sitting in a grand salon of the Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square and awaiting the official arrival ceremony of President Trump was to be taken back to that period of Sino-Soviet amity when Stalin was Mao’s “big brother” and the Chinese...
ChinaFile Recommends
11.10.17Trump's Visit to China Provides a Propaganda Bonanza
New York Times
#TrumpHasArrived! The Chinese news media broke out the hashtags this week as soon as Air Force One landed in Beijing, delivering both President Trump and an irresistible propaganda opportunity for President Xi Jinping of China.
ChinaFile Recommends
11.10.17While We Obsess over Trump, China Is Making History
Washington Post
While news and analysis in the United States continue to be obsessed with President Trump’s daily antics and insults, halfway around the world, something truly historic just happened
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11.09.17Donald Trump and Xi Jinping's Grand Gestures Can't Paper over Diplomatic Divide
South China Morning Post
China and the United States announced a record-breaking “gift pack” of a quarter of a trillion US dollars worth of business deals as the presidents of the two nations wrapped up their talks on Thursday.
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11.09.17Trump Touts 'Great Chemistry' with China's Xi as Leaders Agree to Closer Ties
NPR
President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping say they have agreed to work together on the denuclearization of North Korea and closer cooperation on trade.
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11.09.17Trump Is Ceding Global Leadership to China
New York Times
Amid the pomp that President Xi Jinping of China is bestowing upon his visiting American counterpart, President Trump, it’s hard not to see two leaders — and two countries — heading in very different directions.
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11.08.17China’s Xi Fetes Trump on First Day of Beijing Trip
Reuters
With lavish pageantry and an uncharacteristic personal flourish, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday rolled out a red carpet welcome for U.S President Donald Trump at the Forbidden City, the ancient home of China’s emperors.
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11.08.17Trump, in China, Seeks Help Over a Nuclear North Korea
New York Times
President Trump arrived in China on Wednesday, primed to ask his host, President Xi Jinping, to step up Chinese pressure on North Korea over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. But Mr. Trump’s latest foray into personal diplomacy may end in...
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11.08.17Trump’s Granddaughter Plays Diplomat Once More as She Sings for ‘Grandpa’ Xi Jinping
South China Morning Post
She might be only five years old, but Arabella Kushner played her diplomatic role perfectly again on Wednesday as she helped ease the interaction between two of the world’s most powerful men – Chinese President Xi Jinping and her grandfather, Donald.
Viewpoint
11.08.17
Will Trump’s ‘Flattery Machine’ Work on Xi Jinping?
Before winging off to Beijing, Trump managed to convince his staff and Korean President Moon to take him to the demilitarized zone (DMZ). Many of his aides were said to have been wary about the idea, fearing he might make some kind of provocative...
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11.07.17Big Stakes in Beijing: A Triumphant Xi vs. A Chastised Trump
Washington Post
When China rolls out the red carpet for Donald Trump, the grandeur of its welcome for the larger-than-life American president will mask a sobering reality.
ChinaFile Recommends
11.07.17Wooing Trump, Xi Jinping Seeks Great Power Status for China
New York Times
Chinese leaders have long sought to present themselves as equals to American presidents. Xi Jinping has wanted something more: a special relationship that sets China apart, as the other great power in an emerging bipolar world.
Viewpoint
11.06.17
On the Road with Trump in Asia: Day One, Tokyo
Many are fearful that Xi Jinping’s ability to awe his visitors with over-the-top manifestations of pomp and ceremony will turn Donald Trump to Jell-o. But having watched Trump arrive in Japan yesterday on the first leg of his five-country trip, it’s...
ChinaFile Recommends
11.03.17China and Vietnam, Best ‘Frenemies’ Forever
Forbes
You know those boyfriend-girlfriend relationships that break up, get back together, and break up again? Maybe the two viscerally don’t get along but need each other for some indispensable reason. That pattern describes ties between China and Vietnam...
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11.03.17China Disputes Trump’s Claim of Flood of Chinese Fentanyl into US
South China Morning Post
Beijing says there is not enough evidence to support allegations that most of the illicit drug involved in the epidemic is made on its soil.
ChinaFile Recommends
11.03.17How China’s Economy Is Poised to Win the Future
Time
President Trump has plenty of work to do during his 10-day tour of Asia in November. In Japan and South Korea, he must reassure nervous allies that an “America first” foreign policy does not mean the U.S. has ceded regional dominance to China. In...
Conversation
11.02.17
Trump Goes to Asia
Chinese officials like to talk about practicing “win-win” diplomacy. Their American counterparts sometime joke that this means China wins twice. From November 3 to November 14, Donald Trump will visit Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines,...
Conversation
10.27.17
What’s the Takeaway from the 19th Party Congress?
The day after the Party Congress ended on October 24, Xi Jinping strode across the stage of the massive Great Hall of the People with the six newly announced members of the 19th Politburo Standing Committee, the body that rules China. What might...
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10.27.17Ahead of Trump Trip, China Urges U.S. Not to Allow Taiwan President In
Reuters
China urged the United States on Friday not to allow Taiwan’s president to travel through U.S. territory en route to the island’s diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a sensitive visit shortly ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s trip to Beijing.
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10.27.17Why Trump's Fawning over China's Xi Jinping Probably Won't Work
New Yorker
A couple of weeks ago, The Economist put a drawing of Xi Jinping, the President of China, on its cover under a headline that said “The world’s most powerful man.” In an editorial in the same issue, the editors acknowledged that China is still no...
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10.27.17The Rise of China's Xi Jinping Told in Six Front Pages
Washington Post
The People’s Daily is the official mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, its front pages offering as clear a window as we can get into the message the party leadership want to transmit to its members.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.27.17China’s Global Ambitions Could Split the World Economy
Bloomberg
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, many economists and policymakers assumed the world would become one happy, prosperous economy. Aided by the spread of capitalism and technology, countries would be increasingly knit together by trade, finance, and...
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10.26.17North Korea’s Kim Congratulates China’s Xi after Congress
Reuters
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent a rare congratulatory message to Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday at the end of China’s Communist Party Congress, wishing him “great success” as head of the nation, the North’s state media said.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.26.17China’s Communist Party Has Come of Age – the West Should Wake Up
Guardian
The Chinese Communist party congress displayed all the qualities beloved by Leninist institutions over the ages, of deep secrecy mixed with stern pageantry, leveraged in the service of reinforcing their leaders’ inviolate right to rule.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.26.17Inside China’s Secret ‘Magic Weapon’ for Worldwide Influence
Financial Times
On the Google map of Beijing there is an empty quarter, an urban block next to the Communist party’s leadership compound in which few of the buildings are named. At street level, the aura of anonymity is confirmed. Uniformed guards stand by grand...
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10.25.17Xi Jinping Unveils China’s New Leaders but No Clear Successor
New York Times
President Xi Jinping thrust China into a new era of strongman politics on Wednesday, unveiling a leadership team without a likely successor among the six officials who will help him rule for the next half decade.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.24.17China Enshrines ‘Xi Jinping Thought.’ What Does That Mean?
New York Times
Restoring China to greatness is a central message of “Xi Jinping Thought,” and a goal that has already guided policies to build up the military.
Viewpoint
10.21.17
The Ayes Have It
On April 1, 1969, delegates to the Ninth Congress of the Chinese Communist Party convened in the Great Hall of the People on the western flank of Tiananmen Square. The hall had been constructed as one of the Ten Grand Edifices 十大建築 hastily...
Viewpoint
10.20.17
Mao Wished He Could Upend the World Order. Does Xi?
In his October 18 speech opening the 19th Party Congress, Chinese Communist Party Secretary Xi Jinping cautiously embraced the future. Eyeing thousands of Party delegates, Xi spoke for three-and-a-half hours about turning China into a “great modern...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.20.17Xi Jinping's Leninist Quest for a Dynasty Inspires Congressional Love-In
Guardian
While the explosion of sycophancy over China’s president may seem almost comical, his reign will have ramifications far beyond the country’s borders
ChinaFile Recommends
10.20.17Why China’s Xi Jinping is Unlikely to Anoint a Successor
South China Morning Post
Hu Chunhua and Chen Miner unlikely to win promotion to Communist Party’s top decision-making body
ChinaFile Recommends
10.20.17Dark Horses, Sure Bets: Who Could Rule China in the Next five Years (and Beyond)
CNN
In the world's most populous nation, seven men sit atop 1.4 billion people.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.20.17China’s Party Congress Brings Crackdown on Critics, Nightclubs and Airbnb
New York Times
President Xi Jinping is sending a stern message to China and the world: I am in charge, and nothing can stand in my way.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.19.17China’s Reform Hopefuls Watch for Names. Only One May Matter.
New York Times
A decade ago, this city in southeastern China had a reputation as one of the country’s grimmest, with smoggy skies, chronic traffic jams and streams so foul that they had to be paved over to contain the stench.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.19.17Xi Jinping: China's President ‘to Get Own Political Theory’
BBC
It will be known as “Xi Jinping Thought” and has 14 principles, the agency says.
Viewpoint
10.19.17
Could Xi Jinping Stay in Power After He Retires? Here’s How Deng Xiaoping Did It
It was the worst kept secret in Chinese politics. From 1978 until his death in 1997, Deng Xiaoping was Beijing’s ultimate decider, even though he never held any of the top official titles in this period: not general secretary of the Chinese...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.18.17How Xi’s Redefinition of Deng Xiaoping’s Guiding Principle Could Change China’s Policy Course for Decades to Come
South China Morning Post
President Xi Jinping on Wednesday redefined the “principal contradiction” faced by Chinese people, signalling a shift in the country’s development focus for the years, if not decades, ahead from unbridled economic growth to better quality expansion...
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10.18.17China Vows to Scrap Secret Interrogations of Communist Party Members
Reuters
China’s ruling Communist Party will scrap the practice of secretive interrogations known as “shuanggui”, President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday, part of broader reforms of its anti-corruption architecture.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.18.17Xi Jinping Opens China's Party Congress, His Hold Tighter Than Ever
New York Times
When Xi Jinping strode out in the Great Hall of the People five years ago as China’s new leader, his tight smile barely hid the atmosphere of smoldering crisis.
Viewpoint
10.17.17
Stein Ringen: ‘The Truth About China’
Democracies have found it difficult to deal with the great dictatorships. So now with China. The first difficulty is to recognize just what we are up against, and to avoid wishful thinking.In his first five years, Xi Jinping has reshaped the Chinese...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.17.17A Dazzling Spectacle of China's Totalitarianism
Washington Post
When the Congress of the Chinese Communist Party convenes in Beijing on Wednesday, the world will be served up a dazzling spectacle of power and procedure.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.17.17Delegates to Party Congress Highly Representative: Report
Xinhua
The presidium of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) held its first meeting on Tuesday afternoon, approving a report on the examination of delegates’ qualifications by the delegate credentials committee.
Viewpoint
10.16.17
Why Do We Keep Writing About Chinese Politics As if We Know More Than We Do?
In the coming weeks, every major Western newspaper and many top China analysts will be making strong claims about Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s political position in the wake of the 19th Party Congress. These reports will build off years of tea-leaf...
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10.16.17Is Xi a Threat to Foreign Businesses in China?
Bloomberg
In a speech at this year’s annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Xi Jinping said choosing protectionism was akin to “locking yourself in a dark room.” But his rhetoric doesn’t square with reality, multinationals say.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.16.17China Stands at ‘a New Historic Starting Point,’ Communist Party Says
CNBC
China is boasting of its growing economic and political development as the country comes to a standstill for the once-every-five-years Communist Party Congress.
Conversation
10.16.17
What to Watch at China’s Party Congress
The Chinese Communist Party’s 19th Party Congress, a hugely important political meeting usually held once every five years, will begin on October 18 in Beijing. Like many events involving China’s ruling party, the most important decisions and...
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10.12.17Xi Jinping Has More Clout Than Donald Trump. The World Should Be Wary
Economist
American presidents have a habit of describing their Chinese counterparts in terms of awe. A fawning Richard Nixon said to Mao Zedong that the chairman’s writings had “changed the world”. To Jimmy Carter, Deng Xiaoping was a string of flattering...
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10.12.17China Targets Pollution on Eve of Xi Jinping’s Second Term
Financial Times
A wave of environmental inspections in China has led to the closure of tens of thousands of businesses producing commodities from industrial chemicals to cement and rubber, pushing up prices and disrupting some global supply chains.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.11.17The Communist Party Ghostwriters Who Wrote the Book on Xi Jinping
South China Morning Post
The call came in 2015. He Yiting, a vice-chairman of the training ground for top Communist Party cadres, was given a mission that would take the next two years of his life.