This week on Sinica, attention turns to the torrential flooding which plagued Beijing earlier this week and claimed the lives of at least seventy-seven residents in the Chinese capital. As tempers flare and city officials resign, questions mount over whether this natural disaster is turning into a political crisis for the city government. Also under discussion is a sharp increase in hospital killings, a brazen rise in online shadow banking, Chinese acquisitions in foreign oil-field markets, and first-hand reports of potentially edible wildlife in the vicinity of the Lido Hotel.
Joining Kaiser and Jeremy in our studio to discuss all of these issues and more are Alexa Olesen, a long-time China watcher and journalist for the Associated Press, and Josh Chin, who writes for the Wall Street Journal and does a lot of detailed investigative work for the China Real Time Report.