Caixin Media
09.22.15Chinese Contractor Finds Project in Bahamas Is No Day at Beach
A giant luxury resort planned on a beach outside the Bahamas’ capital, Nassau, that is supposed to be a showpiece to help China’s largest construction company tap the U.S. market has become a headache for both its builder and a lender.The resort was...
Viewpoint
09.21.15A New Book Praises China’s Governance Model, But Overlooks Its Politics
On August 12, China once again met with man-made tragedy. Massive explosions at a chemical storage warehouse in Tianjin took the lives of 173 people and injured nearly 700, some of them seriously. The owner of the warehouse that blew up, Rui Hai...
Two Way Street
09.21.15New Chinese Book Says the U.S.-China ‘Feast on Power’ is Winding Down
from Two Way Street
At a time of heightened tensions between the U.S. and China, it comes as little surprise that a new and important book on the bilateral relations, published by a think tank affiliated with the Chinese Foreign Ministry, should have the foreboding...
Environment
09.17.15Beijing Welcomes World’s First Smog-Eating Tower
from chinadialogue
Beijingers enjoyed a rare breath of fresh air this week. The city’s smog levels fell to their lowest levels in recent years, as authorities scrambled to shut down factories and curb car use so that China’s Second World War victory military parade...
Caixin Media
09.15.15Stock Market Volatility Is Not a Harbinger of Collapsing Growth
It would be a sad end to an amazing story. An economic miracle—one that lifted 300 million people from poverty and shifted the world's economic center of gravity—collapsing under the weight of risky investments and a financial crisis.This seems...
Features
09.14.15Sino-Russian Trade After a Year of Sanctions
from Carnegie Moscow Center
After a year of intense flirtation, the Sino-Russian relationship is beginning to look like a one-sided love affair. Indeed, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to China last week—his first since the United States and European Union enacted...
Environment
09.11.15Beijing Slams Henan Capital for Using Scarce Fresh Water to Combat Smog
Officials in the city of Zhengzhou are under central government scrutiny after media reports revealed the capital of Henan province is using valuable fresh water supplies to combat air pollution. Scientists and academics have criticised...
Culture
09.11.15French Director’s Chinese Movie Balances Freedom With Compromise
In 2012, French movie director Jean-Jacques Annaud got a warm welcome in China after more than a dozen years as persona non grata there for having offended official Chinese Communist Party history with his 1997 film Seven Years in Tibet—the story of...
Media
09.10.15Chinese Web Users Grieve for Syrian Toddler—and Blame America
A photo of Syrian three-year-old Aylan Kurdi lying dead on a Turkish beach, who drowned as his family attempted to flee their war-torn homeland by crossing the Mediterranean Sea to find refuge in Greece, has stunned viewers across Europe and the...
Culture
09.09.15The Met Goes to China
In July, while in New York, I toured The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s much buzzed about “China: Through the Looking Glass,” a visually stunning multimedia exhibit that showcases the varied ways that Western fashion designers have been inspired by...
Caixin Media
09.08.15Amnesty As a Stepping Stone to Rule of Law
A recent amnesty declaration affecting convicted criminals deemed no threat to society was a poignant reminder of China’s tradition of prudent punishment, support for human rights, and progress toward of rule of law.The recent decision by the...
Viewpoint
09.04.15Flying Tiger: Why I Turned Down an Invitation to China’s Victory Parade
I was invited to attend the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the victory of the World Anti-fascist War and the Chinese People’s Anti-Japanese war this September, as a guest of a government that wanted me to represent friendship with the U.S...
Media
09.03.15Who Is Xi Jinping? Introducing the Asia Society Podcast
from Asia Blog
Three years after Xi Jinping took control of China’s Communist Party and assumed the country’s leadership, he has emerged as one of the world’s most powerful people. But his tenure has also raised uncomfortable questions. Is he a reformer bent on...
Environment
09.03.15The Yellow River: A History of China’s Water Crisis
from chinadialogue
During the hot, dry month of August 1992, the farmers of Baishan village in Hebei province and Panyang village in Henan came to blows. Residents from each village hurled insults and rudimentary explosives at the other across the Zhang River—the...
Media
09.03.15Chinese Web Users Aren’t Blaming Detained Journalist for Market Panic
China’s stock markets have been in free-fall for some time. Now, so is a financial journalist who had the temerity to write about them. On August 31, Chinese journalist Wang Xiaolu confessed on state-run China Central Television (CCTV) to writing a...
Viewpoint
09.03.15The U.S. Was the True Mainstay in the Fight Against Japan in World War II
from China Change
“When the Chinese people and the Chinese nation were in peril, the United States came to the rescue and asked for nothing in return. The U.S. never occupied a single inch of Chinese territory, never reaped any particular reward.”IAt 9:00 a.m. on...
Features
09.02.15Parading the People’s Republic
from China Heritage Quarterly
In light of the September 3, 2015, mega military parade held at Tiananmen Square in Beijing both to mark the seventieth anniversary of the end of Second Sino-Japanese War in 1945 and to acclaim the achievements of Xi Jinping, China’s Chairman of...
Caixin Media
09.01.15Quantum Computing and Alibaba’s Leap of Faith
Building a quantum computer that processes data at speeds trillions of times faster than the world’s fastest computer, China’s supercomputer Tianhe-2, is the goal of a potentially game-changing venture launched by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and the...
Media
08.31.15Netanyahu, Shanghai, and the Communist Party’s Forbidden History
On August 26, the Israeli Embassy in China posted a one-minute video to its official account on Weibo, China’s huge microblogging platform, thanking the coastal Chinese city of Shanghai for its role sheltering roughly 20,000 Jews fleeing persecution...
Media
08.27.15Chinese Media Jumps on Tragic Virginia Shooting
On the morning of August 26, a reporter and a cameraman for a local Virginia television station were fatally shot during a live television interview. The alleged gunman, now dead, apparently shot himself before being apprehended by police.The...
Media
08.26.15Mapping Fallout From ‘Black Monday’: Who Was Hardest Hit?
August 24, which some have already dubbed “Black Monday,” was not a kind day to global equity markets. The rout began with a massive sell-off in China, where the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index plunged 8.49 percent in just one day. Those losses...
Caixin Media
08.24.15How to Solve China’s Currency Parity Puzzle?
Boosting exports, controlling outbound capital flow and supporting the Chinese currency’s bid for Special Drawing Rights (SDR) status are just some of the reasons cited by analysts for the yuan's unexpected devaluation in mid-August.The yuan...
Environment
08.21.15Beijing Tells Mayors of Chinese Cities to Clean Up Their Air
from chinadialogue
In China, “APEC blue” was the sarcastic term used to refer to the unusually clear skies Beijing enjoyed when an Asia-Pacific leaders summit was in progress late last year.A similar phenomenon is now being seen in smaller Chinese cities, as mayors...
Features
08.20.15Is China About to Plunge the World Into Recession?
On Aug. 18, China’s stock market plummeted by a vertigo-inducing 6.2 percent in one day of trading, part of a months-long decline that’s erased over $3 trillion worth of market value from the country’s equity markets. That followed last week’s...
Culture
08.20.15Banned in China, Independent Chinese Films Come to New York
Three years ago this week I watched the 9th Beijing Independent Film Festival crumble under the weight of official fear—fear that the gritty low-budget, experimental dramas and documentaries screening in a remote Beijing suburb reflected a touch...
Culture
08.18.15Has Chinese Film Finally Produced a Real Hero?
“This Is an Era That Calls for Heroes”—the boldface Chinese characters scream from a publicity poster for the Chinese animation film, Monkey King: Hero is Back, which made headline news in July for breaking the animation box-office record in China...
Caixin Media
08.18.15Official Stonewalling on Tianjin Explosions Sparks Outcry
While victims of the Tianjin explosions are still waiting to be told why their loved ones died or, how safe it is to go outside, officials remained evasive in the sixth press conference regarding the disaster.In response to a question from a Caixin...
Media
08.17.154 Questions Chinese Want Answered After Deadly Tianjin Blast
Around 11:30 p.m., Beijing time, on Wednesday, at least two fearsome blasts in quick succession rocked the large northeastern Chinese port city of Tianjin. Originating at or near a hazardous materials warehouse near the city’s downtown, the...
Media
08.13.15Sorry China, the Internet You’re Looking for Does Not Exist
The long arm of China’s massive internal security apparatus just reached further into the heart of the country’s web. On August 4, China’s Ministry of Public Security announced that it would embed law enforcement officers at major Internet companies...
Environment
08.12.15Beijing’s Air Quality May Finally Be Improving ... But it Still Ain’t Great
In February, a Chinese celebrity journalist named Chai Jing released a video on the Internet about the damage air pollution was causing her country. During the week it was online (before Chinese censors pulled it down), people viewed the video 200...
Culture
08.11.15Japan’s Soft Power Leader in China is a Fat Blue Cartoon Cat
On July 28, costumed in vibrant colors, throngs of fans flocked toward the early morning light of Victoria Harbor, queueing outside the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center for the last day of the 17th Ani-Com & Games Hong Kong. The...
Caixin Media
08.11.15Auditors Probe Sinopec, Savvy Broker in Angola
Government auditors are taking a closer look at U.S.$10 billion worth of offshore oil investments by state-run China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) that owe their existence to a Hong Kong businessman with a flair for networking in the...
Two Way Street
08.10.15A Response to ‘China’s Foreign Policy Isn’t Transparent? You’ve Got to Be Kidding’
from Two Way Street
I’m pleased that my article on the lack of transparency in China’s political system has stimulated this intellectually interesting commentary from Chu Yin. Chu elaborates my argument that China’s leaders keep the policy process secret because they...
Viewpoint
08.07.15Here’s What’s Wrong With Most Commentary on the Beijing 2022 Olympics
Upon hearing that Beijing would be hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics, we wondered what the Chinese government was thinking. The decision seemed counterintuitive, to say the least: For one thing, it barely snows in Beijing, or even in Zhangjiakou, the...
Environment
08.05.15High-Ranking Retired Environmental Protection Official Mired in Corruption Probe
from chinadialogue
Retired Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) Vice Minister Zhang Lijun has run afoul of the ongoing corruption crackdown, becoming the highest-ranking environmental official yet to be investigated.On Thursday, China’s anti-corruption watchdog...
Media
08.05.15Beijing’s Ban on Smoking Is Actually (Sort of) Working
They rarely trash hotel rooms or boast about drugs, but Chinese rock stars could at least be counted on to smoke. Now even that’s starting to change in the face of a smoking ban in China’s capital that shows little sign of burning out, almost two...
Media
08.04.15Beijing’s Winter Doldrums
On July 31, the International Olympic Committee awarded the 2022 Winter Olympics to Beijing, the arid northern capital of a country with little tradition of winter sports. Beijing will be the first city in history to host both the winter games and...
Caixin Media
08.03.15Villain or Hero for Stock Market Saga?
An obscure equities-trading finance agency that brokers often slighted in favor of bank loans has suddenly taken center stage in the drama playing out in the stock market.But reviews are mixed over whether the four-year-old, quasi-governmental China...
Two Way Street
08.01.15China’s Foreign Policy Isn’t Transparent? You’ve Got to Be Kidding
from Two Way Street
In her recent article, “What China’s Lack of Transparency Means for U.S. Policy,” U.S.-China relations expert Susan Shirk caused a stir when she argued that China’s “lack of transparency” around public policy making, defense, national security, and...
Environment
07.30.15China’s Shift From Coal to Hydro Comes at a Heavy Price
from chinadialogue
As outlined in China’s national climate plan, submitted to the United Nations last month, the country’s aim to peak greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 or sooner will rely heavily on a shift from coal to use of non-fossil fuels.To many, that would seem...
Media
07.28.15Clickbait Nationalism
On July 16, the lower house of the Japanese Parliament passed a set of new security legislation that would grant Japan limited power to engage in foreign conflicts for the first time since its defeat in World War II. Despite domestic public...
Caixin Media
07.27.15Tech Takeoff Lifts Drone Industry to New Heights
A tech evolution and falling production costs have allowed drones to make the flight off military bases and Hollywood production lots to the hands of ordinary people and government agencies.It has become routine to see these small unmanned aerial...
Media
07.23.15Why Taylor Swift’s 1989 Merchandise Is Not Going to Get Her Banned in China
On July 20, one of China’s largest e-commerce websites, JD.com, announced that it is partnering with popular American singer Taylor Swift to become the first authorized retailer of her merchandise in China. That news likely wouldn’t have turned...
Environment
07.22.15China, Both Major Cause of and Potential Solution to Illegal Logging
from chinadialogue
China is now the world’s largest importer and consumer of wood-based products. Its booming domestic market is the main driver of growth in imports, though the country is also now the world’s most important timber-processing hub. In 2013, China’s...
Media
07.21.15China: The Best and the Worst Place to Be a Muslim Woman
A woman’s solitary voice, earthy and low, rises above the seated worshipers. More than 100 women stand, bow, and touch their foreheads to the floor as a female imam leads evening prayers at a women-only mosque during the first week of Islam’s holy...
Two Way Street
07.20.15How China and the U.S. Will Manage Competition for Influence
from Two Way Street
Washington refuses to accept that though the United States is not in decline, its international influence is not what it was. It is unlikely to regain the leverage it once wielded, because China and so many others now have more than enough economic...
Media
07.20.15Taming the Flood
In August 1975, Typhoon Nina, one of the most powerful tropical storms on record, surged inland from the Taiwan Strait, causing floods so catastrophic they overwhelmed dam networks around the city of Zhumadian in China’s Henan province. When Banqiao...
Caixin Media
07.20.15How Beijing Intervened to Save China’s Stocks
Top executives from 21 securities firms spent the morning of Saturday July 4 pinned to government office chairs while the future of China’s stock markets hung in the balance.They’d been summoned on a day off to the Beijing office of the China...
Environment
07.15.15Scientists Call for More Emission Cuts
from chinadialogue
It is still possible to limit average global temperature rise to two degrees Celsius (2˚C) and avoid catastrophic climate change, but the remaining global carbon budget—the amount of carbon that can be safely released into the atmosphere if this...
Caixin Media
07.14.15Uber CEO Enjoying a Fast China Ride
Demand for cross-town transportation is at the heart of an urban lifestyle that is defining modern China. It is also giving the American car-hire service Uber Technologies Inc. an incredible ride.Few are enjoying the ride more than Uber CEO Travis...
Media
07.14.15Megacity Chongqing Now
Earlier this month, photographer Tim Franco visited Asia Society to show his work from Chongqing, a city of more than 25 million where he has been reporting since 2009. Many of the images Franco showed appear in his latest book, Metamorpolis (...
Viewpoint
07.12.15Making Sense of China’s Market Mess
Nearly two years ago China’s Communist Party released a major economic reform blueprint, whose signature phrase was that market forces would be given a “decisive role” in resource allocation. That Third Plenum Decision and other policy...
Two Way Street
07.09.15The ‘Two Orders’ and the Future of China-U.S. Relations
from Two Way Street
The China-U.S. relationship may be the most complex relationship that has ever existed between two major powers. Ties between China and the United States are deepening, and at every level the interaction between the two countries is marked by both...
Postcard
07.07.15Taiwan’s ‘Wall-Hugging’ Presidential Candidate Takes New York
Outside Penn Station in New York City on June 5 there was growing anticipation as a crowd waited for Tsai Ing-wen to arrive. The excitement seemed a little out of place: Tsai, a former law professor educated at Cornell University and the London...
Viewpoint
07.07.15U.S. Should Make More Public Statements About China’s Human Rights
When China’s leader Xi Jinping comes to the United States for his first state visit in September, will U.S. leaders use the summit to address the country’s deteriorating human rights conditions?Not if the U.S. performance at June’s Strategic and...
Media
07.02.15On the Border
Minutes after we turned off the main road and into the Tumen Economic Development Zone, we spotted a group of workers weeding along an access road.From afar, all we could make out in the gentle early morning light was that they were women in...
Media
07.02.15Who Would China Vote for in 2016?
As 2016 draws nearer, a cascade of mostly Republican presidential hopefuls have announced their entry into the U.S. presidential race. Until a successor to current President Barack Obama is selected in November 2016, Americans can count on an...
Environment
07.01.15China Deepens Planned Cuts to Carbon Intensity
from chinadialogue
China has mapped out how it will try and peak greenhouse emissions by 2030 or before, details that could have a major bearing on U.N. climate talks aimed at delivering a deal in Paris later this year.The world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases “...
Features
07.01.15Hong Kong’s Umbrella Protests Were More Than Just a Student Movement
For almost three months in late 2014, what came to be known as the Umbrella Movement amplified Hong Kong’s bitter struggle for the democracy its people were promised when China assumed control of the territory from Britain in 1997. Originally a...
Caixin Media
06.30.15Tesla’s Ambitious Quest for Traction in China
Tesla Motors chief executive Elon Musk was mobbed like a pop star last year while introducing Chinese consumers to his U.S. company’s Model S electric car.Amid the frenzy, the American billionaire-entrepreneur ambitiously predicted China would...