Conversation

12.19.17

Trump’s National Security Strategy and China

Zha Daojiong, Pamela Kyle Crossley & more
On December 18, U.S. President Donald J. Trump announced the United States’ new national security strategy. He called China a “strategic competitor,” and, along with Russia, called it a “revisionist power.” Those two nations, Trump said, are...

China Says Trump’s New Security Policy Shows ‘Cold War Mentality’

James Griffiths and Serenitie Wang
CNN
Speaking Tuesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying urged the US to “abandon its Cold War mentality and zero-sum game ” warning failure to do so “would only harm itself as well as others.”

Decoding Trump’s Plan to Rein in China

Sui-Lee Wee
New York Times
Much of the newly released national security blueprint focused on brewing disputes between Beijing and Washington over emerging industries of the future — and who will control them.

West Grows Wary of China’s Influence Game

Jamil Anderlini and Jamie Smyth
Financial Times
“Aodaliya renmin zhan qi lai! The Australian people have stood up,” the country’s prime minister Malcolm Turnbull told reporters in mangled Mandarin — a deliberate echo of Mao’s declaration in 1949 that the Chinese people had stood up.

China Set to Move into United States’ Backyard with National Development Plan for Grenada

Stephen Chen
South China Morning Post
China is helping the government of Grenada prepare a national development plan 34 years after the Caribbean island nation was invaded by US-led forces due to concerns in Washington that its government was too close to the Soviet and Cuban communist...

The China-India Row That Spells Disaster for Flood Victims

Navin Singh Khadka
BBC
Fear of flooding has been growing in the Indian state of Assam ever since upstream China stopped sharing river data crucial for issuing early warnings.

Trump National Security Strategy Sees U.S. Confronting China and Russia

David Sanger and Mark Landler
New York Times
President Trump’s first national security strategy envisions a world in which the United States confronts two “revisionist” powers — China and Russia — that are seeking to change the global status quo, often to the detriment of America’s interests.

China’s Warplanes Hold Drill near Japan, South Korea, Taiwan

Associated Press
ABC
Chinese air force spokesman Shen Jinke said the air force dispatched bombers, fighters and reconnaissance planes through the Tsushima Strait to the Sea of Japan to “test its ocean combat ability.”

Xi Jinping Says War Must Never Be Allowed on Korean Peninsula as South's President Tries to Mend Relations on Visit to China

South China Morning Post
Chinese President Xi Jinping has said that wars on the Korean peninsula are never acceptable, adding that China would continue to support dialogue between Seoul and Pyongyang.

Latin America Needs a China Strategy

Bloomberg
To judge by the pomp and shuttle diplomacy, Latin America and China are best of friends.

Conversation

12.13.17

Is Chinese Investment Good for Workers?

Aaron Halegua, Yu Zheng & more
China’s Belt and Road Initiative is a $1 trillion plan to deepen economic relations between itself and up to 60 other countries worldwide through large investments in infrastructure, construction, and other projects. Many commentators have...

Tillerson offers North Korea talks ‘without preconditions’

Demetri Sevastopulo and Katrina Manson
Financial Times
US secretary of state Rex Tillerson offered to open direct talks with North Korea “without preconditions” in a new overture to Pyongyang that jars with the more confrontational stance of the White House.

China Marks Nanking Massacre's 80th Anniversary

Wayne Zhang and Gerry Shih
ABC
Chinese officials struck a tempered tone on the 80th anniversary of the Nanking Massacre on Wednesday, saying China would “look forward” and deepen friendship with its neighbor Japan despite historical misgivings.

Fearing the Worst, China Plans Refugee Camps on North Korean Border

Jane Perlez
New York Times
A Chinese county along the border with North Korea is constructing refugee camps intended to house thousands of migrants fleeing a possible crisis on the Korean Peninsula, according to an internal document that appears to have been leaked from China...

China: Minority Region Collects DNA from Millions

Human Rights Watch
Chinese authorities in Xinjiang are collecting DNA samples, fingerprints, iris scans, and blood types of all residents in the region between the age of 12 and 65, Human Rights Watch said today. This campaign significantly expands authorities’...

Australian Lawmaker to Resign amid Global Allegations of Chinese Meddling

Simon Denyer
Washington Post
Relations between Australia and China have nosedived in the past week, since Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s government moved to ban foreign political donations, citing “disturbing reports about Chinese influence” in Australian politics.

China Conducts ‘Island Encirclement’ Patrols near Taiwan

Reuters Staff
Reuters
China’s military announced the action on Tuesday, after a senior Chinese diplomat threatened that China would invade the self-ruled island if any U.S. warships made port visits there.

Trump’s Claim That West Virginia Is ‘Sending Clean Coal’ to ‘China’

Nicole Lewis
Washington Post
“If you look at what’s happened in West Virginia and so many different places, we’re sending clean coal. We’re sending it out to different places — China," Trump said last Tuesday.

The Traditional Chinese Dance Troupe China Doesn't Want You to See

Nicholas Hune-Brown
Guardian
Shen Yun seems like a kitsch dance troupe. But Beijing sees it as the propaganda wing of the Falun Gong movement, and a threat to their rule – and hounds the dancers from city to city, trying to sabotage their shows.

Reports

12.12.17

Central Planning, Local Experiments

Mareike Ohlberg, Shazeda Ahmed, Bertram Lang
Shazeda Ahmed & Bertram Lang
Mercator Institute for China Studies
The “Social Credit System” is designed to monitor and rate citizens and companies in China and to guide their behavior. “It is a wide-reaching project that touches on almost all aspects of everyday life,” the authors Mareike Ohlberg, Bertram Lang,...

China, Taiwan Spar over Chinese Diplomat's Invasion Threat

Ben Blanchard, Jess Macy Yu
Reuters
A threat by a senior Chinese diplomat to invade Taiwan the instant any U.S. warship visits the self-ruled island has sparked a war of words, with Taipei accusing Beijing of failing to understand what democracy means.

Germany Says China Seeking to Ensnare Officials on LinkedIn

Tobias Buck
Financial Times
Chinese intelligence agencies are using social networks such as LinkedIn to establish contact with German politicians and officials, according to a study by Germany’s internal security service.

China's Top Paper Says Australian Media Reports Are Racist

Reuters Staff
Reuters
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said last week he took reports very seriously that China’s Communist Party had sought to interfere in his country.

Media

12.07.17

Could Truman Have Worked With Mao?

Kevin Peraino, Matt Schiavenza & more
In the early months of 1949, it became increasingly clear that Mao Zedong’s Communists would win the Chinese civil war. This presented U.S. President Harry S. Truman with an unappetizing set of choices. He could either acknowledge the Communist...

Why Is China So Worried about Trump Recognising Jerusalem as Israel's Capital?

South China Morning Post
China anticipates more conflict in the Middle East following the United States’ move to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, which in turn would disrupt its investment plans in the region, diplomatic observers said。

North Korea Says U.S. Threats Make War Unavoidable as China Urges Calm

Reuters
Two American B-1B heavy bombers joined large-scale combat drills over South Korea on Thursday amid warnings from North Korea that the exercises and U.S. threats have made the outbreak of war “an established fact”.

China Province near North Korea Warns about the Dangers of Nuclear War

Simon Denyer
Washington Post
A provincial state newspaper on China’s border with North Korea spooked a few people Wednesday by dedicating an entire page to advice for local residents on how they might survive a nuclear war.

China Scolds Australia over Its Fears of Foreign Influence

Damien Cave
New York Times
The Chinese Embassy in Australia accused Australian officials on Wednesday of “making irresponsible remarks” and damaging “mutual trust,” a day after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull unveiled a series of proposed laws to curb foreign influence in...

Why Is China So Worried about Trump Recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s Capital?

Liu Zhen
South China Morning Post
Beijing has extensive economic and military relations with Israel, but also maintains close ties with Palestine.

Behind China's Attempt to Ease the Rohingya Crisis

Nicholas Bequelin
New York Times
Beijing strenuously avoids playing a high-profile part in ameliorating international humanitarian crises. Its most identifiable role in Myanmar had been to shield the local military from international criticism for carrying out what the United...

China Gets 300 Political Parties to Endorse Xi as Peacemaker

Tingshi
Bloomberg
The signatures of almost 300 foreign political leaders on a document praising Chinese President Xi Jinping’s contribution to world peace has provided him valuable ammunition to counter arguments by those who fear the country’s rising international...

Apple CEO Backs China’s Vision of an ‘Open’ Internet as Censorship Reaches New Heights

Simon Denyer
Washington Post
Reading headlines from the World Internet Conference in China, the casual reader might have come away a little confused. China was opening its doors to the global Internet, some media outlets optimistically declared, while others said Beijing was...

China Closes School ‘Teaching Women to Be Obedient’

BBC
Chinese authorities have shut down an institute that was teaching women to be obedient and subordinate to men.

China Sends Its Top Actors and Directors Back to Socialism School

Washington Post
Culture is the soul of the nation, Chinese President Xi Jinping declared in a key speech last month. And like Chairman Mao Zedong before him, Xi believes that Chinese culture must serve socialism and the Communist Party.

'North Korea Is the Biggest Threat to All Humankind.' U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Branstad Talks to TIME

Time
Tucked between northeastern Beijing’s third and fourth ring-roads, the U.S. Embassy in China is a squat complex of silver-gray buildings, with the ambassador’s office on the fourth floor.

Stability and Strategy: Why Is China So Easy on North Korea?

CNBC
While the world watches North Korea test yet another missile in defiance of international sanctions and warnings, China continues to be a friend to Kim Jong Un's regime.

Breaking Down Trump’s Visit to Asia

Paul Haenle & Daniel R. Russel from Carnegie China
What is the future of geopolitics and U.S. engagement in the Asia-Pacific following President Donald Trump’s first official state visit to the region? In this podcast, Paul Haenle sat down with Daniel Russel, former Special Assistant to President...

Books

11.30.17

Finding Women in the State

Wang Zheng
Finding Women in the State is a provocative hidden history of socialist state feminists maneuvering behind the scenes at the core of the Chinese Communist Party. These women worked to advance gender and class equality in the early People’s Republic and fought to transform sexist norms and practices, all while facing fierce opposition from a male-dominated Chinese Communist Party leadership, from the local level to the central level. Wang Zheng extends this investigation to the cultural realm, showing how feminists within China’s film industry were working to actively create new cinematic heroines, and how they continued a New Culture anti-patriarchy heritage in socialist film production. This book illuminates not only the different visions of revolutionary transformation but also the dense entanglements among those in the top echelon of the Party. Wang discusses the causes for failure of China’s socialist revolution and raises fundamental questions about male dominance in social movements that aim to pursue social justice and equality. This is the first book engendering the People’s Republic of China high politics and has important theoretical and methodological implications for scholars and students working in gender studies as well as China studies. —University of California Press{chop}

Conversation

11.30.17

The Beijing Migrants Crackdown

Jeremiah Jenne, Lucy Hornby & more
After a fire in a Beijing apartment building catering to migrant workers killed at least 19 people on November 18, the city government launched a 40-day campaign to demolish the capital’s “unsafe” buildings. Many Beijing residents view the campaign...

China Draws Myanmar Closer as the World Turns Away

Jane Perlez
New York Times
For the second time in a week, one of Myanmar’s top leaders is visiting Beijing, as international criticism over the brutal purge of Rohingya Muslims is bringing the neighboring countries together.

U.S. Seeks to Deny China Market Economy Status in WTO

Shawn Donnan
Financial Times
The Trump administration has opposed China’s bid for recognition as a “market economy” in the World Trade Organization, citing decades of legal precedent and what it sees as signs the country is moving in the opposite direction under Xi Jinping.

Australian Senator Loses Leadership Role over China Remarks

BBC
An Australian senator has been stripped of his senior duties after a recording revealed he had contradicted his party's policy on the South China Sea.

China Child Abuse Claims: Kindergarten Company Reveals More Complaints

Guardian
The major company whose kindergarten in Beijing is under investigation over child abuse allegations, has said it is aware of more complaints by parents at some of its schools elsewhere in China.

Trump Pledges New Wave of 'Major Sanctions' on North Korea After Call with China's Xi

Simon Denyer
Washington Post
President Trump pledged Wednesday that “additional major sanctions” would be imposed on North Korea after Pyongyang's latest intercontinental missile test. Trump’s statement followed a telephone conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping,...

In China, Fears That New Anticorruption Agency Will Be Above the Law

Chris Buckley
New York Times
China’s leader, Xi Jinping, is pushing to establish a new anticorruption agency with sweeping powers to sidestep the courts and lock up anyone on the government payroll for months without access to a lawyer — a plan that has met surprisingly vocal...

China Jails Taiwanese Rights Activist for 5 Years

Edward White
Financial Times
Lee Ming-che, who worked at a college in Taipei and kept regular contact with civil society activists in China via social media platforms, has been held by Chinese authorities since travelling to Guangdong on March 19.

Obama to Meet with Xi Jinping, Narendra Modi on Visits to China, India and France

David Nakamura
Washington Post
The tour comes just two weeks after President Trump held a summit with Xi in Beijing and days after Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, a White House adviser, participated in a global economic summit in Hyderabad, India.

Conversation

11.27.17

What Does Mugabe’s Resignation Mean for China?

David Shinn, Huang Hongxiang & more
On November 15, soldiers placed the 93-year-old Robert Mugabe under house arrest. Mugabe had ruled Zimbabwe since the country gained independence in 1980. On November 21, he resigned after 37 years in power. China, Zimbabwe’s largest foreign...

Mass Evictions in Freezing Beijing Winter Sparks Public Outrage but Little Official Remorse

Simon Denyer and Luna Lin
Washington Post
In his nationwide address to usher in the start of 2017, China’s President Xi Jinping said he was “seriously concerned” about people living in hardship in his country — those who struggle to find jobs, housing, health care and education for their...

Aung San Suu Kyi Looks to China as Criticism over Rohingya Grows

John Reed
Financial Times
Aung San Suu Kyi is to visit China in a sign that Myanmar is drawing closer to Beijing as international condemnation of the violent expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims from the country grows.

Chinese Premier Backs More Investments in Eastern Europe

Pablo Gorondi
ABC
At a summit of 16 countries in the Hungarian capital, Premier Li Keqiang said efforts such as China’s “new Silk Road” initiative to expand trade across Asia, Africa and Europe, should be a boon to the countries that were formally part of the...

Chinese Premier Backs More Investments in Eastern Europe

Pablo Gorondi
At a summit of 16 countries in the Hungarian capital, Premier Li Keqiang said efforts such as China’s “new Silk Road” initiative to expand trade across Asia, Africa and Europe, should be a boon to the countries that were formally part of the...

Business Is Booming Between China, Japan and South Korea — the US Should Get in on It

Michael Ivanovitch
CNBC
China, Japan and South Korea account for a quarter of the world’s output of goods and services. Their combined trade surplus is currently running at an annual rate of $400 billion. They can recycle that trade income to finance, with interest, most...

China’s Art of Containment

Geremie R. Barmé
On the evening of May 20, 1989, in response to weeks of mass demonstrations in Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government placed Beijing under martial law. The following morning, in Hong Kong, far to the south, Wen Wei Po, the main Communist-...

Air China Indefinitely Suspends Flights between Beijing and Pyongyang

Reuters
Air China Ltd has indefinitely suspended flights between Beijing and Pyongyang, citing poor demand as North Korea faces growing sanctions from the United States over its nuclear weapons and missile programs.

Viewpoint

11.22.17

The Accomplice in Chief

David Wertime
Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump declared victory following his 12-day Asia trip. On the campaign trail, Trump had repeatedly promised to stop making nice with his country’s adversaries; now, thanks to his efforts, he proclaimed, “America is...

President Trump Has Imposed New Sanctions on North Korea and Chinese Trading Firms

Matthew Pennington
Time
The Trump administration imposed new sanctions Tuesday on a slew of North Korean shipping firms and Chinese trading companies in its latest push to isolate the rogue nation over its nuclear weapons development and deprive it of revenue.

China Is Investigating Its Former Internet Censor-In-Chief for Corruption

Time
China’s former top internet regulator and censor is being investigated by the ruling Communist Party’s anti-corruption arm, the agency said Tuesday.

Donald Trump's Unwitting Surrender to China

Edward Luce
Financial Times
Sixty years ago Russia shocked the world with the launch of the Sputnik satellite. Donald Trump was 11 years old.

China Turns Its Back on Comrade Bob to Embrace Change in Zimbabwe

Tom Phillips
Guardian
Confirmation of Robert Mugabe’s ouster prompted revelry on the streets of Harare. “The Goblin has gone!” raved one.