Caixin Media
01.06.15In Praise of Hu Feng
Hu Feng (1902-85) is a name that most students of P.R.C. history have undoubtedly encountered at one time or another. I remember reading it for the first time years ago in Jonathan Spence's "The Search for Modern China." It stuck in...
ChinaFile Recommends
01.06.15Stampede Highlights China’s Reliance on Outsourcing Security
Wall Street Journal
A week after the tragedy, authorities have yet to provide an official explanation for what went wrong.
ChinaFile Recommends
01.05.15Falling Through the Cracks of China’s Health-Care System
Wall Street Journal
China says 95% of its 1.34 billion people are covered by medical insurance. That should have included Zhao Guomei, whose struggle with a rare but treatable disease shows how the system is failing for millions of China’s workers.
ChinaFile Recommends
01.05.15Maoists in China, Given New Life, Attack Dissent
New York Times
They pounce on bloggers who dare mock their beloved Chairman Mao. They scour the nation’s classrooms and newspapers for strains of Western-inspired liberal heresies. And they have taken down professors, journalists and others deemed disloyal to...
ChinaFile Recommends
01.05.15China Lodges Protest after North Korea Man ‘Kills Four’
BBC
"China's public security bureau will handle the case according to law," a ministry spokeswoman said, suggesting the suspect will be prosecuted in China rather than handed back to Pyongyang.
Reports
01.01.15The Politburo’s Predicament
Freedom House
Drawing on an analysis of hundreds of official documents, censorship directives, and human rights reports, as well as some 30 expert interviews, the study finds that the overall degree of repression has increased under the new leadership. Of 17...
Other
12.30.14A Look Back at 2014
It’s hard to believe, but ChinaFile is almost two years old. It’s been an exciting year for us, and, as ever, an eventful year for China. It was a year of muscular leadership from Xi Jinping, who has now been in office just over two years and who...
Caixin Media
12.30.14Nephew of Disgraced Official Ling Jihua Involved in Tangled Web of Businesses
The investigations into Ling Jihua, Vice Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and his two brothers, Ling Zhengce and Ling Wancheng, have shed light on a powerful family that had a grip on both government resources...
The NYRB China Archive
12.29.14Pope Francis’ China Problem
from New York Review of Books
China-watchers, friends of Tibet, and admirers of Pope Francis were amazed and disappointed last week when the Pope announced he would not be meeting the Dalai Lama during the Tibetan leader’s visit to Rome. The Dalai Lama was there with other...
Books
12.23.14Top Five China Books of 2014
As the editor of ChinaFile’s Books section, I have the privilege of meeting and interviewing some amazing writers covering China today—academics, journalists, scholars, activists. Based on these conversations, we create short videos of the...
The China Africa Project
12.23.14China in Africa: 2014 Year in Review
Two thousand fourteen marked another landmark year in Sino-African relations as bilateral trade set new records while political, diplomatic, and military ties strengthened across the board. Yet despite the tangible progress made this year, this...
Reporting & Opinion
12.23.14China in 2014 Through the Eyes of a Human Rights Advocate
from China Change
This time last year, volunteers and I were busy writing and translating articles to prepare for the New Citizens Movement trials. Many Chinese voices were speaking out forcefully against these trials: law professors, rights lawyers, liberal...
Caixin Media
12.22.14Wild Stock Market Is Detrimental to Reform Efforts
Chinese leaders' pledge to strengthen risk control at last week's Central Economic Work Conference could not be more timely, given the frenzied exuberance in the stock market.In a statement released after three days of meetings, the...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.22.14China Building Base Near Isles Disputed With Japan, Kyodo Says
Bloomberg
The dispute over the East China Sea islets—known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese—clouds ties that remain fractious even after Chinese President Xi Jinping met Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Beijing last month. Encounters between...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.22.14China Indicts Jackie Chan’s Son on Drug Charge
Associated Press
Beijing police detained the younger Chan at his Beijing apartment in August along with Taiwanese movie star Ko Kai. Police said Chan and Ko both tested positive for marijuana and admitted using the drug, and that 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of it were...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.22.14China Offers Russia Ruble Help
Wall Street Journal
China says it is willing to provide assistance to Russia following recent sharp drops in the value of its currency, said a senior official, as President Vladimir Putin’s regime faces continuing strains with the U.S. and Europe.
ChinaFile Recommends
12.22.14Opinion: In Response to Sony Hack, U.S. Should Focus on China Not North Korea
Christian Science Monitor
Mr. Obama’s punt is not a big surprise as there simply are no good options for responding to North Korea. How do you calibrate a “proportional response” when not countering a military attack but one that targets freedom of expression?
Conversation
12.19.14Just How Successful Is Xi Jinping?
Last week, Arthur Kroeber, Editor of the China Economic Quarterly opined that “…the Chinese state is not fragile. The regime is strong, increasingly self-confident, and without organized opposition.” His essay, which drew strong, if divided,...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.19.14U.S. Blames North Korea for Sony Cyber Attack, Vows ‘Consequences’
Reuters
It was the first time the United States had directly accused another country of a cyber attack of such magnitude on American soil and sets up a possible new confrontation between longtime foes Washington and Pyongyang.
ChinaFile Recommends
12.19.14Here’s Where All Those Cheap Santa Hats and Plastic Snowmen Come from
Quartz
The Chinese city of Yiwu, about 250 kilometers from Shanghai, is often referred to as China’s “Christmas village” thanks to the massive amount of holiday-related merchandise made there. Xinhua, China’s state-news agency, claims that 60% of the world...
Culture
12.19.14‘One Day the People Will Speak Out for Me’
The ongoing exhibition “@Large: Ai Weiwei at Alcatraz” is both revelatory and heart-wrenching, a stunning and sobering work by an artist who understands firsthand the fragility and pricelessness of freedom.Detained without warning or charge for 81...
Sinica Podcast
12.19.14Cooperation or Exploitation
from Sinica Podcast
Exactly how exploitative are Chinese development activities on the African continent? What exactly is motivating the various resources-for-development deals inked by African governments over the last decade, and what strategies are these governments...
Media
12.18.14Hong Kong, the Resilient City
The tents have folded. After 75 days of camping on the street, braving police crackdowns, occasional civilian attacks, and the city’s (admittedly mild) winter chill, Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters have cleared out. As promised, police moved in...
The NYRB China Archive
12.18.14China’s Brave Underground Journal—II
from New York Review of Books
In downtown Beijing, just a little over a mile west of the Forbidden City, is one of China’s most illustrious high schools. Its graduates regularly attend the country’s best universities or go abroad to study, while foreign leaders and CEOs make...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.17.14Dalai Lama Concedes He May Be the Last
BBC
Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has said he realizes that he may be the last to hold the title. But he told the BBC it would be better that the centuries-old tradition ceased "at the time of a popular Dalai Lama".
Conversation
12.16.14What Must China and Japan Do to Get Along in 2015?
Last week, Akio Takahara, a professor at the University of Tokyo currently visiting Peking University, wrote a New York Times Op-Ed praising recent diplomatic efforts by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan and Chinese President Xi Jinping to deflect...
Viewpoint
12.16.14Why Marx Still Matters: The Ideological Drivers of Chinese Politics
In days of greater political brouhaha, “to go and see Marx” used to be a slang expression among Chinese Communists, to refer to death. More recently, a considerable number of commentators have pronounced the expiry of Marxism itself. China’s reform...
Caixin Media
12.15.14China, Russia Near Deal for Wide-Body Aircraft
Russian and Chinese aircraft manufacturers are preparing to cooperate to help China meet soaring demand for new jumbo jets without kowtowing to industry heavyweights Airbus and Boeing.Aviation industry officials on the sidelines of the recent Zhuhai...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.15.14China’s Double-Edged Pact
New York Times
Whether China is a climate hero or a climate villain is a matter of polarized debate. At one extreme, the world’s biggest carbon-emitter is portrayed as a wasteful bogeyman that obstructs efforts to halt global warming and “steals” clean-tech jobs...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.15.14Mark Zuckerberg Wants to Make It Clear He's Cool with China
Huffington Post
Lu Wei, the Chinese Internet czar who heads a censorship system that keeps many popular American sites—including, of course, Facebook—out of China, was touring American tech companies recently. Chinese media reported that when he arrived at...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.15.14China Shocked by Fatal Riot in Madagascar
Huffington Post
"We hope the Madagascar government will take necessary measures to properly handle the attack at the Morondava sugar plant and to erase the ill impact this incident has brought to the country's international image and its ability to...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.15.1479 Days That Shook Hong Kong
Time
Photo Essay: Hong Kong's street occupations have ended, but many demonstrators say this is only the beginning of their fight for free elections.
ChinaFile Recommends
12.14.14Pope Francis Denies Dalai Lama an Audience Because of China Concerns
Guardian
The Dalai Lama, in Rome for a meeting of Nobel peace prize winners, told Italian media he had approached the Vatican about a meeting but was told it could create inconveniences.
ChinaFile Recommends
12.14.14Beijing Rejects Hanoi’s Legal Challenge on Spratly, Paracel Islands Disputes
South China Morning Post
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei dismissed the Vietnamese action on Thursday, describing its claims over the Spratly and Paracel islands—known in China as the Nansha and Xisha—as invalid.
ChinaFile Recommends
12.14.14Falling Oil Prices Push Venezuela Deeper Into China’s Orbit
Businessweek
The late Hugo Chávez cozied up to China as part of his drive to curb U.S. influence in the Americas. Maduro, like his predecessor, has relied on Beijing to underwrite Venezuela’s flagging socialist revolution and finance the country’s gaping fiscal...
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12.14.14China’s Water Diversion Project Starts to Flow to Beijing
Guardian
The project has roots in an offhand comment by Mao Zedong who, on an inspection tour in the early 1950s, said: “The south has plenty of water, but the north is dry. If we could borrow some, that would be good.”
ChinaFile Recommends
12.12.14The Sony Hack: China’s Half-Hearted Defense of North Korea
Businessweek
It’s not easy being one of North Korea’s only allies. Chinese President Xi Jinping doesn’t seem particularly fond of Kim Jong Un, the third-generation Kim scion who rules China’s erstwhile client state.
ChinaFile Recommends
12.12.14Young, Idealistic, and Caught Up in a Wave of Detentions
New York Times
Well educated and deeply committed to helping their fellow Chinese, Liu Jianshu and Zhao Sile are the kind of idealistic young people who pepper the story of China’s transformation over the past century as it searches for a modern identity.
Sinica Podcast
12.12.14Band of Brothers: China and South Africa
from Sinica Podcast
Pomp and ritual surrounded South African President Jacob Zuma's recent state visit to China, a trip that saw China roll out the red carpet in a very uncritical fashion, not often seen these days, with even Xinhua getting into the spirit of...
Viewpoint
12.11.14Here Is Xi’s China: Get Used To It
from China Economic Quarterly
The prevailing mood among China-watchers in 2014 was one of anxiety and skepticism. The year began in the shadow of Chinese assertiveness in the East and South China Seas. Economic concerns quickly took over: by February the property market seemed...
Caixin Media
12.11.14Sacked Deputy Reform Commissioner Gets Life in Jail for Graft
A former deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has been sentenced to life in prison for taking 35.6 million yuan (U.S.$5.8 million) in bribes between 2002 and 2012, according to a microblog post from a Langfang court...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.09.14China Flexes Its High-speed Rail Muscles by Rolling out 32 New Routes in One Day
Quartz
China has lofty expectations of becoming a global leader in high-speed rail technology, with projects in over a dozen countries, as well as plans to more than double its own domestic network of high-speed rail, which is already the world’s largest.
ChinaFile Recommends
12.09.14Xi Jinping: The Growing Cult of China’s ‘Big Daddy Xi’
Telegraph
The construction of a cult of personality around president Xi represents a dramatic direction change for a country that sought to rule collectively after the devastation wrought during Chairman Mao's three-decade monopoly on power.
Caixin Media
12.09.14With New Fund, China Hits a Silk Road Stride
China's ambitious plan to expand trade links westward into Central Asia in the spirit of the ancient Silk Road is taking shape now that the government has decided to shift foreign currency into a special fund.The State Council will tap the...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.09.14Hong Kong Democracy Protesters Brace for Final Camp Shutdown
Washington Post
The operation reflects the waning support for demonstrators after more than two months of civil disobedience and clashes that began over Beijing’s role in directing elections in the former British colony.
Media
12.08.14Happy Friday, Zhou Yongkang
Eight minutes after midnight on Friday, the axe fell on Zhou Yongkang: a terse news release from state-run Xinhua news agency said that China’s former security czar Zhou had been expelled from the Chinese Communist Party, his case handed over to...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.08.14China Sentences 8 to Death for Attacks in Xinjiang
ABC
The Urumqi Intermediate People's Court in the capital of Xinjiang also handed out suspended death sentences to five others, China Central Television said, without mentioning when the trials were held.
ChinaFile Recommends
12.08.14Why Beijing’s Troubles Could Get a Lot Worse
Barron’s
Anne Stevenson-Yang: China, for all its talk about economic reform, is in big trouble. The old model of relying on export growth and heavy investment to power the economy isn’t working anymore.
ChinaFile Recommends
12.08.14What China Has to Do with the Mysterious Death of an Indigenous Leader in Ecuador
Quartz
Last week the leader of an Ecuadorian indigenous group, José Isidro Tendetza Antún was found by his son in an unmarked grave. The outspoken critic of a controversial Ecuadorian mining project had been due to speak at the United Nations climate talks...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.08.14Labor Movement ‘Concertmaster’ Tests Beijing’s Boundaries
Reuters
When local officials warned striking shoe factory workers in China's Pearl River Delta this summer that they were breaking the law, a slight, bespectacled figure barely 5 feet 5 inches (1.65 meters) tall faced them down.
"Where is the...
Media
12.08.14On First Annual Constitution Day, China’s Most Censored Word Was ‘Constitution’
On December 4, China’s first annual Constitution Day, Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily posted the complete text of the Chinese constitution to its Weibo microblogging account, accompanied by the upbeat hashtag: “Let’s all read the...
The China Africa Project
12.06.14The BRICS Bank: China’s Drive to Shake Up Development Finance
Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (aka the ‘BRICS’) are moving forward with an ambitious plan to shake up the clubby world of development finance. The new BRICS bank announced over the summer 2014 is expected to have a profound impact on...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.05.14China Watchdog Says TV Censorship Rules Should Apply Online Too
Hollywood Reporter
A more censorious environment coincides with a boom in tie-ups between China and Hollywood. HBO and Tencent have agreed to make HBO content available on a broad basis in China, including shows like The Newsroom, Boardwalk Empire, Rome and Band of...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.05.14China Arrests Ex-Security Chief Zhou Yongkang
BBC
The most senior Chinese official to be investigated for corruption, has been arrested and expelled from the Communist Party, state media report.
ChinaFile Recommends
12.05.14China Expels Ex-Security Boss Zhou Yongkang From Communist Party
Agence France-Presse
Zhou became ensnared in President Xi Jinping's much-publicised anti-corruption drive in July when he was put under investigation for "serious disciplinary violation".
Media
12.05.14Repeat After Me: Taiwan’s Recent Elections Had Nothing to Do With Hong Kong
If China was in fact the invisible candidate in Taiwan’s local elections, it just lost in a landslide. On November 28, voters on the self-governing island, which mainland China considers a renegade province, selected candidates for over 11,000...
Infographics
12.05.14China’s Fallen Mighty [Graphic]
Over the past thirty-eight years, twelve of China’s top leaders have been purged. This infographic and the bios of these leaders explain how and why these mighty men fell. Download the high-resolution graphic.
Features
12.05.14China’s Fallen Mighty [Updated]
Political infighting and purges have been hallmarks of the Chinese Communist Party since its earliest days but came to a peak during Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, damaging the country and paralyzing the Party itself. When Mao died in 1976, it...
Environment
12.04.14Indian Critics of Tibet’s First Dam ‘Exaggerating’ Dangers
from chinadialogue
Tibet’s first major dam, the Zangmu hydropower station, started generating electricity at the end of November. This prompted complaints from Indian media that Chinese dam building on the Yarlung Zangbo River could reduce water flow and cause...