ChinaFile Recommends
07.14.14All Aboard: China’s Railway Dream
BBC
At Asia’s biggest rail cargo base in Chengdu in south-west China, the cranes are hard at work, swinging containers from trucks onto a freight train. The containers are filled with computers, clothes, even cars.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.14.14Chinese Banks Halt Experimental Yuan-Remittance Program
Wall Street Journal
China’s major banks have halted an experimental program, sanctioned by the country’s central bank, that helped citizens transfer large sums overseas despite government capital controls, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.14.14China TV Anchor Known For Fatriotic Views is Held in Corruption Probe
Los Angeles Times
For years, TV news anchor Rui Chenggang has been a China booster and an icon for China’s global “soft power” push. But in a development that’s shocked the nation, Rui has been detained on suspicion of corruption, the scourge of the system he has...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.11.14China Labels iPhone a Security Threat
Wall Street Journal
Report cites researchers who say tracking app could expose 'state secrets.'
ChinaFile Recommends
07.10.14China Aims to Justify New Media Restrictions
Wall Street Journal
China moved to justify and explain a series of new restrictions on its media that tightened the government’s control of information in the world's No. 2 economy.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.10.14Power Shift: Hopeful Signs in China’s Legal Reform Plan
Wall Street Journal
The Central Leading Group for Judicial Reform of the Chinese Communist Party announced the reform measures last month and an overview of a new five-year plan issued by the Supreme People’s Court on Wednesday signals a serious intention to implement...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.10.14China Touts $14.4 Billion in Foreign Aid, Half of Which Went to Africa
Wall Street Journal
Instead of focusing on support for pricey, high-profile infrastructure that is often a lightning rod for foreign critics who say it’s less necessary than basic on-the-ground needs, the report highlighted China’s spending on comparatively smaller-...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.10.14President Xi Welcomes Obama to Visit China for APEC Summit
Xinhua
Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Thursday that he welcomes and expects talks with Barack Obama when the U.S. president visits China to attend the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in November.
Environment
07.10.14U.S.-China Climate Cooperation More Crucial Than Ever
from chinadialogue
As the governments of the United States and China meet in Beijing this week for the Sixth U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED), one area worth watching closely is clean energy and climate change cooperation. While this topic may...
The NYRB China Archive
07.10.14Tibet Resists
from New York Review of Books
Tsering Woeser was born in Lhasa in 1966, the daughter of a senior officer in the Chinese army. She became a passionate supporter of the Dalai Lama. When she was very young the family moved to Tibetan towns inside China proper. In school, only...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.09.14Kerry Presses China to Abide by Maritime Laws to Ease Tensions
New York Times
In a closed-door session at a high-level gathering of Chinese and American officials here on Wednesday, Secretary of State John Kerry urged China to follow maritime law in nearby seas to reduce regional tensions.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.09.14Chinese Hackers Pursue Key Data on U.S. Workers
New York Times
Chinese hackers in March broke into the computer networks of the United States government agency that houses the personal information of all federal employees, according to senior American officials.
Conversation
07.09.14The U.S. and China Are At the Table: What’s At Stake?
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew are in Beijing this week for the sixth session of the high level bilateral diplomatic exchange known as the Strategic and Economic Dialogue. We asked contributors what's likely...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.08.14The Untold Story of China’s Forgotten Underground Nuclear Reactor
Foreign Policy
How social media and a little sleuthing turned up a Mao-era nuclear program.
Media
07.08.14Changing the Chinese Embassy’s Address to Liu Xiaobo Plaza Is a Silly Idea
I rarely agree with the Chinese Embassy in Washington, but an amendment making its way through Congress has made me unlikely bedfellows with Beijing’s Washington diplomats.Representative Frank Wolf (R-Va.) has sponsored an amendment to rename the...
Caixin Media
07.08.14Hard Choices for Family Planners and Parents
The technocrats in charge of China's one-child policy have the power to force sterilizations, abortions, and intra-uterine device (IUD) implants, as well as punish uncooperative parents by denying them jobs, denying their children schooling,...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.07.14China’s Rise and Asian Tensions Send U.S. Relations Into Downward Spiral
Washington Post
Hundreds of rocky islands, islets, sandbanks, reefs and cays lie scattered across Asia’s eastern waters, unimportant-looking to the naked eye but significant enough to spark what may be the most worrying deterioration in U.S.-China relations in...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.07.14What You Need to Know About the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue
Since 2009, the Strategic and Economic Dialogue has offered a platform for both countries to address bilateral, regional and global challenges and opportunities, and this year’s meeting comes at a critical time to stabilize the U.S.-China...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.07.14U.S. Pushes China to Give Ground on Technology Trade Deal
Reuters
The United States on Monday urged China to give ground on a deal to eliminate duties on billions of dollars of technology products and said it would use talks in Beijing later this week to push to restart negotiations.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.07.14China’s State Media Goes Into Overdrive Over the Marco Polo Incident
Wall Street Journal
President Xi Jinping led other members of the leadership to the area on the western outskirts of Beijing where 77 years ago Japanese troops attacked Chinese soldiers. The 1937 skirmish led to Japan invading much of eastern China and...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.07.14From Mountains, Island, Secret Town, China’s Electronic Spy Shop Watches
Wall Street Journal
Using Chinese government websites, academic databases and foreign security expertise, The Wall Street Journal assembled an overview of some secret operations of China's global monitoring organization, the Third Department of the People's...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.07.14China Denies Entry to an American Scholar Who Spoke Up for a Uighur Colleague
New York Times
When Elliot Sperling landed in Beijing, he found himself dragged by border officers back to the same jet that he had flown in on, despite the fact he had arrived with a valid one-year tourist visa.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.07.14China Thinks It Can Defeat America in Battle
Week
China is wrong — and for one major reason. It apparently disregards the decisive power of America's nuclear-powered submarines.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.07.14Shadow of Brutal ’79 War Darkens Vietnam’s View of China Relations
New York Times
She was 14 when Chinese artillery fire echoed across the hills around her home in northern Vietnam, and hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers swarmed across the border.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.06.14Two Studies of Modern China: ‘Age of Ambition’ & ‘The New Emperors’
Guardian
Evan Osnos examines a changing China through gentle reportage, while Kerry Brown provides illuminating forensic analysis of its vicious power struggles
ChinaFile Recommends
07.04.14An Online Shift in China Muffles an Open Forum
New York Times
In recent months, Chinese microblogging service Weibo has been eclipsed by the Facebook-like WeChat, which allows instant messaging within self-selected circles of followers.
Infographics
07.03.14Spoils of the ‘Tiger’ Hunt
The Chinese Communist Party announced the expulsion from its ranks of Xu Caihou, who before his retirement in 2012 was one of the highest ranking officers in the People’s Liberation Army. He also became the highest-ranking member of the Chinese...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.02.14China Bans Xinjiang Officials From Observing Ramadan Fast
BBC
Activists have accused Beijing of exaggerating the threat from Uighur separatists to justify a crackdown on the Uighurs’ religious and cultural freedoms.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.02.14‘There Are No Rules in China’
Foreign Policy
When dissident author Murong Xuecun returns home, he says he will tell Beijing authorities they can come and get him.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.01.14Is Japan Targeting China in Next Move?
Xinhua
The Japanese government’s endorsing of a reinterpretation of its pacifist Constitution on Tuesday for the right to collective self-defense is a dangerous move that will lead to security worries for other Asian countries.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.01.14China to Let Indian Experts Monitor Brahmaputra in Tibet
Hindu
China has for the first time formally agreed to allow Indian hydrological experts to conduct study tours in Tibet to monitor the flows on the upper reaches of the Brahmaputra, according to a new agreement signed here on Monday during the visit of...
Culture
07.01.14Inside the Mind of a Chinese Hacker
In May, the U.S. announced the indictment of five Chinese hackers for breaking into the computers of U.S. companies. The men went by code names like UglyGorilla and KandyGoo. A recent report revealed that the hackers, who worked for Unit 61398 of...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.01.14China’s Complicated Relationship with Golf
Golf
Dan Washburn, managing editor of the Asia Society and author of the new book “The Forbidden Game,” tells Jessica Marksbury that golf in China is both banned and booming.
Conversation
07.01.14The Debate Over Confucius Institutes PART II
Last week, ChinaFile published a discussion on the debate over Confucius Institutes–Chinese language and culture programs affiliated with China’s Ministry of Education—and their role on university campuses. The topic, and several of the...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.01.14Billionaire South African Family Sells Wine to China Rich
Bloomberg
When 45 alumni of Tsinghua University, the alma mater of China’s last two leaders, stopped for lunch at La Motte vineyard in South Africa two years ago, they ordered 1.5 million rand ($141,000) of wine to take away.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.01.14China Housing Bubble Won’t Impact Global Financial Markets, Says Treasury Secretary Lew
Forbes
The Treasury Secretary said China’s housing market was not connected to the rest of the world, and was generally not over leveraged like it was in the U.S. and Europe.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.01.14Pro-Democracy Activism Not in Hong Kong’s Interest, China Warns
CNN
As potentially hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong citizens prepare to take to the streets in a now-annual display of public disapproval of Beijing’s interference in the city’s affairs, voices in China’s state-run press are warning that the protests...
Caixin Media
07.01.14China Pulling the Plug on Foreign Mainframes
E-commerce companies and banks in China are scrapping hardware and uninstalling software for mainframe servers made by American suppliers in favor of homegrown brands said to be safe, advanced, and a lot less expensive.The movement has taken special...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.01.14Big Brother Comes Wooing
Economist
For more than six decades after the Chinese civil war, the mainland did not allow its minister-level officials openly to set foot in Taiwan. This changed on June 25th when Zhang Zhijun, director of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, visited the island...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.30.14Top China Military Official General Xu Caihou Accused
BBC
One of China's most senior military officials has been accused of accepting bribes and expelled from the Communist Party, state media report.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.30.14China Tries To Establish Foothold In Zambia, Tanzania
NPR
Howard French, author of China's Second Continent, talks to Steve Inskeep about why some African countries are of particular interest to Chinese leaders.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.30.14China ‘Baby Hatch’ Inundated With Abandoned, Disabled Children
CNN
In just 11 days, 106 children, all with disabilities or medical conditions, were dropped off at the Jinan Orphanage, according to local state media. That is more than the 85 orphans the city accepted the entire previous year.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.30.14Chinese Territorial Claims Driving Asia Closer to U.S.
Wall Street Journal
Muscle flexing by the Chinese in the South China Sea is driving Asian neighbors into a closer alliance with the U.S. and feeding regional insecurity, cautioned one of Australia's most senior government ministers.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.27.14The (Continuing) Story of Ai—From Tragedy to Farce
Randian
In recent weeks Ai Weiwei has become embroiled, yet again, in apparent controversy.
Sinica Podcast
06.27.14Narendra Modi and Sino-Indian Relations
from Sinica Podcast
This week on Sinica, Kaiser and Jeremy grab Ananth Krishnanin, correspondent for India’s national newspaper The Hindu, and drag him into our studio for a discussion of the state of Sino-Indian relations. In particular, we’re curious why Sino-Indian...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.26.14U.S. Navy Official Says China Military Relations Have Improved ‘Modestly’
Wall Street Journal
Relations between the U.S. and Chinese militaries have improved “modestly” in the past year, a senior U.S. Navy official said, despite discord over territorial tensions and strategic issues in the Asian-Pacific region.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.26.14China Official Makes Rare Cross-Strait Trip in Effort to Forge Ties With Taiwan
Wall Street Journal
China's top cross-strait negotiator began a landmark visit to Taiwan aimed at forging ties with the Taiwanese people amid growing skepticism toward Beijing.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.25.14Congress Votes to Rename Road by Chinese Embassy After Jailed Dissident
Time
Beijing is not amused by the “provocative action,” as Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo “has been convicted in accordance with the law.”
Books
06.25.14Chinese Comfort Women
During the Asia-Pacific War, the Japanese military forced hundreds of thousands of women across Asia into "comfort stations" where they were repeatedly raped and tortured. Japanese imperial forces claimed they recruited women to join these stations in order to prevent the mass rape of local women and the spread of venereal disease among soldiers. In reality, these women were kidnapped and coerced into sexual slavery. Comfort stations institutionalized rape, and these "comfort women" were subjected to atrocities that have only recently become the subject of international debate.Chinese Comfort Women: Testimonies from Japan's Imperial Sex Slaves features the personal narratives of twelve women forced into sexual slavery when the Japanese military occupied their hometowns. Beginning with their prewar lives and continuing through their enslavement to their postwar struggles for justice, these interviews reveal that the prolonged suffering of the comfort station survivors was not contained to wartime atrocities but was rather a lifelong condition resulting from various social, political, and cultural factors. In addition, their stories bring to light several previously hidden aspects of the comfort women system: the ransoms the occupation army forced the victims' families to pay, the various types of improvised comfort stations set up by small military units throughout the battle zones and occupied regions, and the sheer scope of the military sexual slavery—much larger than previously assumed. The personal narratives of these survivors combined with the testimonies of witnesses, investigative reports, and local histories also reveal a correlation between the proliferation of the comfort stations and the progression of Japan's military offensive.The first English-language account of its kind, Chinese Comfort Women exposes the full extent of the injustices suffered by and the conditions that caused them. —Oxford University Press {chop}
Books
06.25.14Tiananmen Exiles
In the spring of 1989, millions of citizens across China took to the streets in a nationwide uprising against government corruption and authoritarian rule. What began with widespread hope for political reform ended with the People's Liberation Army firing on unarmed citizens in the capital city of Beijing, and those leaders who survived the crackdown became wanted criminals overnight. Among the witnesses to this unprecedented popular movement was Rowena Xiaoqing He, who would later join former student leaders and other exiles in North America, where she has worked tirelessly for over a decade to keep the memory of the Tiananmen Movement alive. This moving oral history interweaves He's own experiences with the accounts of three student leaders exiled from China. Here, in their own words, they describe their childhoods during Mao's Cultural Revolution, their political activism, the bitter disappointments of 1989, and the profound contradictions and challenges they face as exiles. Variously labeled as heroes, victims, and traitors in the years after Tiananmen, these individuals tell difficult stories of thwarted ideals and disconnection that nonetheless embody the hope for a freer China and a more just world. —Palgrave Macmillan {chop}
Caixin Media
06.24.14Top Political Advisor Investigated for Graft
A vice chairman of the country's top political advisory body is being investigated for "serious violations of discipline," the Communist Party's anti-graft fighter says.The Central Discipline Inspection Commission (CDIC) did not...
Media
06.24.14The President China Never Had
An activist lawyer heroically risks everything for his beliefs. Although he fails, his brave stand against authoritarianism wins him lasting admiration and changes the fate of his East Asian nation forever. The plot may sound seditious in mainland...
ChinaFile Recommends
06.24.14Australia Says China Free Trade Deal Likely by End of Year
Reuters
China and Australia, which have been trying to set up a bilateral free trade agreement for years, are determined to sign a deal by the end of this year, Australia's trade chief said on Tuesday after talks with Chinese leaders.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.24.14China's Legendary ‘Crazy Yang’ Oil Trader Dies
Reuters
Legendary Chinese oil trader “Crazy Yang” Qinglong, who started China's oil business with Iran in the 1990s and was renowned as a hard-drinker who bear-hugged Iranian officials, has died, said company officials and former acquaintances.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.24.14Vietnam Vows Stand Against China as Sea Collisions Continue
Bloomberg
Vietnam accused Chinese ships of ramming one of its fishing boats yesterday, saying relations between the two countries have been “deeply damaged” by the their standoff over a disputed oil rig in the South China Sea.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.24.14China Confirms Deadly Xinjiang Attack, Shows Graphic Footage of October Violence
Globe and Mail
Chinese authorities have confirmed an attack on security personal at a checkpoint in the restive far western region of Xinjiang, which a U.S.-backed radio service said left five dead.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.23.14China’s Economic Power Buys British Silence on Human Rights
South China Morning Post
For Prime Minister David Cameron and the British government, Premier Li Keqiang’s recent visit could not have gone better. Diplomatic relations, which turned frosty following Cameron's meeting with the Dalai Lama in 2012, are back on track.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.23.14Bangladesh Woos China in Snub to West
Al Jazeera
India is likely to be watching closely as Sheikh Hasina bolsters ties with Beijing to repair dented legitimacy.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.23.14Bangladesh Woos China in Snub to West
Al Jazeera
India is likely to be watching closely as Sheikh Hasina bolsters ties with Beijing to repair dented legitimacy.