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11.27.15Beware of China's Safety Record
New York Times
Chinese people have paid heavily for a flawed system. Now that Chinese-style construction and management are going global, what price is the world prepared to pay?
Infographics
11.27.15The Chinese Road to Paris 2015
from Chinese Doodles
Beginning on November 30, Paris will host the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (COP21). Whatever progress is made toward the parties’ agreement on a path forward will depend in large...
Conversation
11.24.15The China Africa Relationship: Crossroads or Cliff?
As we approach the sixth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Summit in Johannesburg, we try better to understand the main issues that surely will arise when Chinese President Xi Jinping and South African President Jacob Zuma meet on December 4...
Environment
11.20.15China Remains a Rocky Road for Electric Cars
from chinadialogue
Recent revelations about Volkswagen’s emissions have focused attention on the environmental damage caused by the auto and fuel industries—and the need for a decisive shift towards genuinely green transport that can cut smog in the world’s major...
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11.18.15Obama Calls on Beijing to Stop Construction in South China Sea
New York Times
President Obama addressed the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting in Manila, where he discussed China, trade and climate change.
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11.13.15China and Myanmar Face New Relationship
New York Times
Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy, had won most of the 491 seats contested in the election, with results still trickling in.
Environment
11.11.15China’s Bottled Water Industry to Exploit Tibetan Plateau
from chinadialogue
Tibet wants to bottle up much more of the region’s water resources, despite shrinking glaciers and the impact that exploitation of precious resources would have on neighboring countries.This week, the Tibet Autonomous Region’s government released a...
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11.10.15China Decries Shenyang Pollution Called 'Worst Ever' by Activists
BBC
On Sunday pollution readings were about 50 times higher than that considered safe by the World Health Organization.
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11.06.15U.S., China Least Concerned About Climate Change
Agence France-Presse
China and the United States are the world's biggest polluters, but their residents are among the least concerned about the harms of climate change.
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11.04.15China Underreporting Coal Consumption by Up to 17%, Data Suggests
Guardian
Revelation may mean China has emitted close to a billion additional tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year.
Reports
11.04.15Special Data Release with Revisions for People’s Republic of China
International Energy Agency
In September 2015, the National Bureau of Statistics of China published China’s energy statistics for 2013, as well as revised statistics for the years 2000 to 2012. NBS supplied the IEA with detailed energy balances for 2011 to 2013 and using these...
Environment
10.30.15China’s Stalk-Burning Clampdown Shows Limits of Command-and-Control
from chinadialogue
At the end of the National Day holiday earlier this month, Beijing bid farewell to weeks of relatively good air quality and experienced another episode of “Airpocalypse.” Levels of PM2.5, tiny pollution particles that are deemed particularly harmful...
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10.30.15Apple to Power its Vast China Operations With Renewable Energy
chinadialogue
The US tech giant’s plans to generate over 2GW of low carbon electricity at its China operations could speed up the greening of the ‘world’s workshop’
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10.30.15China’s Communist Party Approves Five-Year Plan
Wall Street Journal
Economists will be watching to see whether it sets ambitious or moderate growth targets.
Conversation
10.28.15Making Waves in the South China Sea
Challenging China’s newly assertive behavior in the South China Sea, this week the U.S. Navy sailed some of its biggest ships inside the nine-dash line, exercising its claim to freedom of movement in international waters plied by billions in trade...
Environment
10.22.15China's Boom Has Hurt Wetlands, Threatens Extinction of Rare Birds
from chinadialogue
The destruction of China’s wetlands, which are critical stopping points for birds migrating as far away as the Arctic or the South Pacific, threatens mass extinctions of species across East Asia, new research has found.Besides providing shelter and...
Caixin Media
10.20.15Moving 2 Million People for Beijing’s Urban Reset
Nearly 2 million Beijing residents will be moved to the city’s outlying districts from the center by 2020 as part of a massive urban revamp designed to better control people, traffic, and smog.The movers include up to 1 million government workers...
Environment
10.19.15Can the South-North Water Transfer Project and Industry Co-Exist?
from chinadialogue
Sixty-two years after Chairman Mao first envisioned the South-North Water Transfer project, the Middle Route (SNWT-MR) formally began transferring supplies of water from Danjiangkou reservoir on the border of Hubei and Henan in December 2014.In the...
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10.16.15This Is Where China’s Future Will Be Decided
Washington Post
Lanzhou, China — The first thing you notice is the dust.
Environment
10.14.15U.S.-China Announcement is the Most Significant Milestone to Date for Battling Global Climate Change
from Rocky Mountain Institute
The September 25 joint announcement by President Obama and President Xi represents the second time in two years the leaders have met to make significant climate commitments. Last year’s meeting focused on setting aggressive goals that reflect each...
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10.14.15'Hunting' for China at the Democratic Debate
Washington Post
Jim Webb wanted to talk China.The rest of the candidates? Not so much.
Books
10.07.15Unmade in China
If you look carefully at how things are actually made in China—from shirts to toys, apple juice to oil rigs—you see a reality that contradicts every widely-held notion about the world’s so-called economic powerhouse. From the inside looking out, China is not a manufacturing juggernaut. It’s a Lilliputian. Nor is it a killer of American jobs. It’s a huge job creator. Rising China is importing goods from America in such volume that millions of U.S. jobs are sustained through Chinese trade and investment. In Unmade in China, entrepreneur and Georgetown University business professor Jeremy R. Haft lifts the lid on the hidden world of China’s intricate supply chains. Informed by years of experience building new companies in China, Haft’s unique, insider’s view reveals a startling picture of an economy which struggles to make baby formula safely, much less a nuclear power plant. Using firm-level data and recent case studies, Unmade in China tells the story of systemic risk in Chinese manufacturing and why this is both really bad and really good news for America. —Polity Press{chop}
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10.06.15China Is Working to Reach Its Emissions Peak Before 2030 Deadline, Analyst Says
Guardian
Qi Ye, director of public policy centre in Beijing, says China is showing ‘global leadership’ on climate change.
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10.05.15Seven Dead, 223 Injured as Tornadoes Brought by Typhoon Mujigae Ravage China’s Guangdong Province
South China Morning Post
Mujigae was the strongest typhoon to make landfall in at least six decades.
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10.02.15The Return of China's Environmental Avenger
Diplomat
Pan Yue, China’s most outspoken, innovative, and articulate environmental official, is back in action.
Media
10.01.15U.S. Presidential Candidates on China
Our Presidential Quotes tracker keeps you up to date on what the candidates are saying about China, and where and when they say it.
Environment
09.30.15Less Snow in Tibet Means More Heatwaves in Europe
from chinadialogue
Recent summer heatwaves in Europe and northeast Asia have caused massive water shortages and a large number of deaths. But the mechanism behind these extreme weather events is not fully understood.Scientists at China’s Nanjing University of...
Environment
09.25.15Weak Case for UK’s China-Funded Nuclear Plant, Critics Say
from chinadialogue
The U.K. and China moved closer this week to finalizing the finance of a highly controversial plan to build the first new nuclear power plant in the U.K. for a generation. The plant, Hinkley Point C in Somerset, western England, is seeking Chinese...
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09.25.15Obama, the Pope, and the President of China Are Teaming Up to Save the World
Mother Jones
Something big and strange is happening in the United States this week.
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09.25.15Enacting Cap-and-Trade Will Present Challenges Under China’s System
New York Times
White House officials have lauded President Xi Jinping's anticipated promise of a national market for China in greenhouse gas quotas.
Reports
09.24.15Bottled Water In China: Boom Or Bust?
China Water Risk
It has only taken China two decades to become the world’s largest bottled water consumer and a major producer. But given China’s much publicized water woes from pollution to scarcity and droughts, can China’s bottled water market continue to boom?...
Conversation
09.22.15Xi Jinping’s Message to America
China’s President Xi Jinping addressed an audience of more than 700 American businesspeople in Seattle on Tuesday evening on the first stop on his first state visit to the United States. Regular ChinaFile Contributors who watched the speech offer...
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...
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...
Conversation
09.16.15What Would New Breakthroughs on Climate Change Mean for the U.S.-China Relationship?
With just over a week to go before Chinese President Xi Jinping begins his first State Visit to the United States, there is much evidence to suggest that bilateral action to fight climate change is an area most ripe for meaningful Sino-U.S...
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09.15.15U.S. and China Aim to Hit Climate Goals Sooner Than Expected in Some Cities
Los Angeles Times
U.S. and Chinese officials plan to unveil more ambitious carbon-emission rules for several Chinese cities and provinces.
The China Africa Project
09.15.15Growing Demand in China for Africa’s Lion Bones
Traditional Chinese medicine—popular throughout Asia—long has prized the supposed medicinal value of tiger bones. Now, though, as the world’s wild tiger population is disappearing fast, even facing extinction, the Chinese medicine industry may have...
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...
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09.09.15China Will close 150 Factories to Make Sure Shanghai Disneyland Has Blue Skies
Quartz
What will Disneyland with Chinese characteristics look like?
ChinaFile Recommends
09.04.15Can the Chinese Government Get Its People to Like G.M.O.s?
New Yorker
Genetically modified food faces zealous public opposition and is largely banned from the marketplace.
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...
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08.28.15How My Presidency Would Deal With China
Wall Street Journal
Approaching Beijing on the basis of strength and example, not weakness and appeasement.
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...
Conversation
08.18.15The Tianjin Explosion
Late in the evening on August 12, a massive chemical explosion shook the city of Tianjin. Days later, the death toll stands at 114 people, though that number is expected to rise as more of the dead are pulled from the rubble. Many of those killed...
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...
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08.13.15Military Sends Chemical Specialists to Blast Site, Death Toll Rises to 50
Xinhua
So far more than 1,000 firefighters, 151 fire engines and a drone have been dispatched to the blast site.
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08.13.15Tianjin Blast Rescuers Removing Toxic Chemical Substance from Scene
People’s Daily Online
Sodium cyanide has now been detected in the sewage and leakage has been confirmed.
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...
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...
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08.08.15Environment
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...
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07.31.15Environment
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...
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...
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07.21.15This Instagram Account Offers a New Perspective on China
Time
Some photographs show the surprisingly mundane moments in the life of regular Chinese, such as Albertazzi’s image of a group of men playing cards in their swim shorts on a hot summer afternoon in Beijing; others are images from long-term documentary...
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07.19.15As Beijing Becomes a Supercity, the Rapid Growth Brings Pains
New York Times
The planned megalopolis, a metropolitan area that would be about six times the size of New York's, is meant to revamp northern China's economy.
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07.16.15Biggest Ever Winged Dinosaur is Found in China
Guardian
An ancient feathered creature dug up in northeastern China is the largest winged dinosaur ever found, researchers say.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.15.15Google Alters Name of Disputed South China Sea Reef
CNN
Google says it has altered its map of a disputed reef in the South China Sea, removing its Chinese name in favor of what it says is its internationally recognized moniker.
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07.15.15China's Pollution Quagmire
Forbes
China’s efforts to reduce air pollution could be negated by its unregulated and unmonitored burning of petcoke, a fuel dirtier than coal, an expert on Chinese climate and energy policy said.