Are China's Censors Loosening Their Grip on Weibo?

Malcolm Moore
Telegraph
Two hundred million Sina Weibo users found Tuesday they could search for Chinese leaders and were free to critiique.

In China, New Leadership and New Style

Bill Bishop
New York Times
Xi Jinping is hitching himself to Deng Xiaoping’s legacy and style and is serious about reinvigorating reforms.

Keep Smiling! – You’re Being Watched

Børge Bakken
China Story
Frequent media reports of overwhelming popular support for mass surveillance are propagandistic in tone and content. However, is there nonetheless some truth in the ‘happy Chinese panopticon’? An international comparative survey on privacy and...

Mo Yan and the Hazards of Hollow Words

Evan Osnos
New Yorker
In Chinese, there are an impressive number of ways to describe saying nothing at all. When a person is determined to speak at length but not in depth, he can embark on a long jog of feihua—literally, wasted words—or perhaps pass the time at...

The Struggle of 15-Year-Old Hukou Protester Zhan Haite

C. Custer
ChinaGeeks
A 15-year-old girl has made waves in the Chinese press recently for her fight against Shanghai authorities after she was banned from taking the college entrance examination because she does not hold a Shanghaihukou(household registration). She and...

Media

12.09.12

New Leaders’ Common Touch Gives Netizens “Great Hope”

Glad-handing with the locals. Kissing babies. Eating fast food. These are tried and true ways that American politicians seek to advertise their common touch; but when China’s new leaders employ these methods, it is greeted as a pleasant surprise,...

Caixin Media

12.07.12

China’s Dream Team

Stephen S. Roach
The country’s recent leadership transition was widely depicted as a triumph for conservative hardliners and a setback for the cause of reform—a characterization that has deepened the gloominess that pervades Western perceptions of China.In fact,...

Perry Link: Does This Writer Deserve the Prize?

Perry Link
New York Review of Books
On October 11 Peter Englund, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy in Stockholm, announced that the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2012 will go to the fifty-seven-year-old Chinese writer Guan Moye, better known as Mo Yan, a pen name that means “...

Xi Jinping heads to Shenzhen on first inspection trip

Fiona Tam and He Huifeng
South China Morning Post
It is a move political observers say pays tribute to the famous southern tour of Deng Xiaoping in 1992 and sends a signal of commitment to deepening reform. A Shenzhen propaganda official said Xi, who will succeed Hu Jintao as president in...

A Place for Asia

Rebecca Liao
Dissent
Pankaj Mishra, acclaimed novelist and historian of Asia’s modern development, would have none of it. In a scathing essay published in the London Review of Books, Mishra gutted Ferguson for his dishonestly humanitarian...

Nobel Literature Winner Skirts Support for Dissident

Anna Molin
Wall Street Journal
Nobel literature prize winner Mo Yan dodged requests Thursday to repeat comments supportive of Chinese countryman and jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo, and said censorship may be necessary to stop the dissemination of untrue rumors and insults but that...

China GDP: If Not 10%, Then What

Rahul Jacob
Financial Times
Standard Chartered economist says China's GDP is likely to grow 7% over the next five years without big interim reforms.

Mongolia Finds China Can Be Too Close for Comfort

Charles Hutzler
Associated Press
In a global rush to get rich off China, Mongolia works to ensure that Chinese investment doesn't become Chinese dominance.

Does This Writer Deserve the Prize?

Perry Link from New York Review of Books
On October 11 Peter Englund, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy in Stockholm, announced that the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2012 will go to the fifty-seven-year-old Chinese writer Guan Moye, better known as Mo Yan, a pen name that means “...

James McGregor: An Open System with Closed Minds

James McGregor
Quartz
China was a closed system with rapidly opening minds. Today, China is a much more open system with some purposely closing minds.

China Dismisses Nobel Demands for Liu's Release

AFP
Agence France-Presse
China rejected a call from 134 Nobel laureates for the release from prison of dissident 2010 Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo. 

The Hungry Years

Pankaj Mishra
New Yorker
Pankaj Mishra reviews two new books on Mao Zedong and the Great Famine of 1958-62.

New CPC Leadership Rejects Extravagance, Bureaucracy

Unattributed
Xinhua
The newly-elected leadership of China's ruling party has pledged to reject extravagance and reduce bureaucratic visits and meetings, in a bid to win the trust and support from the people. In a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist...

How Crash Cover-Up Altered China’s Succession

Jonathan Ansfield
New York Times
The outlines of the affair surfaced months ago, but it is now becoming clearer that the crash and the botched cover-up had more momentous consequences, altering the course of the Chinese Communist Party’s once-in-a-decade...

Media

12.04.12

“Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry” Hits the Road

Jonathan Landreth
Debut filmmaker Alison Klayman has been on a global tour with her documentary—Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry—a film about one of China’s most provocative artists and activists, which this week, was named one of fifteen films put on a short list to be...

Books

12.04.12

Tangled Titans

David Shambaugh (editor)
Tangled Titans offers a current and comprehensive assessment of the most important relationship in international affairs—that between the United States and China. How the relationship evolves will have a defining impact on the future of world politics, the Asian region, and the citizens of many nations. In this definitive book, leading experts provide an in-depth exploration of the historical, domestic, bilateral, regional, global, and future contexts of this complex relationship. The contributors argue that the relationship is a unique combination of deep interdependence, limited cooperation, and increasing competition. Never in modern history have two great powers been so deeply intertwined—yet so suspicious and potentially antagonistic toward each other. Exploring this cooperative and competitive dynamic, the contributors offer a wealth of detail on contemporary Sino-American relations unavailable elsewhere. Students will find Tangled Titans essential reading to understand the current dynamics and future direction of relations between the world’s two most important powers.—Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

The Mistress Industrial Complex

Christina Larson
Foreign Policy
Conjugal entanglements of power, politics, money, and men, usually involving multiple sex partners, are hardly new in China, but how this video came to light was novel: Zhu Ruifeng, a 31-year-old former investigative journalist at the respected...

Top 10 Myths About China in 2012

Evan Osnos
New Yorker
This year may prove to be a pivot point, when the myths that China and the world had adopted about the politics and economics of the People’s Republic began to erode. 

My First Trip

12.03.12

A China Frontier: Once the Border of Borders

Orville Schell
In 1961, when I first arrived in Hong Kong as an aspiring young China scholar, there was something deeply seductive about the way this small British enclave of capitalism clung like a barnacle to the enormity of China’s socialist revolution. Because...

Blind China Dissident Lawyer Urges Xi to Follow Myanmar's Path to Reform

Ben Blanchard
Reuters
Chen Ghuangcheng urges new Communist Party chief and president-in-waiting Xi Jinping to follow Myanmar's model of reform or risk a violent political transition.

Caixin Media

12.03.12

When Hope Dies

A nationwide uproar paralleled the investigation that led to the identification of five street children who suffocated in a large rubbish bin in the city of Bijie, Guizhou province.Officials learned the victims were the sons of three brothers. The...

Caixin Media

12.03.12

Toxic Effects and Environmental Nondisclosure

High-profile talk emphasizing environmental action at the Communist Party’s 18th national congress attracted a lot of attention. News from the November proceedings spurred industry demands for more information and pushed stock prices higher for...

Alarm as China Issues Rules for Disputed Area

Jane Perlez
New York Times
New rules announced by a Chinese province last week to allow interceptions of ships in the South China Sea are raising concerns in the region, and in Washington, that simmering disputes with Southeast Asian countries over the waters will escalate.

Tale of the Kidnapped Princeling

John Garnaut
Foreign Policy
It was there that Ji realized how the rumor he had inadvertently spread was potentially destabilizing to Jiang and the thousands of officials who depend directly and indirectly on the former President'sprotection and patronage. Ji's...

Chinese Media Partly Retreat After Black Jails Verdict

Andrew Jacobs
New York Times
A brief news article published on Sunday by a score of state-run news media outlets offered an account of an unexpected judicial verdict: a Beijing municipal court had sentenced 10 people to jail for illegally detaining and assaulting a group of...

Rule of Law in China: Prospects and Challenges (Video)

Various
Brookings Institution
On November 28, the John L. Thornton China Center at Brookings hosted the launch of In the Name of Justice: Striving for the Rule of Law in China (Brookings Press, 2012), a new book by Professor He Weifang, one of...

French Firms Must Fight China for Stake in Africa -- Moscovici

Joe Bavier
Reuters
Finance Minister says France must go on the offensive and fight the growing influence of China for a stake in Africa's markets.

The Price of Blood: China Faces HIV/AIDS Epidemic

Madison Park
CNN
Near World AIDS Day, China's Vice Premier Li Keqiang said HIV/AIDS is "not only a medical issue but also a social challenge." 

Opinion: China's Narrative of Han Expansion

Philip Bowring
South China Morning Post
China's focus on its role as victim of past humiliation is tempered by the spread of its largest ethnic group.

Media

12.01.12

Chinese AIDS Activist Endures “Degradation” in New York, Determined to Finish What She Started

Chinese people translate “New Yorker” into “New York Ke” to designate people living in New York City, including Chinese immigrants. But in Chinese, “ke” means “visitor” or “guest.” It has been a sad word in Chinese literature and poems for thousands...

Out of School

11.30.12

Heirs of Fairness?

Taisu Zhang
An unusual debate on what may seem an arcane topic—China’s imperial civil service examinations—recently took place on the op-ed page of the The New York Times. The argument centered on the question of whether or not China during the past 1000 years...

Opinion: Triumverate Puts China in Crosshairs, but Future Joint Accord Unlikely

LIan Degui
Global Times
A Cold War mentality pitting the U.S., India and Japan against China will lead nowhere because of reluctance to overly provoke Beijing, a Chinese Japan scholar says.

State Meddling Stifles China's Film Industry

Didi Kirsten Tatlow
New York Times
The release of Lu Chuan's latest film was delayed until after the recent leadership transition. The film depicts the bloody machinations of the first Han emperor's wife.

How Onion Spoof Slipped Past China's Humor-challenged Great Firewall

Alexa Olesen
Associated Press
A spoof article about North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un being the sexiest man alive ended up a real news item in China as a result of Chinese whispers in the digital age.

Environment

11.28.12

Russia’s Siberian Dams Power “Electric Boilers” in Beijing

from chinadialogue
The underdeveloped, sparsely populated Eastern Siberia region that shares a 4,000-kilometer border with China has vast resources to offer its heavily populated and fast-developing neighbor. Hydroelectricity is key among them.A major new...

Sex Tape Used to Bribe Chinese Official Goes Viral

Alexa Olesen
Associated Press
A 5-year-old sex tape of an 18-year-old woman allegedly hired by developers to sleep with a city official is causing yet another scandal for China’s ruling Communists. 

Ten Ways to Investigate Transition in China

Tom Marshall
New York Times
How can students learn what kind of place China is today? The Learning Network and The New York Times gathered 10 different ways of looking at the country.

Media

11.27.12

Spotted on Weibo: Chinese Leaders Share a Human Moment

An active Beijing-based micro-blogger named Dongdong Wang recently tweeted this image on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter: {vertical_photo_right}At first glance, it doesn’t look like much: Outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao (left) and outgoing...

How Ordinary Chinese Are Talking And Fighting Back

Frank Langfitt
NPR
Roughly 400 million Chinese use Weibo, China's Twitter, and often do so to expose corruption.

China's Passport Propaganda Baffles Experts

Peter Ford
Christian Science Monitor
Vietnam and India are angry at new P.R.C. passports picturing disputed land and sea as China's. 

People’s Daily Quotes the Onion: Kim Jong Eun ‘Sexiest Man Alive’

Carlos Tejada and John Chin
Wall Street Journal
Top Communist newspaper cited American satirical paper's slide show of North Korean leader.

Culture

11.27.12

Remember to Tell the Truth

Maya E. Rudolph
The recording of memory brings history to life and creates a legacy of its own. In 2010, documentary filmmaker Wu Wenguang launched the Memory Project to try to shine a light on the long-shrouded memories of one of modern China’s most traumatic...

Ai's Song: Elton John Praises Artist in Beijing

Carlos Tejada
Wall Street Journal
Elton John struck a note of support for dissident artist Ai Weiwei at his show in Beijing, but did he also strike a blow at China’s live music scene?

China's Ping An Eyes Legal Action after NYT Report on Leader's Family Wealth

Reuters
Reuters
Chinese Insurance giant said recent media coverage contained "serious inaccuracies, facts being distorted and taken out of context." 

China Crackdown Fuels Tibet Immolations Group

AFP
Agence France-Presse
A crackdown in China's Tibetan areas has fuelled dozens of self-immolations in protest at Beijijng rule, says the International Campaign for Tibet.

Will China's New Leaders Change Tibet policy?

Martin Patience
BBC
Xi Zhongxun, father of China's new president, Xi Jinping, was a former leader known for a more conciliatory approach to Tibetans.

Lobbying, a Windfall and a Leader’s Family

David Barboza
New York Times
Wen Jiabao's relatives grew extraordinarily wealthy during his leadership, with most wealth coming from Ping An Insurance shares. 

Pressure Mounts on Carr over China Rights Abuses

John Garnaut
Sydney Morning Herald
Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr is faced with confronting Beijing with rights abuses after an Australian doctor was quietly jailed.

Caixin Media

11.23.12

Asset Transparency Urged to Fight Government Graft

Calls for government officials to disclose personal and family assets are growing louder in China, mainly in reaction to the rising number of corruption cases affecting officialdom.And some officials are listening. A local Communist Party official...

China: Worse Than You Ever Imagined

Ian Johnson from New York Review of Books
Last summer I took a trip to Xinyang, a rural area of wheat fields and tea plantations in central China’s Henan province. I met a pastor, a former political prisoner, and together we made a day trip to Rooster Mountain, a onetime summer retreat for...

Media

11.21.12

Official Online Poll: Chinese Want Democracy

With China’s new leadership now set, Chinese Web users have turned their attention to answering the key question: “What’s next?” In concert with the 18th Party Congress, the website of Communist Party-sanctioned Peoples’s Daily hosted an...

China's Powerbrokers Block Reformers

Benjamin Kang Lim
Reuters
Retired leaders in China's Communist Party used a last-minute straw poll to block two pro-reform candidates from joining the policymaking standing committee, including one who had alienated party elders, sources with ties to the leadership said...

Women in China Leadership Fewer Than Under Mao

Michael Forsythe and Penny Peng
Bloomberg
The chart of the day shows the falling percentage of women in the ruling Communist Party’s Central Committee, a group of about 200 members that includes all seven men on the nation’s top decision-making body, the Politburo Standing...

Op-Ed: Japan-China Relations at a Crossroads

Koichiro Genba
New York Times
Japan's foreign minister argues that there is no doubt that the Senkaku Islands, known as the Diaoyu in China, are a part of Japan.

Why Is China Censoring a Fake Photo of its Leaders Doing 'Gangnam Style'?

Max Fisher
Washington Post
A doctored photo of China's top officials doing a popular South Korean dance went viral 'til Chinese censors pulled it down.