Is This the Best Response to China’s Cyber-Attacks?
On Monday, the United States Attorney General Eric Holder accused China of hacking American industrial giants such as...
The China-Vietnam Standoff: How Will It End?
Daniel Kliman:
Five thousand miles from Ukraine, off the coast of Vietnam, China is taking a page from Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s playbook. Beijing’s recent placement of a huge oil drilling rig in disputed waters in the South...
Will China’s Economy Be #1 by Dec. 31? (And Does it Matter?)
On April 30, data released by the United Nations International Comparison Program showed China’s estimated 2011 purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rate was twenty percent higher than...
Spy Vs. Spy: When is Cyberhacking Crossing the Line?
Vincent Ni: For a long time, Huawei has been accused by some American politicians of “spying on Americans for the Chinese government,” but their evidence has always been sketchy. They played on fear and possibility. I don’t agree or...
The Bloomberg Fallout: Where Does Journalism in China Go from Here?
On Monday, March 24, a thirteen-year veteran of Bloomberg News, Ben Richardson...
Should China Support Russia in Ukraine?
Alexander V. Pantsov: The Chinese Communist Party leadership has always maintained: “China believes in non-interference in internal affairs.” In the current Ukrainian situation it is the most we can expect from the P.R.C. because it is...
A Racist Farewell to Outgoing U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke
Reacting to departing U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke’s February 27 farewell news conference in...
How Responsible Are Americans for China’s Pollution Problem?
David Vance Wagner: China’s latest “airpocalypse” has again sent air pollution in Beijing soaring to hazardous levels for days straight....
What Can the Dalai Lama’s White House Visit Actually Accomplish?
On February 21, the Dalai Lama visited United States President Barack Obama in the White House over the objections of the Chinese government. Beijing labels the exiled spiritual leader a "wolf in sheep's clothing" who seeks to use violence to...
Are Ethnic Tensions on the Rise in China?
On December 31, President Xi Jinping appeared on CCTV and extended his “New Year’s wishes to Chinese of all ethnic groups.” On January 15, Beijing officials...
What Should the U.S. Do about China’s Barring Foreign Reporters?
Last week, the White House said it was “very disappointed” in China for denying a visa to...
China’s Offshore Leaks: So What?
Two recent stories by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists detailed China’s elite funneling money out of China to tax havens in the Caribbean. We asked contributors to...
Will Xi Jinping Bring a Positive New Day to China?
Chinese President Xi Jinping, just over a year in office, recently made a rare appearance in public in a Beijing restaurant, buying a cheap lunch and paying for it himself...
Why Is China Purging Its Former Top Security Chief, Zhou Yongkang?
Pin Ho:
[Zhou Yongkang’s downfall] is the second chapter of the “Bo Xilai Drama”—a drama begun at the 18th Party Congress. The Party’s power transition has been secret and has lacked convincing procedure. This [lack of...
Will China Shut Out the Foreign Press?
Some two dozen journalists employed by The New York Times and Bloomberg News have not yet received the visas they need to continue to report and live in China after the end of this year. Without them, they will effectively be expelled from the...
What Posture Should Joe Biden Adopt Toward A Newly Muscular China?
Susan Shirk:
United States Vice President Joseph Biden is the American political figure who has spent the most time with Xi Jinping and has the deepest understanding of Xi as an individual. Before Xi’s selection as P.R.C....
Why’s the U.S. Flying Bombers Over the East China Sea?
Chen Weihua:
The Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) is not a Chinese invention. The United States, Japan and some 20 other countries declared such...
What Should the Next U.S. Ambassador to China Tackle First?
Mary Kay Magistad: Gary Locke succeeded in a way that few U.S. ambassadors to China have—in improving public perceptions of U.S. culture. Locke’s down-to-earth approachability and lack of ostentation certainly helped. So did the...
What Will the Beginning of the End of the One-Child Policy Bring?
Leta Hong Fincher:
The Communist Party’s announcement that it will loosen the one-child policy is, of course, welcome news. Married couples will be allowed to have two children if only one of the spouses is an only child, meaning...
Trial By TV: What Does a Reporter’s Arrest and Confession Tell Us About Chinese Media?
The latest ChinaFile Conversation focuses on the case of Chen Yongzhou, the Guangzhou New Express journalist whose series of investigative reports exposed fraud at the Changsha, Hunan-based heavy machinery maker...
Can State-Run Capitalism Absorb the Shocks of ‘Creative Destruction’?
Following are ChinaFile Conversation participants’ reactions to “China: Superpower or Superbust?” in the November-December issue of...
Why’s China’s Smog Crisis Still Burning So Hot?
Alex Wang:
On Sunday, the start of the winter heating season in northern China brought the “airpocalypse” back with a vengeance.
...
Uncomfortable Bedfellows: How Much Does China Need America Now?
Bill Bishop:
The D.C. dysfunction puts China in a difficult place. Any financial markets turmoil that occurs because of a failure of Congress to do its job could harm China’s economy, and especially its exports. The accumulation...
CCTV Network News Broadcast
from Free RepublicFollowing is a transcript of the network news broadcast of China Central Television on September 30, 2013:
央视网消息(新闻联播)： 9月30日上午，在中华人民共和国64周年国庆前夕，...
Obama’s Canceled Trip to Asia: How Much Did It Matter?
Last week as the U.S. Federal Government shut down, President Obama canceled his planned trip to Indonesia and Brunei, where he was to have attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Bali. Some foreign policy analysts have...
Why Is Xi Jinping Promoting Self-Criticism?
Critics both within and without China have suggested that Xi Jinping’s promotion of self-criticism by Communist Party cadres has at least two motives: it promotes the appearance of concern with lax discipline while avoiding deeper reform, and it...
Can China’s Leading Indie Film Director Cross Over in America?
Jonathan Landreth:
Chinese writer and director Jia Zhangke’s A Touch of Sin won the prize for the best screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival in May. Though the dialogue and its fine translation and English subtitles by...
What Can China and Japan Do to Start Anew?
Paula S. Harrell:
While the media keeps its eye on the ongoing Diaoyu/Senkaku islands dispute, heating up yet again...
What Are Chinese Attitudes Toward a U.S. Strike in Syria?
Chen Weihua:
Chinese truly believe that there is no military solution to the Syrian crisis. On the contrary, a U.S. air strike would only worsen the situation there. Chinese have seen many failures of U.S. intervention in...
To Reform or Not Reform?—Echoes of the Late Qing Dynasty
Orville Schell:
It is true that China is no longer beset by threats of foreign incursion nor is it a laggard in the world of economic development and trade. But being there and being steeped in an atmosphere of seemingly endless...
How Dangerous Are Sino-Japanese Tensions?
Sino-Japanese relations do not look promising at the moment. Obviously, the Diaoyu-Senkaku dispute is not the only factor in play but it does focus nationalist passions on both sides. Yet both countries are capable of wiser conduct if their...
Is Business in China Getting Riskier, Or Are Multinationals Taking More Risks?
Arthur Kroeber:
The environment for foreign companies in China has been getting steadily tougher since 2006, when the nation came to the end of a five-year schedule of market-opening measures it pledged as the price of admission...
The Bo Xilai Trial: What’s It Really About?
China has charged disgraced senior politician Bo Xilai with bribery, abuse of power and corruption, paving the way for a...
What Would a Hard Landing in China Mean for the World?
Barry Naughton:
Paul Krugman in a recent post (“How Much Should We Worry About a China Shock?” The New York...
Xu Zhiyong Arrested: How Serious Can Beijing Be About Political Reform?
Donald Clarke:
When I heard that Xu Zhiyong had just been detained, my first thought was, “Again?” This seems to be something the authorities do every time they get nervous, a kind of political Alka Seltzer to settle an upset...
What’s the Senate’s Beef with China’s Play for American Pork?
Last week the U.S. Senate held hearings to question the CEO of meat-producer Smithfield Farms, about the proposed $4.7 billion sale of the Virginia-based company to Shuanghui International, China’s largest pork producer. The sale is under review...
How Would Accepting Gay Culture Change China?
Last week's U.S. Supreme Court decision to strike down the core provisions of the...
Is Xi Jinping’s Fight Against Corruption For Real?
Roderick MacFarquhar:
Xi Jinping’s overriding aim is the preservation of Communist party rule in China, as he made clear in speeches shortly after his elevation to be China’s senior leader. Like his predecessors, he is obsessed...
How Badly Have Snowden’s Leaks Hurt U.S.-China Relations?
Matt Schiavenza:
In the understatement of the day, the United States is unhappy with the recent developments of the Edward Snowden situation. Just three days ago, Washington was in negotiations with Hong Kong to file a warrant for...
What’s Right or Wrong with This Chinese Stance on Edward Snowden?
For today’s ChinaFile Conversation we asked contributors to react to the following excerpt from an op-ed published on Monday June 17 in the...
What’s the Best Way to Advance Human Rights in the U.S.-China Relationship?
Nicholas Bequelin:
The best way to advance human rights in the U.S.-China relationship is first and foremost to recognize that the engine of human rights progress in China today is the Chinese citizenry itself. Such progress is...
What Would the Best U.S.-China Joint Statement Say?
As we approach the June 7-8 meeting in California of U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping we are holding a small contest. We have asked ChinaFile Conversation regulars and a few guests to envision their ideal...
How Would Facing Its Past Change China’s Future?
David Wertime:
The memory of the 1989 massacre of protesters at Tiananmen Square remains neither alive nor dead, neither reckoned nor obliterated. Instead, it hangs spectre-like in the background, a muted but latently powerful...