Books
06.20.18

The Third Revolution

Elizabeth Economy

Through a wide-ranging exploration of Xi Jinping’s top political, economic, and foreign policy priorities—fighting corruption, managing the Internet, reforming the state-owned enterprise sector, improving the country’s innovation capacity, enhancing air quality, and elevating China’s presence on the global stage—Economy identifies the tensions, shortcomings, and successes of Xi’s reform efforts over the course of his first five years in office.

Environment
07.06.17

Industrial Energy Efficiency Can Improve Air Quality

 from chinadialogue

Despite extensive efforts by the Chinese government to improve air quality, including the introduction of the State Council’s “...

Environment
11.16.16

The Future of Public Interest Litigation in China

 from chinadialogue

China has seen a rapid growth in environmental public interest legal challenges since January 2015, when a revised version of the...

Conversation
03.11.16

Is China Doing Enough for the Environment?

Deborah Seligsohn, Angel Hsu & more

This week, at their biggest annual session in Beijing, Chinese lawmakers are expected to ratify the country’s 13th Five-Year Plan, which contains many new measures to address rampant pollution of the country’s air, soil, and water. Will the plan...

Green Space
12.22.15

Nu River Saved, Jack Ma Buys Preservation Land

Michael Zhao

A great piece of news came from China on the night of December 16, that the Yunnan provincial government in southwest China has announced its decision to...

Media
12.15.15

The Proletariat Experience of Beijing’s Airpocalypse

On December 8, a Tuesday, a man surnamed Cao piloted his electric scooter along Beijing’s profoundly hazy streets, parking in front of one towering apartment complex after another to deliver packages. Although the government had just issued a “...

Green Space
12.15.15

China is ‘Rational’ Leader on Climate Change, Says Retired NASA Scientist James Hansen

Michael Zhao

James Hansen, retired NASA scientist and “father of climate change awareness,” believes China, the world’s largest CO2 emitter, will now step up to provide the carbon emissions reduction leadership lacking from the U.S., according to a Guardian...

Green Space
12.11.15

Tiananmen Police Don Smog Masks, Wind Makes or Breaks the Blue Sky

Michael Zhao

Now that Beijing has had its first red alert since institutionalizing its smog alert system in 2013, it was news when the special forces who guard Tiananmen Square were seen, for the first time, wearing face masks to protect them from the smog,...

Green Space
12.08.15

Smog Strike Round II

Michael Zhao

Not surprisingly, smog yet again strikes back in much of China. Using the automatic weapon of our archive of daily photos of three of China’s major cities, I’d like to share a flashback of Beijing’s air quality throughout the month of November,...

The NYRB China Archive
12.08.15

Why Pollution is Good for China

Ian Johnson
from New York Review of Books

I am a member of a martial arts group that performs at annual temple fairs around Beijing. Half of our group are children, and almost without fail they meet at a park on the west side of town at around three in the afternoon to practice fighting...

Green Space
12.03.15

Smog and Imagination

Michael Zhao

The last few days of November, air pollution was back in the headlines and social media feeds of millions of Chinese. Here are a few highlights:

The creative WeChat post “...

Caixin Media
03.03.15

Can Market Mechanisms Clear China’s Air?

The Chinese government recently responded to rising public discontent over environmental degradation by introducing tougher rules for industrial emissions.

Meanwhile, a non-governmental organization and a state-run newspaper are...

Photo Gallery
12.30.14

Seeing China in 2014

David M. Barreda

In 2014, ChinaFile published great original work in photography. As always, we worked to look beyond stereotypical images of the country to find nuanced representations of the new and ChinaFile contributors’ commentary on it....

Environment
11.26.14

The People’s Republic of Chemicals

 from chinadialogue

The name of China is almost obscured by a grey smudge on the title page of The People’s Republic of Chemicals,...

Sinica Podcast
10.17.14

China Daddy Issues

Kaiser Kuo, Jeremy Goldkorn & more
from Sinica Podcast

We’ve all heard about the difficulty of finding good schools in China, and know first hand about the food and air safety problems. But what about the terrors of pedestrian crossings, the dilemmas of how much trust you should inculcate in your...

Sinica Podcast
06.06.14

Rice, Wheat, and Air Filters

Kaiser Kuo, Jeremy Goldkorn & more
from Sinica Podcast

This week on Sinica, we're delighted to be joined by Thomas Talhelm, Ph.D. candidate in psychology at the University of Virginia and author of a recent paper proposing a...

Sinica Podcast
05.03.14

Shoptalk on Publishing

Jeremy Goldkorn, Alice Xin Liu & more
from Sinica Podcast

This week on Sinica, Jeremy Goldkorn is pleased to be joined by two people navigating the English-language publishing industry as it involves China: Alice Xin Liu, Editor of Pathlight magazine, and Karen Ma, first-time author of the well...

Environment
04.03.14

China’s Air Pollution Reporting is Misleading

 from chinadialogue

China’s air pollution is being reported in a misleading way, blocking public understanding and enabling official inaction. Outdoor air pollution in China causes an estimated 1.2 million premature deaths and 25 million healthy years of life lost...

Environment
01.21.14

Real-time Air Quality Data Due from 179 Chinese Cities

from chinadialogue

More than 170 cities in China have now joined a real-time air quality disclosure scheme, initiated by the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

...

Environment
02.20.13

Air Quality in China: A Snapshot

Nearly five weeks ago, Beijing experienced its worst day of air quality on record: Levels of PM2.5—small particulates that can cause lung, cardiovascular, and respiratory disease—soared to more than thirty times the level considered safe by the...

Stars in the Haze

Flying kites is the quintessential Chinese pastime. But “wind zithers” or “paper sparrow hawks,” as they are known in Chinese, also have a long history as tools. Over millennia, Chinese have used them for measuring the wind, gauging distances,...

"Greyjing"? Air pollution Fouls Beijing's Name

With its parks, centuries-old palaces, history and culture, Beijing should be one of the more pleasant capitals of the world. Instead, it's considered among the worst to live in because of...

Trends in Global CO2 Emissions

PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency

Emissions of carbon dioxide, the main cause of global warming, reached an all-time high in 2011. The authors of this report summarize and analyze trends in carbon dioxide emissions on a country-by-country basis, finding that China’s continued...

Environment
06.11.12

The Diplomacy of Air Pollution

 from chinadialogue

On June 5, World Environment Day, China’s environment ministry published its annual “state of the environment” report as normal. But this year, the launch...

Viewpoint
06.11.12

Dirty Air and Succession Jitters Clouding Beijing’s Judgment

Stephen Oliver & Susan Shirk

Last week the Chinese government accused the U.S. Embassy and consulates of illegally interfering in China’s domestic affairs by publishing online hourly air-quality...

Fallows on Bad Air and Soft Power

This is another fascinating installment in the exercise of Chinese "soft power." For my Big Theory on the nature of Chinese soft power, see this essay and this book. For a few previous installments in the Soft-Power Watch, see this, this, and...

Environment
06.05.12

Hot Air?

Michael Zhao

It has been a busy season for U.S. diplomatic activity in China. Given the tensions aroused by U.S. involvement in the Bo Xilai scandal and the flight of the blind activist Chen Guangcheng, perhaps it should come as no surprise that even...

China Tells U.S. to Stop Reporting China's Bad Air

China told foreign embassies Tuesday to stop publishing their own reports on air quality in the country, escalating its objections to a popular U.S. Embassy Twitter feed that tracks pollution in smoggy Beijing. Only the Chinese government is...