Media
05.13.14
Why Are There No Credit Scores in China?
Few would dispute that Chinese society suffers from a serious trust problem. After surviving crafty scams and shoddy products for...
Caixin Media
05.13.14
China Comes to Grips with Poisons Underfoot
Pollution that is easily perceptible in China's rivers and urban air has gotten a lot of attention in recent years.
Now a less obvious environmental concern with equally serious repercussions—soil contamination—is getting the attention it...
Media
05.08.14
The Chinese Are Coming! (And That’s OK)
On April 29, the United States Chamber of Commerce, a U.S. lobbying group, announced that Chinese investment in the...
Environment
05.07.14
Why China Will Fight for a Global Climate Deal Next Year
from chinadialogueChina is now the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, and so the world will pay close attention to its stance at next year’s climate negotiations in Paris, as well as to the kinds of actions it takes to tackle climate change post-2020....
Media
05.06.14
Chinese to the World: Ignore Our GDP
The U.S.-based World Bank grabbed everybody’s attention by announcing that China was poised to displace the United States as the world’s largest economy based on purchasing power. But a survey of the Chinese web shows people at home aren’t buying...
Environment
04.30.14
China’s Environmental Law Good on Paper
from chinadialogueChina’s environmental protection law, which stirred great controversy during its amendment process, has...
Media
04.30.14
Five Lessons From the Axing of ‘The Big Bang Theory’
It’s a plot twist few saw coming. Not long ago, China’s video streaming sites were trying to clean up years of copyright violations by...
Caixin Media
04.29.14
‘Black Jail’ Victims Hunt Down Captors, Get Day in Court
A recent one-day trial in the northern province of Hebei involving China’s “black jail” industry came about because people who say they were illegally detained did some detective work to find their former prison and then took the matter to the...
Media
04.28.14
A Guide to Social Class in Modern China
Class is a sensitive word in China. Marxist-Leninist rhetoric like “class enemies,” “class conflict,” and “class struggle” are rarely seen in the country’s media these days, but since China began its market reforms in 1979, stratification has...
Media
04.25.14
Bieliebers They Are Not—Chinese Outraged by Singer’s Tokyo Shrine Visit
Justin Bieber has once again displayed his talent for seemingly effortless international gaffes. The twenty-year-old Canadian pop princeling, who last year wrote “hopefully she would have been a Belieber” in the guestbook on his visit to the Anne...
Environment
04.24.14
Almost One-Fifth of China’s Arable Land is Polluted
from chinadialogueAlmost one-fifth of China’s arable land is polluted to various degrees, according to a national soil quality report on April 17.
The report, based...
Caixin Media
04.23.14
Graft Inquiry at CNPC Uncovers Shady Deal
A little-known deal related to an equally little-known, yet highly productive oilfield has come to light as a graft investigation unfolds at oil giant China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC). A businessman with strong ties to officials is behind...
Media
04.23.14
Welcome to Uighur Web—Now Watch What You Say
China’s Internet is vast, with millions of sites and more than 618 million users. But nested within that universe is a tiny...
Media
04.17.14
Ai Weiwei’s Reach Draws New Yorkers’ Attention to Free Speech
“
Ai Weiwei retweeted me!” exclaimed a young blonde woman, laughing and waving her iPhone in the air with excitement. She and some two hundred other New Yorkers had gathered on the steps of the Brooklyn Public Library at Grand Army...
Environment
04.16.14
Ten Steps to Cleaner Air in China’s Cities
from chinadialogueEarlier this year, former San Francisco planning advisor Eugene Leong looked at the legacy of air pollution in San Francisco. Here he draws out ten key policy lessons for China's leadership.
Recognize PM2.5 pollution as a...
Caixin Media
04.15.14
New Sichuan Petchem Plant on Shaky Ground
A controversial petrochemical project in the southwestern province of Sichuan quietly went into operation in March, but questions about the China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) facility continue to linger.
The project is in Pengzhou, a...
Media
04.15.14
Captain America Conquers China
SHANGHAI—This week, while U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel’s trip to China was underscoring bilateral...
Media
04.11.14
Is Jesus Really Hotter Than Mao on China’s Social Media?
It’s easier to talk about Jesus than Chinese President and Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping on Weibo, China’s massive Twitter-like social media platform.
The atheist Chinese Communist Party, known for its sometimes heavy-handed...
Viewpoint
04.09.14
Why Taiwan’s Protestors Stuck It Out
Some might say, “a half-million Taiwanese can’t be wrong.” That’s how many islanders descended upon their capital city, Taipei, on March 30 to shout...
Caixin Media
04.08.14
Crimea Rattles the Chinese Dream
At the Sochi Winter Olympics, President Xi Jinping professed his affection for Russian letters. Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, and other literary giants made up the reading list of his youth, and his generation was raised on a diet of Russian culture...
Environment
04.03.14
China’s Air Pollution Reporting is Misleading
from chinadialogueChina’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...
Media
04.02.14
The Future of Democracy in Hong Kong
Veteran Hong Kong political leaders Anson Chan and Martin Lee describe some of the core values—such as freedom of the press—that they seek to maintain as Beijing asserts greater control over the territory seventeen years after Britain handed it back...
Caixin Media
04.01.14
Eviction by Arson: Land-Seizure Turns Deadly
A village head and the boss of a building company were among the seven people arrested over an arson attack on a protest against a land seizure in Shandong Province in which one man died and three others were hurt.
The government of Pingdu...
Media
03.28.14
Ang Lee and Zhang Yimou Talk Movies
Ang Lee, the Oscar-winning American film director with Taiwan roots, and Zhang Yimou, the storied veteran of mainland Chinese moviemaking, joined together on...
Environment
03.27.14
Climate Change Darkens Life in China
from chinadialogueAsia faces a worsening water crisis, according to a leaked report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Water demand from rising populations and living standards, and...
Media
03.26.14
A Wrinkle to Those Hot Chinese Tech IPOs
Investors, ready your wallets. In the past week, Sina Weibo, China’s massive microblogging platform with 280 million users, and...
Media
03.25.14
China, We Fear You
On March 18, thousands of students began a sit-in of Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan in the capital, Taipei, a historic...
Media
03.21.14
“We’ll Know It When We’re There”
Martin Johnson (not his real name), is a co-founder of the China-based Internet freedom advocacy collective GreatFire.org....
Features
03.21.14
Punching a Hole in the Great Firewall
In January, when the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists published its exposé of the use of offshore tax havens by...
Environment
03.19.14
Is China Underfunding its ‘War on Pollution’?
from chinadialogueChina’s environmental spending showed a year-on-year drop of almost ten percent in 2013, according to the budget report delivered at China’s annual parliamentary gathering.
Despite premier Li Keqiang’s vow to declare “war on pollution”,...
Caixin Media
03.18.14
How Xinjiang Real Estate Takes Its Shape
Police nabbed property developer Zhao Xingru and detained her for more than thirty days in late 2012 and early 2013 based on fraud allegations filed by executives at one of the country's largest developers, Hangzhou-based Greentown China Group....
Media
03.17.14
‘Self-Media’ Pushes and Beijing Pushes Back
Michelle Song, twenty-four, studies international relations at Beijing’s prestigious Peking University and lives in a dormitory, so she doesn’t watch television regularly and doesn’t subscribe to newspapers. But this has not hampered her ability...
Viewpoint
03.13.14
How Chinese Internet Censorship Works, Sometimes
Earlier this week, Chinese Internet services blocked searches for the phrase mìshū bāng (秘书帮). Roughly...
Environment
03.11.14
It’s Time to Cooperate on the Yarlung Tsangpo
from chinadialogueThis is part of a special series of articles produced by thethirdpole.net on the future of the Yarlung Tsangpo river—one of the world’s great transboundary...
Caixin Media
03.11.14
Li Ka-shing’s Remedy for ‘Coddled’ Hong Kong
Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing is again in the media spotlight after he mentioned in late February the possibility of publicly listing his retail business A.S. Watson Group, which is part of the Hong Kong-listed conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa....
Viewpoint
03.06.14
Can America Win in a New Era of Competition with China?
Beijing was in a state of heightened anxiety and had been for weeks. Each day in the run-up to the National Day parade, the security measures seemed to get a little bit tighter. Our apartment building had a distant view of Jianguomen, which is...
Environment
03.05.14
Should China Follow in America’s Factory Farming Footsteps?
from chinadialogueThe scale of growth in China’s meat production over the past three decades is staggering. Today, one-third of the world’s meat is produced in the country and half of all pigs live there. While per capita consumption may still be below the U.S....
Caixin Media
03.04.14
Henan Villagers Seek Justice in Hepatitis C Scandal
Villagers from a county in the central province of Henan say they are still seeking justice almost two years after a doctor admitted reusing syringes and nearly 1,000 people were found to have hepatitis C.
The scandal, which has received...
Caixin Media
03.03.14
Kunming Attack Is ‘China’s 9/11,’ State Media Says
In the days after a major terror attack in Kunming, state media outlets are calling for a united front to combat terror and warning against excusing the attackers or criticizing the government’s policies on minorities.
On the evening of...
Media
03.03.14
‘Enemies of Humanity’ — China Debates Who’s to Blame For the Kunming Attack
It’s already being called “3.01,” or “three oh one,” a date that will likely burn in China’s collective memory for years to come. According to Xinhua, China’s state news agency, on the evening of March 1, around 9:00 p.m. Beijing time, ten or...
Media
03.01.14
China’s Oscar Challenge
On January 3, the film critics of The New York Times published their Oscar nominations wish list. Many of...
Environment
02.28.14
Citizen Sues Local Government for Failing to Curb Air Pollution
from chinadialogueAlthough residents in Northern China are no strangers to dirty air, a man from the smog-enshrouded Hebei province has decided to take the local environmental authority to court for failing to control air pollution.
Li Guixin, a resident in...
Viewpoint
02.27.14
Why Frank Underwood is Great for China’s Soft Power
In depicting U.S. politics as just as vicious, if not more, sociopathic than its Chinese counterpart, House of Cards delivered a sweet Valentine’s Day gift to the Chinese government. The show handed the Chinese state an instant victory...
Environment
02.26.14
South-North Water Transfer ‘Not Sustainable,’ Official Says
from chinadialogueThe $62 billion South-North Water Transfer Project would be rendered irrelevant if one-third of buildings in Beijing could collect more rainwater and recycle more wastewater, according to a Chinese ministerial official.
The remarks made...
Caixin Media
02.25.14
Sichuan Tycoon Charged with Murder Linked to Ex-Top Security Czar’s Son
A Sichuan tycoon who has been charged with a host of gang-related crimes, including murder, was a close business partner of a former top leader’s son, himself caught in a corruption inquiry.
Prosecutors say Sichuan Hanlong Group chairman...
Media
02.21.14
How the Internet and Social Media Are Transforming China
“The Internet has radically transformed China,” said Emily Parker, author of the book...
Environment
02.20.14
Pollution Tax Suggested for Wealthy Chinese Fleeing for Greener Pastures
from chinadialogueEnvironmental problems have become an important factor causing the rich to leave China—but one academic has now suggested that they should first pay an environmental levy. Chen Guoen, a professor at Wuhan University, said
...
Environment
02.19.14
Water Pollution: More Difficult to Fix Than Dirty Air?
from chinadialogueAlthough China’s air pollution keeps making headlines, its water pollution is just as urgent a problem. One-fifth of the country’s...
Media
02.19.14
Chinese Netizens (Still) Love ‘House of Cards’
“Everyone in China who works on this level pays who they need to pay.” Mild spoiler alert: These are the words of the fictitious Xander Feng, an influential Chinese billionaire on the Netflix series "House of Cards," a show that follows the...
Caixin Media
02.18.14
Lee Hsien Loong on What Singapore Can—and Can’t—Teach China
As one of the Four Asian Tigers, Singapore is known for its strong economy and orderly society. The city-state, with its population of 5.3 million people, is listed by the World Bank as fourth in the world in terms of per capita income. As a...