Waking the Green Tiger
This documentary—available in full on ChinaFile throughout January courtesy of filmmaker Gary Marcuse—follows a group of environmental activists trying to prevent the construction of dams on the Nu (Salween) and the Upper Yangtze (Jinsha) rivers...
Chinese Cities Most at Risk from Rising Sea Levels
from chinadialogueA study by Climate Central, a non-profit news organization focusing on climate science, showed that 12 other nations have more than 10 million people living on land...
The Storm Beneath the Calm: China’s Regional Relations in 2016
On the surface, 2015 came to a close in a moment of relative tranquility after a turbulent year for China’s neighborhood. But the calm is misleading: the optics of regional diplomacy have become increasingly detached from the...
What Is Disappearing from Hong Kong
The recent disappearance of publisher Lee Po—allegedly kidnapped from Hong Kong and rendered to Mainland China—has prompted widespread alarm about the state of Hong Kong’s autonomy, both within the city and internationally. In a widely-shared...
Is it Too Late for a ‘Two-Child Policy’?
from U.S.-China DialogueAs of January 1, all married couples in China are now...
What Will the Youth Vote Mean for Taiwan’s Elections?
Tseng Po-yu walks along the narrow sidewalks made dim by the overhead awnings, between the bank of parked motorbikes on one side and the one-room shops and restaurants on the other. Wearing the brightly colored vest of a Taiwanese candidate for...
In ‘Mr. Six,’ China’s Changing and Staying the Same
from China Film InsiderPlaying an aging gangster railing against the “little punks” who kidnapped his son in Beijing, Feng Xiaogang gives a solid performance as the title character of Mr. Six: a gravel-throated vigilante shaken when his go-it-...
‘New Yorker’ Writers Reflect on ‘Extreme’ Reporting About China
from Asia Blog
Smarter, Sexier State Media: There’s an App for That
Before the Internet age, it used to be relatively straightforward for authoritarian regimes to dictate popular news consumption: just control all the major newspapers, as China’s ruling Communist Party has done since the founding of the People’s...
Ivory Price Has Halved, But No Celebration Yet
International NGOs such as Save the Elephants have shared the great news that the price of...
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 “...
China is ‘Rational’ Leader on Climate Change, Says Retired NASA Scientist James Hansen
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...
Lack of Clear Policy Direction on Two-Child Rule Leaves Nation Guessing
Regional family-planning officials say the lack of clarity on when the new two-child rule will come into effect has put them in legal limbo, unable to issue birth permits to couples who conceive a second child before the new...
Tiananmen Police Don Smog Masks, Wind Makes or Breaks the Blue Sky
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,...
Global Carbon Emissions May Stall in 2015
from chinadialogueGlobal carbon dioxide emissions from burning coal, oil, and gas as well as from industrial activities grew by just 0.6 percent in 2014, according to researchers from the Global...
How to Say ‘Islamic State’ in Mandarin
On December 6, the Islamic State released a slick...
Green Activists Detained for ‘Prostitution,’ Yangtze Dolphins Rebound
Zhang Zhixin: The Woman who Took on the ‘Gang of Four’
Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the start of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). The desire not to dwell on that tumultuous decade, after half a century has passed, is understandable, but the failure to reflect on its impact, offer a...
Court in China Adds Last-Minute Charge Against Rights Leader During Sentencing
from China ChangeOn August 8, 2013, Guo Feixiong (real name Yang Maodong) was arrested and then indicted on charges of “gathering a crowd to disrupt order in a public place.” The heavy sentence came as a shock to everyone following the case. More shockingly, the...
‘Personal Media’ in China Takes a Hit From Pre-Publication Censorship
Observers have long thought that Chinese authorities censor the media depending on type: the censorship of traditional media is primarily conducted in advance, with a thorough inspection of news and discussion before publication;...
Pulitzer’s ‘Lookout on the Bridge’ vs. China’s ‘News Ethics Committees’
In a recent harangue on the imperative of better journalism, a website run by the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Propaganda Department tore a...
China Remains a Rocky Road for Electric Cars
from chinadialogueRecent 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...
China Censors Online Outcry After ISIS Execution
On November 18, the Islamic State (IS) released photos of what it claimed were two executed hostages. The photos, appearing in the terrorist group’s English-language magazine Dabiq, depict two men with bloodied faces, the word “executed...
A Response to Andrew Nathan
I’d like to thank Andrew Nathan for his thoughtful critique of my book, published originally in short form in The National Interest...
Government Enlists NGOs to Help Homeless
Drivers roll up car windows as an autumn wind chills a traffic-clogged overpass in western Beijing’s Liuliqiao area. And under the concrete overpass, homeless people are gathering for a chilly night’s rest after wandering city streets.
...
The Real Reason for China’s Two-Child Policy: Millions of New Consumers
Two fictitious Chinese brothers are born in Tuanjiehu Maternity Hospital in the Chinese capital of Beijing. Let’s say the first was born already, in late 2015; his parents nickname him Laoda, meaning “oldest child.” That’...
China’s Bottled Water Industry to Exploit Tibetan Plateau
from chinadialogueTibet 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...
Chinese Hits Miss Out on the Global Box Office
from China Film InsiderIf he’d had the time after meeting American captains of industry in Seattle and Barack Obama at the White House, Chinese President Xi Jinping might have ducked out at the close of his United Nations appearance and into a New York...
Mao’s ‘Proud Poplar’: Yang Kaihui
Yang Kaihui—who was killed 85 years ago this month—was the first of Mao Zedong’s three freely chosen wives. (Mao was forced by his parents to wed an older neighbor when he was just 14 but did not consider this a true marriage.) Yang’s dramatic,...
Xi Jinping’s Taiwan Trap
Before Chinese President Xi Jinping had a dream, his predecessor Hu Jintao had a wish: the “...
Zhang Yimou: ‘Even Though Our Market Is Growing Fast, We’re Still Not Satisfied’
Hollywood has Steven Spielberg and China has Zhang Yimou, the senior statesman of moviemaking in the People’s Republic. From Red Sorghum, his 1987 debut right out of the Beijing Film Academy, through Hero, which grossed more in...
China’s Stalk-Burning Clampdown Shows Limits of Command-and-Control
from chinadialogueAt the end of the National Day holiday earlier this month, Beijing bid farewell to weeks of relatively good air quality and...
Xi’s State Visits As Seen on the Cover of ‘China Daily’
The state visits of Chinese Communist Party General Secretary and President Xi Jinping to Washington, D.C. in September and London last week were both significant milestones in China’s long term “rejuvenation,” a key element in Xi...