China’s Losers: Disillusioned Office Workers
Amid spreading prosperity, a generation of self-styled also-rans emerges.
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...
Distribution of Metals in Soils From Uncultivated Land, Soils From Rice Fields and in Rice Grown in the Area of an Industrial Complex With Metal Smelting and Processing Facilities in Hunan Province, China
Greenpeace
Contamination of soil with a number of toxic metals, including cadmium and lead, is known to be an existing problem for many parts of Hunan province, China. High levels of these metals have also been reported for rice grown in many parts of the...
This Chinese Couple Turned Their Wedding Photos Into Protest Art
People in China cannot breathe, and they are getting tired of trying to mask it. One newlywed couple, in an act of protest, took their wedding portraits outdoors.
China Sees Wave of Violence Against Hospital Staff
A nurse left paralysed in Nanjing, a doctor with his throat slashed in Hebei and another beaten to death with a pipe in Heilongjiang are not isolated cases, but the latest in a growing crisis of violence at the heart of China's healthcare system...
Happy and Unhappy in China
The new video “Happy in Beijing,” shot over the past few days of worse-than-ever airpocalypse in Beijing, is worth noticing for several reasons.
Chinese Man Sues Local Government Over Smog
Li Guixin of Hebei province has become the first person to sue the government over air pollution.
China Must Reduce ‘Unbearable’ Smog, Government Adviser Says
China's air pollution has reached intolerable levels and the country should aggressively cut its reliance on coal, according to the government’s climate-change adviser.
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...
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...
Sinica Podcast
02.24.14
The Disabled in China
from Sinica PodcastThis week on Sinica, Kaiser and Jeremy are joined by James Palmer and John Giszczack for a discussion of the disabled in China. Join us as we discuss how the Chinese language defines the concept of disability, what public attitudes are prevalent...
Harvard-Linked Hospital Eyes Expansion With China Billionaire
Brigham and Women’s Hospital is considering a proposal from real estate billionaire Hui Ka Yan to become the first Harvard-University affiliated hospital to expand to China.
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...
Feasts for the Eyes, and the Palatte, in Xian, China
On the “Muslim Street” in the Chinese city of Xian stands a bronze tableau in honor of street food.
Film Director Zhang Yimou Pays 7.5 Million Yuan Fine Over Children
Zhang admits he has two sons and a daughter with his current wife and a daughter with a previous wife.
Chinese Factories Are Ordered to Release Data on Real-Time Emission Levels
In a sign of progress for the environment and information transparency, China's central government in January ordered...
China Reports 11 New H7N9 Human Cases
Eleven Chinese people were confirmed to be infected with the H7N9 bird flu in four regions, with 8 in critical condition, according to local health authorities.
Books
02.05.14
By All Means Necessary
In the past thirty years, China has transformed from an impoverished country where peasants comprised the largest portion of the populace to an economic power with an expanding middle class and more megacities than anywhere else on earth. This remarkable transformation has required, and will continue to demand, massive quantities of resources. Like every other major power in modern history, China is looking outward to find them.
Food Safety in China: A Mapping of Problems, Governance and Research
The Social Science Research Council
Food safety has become an issue of great concern in China over the last few years. Media reporting has tended to focus on extreme cases of poisoning from food additives or contamination by heavy metals, but food safety encompasses a wide...
Environment
01.31.14
Beijing Passes Law to Curb Air Pollution
from chinadialogueChina’s first legally binding regulations for reducing PM2.5 levels have been approved by Beijing’s municipal congress.
...
This Chinese Filmmaker Can’t Stop Talking Trash
Documentary filmmaker and photographer Wang Jiuliang spent four years, between 2008 and 2011, documenting over 460 hazardous and mostly illegal landfill sites around Beijing.
His award-winning film Beijing Besieged by Waste (2011...
Li Na Beats Cibulkova to Win Australian Open Title in Her 3rd Appearance in the Final
Li Na made beat Dominika Cibulkova 7-6 (3), 6-0 the Australian Open final on January 25 to become the oldest woman to clinch the title in the Open era.
Malaria Eradication—Cure All?
A novel approach, using drugs from a South China company, instead of insecticides, may make it easier to eliminate malaria. But it is not without controversy.
Left-Behind Children of China’s Migrant Workers Bear Grown-Up Burdens
About 61 Million Chinese Kids Haven’t Seen One or Both Parents for at Least Three Months
Beijing Air Pollution At Dangerously High Levels
The PM2.5 density was calculated at 26 times higher than what is considered safe by the WHO.
China Cloning on an 'Industrial Scale'
A converted shoe factory in Shenzhen becomes the world's largest cloning centre through "handmade cloning."
As Cannabis is Widely Legalized, China Cashes in on an Unprecedented Boom
Almost 5,000 years ago, Chinese physicians recommended a tea made from cannabis leaves to treat a wide variety of conditions including gout and malaria.
China Fines ‘House of Flying Daggers’ Director for Breaching One-child Policy
Film-maker Zhang Yimou, who has three children with wife Chen Ting, has to pay £750,000 for breaking law.
Environment
01.08.14
The Drying Up of China’s Largest Freshwater Lake
from chinadialogueWhen Jiang Minsheng moored his fishing boat on the eastern shore of Jiangxi’s Poyang Lake...
Police Seize 3 Tons Meth in South China Village
Call it “Breaking Bad: China Edition.” More than 3,000 police officers equipped with helicopters and motorboats and accompanied by dogs descended on a southern Chinese village notorious for making crystal meth, seizing 3 tons of the drug and 23...
Wal-Mart Recalls Fake Donkey-Meat Snacks in China
Some months ago, rat meat was passed off as strips of lamb in China. Now it's fox sold as donkey-meat snacks. And in the middle of the latest Chinese food scare: Wal-Mart.
China Formally Passes Law Easing One-Child Policy
China's legislature on Saturday formally eased two restrictive social policies of its authoritarian system, allowing some couples to have a second child and ending a form of extralegal detention. The standing committee of the National People's...
New Bird Flu Strain Linked to Death of Chinese Woman
Chinese authorities have said a 73-year-old woman has died after being infected with a bird flu strain not previously found in people, a development that the World Health Organisation called “worrisome.”
Caixin Media
12.17.13
Are Changes to China’s Family-Planning Rules Too Little, Too Late?
Among the sixty areas covered in the Communist Party’s “decision” document released after the third plenum of the Eighteenth Central Committee, the most popular among ordinary people is a revision to the family planning policy to allow some...
The End of China’s One-Child Policy? An Interview with Mei Fong
What exactly did the recent Third Plenum reveal about China’s strategy for dealing with the “One-Child Policy?” Questions for Mei Fong, a Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter working on a book about the...
Caixin Media
12.09.13
Traditional Chinese Medicine Struggling to Find Cure for Regulatory Woes in the U.S.
In November, the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) Fuzheng Huayu Tablets passed the second phase of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) clinical testing.
Before this, only one TCM drug had cleared the second of the three phases...
The AIDS Granny in Exile
In her one-bedroom apartment, Dr. Gao Yaojie — known to many as “the AIDS Granny” — moves with great difficulty through her tidy clutter and stacks of belongings. In the small kitchen, she stirs a pot of rice and bean porridge, one of the few...
Books
12.03.13
Junkyard Planet
When you drop your Diet Coke can or yesterday’s newspaper in the recycling bin, where does it go? Probably halfway around the world, to people and places that clean up what you don’t want and turn it into something you can’t wait to buy. In Junkyard Planet, Adam Minter—veteran journalist and son of an American junkyard owner—travels deeply into a vast, often hidden, multibillion-dollar industry that’s transforming our economy and environment.
Conversation
11.19.13
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...
China to Move Slowly on One-Child Law Reform
China's family-planning agency is projecting a slow rollout for an easing of its one-child policy, underscoring reluctance by the government in moving too quickly to let some couples have two children and a law in place for decades.
China to Ease Longtime Policy of 1-Child Limit
The Chinese government will ease its one-child family restrictions and abolish “re-education through labor” camps, significantly curtailing two policies that for decades have defined the state’s power to control citizens’ lives.
If You Think China’s Air Is Bad...
China’s more than 4,700 underground water-quality testing stations show that nearly three-fifths of all water supplies are “relatively bad” or worse. Roughly half of rural residents lack access to drinking water that meets international...
Books
10.28.13
In Line Behind a Billion People
Nearly everything you know about China is wrong! Yes, within a decade, China will have the world’s largest economy. But that is the least important thing to know about China. In this enlightening book, two of the world’s leading China experts turn the conventional wisdom on its head, showing why China’s economic growth will constrain rather than empower it.
Xi Jinping Gets Mocked Going After New Zealand on Food Safety
While China’s new leader has won praise at home for his aggressiveness in pushing China’s interests abroad, this is one situation in which his boldness was bound to backfire. As bad as the Fonterra scandal appeared, China’s own dairy...
Bringing Home the Bacon: Chinese Savor Smithfield Deal
China's swallowing up of Smithfield, a well-known U.S. povider of processed meats, illustrates two things about the country: its swelling economic power and growing hunger for meat-based diets. And the deal may foretell of many...
Infographics
10.01.13
Markups, Kickbacks, and Sellouts: What’s Wrong with China’s Medical System
from SohuAs the United States haltingly moves to implement the Affordable Care Act, China claims it has already achieved...
China to Crack Down on Family Planning Fines After Abuses Found
The National Audit Office’s investigation of 45 counties in nine provinces and municipalities from 2009-12 found 1.6 billion yuan ($260 million) in fines had been given out in contravention of the rules, Chinese newspapers said....
China’s State TV Says Danone Bribed Hospitals to Push Baby Milk
China Central Television cited an unidentified former Dumex sales manager as saying the company had paid medical staff at a city hospital in Tianjin to promote its products, allegations that the French food group said it would investigate...
Half of China’s Antibiotics Now Go to Livestock
To make animals grow quickly under cramped, feces-ridden conditions, animals in China’s factory farms get fed small, doses of antibiotics—creating ideal breeding grounds for antibiotic-resistant bacterial pathogens that threaten people....
Workers’ Rights ‘Flouted’ at Apple iPhone Factory in China
Staff are allegedly working without adequate protective equipment, at risk from chemicals, noise and lasers, for an average of 69 hours a week. Apple has a self-imposed limit of 60 working hours a week.
Media
09.11.13
Amid Scandals, Can China’s New Organ Transplant System Work?
The now oft-derided Chinese Red Cross once again found itself in hot water in July, when it was reported that some...
Viewpoint
09.11.13
Beijing’s Air in 2013 or Ground Zero’s After 9/11: Which Was Worse?
When I moved to Beijing from New York in February to study Chinese, a question began to haunt me: Could Beijing’s air in 2013 be more dangerous than the toxic brew produced by the 9/11 attacks on New York City’s World Trade Center, which hung...