Why Scrapping Quotas in China’s Criminal Justice System Won’t Be Easy
Can judicial reform increase the courts' independence by reducing local government and party influence?
China and the World: Yuan for All
The yuan is not yet fully convertible and will not be for several years, which limits China's influence.
China Expels Top Police Official from Communist Party
Cai Guangliao, a major general in the paramilitary armed police, accepted bribes, illegally engaging in business activities and accepting gifts.
China Tries to Stay Aloof From a Warming U.S.-India Relationship
Beijing is aware India’s problems with the United States are based largely on Washington’s relationship with Pakistan.
Xi Stresses Adherence to Dialectical Materialism
China should not be judged by GDP alone, said the president. China should be judged by its transition in economic development, restructuring, dissolution of overcapacity and by the strength of the nation's...
China Communist Party Magazine Blasts Professors Who Spread ‘Western Values’
Party journal's commentary targets liberal academics after President Xi Jinping calls for 'ideological guidance' for teachers and students
Reporter Honored for Clearing Dead Man’s Name
Hugjiltu, a man of Mongolian ethnicity, was sentenced to death for rape and murder in Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia autonomous region, in 1996. The 18-year-old was executed 62 days after being charged, despite doubts about the evidence...
China Says Ousted Security Tsar’s Influence Corrupted Others
Last year, China arrested Zhou and expelled him from the party, accusing him of crimes ranging from taking bribes to leaking state secrets.
Why Paul Krugman is Scared of China
"China scares me," he said Tuesday at the Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong. "It scares me not because the policies have been wrong or anything, but because of the magnitude of the adjustment."
5 Takeaways from China’s GDP
For much of the last two decades, China has been working overtime to drive the growth of the world economy. Now, it’s slowing to suborbital speeds.
China Reports Sharp Rise in HIV Cases
China had nearly half a million people living with the virus or disease by the end of August last year, with 70,000 of them newly diagnosed in the first eight months of 2014, official statistics showed.
Is ‘China’s Machiavelli’ Now Its Most Important Political Philosopher?
Much like a dragon, “the ruler of men has bristling scales. Only if a speaker can avoid brushing against them can he have any hope of success.”
‘Better Than Nothing’: U.K. Foreign Office Backs Beijing’s Hong Kong Reforms
London is throwing its weight behind reform proposals in an attempt yet to heal a diplomatic rift with Beijing.
China Enlists Citizens to Patrol Border with North Korea
China is sending civilian militias to help secure the border it shares with North Korea in the wake of two reported killings of Chinese citizens by North Koreans that could strain ties between Pyongyang and its sole major ally.
One Among Many
Across Africa, radio call-in programs are buzzing with tales of Africans, usually men, bemoaning the loss of their spouses and partners to rich Chinese men.
China’s 109-Year-Old Dissenter Is Still Fighting for Democracy
Born when a Qing dynasty emperor was on the throne, the man who helped invent the Pinyin writing system used for transliterating Chinese worldwide turns 109 on Tuesday. But Zhou Youguang's outspoken support for democracy means his writings are...
In Remote Thai Villages, Legacy of China’s Lost Army Endures
At night, traditional Chinese red lanterns illuminate the hotels, shop fronts and Yunnanese-style restaurants lining the main road in this highland village of just over 1,000 people. On one recent evening, as the mist rose off a nearby reservoir...
Why China Will Become a Global Military Power
To some, China is likely an expansionist country akin to Germany before WWI. Others argue that China’s assertive behavior in its regional offshore island disputes is simply a manifestation of the Chinese Communist Party’s focus on domestic...
Sri Lankan Poll Upset a Blow to China’s Indian Ocean Plans
Mahinda Rajapaksa, who tightened ties with China during his decade-long rule, conceded defeat today in Sri Lanka’s closely-fought presidential election. His successor Maithripala Sirisena used his campaign to criticize the island nation’s...
Conversation
01.08.15
What Does Hong Kong’s Post-Protest Report Signal For Relations with Beijing?
This week, we saw the release of the official government “Report on the Recent Community and Political Situation in Hong Kong.” It concluded...
Sinica Podcast
01.06.15
The Sinica Podcast’s Second Annual Call-In Show
from Sinica PodcastIf you’ve been following all of the news and gossip involving China for the last year, join Kaiser and Jeremy as they take call-in questions and talk insider politics on everything from the ongoing anti-corruption campaign to the question of...
Tencent Launches China’s First Online-only Bank
WeBank, a joint venture led by Chinese gaming and social network group Tencent Holdings, became the first private bank to start operations under a pilot, after the banking regulator granted licences to six such institutions last year. Its name...
Inside a Chinese Test-Prep Factory
One minute later, at precisely 11:45, the stillness was shattered. Thousands of teenagers swarmed out of the towering front gate of Maotanchang High School. Many of them wore identical black-and-white Windbreakers emblazoned with the slogan, in...
Books
12.23.14
Top Five China Books of 2014
As the editor of ChinaFile’s Books section, I have the privilege of meeting and interviewing some amazing writers covering China today—academics, journalists, scholars, activists. Based on...
Reporting & Opinion
12.23.14
China in 2014 Through the Eyes of a Human Rights Advocate
from China ChangeThis time last year, volunteers and I were busy writing and translating articles to prepare for the New Citizens Movement trials. Many Chinese voices were speaking out forcefully against these trials: law professors, rights lawyers, liberal...
As Obama Opens to Cuba, China Experts Remember Benefits from U.S. Engagement
As Washington moves to restore diplomatic ties with Cuba after decades of trying to isolate and overthrow the Castro regime, Chinese people and China experts in the United States have been reminded of a much more momentous opening 36 years ago...
China’s Housing Resists Efforts to Spur Market
Every urban real estate market is different in mainland China, driven by myriad municipal and provincial regulations and the varying strength of local economies. But the outcome is the same: The property market is under serious pressure.
China's Economy Is worth $300 Billion More than It Thought
China just discovered an economy the size of Malaysia’s hiding down the back of the sofa.
The NYRB China Archive
12.18.14
China’s Brave Underground Journal—II
from New York Review of BooksIn downtown Beijing, just a little over a mile west of the Forbidden City, is one of China’s most illustrious high schools. Its graduates regularly attend the country’s best universities or go abroad to study, while foreign leaders and CEOs make...
Beijing Cannot Count on Easy Money to Sustain Its Economic Miracle
Just three months ago the main Chinese stock market was dormant. Since then it has surged 30 per cent and has started to show signs of the manic trading that normally does not appear until a bull market has been gathering steam for years.
Dalai Lama Concedes He May Be the Last
Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has said he realizes that he may be the last to hold the title. But he told the BBC it would be better that the centuries-old tradition ceased "at the time of a popular Dalai Lama".
China’s Mountain Hermits Seek a Highway to Heaven
His unheated hut is half way up a mountain with no electricity, and his diet consists mostly of cabbage. But Master Hou says he has found a recipe for joy. "There is no happier way for a person to live on this earth," he declared, balancing on a...
Maldives to Officially Join China's Maritime Silk Route Policy
"With projects such as oil exploration and bridge construction in the agenda for discussion, the meeting will benefit economies of both countries. This is a great achievement to us as well," Minister of Economic Development Mohamed Saeed told...
Diversity the New Game for Macau as Gambling Revenues Tumble
When inaugural chief executive Edmund Ho Hau-wah threw the liberalisation dice that took Macau's flagging gaming industry into the 21st century in 2002, few could have predicted its stellar rise to become the top city for global gaming, leaving...
Conversation
12.16.14
What Must China and Japan Do to Get Along in 2015?
Last week, Akio Takahara, a professor at the University of Tokyo currently visiting Peking University, wrote a New York Times Op-Ed praising recent diplomatic efforts by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan and Chinese President Xi Jinping to deflect...
Viewpoint
12.16.14
Why Marx Still Matters: The Ideological Drivers of Chinese Politics
In days of greater political brouhaha, “to go and see Marx” used to be a slang expression among Chinese Communists, to refer to death. More recently, a considerable number of commentators have pronounced the expiry of Marxism itself. China’s...
San Gabriel Valley’s El Monte Getting a Boost from Chinese Investors
Trucks loaded with construction materials park in front of a vacant lot in El Monte, where a homeless man slumbers on the sidewalk next to a mountain of rags and trash bags. Overhead, colorful flags whip in the breeze, advertising opportunities...
China’s Lost Generation Finds Itself in Ukraine
A working class high-school graduate who scored abysmally on China's college entrance exam, Mei now owns his own business, claims title to three-quarters of an acre of land, lives in a split-level house, and is married to an eighteen-year-old who...
Patent Fiction
“What has long been predicted has now become a reality: China is leading the world in innovation.” So declares a press release promoting a new report by Thomson Reuters, a research firm, called “China’s IQ (Innovation Quotient).”
China Tightening Curbs on Opaque Local Debt Spurs Market Tumble
While the change caught traders off guard, authorities in the world’s second-largest economy are trying to rein in the use of lightly-regulated Local Government Finance Vehicles (LGFVs) as they promote the development of a more transparent...
China Arrests Ex-Security Chief Zhou Yongkang
The most senior Chinese official to be investigated for corruption, has been arrested and expelled from the Communist Party, state media report.
Infographics
12.05.14
China’s Fallen Mighty [Graphic]
Over the past thirty-eight years, twelve of China’s top leaders have been purged. This infographic and the bios of these leaders explain how and why these mighty men fell. ...
The NYRB China Archive
12.04.14
China’s Brave Underground Journal
from New York Review of BooksOn the last stretch of flatlands north of Beijing, just before the Mongolian foothills, lies the satellite city of Tiantongyuan. Built during the euphoric run-up to the 2008 Olympics, it was designed as a modern, Hong Kong–style housing district...
Hong Kong IPOs Become Losing Bets for Investors
Hong Kong is one of the world’s top venues for initial public offerings, thanks to listings by Chinese companies over the years, but most of the IPOs have been a losing bet for investors, with the bulk of them lagging behind the market in recent...
How Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement Folded
An effective boycott by the relevant interlocutors, in the form of government officials, and for two months the lack of a face-to-face oppressor, in the form of police—who until last week appeared to have learned that gassing protesters was the...
Leader Asserts China’s Growing Importance on Global Stage
Sounding confident after a burst of high-profile diplomacy, President Xi Jinping told Communist Party officials in a major address here over the weekend that China would be nice to its neighbors in Asia but that he would run an active foreign...
Journeys Along the Seventh Ring
The story of Beijing’s Ring Roads is in many ways the story of Beijing’s urban development. The original ring (known confusingly as the Second Ring) was constructed in the early 1980s, at the behest of city planners, who, in embracing reform-...
Exclusive: China Ready to Cut Rates Again on Fears of Deflation — Sources
Friday's surprise cut in rates, the first in more than two years, reflects a change of course by Beijing and the central bank, which had persisted with modest stimulus measures before finally deciding last week that a bold monetary policy step...
Media
11.20.14
The Invisible Candidate in Taiwan’s Elections
Almost 80 percent of Taiwan, an island of 23 million off the coast of China, is expected to head to the polls November 29 to vote in local elections with more than 11,000 seats up for grabs. Voters will choose candidates ranging from mayors in...
Leaders of U.S., Australia, Japan to Meet, With Eye on China
The meeting risks antagonizing Beijing, which bristles at perceptions that its rise in the region is being challenged, but also comes as the U.S. and Japan are working to repair ties with China.
As Chinese Adoptees Return Home, a New Genre Tells Their Tales
"Ricki’s Promise” a documentary about a Seattle teen’s summer spent with her birth family in China, began showing on the U.S. film festival circuit this month. Next month, the U.S....
In China, Blunt Talk to Reporters on Access
Mr. Xi’s comments come as several journalists for The New York Times and other news organizations have been forced to cover the country from outside its borders, after producing articles that were embarrassing for the Chinese leadership...
