Conversation
02.05.15
What’s the Case for Heads of State Meeting the Dalai Lama?
On Thursday in Washington, the Dalai Lama attended the annual National Prayer Breakfast hosted by President...
Canadian Woman Detained in China on Spying Suspicions Released on Bail
Julia Garratt was released to her family “pending trial by Liaoning Provincial State Security Bureau.”
The China Africa Project
02.05.15
Flash of Anti-Chinese Xenophobia in the DR Congo
Anti-government protestors filled the streets of the Democratic Republic of the Congo capital Kinshasa on January 19 and 20 to protest against a new election law making its way through the National Assembly. The new law calls for a national...
Is China Preparing for Currency War?
As China grapples with its slowest growth in 24 years, President Xi Jinping is under pressure to stimulate the economy.
Features
02.04.15
The City of Urumqi Prohibition on Wearing Items That Mask the Face or Robe the Body
A Proclamation from the Standing Committee of the Urumqi People’s Congress
The “Regulation banning the wearing of items that mask the face or robe the...
Caixin Media
02.03.15
Minsheng Bank President Resigns Amid Corruption Investigation
China Minsheng Banking Corp. said on January 31 that its president has resigned, shortly after people close to the matter said the Communist Party is investigating him for corruption.
Minsheng said in a statement that Mao Xiaofeng had quit...
The NYRB China Archive
02.03.15
How to Be a Chinese Democrat: An Interview with Liu Yu
from New York Review of BooksLiu Yu is one of China’s best-known America-watchers. A professor of political science at Tsinghua University, she lived in the U.S. from 2000 to 2007 and now researches democratization in developing countries,...
The China Africa Project
01.30.15
We’re Not Building an Empire
There is a custom in Chinese diplomacy that the Foreign Minister’s first overseas trip of the year always begins in Africa. This year was no exception, as Wang Yi led a high-profile tour of five African states including Kenya, Sudan, the DR Congo...
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 Says No Room for ‘Western Values’ in University Education
Education minister says books which ‘smear socialism’ will be banned.
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.
Environment
01.28.15
China to Appoint Academic as New Environment Minister
from chinadialogueThe head of Beijing’s Tsinghua University is likely to be appointed to the top environmental job in in China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection, according to reports, as the country’s leadership moves to defuse public anger about worsening...
Features
01.28.15
‘I Don’t Know Where Some Cadres Get Their Magical Powers’
Earlier this month, at the close of the Chinese Communist Party’s 5th Plenum, the official People’s Daily noted on its website that as this...
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.
A Softer Touch on Soft Power
Soft power has become strategically important for China because cultural productivity and influence are now regarded as important components of comprehensive national power.
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
Bobby Jindal & China’s Louisiana Methanol Plant
A Chinese tycoon whose natural gas firm's environmental and labor rights record is under fire in the Chinese press is parking assets in a multibillion dollar methanol plant in Louisiana.
Conversation
01.26.15
Does Size Matter? (In the U.S. and Chinese Economies, That Is...)
Last week, President Obama’s State of the Union Address touted a U.S. economic recovery....
Sinica Podcast
01.26.15
Inside the Property Revolution
from Sinica PodcastLuigi Tomba, expert on municipal government in China, fellow at the Australian Centre on China and the World, and author of the book ...
Death Threats and Dawn Raids: Welcome to China’s Anti-Graft Drive
On one side is Peking University Founder Group, a state-owned company that partnered with Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) in a separate securities joint venture whose chairman has disappeared.
The China Africa Project
01.23.15
South Africa: China’s BFF in Africa
South Africa is emerging as one of China’s most important international partners as the relationship deepens across all levels. Economically, South Africa is the source of more Chinese investment than any other country on the continent. However,...
The Pacific Power Index
The world's most important relationship isn't the superpower showdown most analysts would have you believe. It’s a constantly shifting, symbiotic relationship shaped by millions of people, not just officials in Washington and Beijing.
Who’s Afraid of China’s Economy Slowing? Not Alibaba’s Jack Ma
"If China still keeps 9 percent growth of the economy there must be something wrong. You will never see the blue sky. You will never see quality. China should pay attention to the quality of the economy," he said in a question-and-answer session...
Obama’s Top Asia Adviser: Goal is for Complete Trade Pact in 2015
Evan Medeiros, senior director for Asia at the U.S. National Security Council, asked about the Trans-Pacific Partnership, said: "We are confident we can and we will get it done."
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.
Chinese Director’s Film For Greenpeace Shows How Smog Changes Everything
The film follows families from Hebei, in heavily polluted industrial northern China, and from Beijing, the prosperous Chinese capital next door, that has seen epic pollution emergencies recently.
Xi’s Yunnan Visit Highlights Poverty Elimination, Ethnic Solidarity
President Xi Jinping seeks to rally support for a "tough battle" against poverty and to speed up growth in the country's relatively underdeveloped ethnic regions.
Don’t Worry About China Slowdown, Premier Li Tells Davos
China will avoid a hard landing and is focused on ensuring long-term medium-to-fast growth, Premier Li Keqiang told global leaders in Davos.
Media
01.22.15
Xi Jinping’s Pay Raise
It just got slightly less difficult to be a clean Chinese official. State media reported on January 20 that Chinese civil servants had received their first pay raise...
The South China Sea: Oil on Troubled Waters
Two Chinese oil companies show contrasting approaches in their attempts to operate in the South China Sea where, to the discomfort of its smaller neighbours, China’s claims in disputed waters have grown increasingly assertive.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership Can Help the U.S. Counter China’s Expansion
We’ve faulted President Obama for his less-than-full-throated support of free-trade agreements that enjoy the nominal backing of his administration. There was no such cause for complaint about his State of the Union address Tuesday night, however...
China Labor Activists Say Facing Unprecedented Intimidation
The number of strikes more than doubled in 2014 to 1,378 from 656 the year before, according to China Labor Bulletin, a Hong Kong-based advocacy group. April saw the biggest strike in decades, when about 40,000 employees of Adidas and Nike...
Excerpts
01.20.15
China’s Losing Bet Against History
In 1991, Deng Xiaoping famously explained that in order to reassure the world of its peaceful intentions, China should “cope with affairs calmly; hide our...
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."
China’s Scramble for Africa
In a remarkable departure from its long history of low-profile foreign policy, especially since Deng Xiaoping took over China's leadership in the late 1970s, Beijing has recently committed up to 700 combat troops to South Sudan in the hopes of...
Caixin Media
01.20.15
Good Times Are Over for Local Governments
Two pieces of recent news have piqued the public's interest. First, local governments reported their latest debt figures to the Ministry of Finance. The numbers have not been made public, but sources say many officials reported large amounts in...
Sinica Podcast
01.19.15
China and Charlie
from Sinica PodcastFirst there were the terrorist attacks in Paris. And then there was the global reaction to the attacks, with its spate of frenzied free-speech cartooning. And then there was the counter-reaction to the initial reaction, which played out mostly on...
Food Detectives on a Tough Case
Behind the immaculate gray walls of the Customs and Border Protection’s laboratory here stands a cabinet containing three plastic vials filled with a sticky, yellowish substance. Honey, or so an importer has claimed.
As Growth Slows, China Pins Hopes on Consumer Spending
The economy increased by 7.3 percent in the last quarter of 2014 and 7.4 percent for the full year, the country’s National Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday. While many countries would welcome such growth, the rate fell short of the government’s...
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.
The Dragon and the Gringo
Time was when cash-strapped Latin American governments would turn to the IMF for the bitter medicine of its bail-outs. No longer. Over the past dozen years the supercycle of rising commodity prices has swelled the region’s coffers, while even the...
China Arrests 60,000 in ‘Unprecedented’ 100-Day Drug Crackdown
China's top anti-drug official said the mass arrests had "sown terror" among drug criminals, according to a report Thursday in China's state-run newspaper Legal Daily. Liu Yuejin told the newspaper that he had called on China's police officers to...
Viewpoint
01.16.15
The Plight of China’s Rights Lawyers
As the year came to a close, at least seven prominent Chinese human rights lawyers rang in the New Year from a jail cell. Under President Xi Jinping, 2014 was one of the worst years in recent memory for China’s embattled civil society. Bookending...
Macau Sex Ring Bust Shows China Expanding Crackdown on Graft
Police in the former Portuguese colony arrested Alan Ho, handcuffing him and covering his head with a black hood, for allegedly operating a prostitution ring out of the casino complex of his uncle, Stanley Ho.
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.”
Viewpoint
01.15.15
Chinese Lawyers to Chinese Lawmakers: Let Us Defend Our Clients
Legal Opinion on Article 35 of the Ninth (Draft) Amendment to the Criminal Law: "We are a group of legal professionals who care about the rights of lawyers and reform of the judicial system and who have taken note of the draft for the Ninth Round of...
‘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.
China Pollution: Beijing Smog Hits Hazardous Levels
Pollution has soared to hazardous levels in Beijing, reaching 20 times the limit recommended by the World Health Organisation.
American Film On A Tibetan Migrant Finds Unlikely Success In China
Journalist Jocelyn Ford spent years documenting the life of Zanta, a Tibetan migrant who fled her poor, mountain village to build a life for herself and her son in Beijing.
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.
Obama’s Anti-Islamic State Push May Be Helping China Crack Down on Its Uighurs
en President Barack Obama in September secured passage of a U.N. Security Council resolution requiring nations to prevent their citizens from traveling abroad to participate in acts of terrorism, it was mostly hailed as a landmark achievement to...
China Is Using ‘Charlie Hebdo’ to Justify Its Own Crackdown on Free Speech
“The world is diverse and there should be limits on press freedom,” read the editorial by Paris bureau chief Ying Qiang. “Unfettered and unprincipled satire, humiliation, and free speech are not acceptable.”
Turks Are Held in Plot to Help Uighurs Leave China
Shanghai police arrested 10 Turkish citizens and two Chinese citizens and accused them of providing altered Turkish passports to terrorist suspects from the western region of Xinjiang.
Sources: Nicolas Cage’s ‘Outcast’ Has Chinese Release Date Delayed Again
There have been a host of theories about why Outcast is being delayed. Some distribution sources said in September that YFG was unhappy with the number of screens made available for the film.