The Tragedy of Liberation
“The Chinese Communist party refers to its victory in 1949 as a ‘liberation.’ In China the story of liberation and the revolution that followed is not one of peace, liberty, and justice. It is first and foremost a story of calculated terror and systematic violence.” So begins Frank Dikötter’s stunning and revelatory chronicle of Mao Zedong’s ascension and campaign to transform the Chinese into what the party called New People.
Famous Trials of China’s Communist Party
An historical look at two other famous trials in recent Communist Party history: the Gang of Four trial after the Cultural Revolution, and the corruption trials of Chen Xitong and Chen Liangyu which bears greater resemblance to the Bo Xilai case...
Reform of State-Owned Enterprise Requires Adopting Modern Governance
Corruption involving the country’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs) has hogged the headlines. So far, senior executives at China National Petroleum Corp. have been sacked, former railways officials have been hauled to court and, most recently, news...
Chinese Military Modernization and Force Development
China’s military development has become a key focus of U.S. security policy as well as that of virtually all Asia-Pacific states. This report from the CSIS Burke Chair in Strategy examines trends in Chinese strategy, military spending, and...
Chinese Court to Announce Verdict of Bo’s Case on 9/22
The Jinan Intermediate People’s Court announced Wednesday that it will deliver the verdict on former secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (C.P.C.) Bo Xilai’s case at 10 a.m. on Sept. 22....
Can China’s Leading Indie Film Director Cross Over in America?
Jonathan Landreth:
Chinese writer and director Jia Zhangke’s A Touch of Sin won the prize for the best screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival in May. Though the dialogue and its fine translation and English subtitles by...
China’s Maritime Disuptes
Six countries lay overlapping claims to the East and South China Seas, an area that is rich in hydrocarbons and natural gas and through which trillions of dollars of global trade flow. This infographic lays out all of the dispute’s actors,...
China Broadcasts COnfession of Chinese-American Blogger
Chinese authorities have increasingly been broadcasting interviews after big-name arrests, forcing suspects to confess publicly to alleged crimes prior to trial or conviction.
Forgotten Ally
For decades, a major piece of World War II history has gone virtually unwritten. The war began in China, two years before Hitler invaded Poland, and China eventually became the fourth great ally, partner to the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain. Yet its drama of invasion, resistance, slaughter, and political intrigue remains little known in the West.
Chinese Twitter and the Big-V Takedown
from Sinica PodcastJoining Kaiser and Jeremy this week are David Wertime and Rachel Lu from Tea Leaf Nation, along with Paul Mozur from The Wall Street Journal. And our topic? None other than the...
Crackdown on Bloggers Is Mounted by China
Worried about its hold on public opinion, the Chinese government has pursued a propaganda and police offensive against what it calls malicious rumor-mongering online.
For Chinese, Violence in the Middle East Sparks Debate on Democracy, Stability
Recent months have been rocky for the Middle East: harsh crackdowns on protesters in Egypt and a Rashomon-like scenario in which the Syrian government and the...
China Welcomes Russia’s Proposal for Syria Weapons Handover
China said on Tuesday it backed a Russian proposal for Syria to hand over its chemical weapons for destruction, a plan that could avert planned U.S. military strikes in response to the country's suspected use of its arsenal on civilians....
China Conducts 59th Diaoyu Islands Patrol
A seven-ship fleet from the China Coast Guard (C.C.G.) patrolled the country's territorial waters surrounding the Diaoyu Islands on Tuesday morning, September 10, the State Oceanic Administration (S.O.A.) said.
China Warns Japan Against Stationing Workers on Disputed Isles
China said it would not tolerate provocation after Japan's top government spokesman said on Tuesday Japan might station government workers on disputed islands in the East China Sea to defend its sovereignty.
Is Syria Distracting the U.S. From Its Asian-Pacific Strategy?
As the U.S. threatens military action against Syria, Washington’s focus on Asian-Pacific security seems to be wavering. Deborah Kan speaks with columnist Andy Browne about the changing dynamics of the Sino-U.S. relationship....
Insecurity Drives China’s Syria Policy
At home, the Party sees parallels between Gaddafi and Morsi and its own regime. Any legitimization of the West’s role in their demises is inherently a legitimization of future interference in China with the aim of undermining the Party....
Chongqing Officials Mired in Web of Sex, Lies and Video
When a sex video involving a Chongqing official went viral on the Internet on November 2012, like millions of others, Tan Linling clicked out of curiosity.
To her surprise, Tan recognized the woman in the video as a former colleague and...
The Urgency of Partnership
While the media keeps its eye on the ongoing Diaoyu/Senkaku islands dispute, heating up yet again this week after Chinese naval ships...
What Can China and Japan Do to Start Anew?
Paula S. Harrell:
While the media keeps its eye on the ongoing Diaoyu/Senkaku islands dispute, heating up yet again...
Petroleum and Purges
from Sinica PodcastThe Beijing rumor-mill is back on overdrive. With the trial of Bo Xilai only barely concluded and the country now openly speculating on the length of the disgraced politician’s likely sentence, factional battles targeting Bo’s remaining...
Blocked on Weibo
Though often described with foreboding buzzwords such as “The Great Firewall” and the “censorship regime,” Internet regulation in China is rarely either obvious or straightforward. This was the inspiration for China specialist Jason Q. Ng to write an innovative computer script that would make it possible to deduce just which terms are suppressed on China’s most important social media site, Sina Weibo.
Political Maneuvering: The Plot Thickens
Xi Jinping has been taking down crooked officials in an attempt to consolidate power and make good on a promise to clean up the Party. But what does it mean now he’s set his sights on former chief of domestic security and one-time oilman Zhou...
U.S. Giving China a Free Pass on Syria
As American officials bitterly denounce Russia for blocking the United Nations from endorsing action over Syria’s alleged use of chemical weapons, another global power that has taken a similar stand seems to be getting a free pass from the...
China’s Xi Tells Obama Syria Crisis Can’t Be Resolved with Military Strike
China has called for a full and impartial investigation by U.N. chemical weapons inspectors in Syria into the attack, and has warned against pre-judging the results. It has also said that whoever used chemical weapons had to be held...
Communist Party Members May Be Ineligible for U.S. Green Card
The U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act still makes ineligible for permanent residence any person who “is or has been a member of or affiliated with” the Chinese Communist Party (C.C.P.). There are certain exceptions and waivers, however...
Chinese Official Yu Qiyi ‘Drowned by Investigators’
Yu Qiyi, who was a Communist Party member of Wenzhou Industry Investment Group, died during the shuanggui process, an internal disciplinary procedure where officials are asked to confess wrongdoings.
China Corruption Probe Reflects Struggle
Analysts argue the investigation, which involves four other top executives of state-owned enterprises, is an attempt by Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang to assert their authority over powerful S.O.E.’s.
The Search for Sustainable Legitimacy: Environmental Law and Bureaucracy
This article seeks to offer insight into a number of broader ongoing debates — about environmental regulation in developing countries, accountability and regime survival in authoritarian states, and legal development in China....
Sober Day Dawns for China’s Baijiu Distillers
Distillers of China’s most popular spirits, baijiu, are sobering up to a business slowdown and tight financing after a decade of outstanding growth.
Sales are off and company market values have fallen over the past year, prompting some...
Threading the Needle: Proposals for U.S. and Chinese Actions on Arms Sales to Taiwan
The sale of U.S. arms to Taiwan has been an enduring source of friction between the United States and China. To China, Taiwan is a “core” interest. Though the United States publicly committed itself, through the August 17, 1982 Joint Communique...
What Are Chinese Attitudes Toward a U.S. Strike in Syria?
Chen Weihua:
Chinese truly believe that there is no military solution to the Syrian crisis. On the contrary, a U.S. air strike would only worsen the situation there. Chinese have seen many failures of U.S. intervention in...
Follow the Money: Who Benefits from China’s One-Child Policy?
When debating China’s one-child policy, China’s domestic media and observers overseas mostly focus on its impact on the population structure or incidences of inhumanity involved in the implementation of the policy (such as...
Deng Xiaoping’s Lessons for Today’s China
The earthy Deng, father of reform-era China, favored a Chinese phrase to describe the current anti-corruption maneuvers being undertaken at Xi Jinping’s behest: killing a chicken to scare the monkeys.
China’s Corruption Purge Continues Against Zhou Yongkang
As the Chinese public is eagerly awaiting the verdict of Bo Xilai, China’s anti-corruption agency is taking down another target: the 70-year-old Zhou Yongkang, dubbed by overseas media as China’s security tsar, has been put under house...
China’s New Leaders Exert Control Over Oil Company
The crackdown on China’s biggest company — also the second-largest oil company in the world — signals the new administration’s determination to exert control over the powerful sector, said Cheng Li, a Brookings Institution scholar....
Zhou Yongkang, Former Security Tsar Linked to Bo Xilai, Faces Corruption Probe
Sources said top leaders made the decision in view of the rising anger inside the party at the scale of the corruption problem and the vast fortune that Zhou's family has amassed. Xi ordered officials in charge of the case to “get to the...
Look Who’s Afraid of Democracy
For all of China’s vaunted influence in the world, many of its top leaders are deeply fearful of losing control of their own country. That fear is reflected in the Bo Xilai trial and the recently revealed “Document No. 9” warning of...
To Reform or Not Reform?—Echoes of the Late Qing Dynasty
Orville Schell:
It is true that China is no longer beset by threats of foreign incursion nor is it a laggard in the world of economic development and trade. But being there and being steeped in an atmosphere of seemingly endless...
China’s Crackdown on Social Media: Who Is in Danger?
There is a Chinese proverb that says one must kill a chicken to scare the monkeys, which means to punish someone in order to make an example out of them. That is what many believe happened last Sunday when outspoken investor and Internet...
China’s Shale Gas Development Goals Just Pipe Dreams
China wants to reap the benefits of a shale gas revolution similar to the one in the United States, but there are many obstacles to this happening, experts say.
In the first half of 2013, fifty-six shale gas wells were in the exploratory...
How to Make China More Honest
Official Chinese economic statistics, from unemployment to arable land, are controlled by the Communist Party and therefore cannot be trusted. The prevailing American and global view of China as a rising, if presently troubled, economic...
China Investigating More Top PetroChina Executives Over Corruption
A high-level government probe into corruption at China's leading oil and gas firm widened on Tuesday, with three additional senior officials at the state-run giant being investigated over alleged wrongdoing, which is C.C.P. shorthand for...
Today’s Alarming Japan-China Charts
Due to a variety of factors, the amount of Japanese people who dislike China and the amount of Chinese people who dislike Japan are on the rise, while those with positive feelings about the other country descends, according to recent polls.
China Across the Divide
Understanding China’s world role has become one of the crucial intellectual challenges of the 21st century. This book explores this topic through the adoption of three conceptual approaches that help to uncover some of the key complex and simultaneous interactions between the global and domestic forces that determine China’s external behavior.
Political Staging in Trial of Fallen China Official
The courtroom spectacle is an effort by the party to convince Bo’s elite party allies and ordinary supporters that he had his say in court, and that the long prison sentence he is expected to get is based on evidence of crimes committed, not...
Bo Xilai Trial Transcripts Expose a Privileged World of Wealth
The corruption trial of Bo Xilai is offering the world a peek past the vermilion walls of the Chinese leadership compounds and through the tinted glass of their motorcades into a private sphere of immense entitlement.
The Trial of the Century
from Sinica PodcastThe spectacular trial of Bo Xilai seized the media’s attention last week as the fallen politburo member—still widely admired in Chongqing and Dalian and heavily connected among the Party elite—defended himself with unexpected vigor against...
Prosecutors Say Disgraced Chinese Politician Knew About Bribes
Prosecutors in the trial of Bo Xilai presented testimony on Friday asserting that he knew about a villa on the French Riviera bought for his family by a tycoon and about demands for compensation from the manager of the villa...
6 Things You Need to Know About Bo Xilai’s Trial
Day one of disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai’s trial on charges of bribery, corruption, and abusing his power has come to an end. For those who didn’t spend last night glued to their devices, here’s what you missed.
The East is Still Red
China’s Left believes that only a stronger Communist Party could solve the country’s problems of corruption, inequality, and moral torpor. Those on the Right believe unbridled state power is actually the problem, as China learned during the...
38 Lenders Linked to Embattled Conglomerate
Xu Ming, the billionaire chairman of Shide Group, a conglomerate based in Dalian has been missing since March 14. Following his disappearance banks have started reviewing loans made to Shide.
China Boss’s Fall Puts Focus on a Business Ally
Entrepreneur Xu Ming allegedly funneled millions of dollars in bribes to Bo Xilai and his family, including paying for trips and perhaps even giving the family a $3.5 million villa on the French Riviera, according to people briefed on the...
Bo Xilai Supporters Demonstrate in Shandong on Eve of Trial
About 10 people held up signs outside the courthouse in the eastern city of Jinan in Shandong province, where Bo is set to appear in public on Thursday for the first time in 17 months to face charges of bribery, corruption and abuse of...