China to Boost Textile Industry in Xinjiang
China's cabinet issued a guideline on Thursday to bolster the textile and garment industry in the western Xinjiang region in the hope of increasing local employment and exports.
Teaching Uighur Children Mandarin will not Bring Stability to Xinjiang
More schools move to use Chinese only, except a few hours each week in Uighur literature. President Xi Jinping emphasizes this policy as a way to fight terrorism.
Outcry in Russia over China land lease
Plans to hand a stretch of remote Siberian territory to Chinese investors triggers protests in Russia, underlining how the relationship between both countries is undermined by deep-rooted distrust.
At Least 18 Dead in Ramadan Attack on Police Checkpoint in Xinjiang
18 dead after a knife and bomb attack by a group of Uyghurs on a checkpoint in Xinjiang amid harsh restrictions on observance of Ramadan.
Sinica Podcast
06.23.15
The Brother Orange Saga
from Sinica PodcastThe story started when a Buzzfeed editor lost his iPhone in an East Village bar in February of last year and blossomed into the Sino-American romance of the century, and probably the most up-lifting and altogether unlikely China story that we can...
The Village and the Girl
The destruction of rural China became for pig farmer Xiao Zhang a liberation and an opportunity.
Caixin Media
06.09.15
China’s Cabinet Unveils Plan to Improve Rural Schools
The State Council has released a plan for improving the quality of education in rural areas over the next five years—a move the cabinet says is aimed at improving the quality of teaching at primary and secondary schools in the country’s less-...
Divers Comb Capsized China Ship, Hopes Fade for Survivors
Rescuers have not slackened off, even though about 200 divers face difficulties such as cabin doors blocked by tables and beds.
Traces II
Few rivers have captured the soul of a nation more deeply than the Yellow River. Historically a symbol of enduring glory, a force of nature both feared and revered, it has provided water for life downstream for thousands of years.
Dying to Breathe
This is the unseen cost of gold mining in China—the world’s top gold producer. In China, silicosis is considered a form of pneumoconiosis, which affects an estimated six million workers who toil in gold, coal, or silver mines or in stone-cutting...
Searching for Identity in China’s Outer Lands
“ ‘China’s Outer Lands’ is about people instinctively looking for their own identity, between conformity or originality or autonomy or dependence,” Mr. Sakamaki said. “It’s natural, it’s happening in not only China, it’s everywhere.”
China, Russia Prepare $2 Billion Agricultural Investment Fund
The fund will develop agricultural projects in the two countries and set up a free-trade zone between their key farming belts.
The NYRB China Archive
04.29.15
An American Hero in China
from New York Review of BooksOne night in September, three hundred people crowded into the basement auditorium of an office tower in Beijing to hear a discussion between two of China’s most popular writers. One was Liu Yu, a thirty-eight-year-old political...
At Least 20 Killed, 58 Injured in Tibet Following Earthquake
Some 24,800 people in Xigaze City were relocated after 8.1 earthquake in neighboring Nepal.
Nepal Earthquake: India and China Send Rescue Teams to Himalayan Nation
China sent 62 rescue workers, six sniffer dogs, and was providing about $3.2 million in supplies.
Wild Pigeon
“The underlying theme I heard when talking to people was that how you interpret things is how they will be, so its best to look at the bright side of things. You don’t mention bad dreams, or you try to interpret them in a positive way. People...
Sinica Podcast
03.23.15
In Manchuria: A Village Called Wasteland
from Sinica PodcastKaiser Kuo and David Moser are joined by Michael Meyer, the author of The Last Days of Old Beijing and now...
Media
03.09.15
China’s Real Inconvenient Truth: Its Class Divide
China is talking about its pollution problem, but its equally serious class problem remains obscured behind the...
The Cowboys (and Indians) of Sichuan: Photographers Search for China's Billy the Kid
The people of remote Tagong in the southwestern grasslands resemble the cowboys and Indians of North American history.
39 Hours Inside The Biggest Human Migration On Earth
China's Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's rolled into one, the holiday unfolds on an entirely different scale.
Traffic Peaks as Lunar New Year Holiday Ends
The last day of the holiday saw about 9.7 million train trips, 1.4 million by plane, and 73.6 million by highway.
Culture
02.20.15
‘Still Not Married?’ A Graphic Guide to Surviving Chinese New Year
Maya Hong is a Beijing transplant from a small town outside of Harbin, the icy city not far from China’s border with Siberia. Though proud of her glacial origins and skilled at combating subzero temperatures, over the years Hong, 30, has had to...
Culture
02.04.15
‘This is not that China Story’
James Carter spent much of the 1990s researching the modern history of Harbin, China’s northernmost major city, in the region that...
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.
Vets Battle to save Stricken Panda in Shaanxi
Vets are racing to treat a 5-year-old panda diagnosed with canine distemper at the Shaanxi Rare Wildlife Rescue and Breeding Research Center.
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.
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...
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...
Myanmar-China Trafficking: Sold by Father for $1000
Along the Chinese border, it is not just drugs being traded—Burmese women and children are being bought and sold.
China Might Be Killing Off a Pikachu-Like Animal For No Reason
The animated yellow rodent-like character, Pikachu, from the Pokémon video game and TV franchise, is not a total work of fiction. In fact, many believe the creature is based off of a small mousey animal found in China known as a pika.
Myanmar Returns to What Sells: Heroin
A decade ago, Myanmar seemed on course to wipe out the opium fields and...
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...
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...
Down to the Countryside
The world has heard much of late about the scale and scope of China’s mass migration from the poor rural countryside to its booming cities. Some think the number of these migrant workers will soon reach some 400 million souls. They have created...
Earthbound China
12.15.14
A Map of China’s Back-to-the-Land Efforts
In our short film “Down to the Countryside,” Sun Yunfan and I follow Ou Ning, an artist and curator who moved from Beijing to the village of...
China’s Water Diversion Project Starts to Flow to Beijing
The project has roots in an offhand comment by Mao Zedong who, on an inspection tour in the early 1950s, said: “The south has plenty of water, but the north is dry. If we could borrow some, that would be good.”
Infographics
11.20.14
Who Really Benefits from Poverty Alleviation in China?
from SohuA series of reports issued by China's National Audit Office highlights problems in 19 counties that have received funding from national poverty alleviation programs....
China Warns Tibet Party Members Not to Harbor Separatist “Fantasies” about Dalai Lama
"As for cadres who harbor fantasies about the 14th Dalai Group, follow the Dalai Group, participate in supporting separatist infiltration sabotage activities, (they will be) strictly and severely punished according to the law and party...
China Planning $16.3 Billion Fund for “New Silk Road”
The fund, overseen by Chinese policy banks, will be used to build and expand railways, roads and pipelines in Chinese provinces that are part of the strategy to facilitate trade over land and shipping routes.
China Officials “Buy Corpses to Meet Cremation Quota”
Two officials in Guangdong province have been arrested after they allegedly bought corpses from grave robbers to have them cremated, Chinese media say.
India-China Border Standoff: High in the Mountains, Thousands of Troops Go Toe-to-Toe
The mountain standoff lasted weeks and at times involved tense shoving-and-shouting matches, according to Indian border-patrol troopers who participated. Both armies called in helicopters. The scale and duration of the clash are signs of mounting...
Unrest in China Leaves 22 Dead Following Xinjiang Attack
A new ethnic clash in the restive region of Xinjiang, on China’s central Asian frontier, saw 22 people killed after Uighur assailants attacked Han Chinese merchants at a wholesale food market near the border with Kyrgyzstan.
China Launches Massive Rural ‘Surveillance’ Project to Watch Over Uighurs
They arrived at the fringes of China's modern day empire in early March, setting up base in a family planning center with riot shields, helmets and two sharp 6-foot spears propped up inside the front door.
Environment
10.16.14
‘Paranoia’ and Public Opinion
from chinadialogueWhen permits for Chinese researchers to grow genetically modified rice and corn expired this summer, there was concern. More so, given there was little indication that the Ministry of Agriculture would renew them.
The certificates, issued...
Once a Symbol of Power, Farming Now an Economic Drag in China
Frustrated by how little they earn, the ablest farmers have migrated to cities, hollowing out this rural district in the Chinese heartland.
The Kitchen Network
“Customers are here already!” the restaurant’s owner, a wiry Chinese man in his fifties, barked. He dropped a heavy container onto the metal counter with a crash. “How can you possibly be moving this slowly?”
Tibet in Sichuan
Traveling the Tibetan plateau in Sichuan Province with indepdendent journalist Miguel Cano.
Books
09.02.14
Cities and Stability
China's management of urbanization is an under-appreciated factor in the regime's longevity. The Chinese Communist Party fears "Latin Americanization"—the emergence of highly unequal megacities with their attendant slums and social unrest. Such cities threaten the survival of nondemocratic regimes.
Can China Save Africa's Elephants?
Poaching has not only reduced elephant populations, but it has also become unsustainable. The problem, beyond how many elephants are being killed, is the lack of surviving males in their prime years.
Caixin Media
08.19.14
A Chinese Town’s Imported Cambodian Brides
It is a hot and sticky midsummer day in a small village along the Chang River in the eastern province of Jiangxi. The most popular spot is in front of the local grocery where a few women are playing mahjong as children chase each other around....
China Tells Citizens to Walk, Bike, and Snitch in “United Struggle” to Breathe Easier
The environmental ministry has published a set of guidelines for citizens, which encourage them not only to reduce their personal environmental imprint, but to also turn in polluting and wasteful neighbors.
Chinese Dreamers
A dream, in the truest sense, is a solo act. It can’t be created by committee or replicated en masse. Try as you might, you can’t compel your neighbor to conjure up the reverie that you envision. And therein lies the latent,...
Environment
07.17.14
The Legacy of Hunan’s Polluted Soils
from chinadialogueThis is the second of a special three-part series of investigations jointly run by chinadialogue and Yale Environment 360...