Underscoring the depth of the problems Chinese leaders face at home, a recent report by an authoritative state think tank says domestic law and order will face serious challenges in 2010. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ “China’s Rule of Law Development Report No. 8” shows that in 2009 the number of criminal and public […]
Last Tuesday China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu reiterated his country’s preference for a diplomatic solution to Iran’s nuclear standoff, rebuffing calls for China to back UN Security Council sanctions against Iran. A China Daily editorial released the same day pushed back against such pressure, deeming the singling out of China on the issue by […]
What do some in the halls of power in Beijing make of U.S.-China relations? A recent op-ed penned for the China Daily by a scholar at the Central Compilation and Translation Bureau, an influential government think tank that often sets the Party’s ideological bearings, suggests the emerging view that the U.S. has adopted a strategy […]
With this weekend’s spat over U.S. arm sales, yet another dispute has come to roil the U.S.-China relationship. The “world’s most important bilateral relationship,” already frayed by tense disagreements over Internet freedom, cyber-security, Iran, trade, and currency policies, has now been further burdened with the Obama administration’s sale to Taiwan of USD 6.4 billion in […]
In the midst of the tragedy of the earthquake in Haiti, China has given the international community a glimpse of its humanitarian spirit. The Chinese government wasted no time in dispatching a team of 15 rescuers along with several millions of dollars in aid, and later sent 45 or so medical staff. At the same […]
Micheal Pettis has a great post up at his always worth-a-read blog China Financial Markets. In “The Myth of the Blithe Consensus,” the Carnegie Endowment fellow and Peking University finance professor reviews the evidence that China’s madcap loan growth of 2009 has returned with a terrible fury in the first weeks of 2010, with dire […]
Willy Lam has a piece in the new Jamestown Foundation China Brief breaking down Beijing’s most recent signaling on its Tibet strategy. New policies for the restive region, announced by Xinhua following a January 8 Politburo session devoted to the question of how to pursue “breakthrough-style economic development and long-term stability” in Tibet, essentially amount […]
The Asia-Pacific Journal has a very interesting piece out reviewing rumors that China and Japan may strengthen ties in a dramatic fashion later this year. According to Le Figaro, the article says, China had proposed that Japanese Prime Minister Hatoyama Yukio begin the process by going to Nanjing, where a mass killing of Chinese civilians […]
The New York Times reported yesterday that the Chinese government has unexpectedly decided to pull James Cameron’s new blockbuster “Avatar” from theaters, an unusual move considering the tremendous excitement (and revenue) the film has generated among Chinese audiences. While the Times quotes experts who say this was “a purely commercial” move undertaken to make room for homegrown […]
In China, accurately assessing public opinion on a given issue is more or less a hopelessly difficult task. With China’s huge population, the diversity of Chinese society, regional differences, lack of reliable public polling, etc., it is difficult to estimate with any certitude just how many people hold a certain belief. Anecdotal evidence and the work of a few bloggers […]
Google’s threat to bow out from China is clearly tremendous news. The technology giant has served up for China’s leadership an understated but devastating rebuke of their Internet policies. What amazes is the unabashedly political and moral nature of their declaration; as scores of analysts have already pointed out, besides the potential $600 million in […]
The British government’s attempt to reverse its citizen Akmal Shaikh’s death sentence in China has met with very little sympathy from Chinese, internet reaction suggests. According to the website Global Voices Online, a common if unsurprising reaction seemed to be along the lines of “why should a foreigner deserve special treatment?” More interestingly, one fiery […]
The December 31st NYT had a great in-depth article on the US$2.9 billion Chinese investment in the Aynak mine in Afghanistan. While China’s Aynak investment is not a new story, it is certainly a fascinating case study in China’s bold mode of foreign engagement. With this deal to extract the enormously rich copper reserves in […]
Today the BBC published an article regarding the growing gender gap in China. The article highlights a report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, which states that 24 million Chinese men of marrying age could find themselves without spouses by 2020. Currently, for every 100 girls born in China, 119 boys are born. In […]
According to news reports, in 2009 China surpassed Germany as the world’s top exporter. China’s exports for 2009 were more than $2 trillion, slightly ahead of Germany, at $1.2 trillion. The last two months of the year saw the strongest increase, and helped China’s gross exports surge. “This is just one more step by China […]