Chinese recycling tycoon Chen Guangbiao recently made headlines when he announced his “plans” to buy the New York Times. I put “plans” in quotation marks because the newspaper’s owners had expressed neither knowledge of any such deals in the works nor interest in selling it to anyone, least of all to a nationalistic Chinese businessman […]
After Beijing unilaterally declared an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea last month, to include the disputed Tokyo-controlled islands called Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese, the reaction by regional neighbors and the U.S. was swift. But with each action, a subsequent and escalating reaction has been triggered. China’s […]
Since my previous post on this incident was submitted, a suspect has been arrested in the New Year’s Day arson attack on the Chinese consulate in San Francisco. The suspect, who turned himself in to authorities and made a full confession of guilt, is a Chinese national who claims to have set the fire because […]
The Chinese icebreaker Xue Long‘s rescue of the passengers aboard the stranded Russian research vessel MV Akademik Shokalskiy has made headlines around the world. Since December 24, the Russian ship has been stuck in pack ice near Antarctica’s Cape de la Motte, approximately 1,700 miles south of Tasmania. MV Akademik Shokalskiy was about midway through the month-long Australasian Antarctic Expedition, run by the University of New […]
An arson attack on the Chinese consulate-general in San Francisco has exacerbated tensions between China and the United States. The attack occurred the night of Jan. 1, when someone poured gasoline onto the front door of the consulate and set it ablaze. While the building sustained significant fire and smoke damage, there were no injuries, […]
Andrew Peacock/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Following its spectacular success as host of the 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing’s successive attempts at increasing its “soft power” have often fallen short. Soft power is a concept developed by Joseph Nye of Harvard University to describe the ability to attract and co-opt rather than coerce, use force or […]
A perusal of reader comments on Chinese news websites following Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s recent visit to the Yasukuni war shrine in Tokyo reveals an online explosion of nationalist fury. Despite U.S. attempts to dissuade Abe from visiting the shrine and U.S. criticism following his visit, America has not been spared the anger of […]
China and the United States were both right to condemn Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s official visit to the Yasukuni war shrine in Tokyo on Dec. 26, 2013. For once China and America are on the same page. China’s leaders will waste no time, however, in exploiting the incident to stir up anti-Japanese nationalism at […]
The Chinese Communist Party has issued guidelines calling for tightened control of media and education in China, according to a report by the state-run Xinhua News Agency on Dec. 24. These guidelines were issued in the name of “bolstering core socialist values and pooling positive energy to realize the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation.” Included […]
China presumes “great power” status for itself equal to the United States. What has China done recently to demonstrate its readiness for such a role? It has raged incoherently at Japan for a modest increase in military spending and accused a video game of “cultural aggression” against China. In response to China’s saber-rattling in the […]
Chinese government censorship is a core concern for democracy promotion efforts in China. All media in China, including newspapers, television, and the internet, are strictly controlled by the Chinese government for the very purpose of preventing democracy promotion. There may be little that democracy advocates can do to challenge the government’s control over traditional domestic […]
The Obama administration has announced that it will nominate outgoing Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana) to replace Gary Locke as the new U.S. ambassador to China. Baucus is seen as a strong U.S. hand in Beijing, The New York Times observes, owing to his efforts to reduce trade barriers between China and the United States, and […]
When the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik satellite during the Cold War it was a shocking wake-up call for the U.S., alarming both policy-makers and the public and sparking what came to be known and the Space Race. Of course, the U.S. went on to win that particular race, still having the distinction of being […]
As detailed in my previous post on this topic, some two dozen U.S. journalists currently face expulsion from China for investigative reporting on the personal wealth and financial ties of top Chinese government officials. This follows a pattern of harassment including the expulsion of at least three American journalists since 2012 for reporting critical of […]
Not content with controlling and censoring its own domestic news media, the Chinese government seeks also to restrict international media coverage of China. The methods Beijing employs for this purpose include political and economic pressure on Western news media, cyber-attacks on Western news websites, and harassment or expulsion of Western journalists in China. Visa denials […]