Media

12.04.13

Chinese Chortle at U.S. Request to Scrap Controversial Air Defense Zone

The United States wants China to pull back from its gambit to try to rewrite the East China Sea’s status quo, but the Chinese are having none of it. On December 2, the U.S. State Department said China’s newly-declared air defense identification zone...

Conversation

12.03.13

What Posture Should Joe Biden Adopt Toward A Newly Muscular China?

Susan Shirk
Susan Shirk:United States Vice President Joseph Biden is the American political figure who has spent the most time with Xi Jinping and has the deepest understanding of Xi as an individual. Before Xi’s selection as P.R.C. president and C.C.P. general...

Conversation

11.27.13

Why’s the U.S. Flying Bombers Over the East China Sea?

Chen Weihua, James Fallows & more
Chen Weihua:The Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) is not a Chinese invention. The United States, Japan and some 20 other countries declared such zones in their airspace long time ago.China’s announcement of its first ADIZ in the East China Sea...

Media

11.25.13

Chinese Netizens Applaud Beijing’s Aggressive New Defense Zone

Beijing has just thrown down the latest gauntlet in a long-simmering territorial dispute with Tokyo—and China’s citizens are cheering. On November 23, China’s Ministry of Defense released a map showing the “Chinese Air Defense Identification Zone,”...

Books

10.31.13

The China Choice

Hugh White
China is rising. But how should the West—and the United States in particular—respond? This could be the key geopolitical question of the twenty-first century, according to strategic expert Hugh White, with huge implications for the future security and prosperity of the West as a whole. The China Choice confronts this fundamental question, considering the options for the Asian century ahead.As China’s economy grows to become the world’s largest, the U.S. has three choices: it can compete, share power, or concede leadership in Asia. The choice is momentous—as significant for the future as any the U.S. has ever faced. China is already more formidable than any country the U.S. has faced before—and if America does not want to find itself facing China as an enemy, it must accept it as an equal partner. Weighing the huge difficulties of accepting China as an equal with the immense cost and risks of making it an enemy, in the end the choice is simple, even if it is not easy. The U.S. simply must share power with China in Asia. The alternative is too terrible to contemplate.  —Oxford University Press{chop}

China Seeks End to Japan’s Diaoyu Provocation

Xinhua
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying responded to a media report that the Japanese Foreign Ministry have released a video online claiming sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands. 

Who Will Win Control of the South China Sea?

New York Times
To understand how Second Thomas Shoal could become contested ground is to enter into a morass of competing historical, territorial and even moral claims in an area where defining what is true or fair may be no easier than it has proved to...

China Yangtze River Yields American World War II Bomber

BBC
A U.S. scholar says the plane, discovered by fishermen in the Yangtze River, was a B-25 bomber from the “Flying Tiger” squadrons, a special unit of World War II U.S. military pilots tasked with training Chinese pilots in air combat. 

China’s Arms Industry Makes Global Inroads

Edward Wong and Nicola Clark
New York Times
Turkey’s selection of a Chinese state-owned manufacturer to supply long-range missile defense is a breakthrough for China, who has set its sights on moving up the value chain in arms technology and establishing itself as a credible competitor.&...

Mind Your Own Business

Shen Dingli
Foreign Policy
No one wants the United States to stay away from East Asia -- but if it can't manage the task, perhaps it should stay focused on the problems within its own borders.   

China Launches Charm Offensive as Obama Cancels Asia Trip

Callum MacLeod
USA Today
President Obama’s decision to shorten, then ultimately cancel, a trip to Asia this weekend may be good news for his Chinese counterpart, who is striving to charm a region unnerved by China’s aggressive stance over territory. 

Books

10.02.13

The Tragedy of Liberation

Frank Dikötter
“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. Following the defeat of Chiang Kai-shek in 1949, after a bloody civil war, Mao hoisted the red flag over Beijing’s Forbidden City, and the world watched as the Communist revolution began to wash away the old order. Due to the secrecy surrounding the country’s records, little has been known before now about the eight years that followed, preceding the massive famine and Great Leap Forward. Drawing on hundreds of previously classified documents, secret police reports, unexpurgated versions of leadership speeches, eyewitness accounts of those who survived, and more, The Tragedy of Liberation bears witness to a shocking, largely untold history. Interweaving stories of ordinary citizens with tales of the brutal politics of Mao’s court, Frank Dikötter illuminates those who shaped the “liberation” and the horrific policies they implemented in the name of progress. People of all walks of life were caught up in the tragedy that unfolded, and whether or not they supported the revolution, all of them were asked to write confessions, denounce their friends, and answer queries about their political reliability. One victim of thought reform called it a “carefully cultivated Auschwitz of the mind.” Told with great narrative sweep, The Tragedy of Liberation is a powerful and important document giving voice at last to the millions who were lost, and casting new light on the foundations of one of the most powerful regimes of the twenty-first century.  —Bloomsbury Publishing {chop}

Reports

10.01.13

Oil Security and Conventional War: Lessons From a China-Taiwan Air Scenario

Rosemary A. Kelanic
Council on Foreign Relations
In the past, conventional militaries were plagued by wartime oil shortages that severely undermined their battlefield effectiveness. But could oil shortages threaten military effectiveness in a large-scale conventional conflict today or in the...

Reports

09.30.13

Chinese Military Modernization and Force Development

Anthony H. Cordesman, Ashley Hess, and Nicholas S. Yarosh
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
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 military...

China’s Maritime Disuptes

Council on Foreign Relations
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 Refuses to Blame Assad for Syria Gas Attack

Agence France-Presse
Foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei refused to say whether a United Nations report into a sarin gas attack in Syria showed that government forces had used the banned weapons.    

Books

09.25.13

Forgotten Ally

Rana Mitter
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.Rana Mitter focuses his gripping narrative on three towering leaders: Chiang Kai-shek, the politically gifted but tragically flawed head of China’s Nationalist government; Mao Zedong, the Communists’ fiery ideological stalwart, seen here at the beginning of his epochal career; and the lesser-known Wang Jingwei, who collaborated with the Japanese to form a puppet state in occupied China. Drawing on Chinese archives that have only been unsealed in the past ten years, he brings to vivid new life such characters as Chiang’s American chief of staff, the unforgettable “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell, and such horrific events as the Rape of Nanking and the bombing of China’s wartime capital, Chongqing. Throughout, Forgotten Ally shows how the Chinese people played an essential role in the wider war effort, at great political and personal sacrifice.Forgotten Ally rewrites the entire history of World War II. Yet it also offers surprising insights into contemporary China. No twentieth-century event was as crucial in shaping China’s worldview, and no one can understand China, and its relationship with America today, without this definitive work.—Houghton Mifflin Harcourt {chop}

Media

09.18.13

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 rebels have accused each other of using chemical weapons, just to name a few. The region’s...

China Welcomes Russia’s Proposal for Syria Weapons Handover

Ben Blanchard and Michael Martina
Reuters
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...

China Conducts 59th Diaoyu Islands Patrol

Free Republic
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

Kiyoshi Takenaka and Ben Blanchard
Reuters
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...

Is Syria Distracting the U.S. From Its Asian-Pacific Strategy?

Wall Street Journal
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

Kendrick Kuo
Diplomat
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. ...

Viewpoint

09.13.13

The Urgency of Partnership

Paula S. Harrell
While the media keeps its eye on the ongoing Diaoyu/Senkaku islands dispute, heating up yet again this week after Chinese naval ships and aircraft were spotted circling the area, a parallel, possibly game-changing development in China-Japan...

Conversation

09.13.13

What Can China and Japan Do to Start Anew?

Paula S. Harrell & Chen Weihua
Paula S. Harrell:While the media keeps its eye on the ongoing Diaoyu/Senkaku islands dispute, heating up yet again this week after Chinese naval ships and aircraft were spotted circling the area, a parallel, possibly game-changing development in...

U.S. Giving China a Free Pass on Syria

Josh Gerstein
Politico
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 U.S:...

China Says Military Strike Against Syria Would Hurt Global Economy

Don Lee
Los Angeles Times
Vice Minister of Finance Zhu Guangyao said estimates from the International Monetary Fund indicate that a military strike would lead to a $10 jump in the price of a barrel of oil, which in turn would cut global economic growth by 0...

China’s Xi Tells Obama Syria Crisis Can’t Be Resolved with Military Strike

Sui-Lee Wee
Reuters
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...

Reports

09.10.13

Threading the Needle: Proposals for U.S. and Chinese Actions on Arms Sales to Taiwan

Piin-Fen Kok and David J. Firestein
EastWest Institute
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 with...

Conversation

09.09.13

What Are Chinese Attitudes Toward a U.S. Strike in Syria?

Chen Weihua, Vincent Ni & more
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 the Middle East in the past...

China’s Corruption Purge Continues Against Zhou Yongkang

Wenguang Huang and Pin Ho
Daily Beast
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...

Bo Xilai Trial As Blogged by the Court

BBC
The court at which disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai is being tried has taken the unprecedented step of posting live updates of his trial on Sina weibo, one of China’s Twitter-like microblogs. 

Cyber-Disconnect at Joint U.S.-China Press Conference

Anna Murline
Christian Science Monitor
Defense Secretary Hagel called a new U.S.-China cyberaffairs working group a ‘venue for addressing issues of mutual concern.’ His Chinese counterpart, General Chang Wanquan, denied there was a problem. 

Xi Jinping’s Overlooked Revelation on China’s Maritime Disputes

M. Taylor Fravel
Diplomat
Although unnoticed by foreign analysts, Xi Jinping recently signaled a desire to dial back tensions in the South and East China Seas.

Japanese visits to shrine on war anniversary anger China

Antoni Slodkowski
Reuters
Japan's prime minister sent an offering to a shrine for war dead on the anniversary of Japan's World War II defeat, drawing harsh complaints from China and South Korea and risking tentative ties.

Caixin Media

08.19.13

Infrequent Flying Snarls Civil Aviation Sector

Getting away for a little surf and sand ought to be easy for Beijingers like Mr. Wang, who recently boarded one of the daily, four-hour flights that link the capital and sub-tropical Hainan Island in China’s far south.But airport delays seriously...

China Prepares for Psychological Warfare With Flying Broadcast Station

Aaron Jensen
Diplomat
P.L.A. psychological warfare efforts could potentially have a devastating effect on Taiwanese troops. Prior to, and during, a conflict with Taiwan, the Gaoxin-7 would likely be used to broadcast messages to demoralize Taiwanese troops, and...

Chinese Foot-Dragging

The Editorial Board
New York Times
The South China Sea is one of the world’s most strategically important waterways. China has fanned hostilities with other nations with sovereignty claims and confrontations over disputed islands and even specks of rock.

New Japanese Helicopter Carrier Draws China Warning to Asia

Bloomberg
China said Asian neighbors must be alert to Japan’s defense buildup after it unveiled a vessel capable of carrying 14 helicopters, the largest Japanese military ship produced since World War II. 

Eyeing China, Philippines Gains U.S. Ship in Military Upgrade

Manuel Mogato
Reuters
The Philippines took possession of a former U.S. Coast Guard ship on Tuesday, part of its biggest military upgrade in decades, as a stronger economy allows it to raise spending to counter China’s growing assertiveness in disputed waters.

Books

08.05.13

China Threat?

Lionel Vairon
From the long-term threat of nuclear war between the U.S. and China, to the disappearance of the African elephant due to Chinese demand for ivory, each week brings a new round of critique and denunciation of the risks China poses to the stability of the entire planet. While critics raise a certain number of fundamental questions that bear asking about this nascent superpower, the answers put forth are usually based on ideological or economic considerations. Lionel Vairon systematically challenges these views in this first English language edition of China Threat?With an incisive review of China’s economic strategy, deployment of resources, national defence, political reform, ethnicity and religion, terrorism, and developments in human rights, Vairon amply demonstrates that China poses no threat to the world. On the contrary, China Threat? shows that China’s peaceful rise should be a matter of positive news across the globe.  —CN Times Books {chop}

China Warns Against Rush to Set Code of Conduct in South China Sea

Xinhua
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Monday in Hanoi that the envisaged Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC) cannot be set in a rush as it concerns the interests of many countries and lots of work is required.

Japan Looking for Ways to Restart Top-Level Meetings with China

Asahi Shimbun
Japan and China have not held high-level meetings since the Japanese government placed the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea under national ownership in September 2012.

Conversation

08.01.13

How Dangerous Are Sino-Japanese Tensions?

Jerome A. Cohen
Sino-Japanese relations do not look promising at the moment. Obviously, the Diaoyu-Senkaku dispute is not the only factor in play but it does focus nationalist passions on both sides. Yet both countries are capable of wiser conduct if their leaders...

Chinese VP’s Visit to North Korea Prompts Détente Watch

WSJ: China Real Time Report
The visit comes directly after China and the U.S. held their annual Strategic & Economic Dialogue in Washington, in which how to handle North Korea was a major area of discussion, although the two countries still have not agreed on a course...

Sinica Podcast

07.12.13

Ripples from the Egyptian Revolution

Kaiser Kuo, Jeremy Goldkorn & more from Sinica Podcast
In Egypt in 2011, what was by all accounts a free and fair democratic election resulted in the victory of Mohammed Morsi, a controversial figure whose brief rule ended last week after being overthrown by the Egyptian military. With Western media...

More Passages Thru Sea of Japan

Global Times
China has the potential to become a non-hegemonic global power. Such potential, if not wasted, would be a great contribution to mankind.

Unrest In Xinjiang Incites Military Crackdown

Natalie Ornell
China Digital Times
State-run media reported that more than 100 people riding motorcycles, some wielding knives, attacked a police station in remote Hotan on Friday. It follows Wednesday’s clashes elsewhere in Xinjiang which killed 35. At a meeting...

Conversation

06.25.13

How Badly Have Snowden’s Leaks Hurt U.S.-China Relations?

Matt Schiavenza
Matt Schiavenza:In the understatement of the day, the United States is unhappy with the recent developments of the Edward Snowden situation. Just three days ago, Washington was in negotiations with Hong Kong to file a warrant for Snowden's...

Hagel, in Remarks Directed at China, Speaks of Cyberattack Threat

Jane Perlez
New York Times
Mr. Hagel emphasized the need for more talks between the American and Chinese militaries to build trust and reduce the risk of miscalculation at a time of mounting rivalry. 

Conversation

06.04.13

How Would Facing Its Past Change China’s Future?

David Wertime, Isabel Hilton & more
David Wertime:The memory of the 1989 massacre of protesters at Tiananmen Square remains neither alive nor dead, neither reckoned nor obliterated. Instead, it hangs spectre-like in the background, a muted but latently powerful symbol of resistance...

Reports

06.03.13

Obama’s Meeting with China’s Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping

Dean Cheng, Derek Scissors
The Heritage Foundation
President Obama and the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping, will meet June 7–8 in California. The meeting has been characterized as a way for the two to establish a personal relationship and build trust. This would all be...

Confidential Report Lists U.S. Weapons System Designs Compromised By Chinese Cyberspies

Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post
Experts warn that the electronic intrusions gave China access to advanced technology that could accelerate the development of its weapons systems and weaken the U.S. military advantage in a future conflict. 

Hackers Find China Is Land of Opportunity

Edward Wong
New York Times
Whether it is used to break into private networks, track online dissent back to its source or steal trade secrets, hacking is openly discussed and even promoted at trade shows, inside university classrooms and on Internet forums. 

Conversation

05.23.13

China and the Other Asian Giant: Where are Relations with India Headed?

Michael Kulma, Mark Frazier & more
Mike Kulma:Earlier this week at an Asia Society forum on U.S.-China economic relations, Dr. Henry Kissinger remarked that when the U.S. first started down the path of normalizing relations with China in the early 1970s, the economic relationship and...

A Dangerous Rift Between China and Japan

Ian Buruma
Wall Street Journal
On the surface, the dispute is about history, about which country has the best claim to sovereignty over the Senkaku/Diaoyu. It is more about politics, domestic and international, revealing the tangled relations in a region where history is...

Bank of China Closes Account of Key North Korean Bank

Reuters
The closure is the first significant, publicly announced step taken by a Chinese entity to curb its dealings with North Korea in the wake of international pressure to punish Pyongyang over its banned nuclear and ballistic missile programs.&nbsp...

U.S. Blames China’s Military Directly for Cyberattacks

David E. Sanger
New York Times
Until now the administration avoided directly accusing the People’s Liberation Army of using cyberweapons against the United States in a deliberate, government-developed strategy to steal intellectual property and gain strategic advantage. 

India Says China Agrees Retreat to De Facto Border in Faceoff Deal

Reuters
India and China have ended a three-week standoff on a windswept Himalayan plateau where they fought a war 50 years ago by agreeing to pull forces back to positions held before the confrontation. 

Border Dispute Between China And India Persists

Gardiner Harris and Edward Wong
New York Times
Two weeks ago the Chinese sent an unusual number of military patrols into a remote high-altitude desert at the northern tip of India. As its economic might has grown, China has become increasingly assertive in its territorial claims across...