Changing Media, Changing China

By Susan L. Shirk (editor) on April 24, 2012

Thirty years ago, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) made a fateful decision: to allow newspapers, magazines, television, and radio stations to compete in the marketplace instead of being financed exclusively by the government. The political and social implications of that decision are still unfolding as the Chinese government, media, and public adapt to the new information environment.

Edited by Susan Shirk, one of America's leading experts on contemporary China, this collection of essays brings together a who's who of experts—Chinese and American—writing about all aspects of the changing media landscape in China. In detailed case studies, the authors describe how the media is reshaping itself from a propaganda mouthpiece into an agent of watchdog journalism, how politicians are reacting to increased scrutiny from the media, and how television, newspapers, magazines, and Web-based news sites navigate the cross-currents between the open marketplace and the CCP censors. China has over 360 million Internet users, more than any other country, and an astounding 162 million bloggers. The growth of Internet access has dramatically increased the information available, the variety and timeliness of the news, and its national and international reach. But China is still far from having a free press. As of 2008, the international NGO Freedom House ranked China 181 worst out of 195 countries in terms of press restrictions, and Chinese journalists have been aptly described as "dancing in shackles." The recent controversy over China's censorship of Google highlights the CCP's deep ambivalence toward information freedom.

Covering everything from the rise of business media and online public opinion polling to environmental journalism and the effect of media on foreign policy, Changing Media, Changing China reveals how the most populous nation on the planet is reacting to demands for real news. —Oxford University Press

Book Review: 

Andrew J. Nathan, Foreign Affairs (January/February 2011)
Matthew Robertson, The Epoch Times (January 9, 2011)

China: Fragile Superpower

By Susan L. Shirk on April 24, 2012

Once a sleeping giant, China today is the world's fastest growing economy—the leading manufacturer of cell phones, laptop computers, and digital cameras—a dramatic turn-around that alarms many Westerners. But in China: Fragile Superpower, Susan L. Shirk opens up the black box of Chinese politics and finds that the real danger lies elsewhere—not in China's astonishing growth, but in the deep insecurity of its leaders. China's leaders face a troubling paradox: the more developed and prosperous the country becomes, the more insecure and threatened they feel.

Shirk, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State responsible for China, knows many of today's Chinese rulers personally and has studied them for three decades. She offers invaluable insight into how they think—and what they fear. In this revealing book, readers see the world through the eyes of men like President Hu Jintao and former President Jiang Zemin. We discover a fragile communist regime desperate to survive in a society turned upside down by miraculous economic growth and a stunning new openness to the greater world. Indeed, ever since the 1989 pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square and the fall of communism in the Soviet Union, Chinese leaders have been afraid of its own citizens, and this fear motivates many of their decisions when dealing with the U.S. and other nations. In particular, the fervent nationalism of the Chinese people, combined with their passionate resentment of Japan and attachment to Taiwan, have made relations with this country a minefield. —Oxford University Press

Book Review: 

Lucian W. Pye, Foreign Affairs (November/December 2007)
John Pomfret, Washington Post (September 30, 2007)
Dmitry Shlapentok, Asia Times (January 30, 2010)

The I-Ching

By Richard J. Smith on April 24, 2012

The I Ching originated in China as a divination manual more than three thousand years ago. In 136 BCE the emperor declared it a Confucian classic, and in the centuries that followed, this work had a profound influence on the philosophy, religion, art, literature, politics, science, technology, and medicine of various cultures throughout East Asia. Jesuit missionaries brought knowledge of the I Ching to Europe in the seventeenth century, and the American counterculture embraced it in the 1960s. Here Richard Smith tells the extraordinary story of how this cryptic and once obscure book became one of the most widely read and extensively analyzed texts in all of world literature.

In this concise history, Smith traces the evolution of the I Ching in China and throughout the world, explaining its complex structure, its manifold uses in different cultures, and its enduring appeal. He shows how the indigenous beliefs and customs of Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and Tibet "domesticated" the text, and he reflects on whether this Chinese classic can be compared to religious books such as the Bible or the Qur'an. Smith also looks at how the I Ching came to be published in dozens of languages, providing insight and inspiration to millions worldwide--including ardent admirers in the West such as Leibniz, Carl Jung, Philip K. Dick, Allen Ginsberg, Hermann Hesse, Bob Dylan, Jorge Luis Borges, and I. M. Pei. Smith offers an unparalleled biography of the most revered book in China's entire cultural tradition, and he shows us how this enigmatic ancient classic has become a truly global phenomenon.  —Princeton University Press

Book Review: 

Steven Poole, The Guardian (March 9, 2012)
James Carter, Los Angeles Review of Books (October 15, 2012)

China’s Tax Burden: A Mysterious Lead Sinker

on April 24, 2012

(Beijing)—In much of the world, admiration and envy are common reactions to China’s consistently high GDP growth rates.

But closer to home, the Chinese public’s admiration of their own economic miracle is shadowed by tax increases that consistently outstrip GDP expansion rates.

Dissatisfaction is building over the fact that the overall tax burden has been climbing year after year in China. Indeed, the tax growth rate exceeded the nation’s GDP rise by 50 percent between 1997 and 2011, based on 1997 price levels, according to a Caixin analysis.

Stirring up the South China Sea (I)

on April 23, 2012

The conflicting mandates and lack of coordination among Chinese government agencies, many of which strive to increase their power and budget, have stoked tensions in the South China Sea. Any future solution to the South China Sea disputes will require a consistent policy from China executed uniformly throughout the different levels of government along with the authority to enforce it. Effective coordination of actors is also hampered by a lack of clarity over precisely what is supposed to be defended. Beijing has deliberately imbued the South China Sea disputes with nationalist sentiment by perpetually highlighting China's historical claims. This policy has led to a growing domestic demand for assertive action. While Beijing has been able to rein in nationalist sentiment over the South China Sea when it adopts a specific policy, this heated environment still limits its policy options and its ability to manage the issue. China's current approach remains characterized by numerous ministerial-level actors and law enforcement agencies with no effective coordinating authority and no high-level long-term policy. Ultimately, the ability to manage relations in the South China Sea and resolve disputes will present a major test of China's peaceful rise.

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Topics: 
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Keywords: 
South China Sea
Vietnam
Philippines
Organization: 
International Crisis Group

A Gift from Bill Gates

A Story by Wu Ang

on April 21, 2012

My name is Thousands (“Yiqianji”) and I’ve worked in all sorts of jobs. Most recently, I’ve been spending my time at home writing, and in my spare time, help my mother out picking vegetables. (With the recession, a good job’s hard to find.) Every time I introduce myself, ever so politely, to strangers, I get a box on the ears and they shout: “What decent person would ever choose a Japanese name?”

A Pension Plan, a Story by Ha Jin

on April 21, 2012

It was said that Mr. Sheng suffered from a kind of senile dementia caused by some infarction in his brain. I was sure it was neither Parkinson’s nor Alzheimer’s, because I had learned quite a bit about both during my training to be a health aide. He wasn’t completely disabled, but he needed to be cared for during the day. I was glad to attend to him, because I’d been out of work for more than three months before this job.

In Dialogue with chinadialogue

By Jeremy Goldkorn, Isabel Hilton & more on April 20, 2012

After a few upbeat weeks on political intrigue in Chongqing, Sinica is back this week with another depressing show about the various ways China is killing us all. This week our conversation turns to cadmium-laced rice, endangered species, and the pollution of the food supply in a conversation with writer and broadcaster Isabel Hilton, founder of chinadialogue, and Jonathan Watts, Guardian correspondent and author of the book When A Billion Chinese Jump.

Strategic Reserves

on April 19, 2012

(Beijing)—In an odd twist for China’s powerful banks, the biggest state-owned lenders last year started running low on the foreign currency needed for loans to enterprises investing overseas.

“Some commercial banks suspended U.S. dollar loans” after the dry spell began in mid-2011, a source at a Shanghai branch of a state-owned bank told Caixin. “Others charged interest rates of more than 5 percent. The market’s foreign currency supply has been tight.”

Fortunately for borrowers and banks, though, the drought appears to be easing.

What Wukan Means

By Ou Ning on April 18, 2012

It began, in the early stages, as a secret mobilization. Then came the protests, marches of ever-larger numbers, direct confrontation, occupations, blockades, anarchy, media exposure, a case of accidental death, the involvement of higher levels of authority, negotiation … until, finally, after two years and eleven months, on the 2nd of February 2012, in Guangdong province, in the county of Lufeng, the village of Wukan at last held a democratic election.