China: Politics as Warfare

By Jonathan Mirsky on June 21, 2012

Mao’s Invisible Hand is one of those books that make one feel good about scholarship. It describes inner workings of Chinese Communist society about which few nonexperts know anything—it may even surprise the experts—and it will interest anyone professionally interested in China. Its central purpose is to explain how China has escaped the disintegration of other Communist states; but the contributors to the book do not cram their research into a template that promises more coherence than Chinese realities can provide.

Economist Sees Room for Slashing Taxes

on June 21, 2012

Increasing government spending would be a disservice to society rather than a benefit if Beijing wants to create a consumption-led economy, one economist says in a recent research report.

“The so-called ‘structural optimization,’ which refers to rising domestic consumption as a percentage of the national economy, owes primarily to the government hiking spending rather than households increasing consumption,” Industrial Bank chief economist Lu Zhengwei says in his report.

Why Chinese Soccer Matters

By Evan Osnos on June 20, 2012

Imagine if David Stern, after his retirement as commissioner of the N.B.A., was led off in leg irons for taking bribes. His predecessor goes with him on a ten-year hitch behind bars. And, for good measure, throw in a couple of members of the winningest team in international competition—let’s say, Magic and Jordan from the 1992 Olympic team—sent away for half a dozen years each, along with scores of top-level referees, team officials, and other players, all jailed for taking bribes and fixing games.

Politics, Society
Sports, Corruption, Soccer

China’s Food Fright

on June 20, 2012

There’s no denying that the gastronomic horizons of Chinese cuisines sometimes verge on the infinite. But on factors of food quality, there’s little subtlety or nuance for safety standards.

In the past five years, the number of public food and drug safety scandals has hit new highs. In 2008, there was the tainted milk scandal. Then, this year’s poisoned medicine capsule case and contaminated cooking oil scandal signaled that there continue to be severe barriers to the adequate protection of public health.

Asia Sentinel

on June 19, 2012

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