“Naked Official” Streaks to U.S.

By Amy Qin on August 31, 2012

On Monday, the People’s Daily confirmed rumors that Wang Guoqiang, a senior official of Fengcheng city, Liaoning province, fled China in April to the United States. Though Wang has been absent since April, his case was only uncovered last Sunday, when rumors began circulating on the Internet that Wang, after having been exposed for corruption, left the country to join his family in the United States, taking along with him 200 million yuan (US$31.45 million).

In Guangdong, Tea Oil Greases Official Palms

on August 31, 2012

In the financial documents for a Guangdong province grower and processor of tea seed oil is a list of key shareholders who also happen to be the relatives of local government officials.

Off the record, Guangdong Xindadi Biotechnology Co. Ltd. and its chief—a businessman who went out of his way to cultivate good relations with local officials—received but according to investigators never properly accounted for tens of million of yuan in government subsidies.

China's Long History of Defying the Doomsayers

By Jeffrey Wasserstrom and Stephen Platt on August 31, 2012

Thirty-six years after "Great Helmsman" Mao Zedong died of a heart attack, leaving his country briefly rudderless during a time of crisis and uncertainty, the Chinese ship of state is still sailing. But is it still seaworthy? Observers are energetically debating whether the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party, which has endured so much, can endure. After all, the government today bases its legitimacy on economic growth, which may well be slowing. We can't predict the future, but we can examine the past, and Chinese history suggests that, even if the Communist Party does face a legitimacy crisis, it would not be out of character for it to survive this particular storm.

History, Military, Politics
Diplomacy, Guomindang

China's Greatest Challenge: Not America, But Itself

By Anka Lee on August 31, 2012

As China’s international profile continues to rise in tandem with its economic and political significance, one might conclude that the Chinese public is likely to expect Xi Jinping to carry a higher profile on the international stage. As the leader of a world power, Xi will have to devote more time to international affairs, take the lead in debates on global issues, interact more frequently with foreign audiences like the citizens of Iowa, and articulate China’s role as a shaper of world affairs. In reality, however, Xi may be preoccupied with addressing a host of economic and social challenges that China is likely to encounter in the decade ahead. 

Economy, Politics, Rural Life, Society
Diplomacy, U.S.-China Relations, Aging Population, Trade

Does China's Next Leader Have a Soft Spot for Tibet

By Benjamin Kang Lim and Frank Jack Daniel on August 31, 2012

Few people know what Xi, whose ascent to the leadership is likely to be approved at a Communist Party congress later this year, thinks of Tibet or the Dalai Lama. But his late father, Xi Zhongxun, a liberal-minded former vice premier, had a close bond with the Tibetan leader who once gave the elder Xi an expensive watch in the 1950s, a gift that the senior party official was still wearing decades later.

Politics, Religion
Tibet, Dalai Lama, Xi Jinping

Tall Order in Ordos

Giving a Ghost City Life

on August 31, 2012

A desert city infamously littered with new but vacant apartment buildings and idle construction sites is getting no relief in the parched climate for local government budgets.

Ordos, where local leaders have been trying for years to build a thriving community almost from scratch, remains a people-ready but empty ghost town.

The Huawei Enigma

By Kaiser Kuo, Jeremy Goldkorn & more on August 31, 2012

Is there any other company that better captures the dual way China is perceived internationally than Huawei? As one of China’s few market-based telecommunications equipment providers, the company is in many ways a symbol of China’s high-tech, global future. And yet this is the same company frequently tarred as a security threat by foreign journalists who play up the military background of founder Ren Zhangfei and point with some justification to China’s dismal record in Internet security and online freedom.

Economic Observer

on August 30, 2012

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