Recharging China’s Electric Vehicle Policy

By Wang Tao on August 1, 2013

Electric vehicles offer China an opportunity to reduce its reliance on foreign oil, improve air quality by curbing emissions from the burgeoning transportation sector, and enjoy the future economic benefits of being a global pioneer in an emerging industry. While the government has prioritized the development of electric vehicles, more can be done to ensure success. Recommendations: 1. Open the domestic electric vehicle market to leading international automakers to promote technological development. 2. Prioritize promoting electric vehicle use in commercial operations that rely on large numbers of vehicles, such as car-rental and car-sharing services, business distribution networks, and taxi companies in city centers, and as official government vehicles rather than concentrating on individual consumers. Public procurement and corporate fleet orders will help establish the electric vehicle market. 3. Create an environment that encourages electric vehicle use, including building the necessary infrastructure and providing incentives to stimulate demand, instead of handing out hefty subsidies for purchasing electric vehicles. This effort should be better integrated with ongoing urbanization policies and the entire transportation system. 4. Focus on developing a self-sustaining business model for electric vehicles instead of setting specific targets for quantities sold.

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Topics: 
Energy
Environment
Keywords: 
Electric Vehicles
Clean Energy
Climate Change
Organization: 
Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy

Ties With Japan Face ‘Grim Test,’ China Naval Researcher Writes

By Henry Sanderson on July 31, 2013

“Japan, of course, wants to have it both ways; it wants to share in the dividends from China’s economic growth, while maintaining a hardline stance in its relations with China,” Xing wrote. “It is therefore extremely unlikely that there will be any detente in bilateral relations during Abe’s term in office. Sino-Japanese relations face a grim test in the coming years.”

Politics
China-Japan Relations, Shinzo Abe, Bilateral Relations

From Cities To Farms: Is Agriculture The Next Boom For China?

on July 31, 2013

With some 6.99 million fresh graduates, 2013 is said to be the toughest year for China’s new graduates to land a job. But job hunting isn’t a concern for design-majored Chen and his girlfriend Du. The young couple, who just rented 1.5 acres of land and started their own organic farm.

Rural Life
Agriculture, Unemployment, Organic Farming

Success Brings Scrutiny to Chinese Mystic

By Chris Buckley on July 31, 2013

Wang Lin, an exponent of the ancient Chinese practice of qigong, claims he has used his powers to cure cancer and has performed other mysterious feats, like conjuring snakes out of thin air. But none of his abilities were enough to ward off the fury of the Communist Party, which has accused him of using superstition to draw in gullible citizens and officials. 

Society
Qigong, Wang Lin, Chinese Communist Party

Pacific Crossing

By Elizabeth Sinn on July 31, 2013

During the nineteenth century, tens of thousands of Chinese men and women crossed the Pacific to work, trade, and settle in California. Drawn by the gold rush, they brought with them skills and goods and a view of the world that, though still Chinese, was transformed by their long journeys back and forth. They in turn transformed Hong Kong, their main point of embarkation, from a struggling, infant colony into a prosperous, international port and the cultural center of a far-ranging Chinese diaspora.

Making use of extensive research in archives around the world, Pacific Crossing charts the rise of Chinese Gold Mountain firms engaged in all kinds of trans-Pacific trade, especially the lucrative export of prepared opium and other luxury goods. Challenging the traditional view that this migration was primarily a “coolie trade,” Elizabeth Sinn uncovers leadership and agency among the many Chinese who made the crossing. In presenting Hong Kong as an “in-between place” of repeated journeys and continuous movement, Sinn also offers a fresh view of the British colony and a new paradigm for migration studies.   —Hong Kong University Press

Book Review: 

Jason Wordie, South China Morning Post (March 17, 2013)
Stephen Maire, Asian Review of Books (June 25, 2013)

China Urbanization Cost Could Top $106 Billion a Year

on July 30, 2013

The figure is based on the assumption that 25 million people a year settle in cities, with the government spending the money on making sure they enjoy the same benefits in healthcare, housing and schools that city residents have, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said.

Society, Urban Life
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Migration, Rural-Urban Migration