This is the second in a two-part special report on the resettlement rights of villagers displaced by dams along the Mekong (Lancang) River. Part one is an analysis of how China’s resettlement policies are playing out on the ground. Part two, below, is an insight into the experiences of one village, Xiaohe, on the upper Mekong.
Many U.S. viewers identify with serial killer Morgan Dexter of Dexter, inveterate womanizer Don Draper of Mad Men, or family man turned meth kingpin Walter White of Breaking Bad—however morally bankrupt they may be. Now, China has its own anti-hero, one that citizens love—and authorities merely tolerate. Concubine-turned-Empress Zhen Huan is the protagonist of Empress in the Palace, a fictitious television drama series set during the Qing dynasty reign of Emperor Yong Zheng, who assumed the throne in 1722.
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.
A prominent Hong Kong-based journalist has called on Daniel Doctoroff, Chief Executive Officer of Bloomberg L.P., to step down from his role as chairman of the Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) annual International Press Freedom Awards dinner on Tuesday in New York because his company is engulfed in a press freedom controversy of its own, involving its China reporting team.
Beijing has just thrown down the latest gauntlet in a long-simmering territorial dispute with Tokyo—and China’s citizens are cheering.
A legal storm that started with China’s largest state-owned oil company has expanded to include Iraq and led to the detention of more people.
Mi Xiaodong, a former mid-level official at China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) was detained by party discipline officials in early October, sources say. The source also said Mi was managing oil businesses for Zhou Bin, former Chairman of Beijing Zhongxu Yangguang Petroleum and Natural Gas Technology Ltd.
Mary Kay Magistad: Gary Locke succeeded in a way that few U.S. ambassadors to China have—in improving public perceptions of U.S. culture. Locke’s down-to-earth approachability and lack of ostentation certainly helped. So did the initiatives of shortening waits for U.S. visas from 70-100 days to 3-5 days, and making pollution data public, helping the Chinese people pressure their government into doing the same. Not bad for two and a half years.
Chinese are waving goodbye to the frustratingly normal U.S. Ambassador to Beijing, Gary Locke, who announced on November 20 that he will be leaving his post in early 2014.
It’s an all-American (and all-star) lineup of guests this week, as Bill Bishop, Gady Epstein, and James Fallows join Kaiser for an in-depth discussion of the Third Plenary Session, the outcome of which has produced a rare consensus among China-watchers—and an even rarer consensus among guests and host at Sinica. Trust us on this: this one is actually interesting.
Shot in big cities and small towns across China in recent years, Shen Wei’s photographic project “Chinese Sentiment” is a personal journey to recapture bygone Chinese life in both private and public space. Born and raised in Shanghai, Shen Wei worked as a waiter in a hotel and designed information brochures for the police and ads for Coca-Cola before moving to the U.S. in 2000 to study painting and later photography. In 2006, his portrait project “Almost Naked,” which explored identity and sexuality in America, established him as a rising artist in New York.
