Electric vehicle firm Tesla’s major new deal with China Unicom to build EV charging infrastructure unites what is seemingly the only EV success story, pursuing a business model targeting elite customers, with China’s second largest mobile phone operator.
"Rich Chinese are literally eating this exotic mammal into extinction," read a recent Global Post expose of the devastating trade in the pangolin, a scaly anteater that Chinese consider a delicacy. According to the Post, the adorable animals (which one columnist described as "a four-legged pine cone") had become the most heavily trafficked mammal in the world, in large part because Chinese like to eat them.
Large areas of grasslands, alpine meadows, wetlands, and permafrost will disappear on the Tibetan plateau by 2050, with serious implications for environmental security in China and South Asia, a research paper published by scientists at the Kunming Institute of Botany has warned.
Economic data show a slowdown in China.
David R. Hoffman is Vice President and Managing Director of The Conference Board China Center. Based in Beijing, Hoffman is responsible for the center’s strategy, research agenda, research program delivery, partner relationships with Chinese government organizations, and value delivery to members of both the China Center and The Conference Board. He leads numerous research projects and outreach activities, oversees a team of researchers in both China and New York, and coordinates the network of eminent advisors and scholars from The Conference Board who undertake China Center programs. Hoffman is also an independent, non-executive Director of Eastern Broadcasting Corporation in Taiwan.
As pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong extend into their fourth week with no resolution in sight, pro-Beijing voices have increasingly accused “foreign forces” of wielding influence over Hong Kong protests and intervening in Chinese internal affairs. While such accusations have seldom named explicit targets, one such alleged foreign force has just taken a specific, and surprising, form—smooth jazz sax.
Houze Song is a Program Associate at the Paulson Institute. He previously worked as a researcher at Columbia Global Center (East Asia). Before that, he worked as a Research Manager at Unirule Institute, where he assisted the Chairman, Mao Yushi, with research and project management. He holds a M.A. in Quantitative Methods and a M.P.A. in International Economics, both from Columbia University.
Carlos Herrera is a Nicaraguan photojournalist, born in the capital Managua. He is currently the Director of Photography for the Nicaragua magazine Confidencial. Herrera graduated from Universidad Centroamericana in Managua with a degree in Social Communication. In 2008, he got his start in photojournalism working for HOY newspaper and in 2012 he joined the photography department of the newspaper La Prensa. Herrera received a postgraduate degree in Graphic Design and Advertising at Universidad Americana in Managua in 2011 and is currently a candidate for an M.A. in Strategic Communication at Universidad Americana.
On September 27, Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong read aloud a letter written by President Xi Jinping at a ceremony in Beijing celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Confucius Institute (CI) program, an international chain of academic centers embedded in partner schools abroad, yet funded and operated by the Chinese government.
Wilfredo Miranda Aburto is a Nicaraguan journalist working for Confidencial, a Nicaraguan newspaper. Additionally, he is an investigative reporter for the news show Esta Semana. He collaborates with the Mexican newspaper El Excelsior and has published stories in newspapers in El Salvador, Guatemala, Venezuela, and Argentina, as well as other media outlets in Nicaragua. He also has experience in television and radio. He graduated from the Universidad Centroamericana in Nicaragua with a major on Communications.
