Africa’s Fisheries’ Paradise at a Crossroads

Investigating Chinese Companies’ Illegal Fishing Practices in West Africa

on May 1, 2015

Irresponsible Chinese Distant Water Fishing (DWF) companies, including China’s largest DWF company—China National Fisheries Corporation (CNFC)—are undermining the long-term sustainability of West Africa’s fisheries through persistent Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing practices, including systematic fishing vessel tonnage fraud and the exportation of a destructive fisheries model. Meanwhile, West African fisheries resources are increasingly being overfished. While these Chinese DWF companies’ activities contribute little to China's overall overseas investments, they undermine the mutually-beneficial partnership which the Chinese government is seeking with African countries. The Chinese government must urgently reform its DWF regulatory framework and management system to close the loopholes that have allowed Chinese companies to overfish and flout rules with quasi impunity for decades. West African governments must urgently strengthen governance and adopt and implement policies to ensure that the exploitation of their marine resources is environmentally sustainable and socially equitable. All states concerned should also adopt and implement effective national and regional plans of action to combat and deter IUU fishing in the region.

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Greenpeace

New Neighbors: Chinese Investment in the United States by Congressional District

on May 1, 2015

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is a vital component of the United States economy today and has been throughout the nation’s history. Investors from abroad are a source of growth, employment, competitiveness, and innovation, and their presence is living proof of America’s commitment to openness, market competition, and putting the interests of consumers above the welfare of corporations.

Companies from China have not historically played a direct role in the U.S. economy, and FDI was largely a one-way street from the U.S. to China from the 1980s to the 2000s. In recent years, however, Chinese FDI into the U.S. has taken off, bringing a growing number of firms from China face-to-face with U.S. communities; new corporate neighbors are moving in.

This report details—for the first time—Chinese commercial investment in the U.S. down to the congressional district level, using a unique dataset in development since 2009. With that granular information the report describes the picture so far in terms of investment value, operations, and associated employment.

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Business
Economy
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Foreign Direct Investment
U.S.-China Relations
Organization: 
National Committee on United States-China Relations

‘Blue Sky’ App Gets China’s Public Thinking About Pollution Solutions

Realtime Emmissions Data from Factories Highlights Growing Environmental Crisis

on April 30, 2015

The Blue Sky Map app, which was officially launched April 28 by the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE), enables the public to check up on air and water quality and local sources of pollution, and scrutinize emissions from 9,000 polluting companies.

Fantasy Islands

By Julie Sze on April 30, 2015

The rise of China and its status as a leading global factory are altering the way people live and consume. At the same time, the world appears wary of the real costs involved. Fantasy Islands probes Chinese, European, and American eco-desire and eco-technological dreams, and examines the solutions they offer to environmental degradation in this age of global economic change.

Uncovering the stories of sites in China, including the plan for a new eco-city called Dongtan on the island of Chongming, mega-suburbs, and the Shanghai World Expo, Julie Sze explores the flows, fears, and fantasies of Pacific Rim politics that shaped them. She charts how climate change discussions align with U.S. fears of China’s ascendancy and the related demise of the American Century, and she considers the motives of financial and political capital for eco-city and ecological development supported by elite power structures in the U.K. and China. Fantasy Islands shows how ineffectual these efforts are while challenging us to see what a true eco-city would be. —University of California Press

Book Review: 

Fred Pearce, New Scientist (January 26, 2015)
Michael Veale, LSE Review of Books (January, 3, 2015)
Mark Clifford, Asian Review of Books (January 19, 2015)

Will China Ban Katy Perry?

By Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian on April 30, 2015

On April 28, American pop singer Katy Perry gave her first-ever concert in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, the self-governing island which mainland China considers to be its sovereign territory. Tense relations between Taiwan and mainland China mean that celebrities visiting Taiwan must often perform a balancing act—pleasing the island’s crowds while not offending mainland sensibilities.

Miners of Huaibei

By Xie Zhengyi on April 30, 2015

Coal miners in Huaibei, in northern Anhui province, pose for photographer Xie Zhengyi, a member of the photo agency CPressphoto. This city of two million sits atop an estimated 2.726 million tons of coal, as well as other mineral reserves.

Mingwei Huang

on April 29, 2015

Mingwei Huang is conducting an interdisciplinary study of the contemporary spectacular reemergence of Sino-African relations, particularly Sino-African friendship, in South Africa. She is focusing on how the geopolitics of diplomatic “friendship” and transnational capital flows between China and South Africa are localized in the everyday encounters and friendships between Chinese migrants, South Africans, and African migrants in South Africa. She researches how friendship and capital are linked through productive sentiments such as amity and trust in addition to everyday social practices of exchange and transactions. In so doing, she conceptualizes how friendship and capital are mutually constitutive in a “political economy of friendship” and a local “friendship economy” in commercial spaces of transnational capital. Through ethnographic, historical, cultural, and media studies methods, Huang examines three Sino-African capital and cultural flows vis-à-vis friendship: mass Chinese tourism in Cape Town, China Malls—Chinese-import shopping malls—in Johannesburg, and PRC sponsored cultural diplomacy events in South Africa. Her research theoretically contributes to anthropological approaches to friendship, capital, globalization, and “south-south” relations.