Is China Building Up Soft Power by Aiding Nepal?

A ChinaFile Conversation

By Ashok Gurung, Zha Daojiong & more on April 29, 2015

A devastating earthquake has struck one of China’s smallest neighbors, the mountainous former kingdom known, since 2008, as the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. Surrounded on three sides by India—known in Nepali as a “friendly nation”—Nepal these days feels an outsized influence from China, on its fourth border, which it historically called just “neighboring country.” Today, Nepal’s tourism industry caters increasingly to Chinese sightseers and mountain climbers.

An American Hero in China

By Ian Johnson on April 29, 2015

One night in September, three hundred people crowded into the basement auditorium of an office tower in Beijing to hear a discussion between two of China’s most popular writers. One was Liu Yu, a thirty-eight-year-old political scientist and blogger who has written a best seller explaining how American democracy works. Her fans call her “goddess”—for her writings and her stylish looks.1

Ashok Gurung

on April 28, 2015

Ashok Gurung is the senior director of the India China Institute (ICI) at The New School. He is responsible for the overall development, management, and coordination of ICI programs and projects in India, China, and the United States. Ashok has over fifteen years of international development experience as an educator, researcher, manager, grant-maker, policy analyst, activist, and training facilitator with civil society groups, academic institutions, foundations and multi-lateral organizations, and governments in over 40 countries worldwide. Recently, he was the program officer for the International Fellowships Program, the largest global leadership initiative ($280 million) of the Ford Foundation. He holds a MA in International Affairs from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, a BA in International Service and Development from World College West in Petaluma, California, and a Certificate in Norwegian Culture and Society from the University of Oslo in Oslo, Norway.

Where Do We Draw the Line on Balancing China?

The U.S. Needs to Think Carefully About How Far it Wants to Commit to Limiting Beijing’s Rising Power

on April 28, 2015

Is it time for the United States to get serious about balancing China? According to Robert Blackwill and Ashley Tellis, the answer is an emphatic yes. In a new Council on Foreign Relations report, they portray China as steadily seeking to increase its national power, reduce the U.S. security role in Asia, and eventually dominate the international system. To deal with this clear challenge to U.S.

Christopher Cairns

on April 28, 2015

Christopher Cairns is a Ph.D. Candidate in Government at Cornell University. His research focuses on China and Chinese media with special emphasis on the recent surge in social media channels. His dissertation addresses how the Chinese state responded to this surge from around 2009-2012, particularly its intentions regarding whether and how much to censor an emergent class of online commentators: the “Big V” (celebrity microbloggers with large follower counts). The dissertation and future work will also address what this strategy of “smart censorship,” which emerged during President Hu Jintao’s last years, has to say about recent changes under Xi Jinping. Articles and working papers by Cairns include work on the 2012 Diaoyu/Senkaku islands dispute (with Allen Carlson, forthcoming in China Quarterly), microblogger discontent over air pollution in 2012 (with Elizabeth Plantan), and a study of online discussion concerning the downfall of former top official Bo Xilai.

Fusion

on April 28, 2015

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