Science-Fiction Prize Is Awarded to Chinese Writer for First Time
on August 24, 2015
The Chinese writer Liu Cixin has won the 2015 Hugo Award, the first time the prestigious prize has gone to a Chinese writer.
Great Fall of China Sinks World Stocks, Dollar
on August 24, 2015
A near 9-percent dive in China shares and a sharp drop in the dollar and major commodities sent investors rushing for the exit.
Yang Fawei
on August 24, 2015
Photographer Yang Fawei is the Headmaster of the Hubei Media Photographer Training Institute and President of the Hubei Photographers Association. His published works include Momentary Thought and Practice of News Photography (Hubei Fine Arts Publishing House, 1998), The Ancient City Wall: The Expression of Xiangyang City (Hubei People’s Press, 2010), and Looking Homeward: The Disappearing Rural Landscape (China Peace Publishing House, 2013), among others. His photography has been recognized in international competitions in Finland, Serbia, Montenegro, Ireland, and elsewhere.
Japan Refuses to Take Part in China’s ‘Victory Day’ Event to Mark End of War
on August 24, 2015
Shinzo Abe has decided against visiting Beijing for the event, partly to protest against China’s regional military build-up.
How to Solve China’s Currency Parity Puzzle?
Central Bank Says Devaluation Aimed at Market Reform, but Analysts Smell Different Motives
on August 24, 2015
Boosting exports, controlling outbound capital flow and supporting the Chinese currency’s bid for Special Drawing Rights (SDR) status are just some of the reasons cited by analysts for the yuan's unexpected devaluation in mid-August.
The yuan lost about 3 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar between August 11 and 13, roiling global equity markets and stoking fears that China had pushed a trade war button.
The Tianjin Explosion
A Sinica Podcast
on August 24, 2015
Insurance scam? Industrial accident? Political machinations? After August excursions to lands of clean air and English-language media, the Sinica team is back this week with a show covering the astonishing explosions that gutted the Binhai economic development zone in Tianjin last week. As the Chinese government struggles to deal with public pressures for greater transparency and conspiracy theories mount, we take a closer look at what we know and don’t about the port explosion.
David Dollar
on August 22, 2015
David Dollar is a senior fellow with the Foreign Policy and Global Economy and Development programs in the John L. Thornton China Center at The Brookings Institution. He is a leading expert on China’s economy and U.S.-China economic relations. From 2009 to 2013, he was the U.S. Treasury’s economic and financial emissary to China.
In that capacity, he facilitated the economic and financial policy dialogue between the United States and China. That included the formal meetings, notably the annual Strategic and Economic Dialogue, as well as constant exchanges between the treasury department and Chinese economic policymakers at all levels. Based at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, Dollar served as Treasury’s eyes and ears on the ground and reported back to Washington on economic and policy developments in China.
Dollar worked at the World Bank for 20 years, and from 2004 to 2009, was country director for China and Mongolia. His other World Bank assignments primarily focused on Asian economies, including South Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Bangladesh, and India. From 1995 to 2004, Dollar worked in the World Bank’s research department.
Prior to his World Bank career, Dollar was an Assistant Professor of economics at University of California Los Angeles, spending a semester in Beijing teaching at the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He has a doctorate in economics from New York University and a bachelor’s in Chinese history and language from Dartmouth College. He has written extensively about economic reform in China, globalization, and economic growth.
—The Brookings Institution
Uncivil Society
on August 22, 2015
Tibet’s Road Ahead
on August 22, 2015
Tibetans complain that they live, essentially, as second-class citizens in their own land. Their language, culture and faith are all under pressure. They attend substandard schools and, if they manage to get an education, lack the same job opportunities as the Han, the Chinese majority.
Beijing Tells Mayors of Chinese Cities to Clean Up Their Air
on August 21, 2015
In China, “APEC blue” was the sarcastic term used to refer to the unusually clear skies Beijing enjoyed when an Asia-Pacific leaders summit was in progress late last year.
A similar phenomenon is now being seen in smaller Chinese cities, as mayors are summoned to the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) for “chats,” resulting in sudden improvements in air quality.
