China Seeks to Calm Markets as It Devalues Currency for 3rd Consecutive Day
on August 13, 2015
Since Tuesday, the currency, the renminbi, has fallen 4.4 percent, the biggest drop in decades.
China: The Superpower of Mr. Xi
on August 13, 2015
In the almost one-hundred-year existence of the Chinese Communist Party (C.C.P.), its current general secretary, Xi Jinping, is only the second leader clearly chosen by his peers. The first was Mao Zedong. Both men beat out the competition, and thus secured a legitimacy their predecessors lacked.1 Why was Xi chosen?
Beijing’s Air Quality May Finally Be Improving ... But it Still Ain’t Great
on August 12, 2015
In February, a Chinese celebrity journalist named Chai Jing released a video on the Internet about the damage air pollution was causing her country. During the week it was online (before Chinese censors pulled it down), people viewed the video 200 million times. Air pollution is perhaps on more Chinese minds than ever before.
David Volodzko
on August 12, 2015
David Volodzko is a writer for The Diplomat, where he covers topics related to Chinese politics and society. He has lived in Asia for more than ten years (primarily in China, India, Japan, and South Korea) and his writings cover a wide range of topics, including animal cruelty, economics, psychology, education, travel, cuisine, and philosophy.
Volodzko’s work has been published with the China Policy Institute, where he wrote about the history of major themes in Chinese propaganda, and in GlobalPost, where he covered China’s illegal logging industry. He has also written for the South China Morning Post, regarding the effect of globalization on Chinese language education, and for The Jamestown Foundation, concerning China-Holy See relations. His work has also appeared in openDemocracy, The Washington Monthly, and Z Magazine. He is a former lecturer at Soongshil University and a graduate of the State University of New York, where his research included human behavior and intercultural communication. He is the author of the blog Rational Consent.
Japan’s Soft Power Leader in China is a Fat Blue Cartoon Cat
on August 11, 2015
On July 28, costumed in vibrant colors, throngs of fans flocked toward the early morning light of Victoria Harbor, queueing outside the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center for the last day of the 17th Ani-Com & Games Hong Kong.
Auditors Probe Sinopec, Savvy Broker in Angola
A Well-Connected Chinese Briton May Have Led the State Oil Giant Astray in Africa
on August 11, 2015
Government auditors are taking a closer look at U.S.$10 billion worth of offshore oil investments by state-run China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) that owe their existence to a Hong Kong businessman with a flair for networking in the southern African nation of Angola.
In July, the National Audit Office completed its review of Sinopec’s ongoing seven-year project to develop five sub-sea oil drilling blocks, but a source close to Sinopec says auditors have extended their review while probing the project’s links to a businessman named Sam Pa.
U.S. Stocks Tumble After China Rattles Currency Market
on August 11, 2015
The People’s Bank of Chinadevalued its tightly controlled currency, triggering the largest one-day loss for the yuan in 20 years.
Bearish Bets Multiply as China Slows
on August 11, 2015
A slowdown in China is harder for its trading partners and manufacturing competitors than it is for China itself.
China Devalues Its Currency as Worries Rise About Economic Slowdown
on August 11, 2015
China’s Role in Africa’s ‘Looting Machine’
A China in Africa Podcast
on August 11, 2015
China goes to great lengths to differentiate its engagement in Africa from the continent’s former European colonizers by emphasizing so-called “win-win development.” Chinese leaders regularly visit Africa where they emphatically reject the accusation of neo-colonialism and that Beijing is only interested in exploiting the continent’s natural resources.
