Shi Yi

on June 25, 2016

Shi Yi is a Shanghai-based journalist who has reported on the environment for The Paper since its launch in 2014, covering topics such as biodiversity and climate change. Since 2016, she has written for its English-language site Sixth Tone, also owned by the Shanghai United Media Group. She is also an Associate at Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental Journalism.

Shi filed a series of reports on the Kalamely Nature Reserve in Xinjiang, which has been repeatedly diminished to allow for mining, putting rare wildlife at risk. The reports got the attention of the Chinese central government, and a subsequent memo from Xi Jinping resulted in an undercover visit by Party Central Committee investigators, as well as a public visit by Zhang Chunxian, Xinjiang Party Secretary, during which plans for the most recent reduction of the reserve were halted. At the end of 2015 the plans were scrapped for good.

This, and other outstanding reports by Shi, won her the Journalist of the Year award at the 2016 China Environmental Press Awards. In the southern Africa country of Namibia, she investigated the illegal trade in ivory, posing as a buyer to make contact with traders of illegal animal products. On publication of her report local police raided an illegal marketplace. Such reports bolster the international fight against poaching and demonstrate China’s increased awareness of her international responsibilities.

Is Europe Prepared to Deal with the China Challenge?

A ChinaFile Conversation

By Mikko Huotari, Jan Weidenfeld & more on June 24, 2016

Chinese President Xi Jinping is on a grand tour of the western end of the “New Silk Road,” in visits to Serbia and Poland this week before he returns to Beijing via Uzbekistan, a more eastern outpost on China’s expanding 21st Century trade route. Xi was present in Belgrade and Warsaw at the signing of a series of agreements in areas ranging from trade, education, finance, technology, and civil aviation as China looks to bolster its presence in central and eastern Europe.

Jan Weidenfeld

on June 24, 2016

Jan Weidenfeld is Head of Research of the European China Policy Unit at the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS). He works on European-China relations, transatlantic China policy, and cyber diplomacy. Prior to joining MERICS, Weidenfeld was an analyst with the RAND Corporation, where he led a wide range of European and transatlantic foreign and security policy research efforts for E.U. institutions, agencies, and member states. Over the course of his career, he served in policy-making and research positions with the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, the OSCE, the E.U. Delegation to the International Organisations in Vienna, the European Union Institute for Security Studies, and the European Centre for Development Policy Management. Weidenfeld holds an M.Phil. degree in International Relations from the University of Cambridge, where he was also a Gates Scholar.