Bakugai!

By James Whitlow Delano & Hannah Beech on July 28, 2016

History has not favored power-sharing on the world’s most populated continent. For millennia, China dominated as East Asia’s greatest force, its culture shaping civilizations across the region. In a more recent era, Japan reigned, boasting the continent’s mightiest economy and military. The interstices between these empires’ rises and falls were often marked by war. Today, as China eclipses Japan, history buffs might fret about conflict again breaking out between old foes. They haven’t factored in bakugai.

Whose Century Is It, Anyway?

A Sinica Podcast

By Kaiser Kuo, Jeremy Goldkorn & more on July 27, 2016

Veteran China journalists Mary Kay Magistad and Gady Epstein discuss the increasingly complex “frenemyship” of China and the United States, the South China Sea, the role of “old China hands,” and how the Middle Kingdom is changing the world and being changed by it.

New Territory For Financial Oversight Reform

By Hu Shuli

on July 27, 2016

An intense battle for control of China’s largest, publicly traded developer China Vanke Co. has exposed flaws in the nation’s financial supervision system that demand urgent attention.

Vanke management and Baoneng Group, a property and insurance conglomerate, have been battling since July 2015 over stock purchases through which Baoneng rose to become Vanke’s largest shareholder.

Times Square Is Now In the Middle of a Fight Over the South China Sea

By Beimeng Fu on July 27, 2016

China has taken its fight with the Philippines over who owns territory in the South China Sea to a whole new arena: Times Square. The state-run Xinhua announced Tuesday that a 3 minute long publicity video premiered on the Square’s “China Screen” since last Saturday.

Politics
South China Sea, New York, Propaganda, Advertising

There Are a Lot More Chinese Soldiers in Africa Today... And Likely More To Come

A China in Africa Podcast

By Eric Olander, Cobus van Staden & more on July 26, 2016

Around 2014, the Chinese began to shift their military engagement strategy in Africa to include the deployment of combat-ready infantry units to countries like Mali and South Sudan where the United Nations is being actively targeted by Islamist radicals and partisan fighters.

The Condom Quandary

A Study of the Impact of Law Enforcement Practices on Effective HIV Prevention among Male, Female, and Transgender Sex Workers in China

on July 26, 2016

Sex work is illegal in China, and law enforcement practices that focus on condoms as evidence of prostitution are having a negative impact on HIV prevention among sex workers. When Lanlan, who runs a community-based organization (CBO) and support group for sex workers in northern China, introduced female condoms to the female sex workers she works with as part of her CBO’s HIV and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) program, their first reaction was: “The female condom is too big. We can’t swallow it if the police come!” This story highlights the conundrum sex workers in China face when attempting to avoid penalties by law enforcement and protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases and infections (STIs) and HIV.

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HIV/AIDS
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Anti-Vice Campaign
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Sex Workers and Condoms

By Charmain Mohamed & Shen Tingting on July 26, 2016

China has long taken a punitive approach to sex work, but sex workers in China have recently experienced the harshest crackdown in a decade. The “strike hard” campaigns which began in Beijing and Dongguan in 2010 and 2014 respectively, ultimately spawning a nationwide crackdown. These campaigns led to the shutdown of thousands of entertainment venues and the detention of tens of thousands of sex workers.

Shen Tingting

on July 25, 2016

Shen Tingting has been the Director of Advocacy, Research, and Policy at Asia Catalyst since 2012. She has been a prominent HIV/AIDS and human rights advocate in Beijing, China, and has been working with marginalized communities since her college days. In 2007, Shen co-founded the Korekata AIDS Law Center with Li Dan, and until 2012 she was the Deputy Director of its parent organization, Dongjen Center for Human Rights Education and Action, where she founded and managed an outreach program for sex workers in Beijing. Shen received an M.A. in Social Welfare from Renmin University of China in 2009. She served as a visiting research fellow at Asia Catalyst from March to August 2012. Currently, Shen serves as a member of the UNAIDS Reference Group on HIV and Human Rights.

Charmain Mohamed

on July 25, 2016

Charmain Mohamed is currently the Advocacy Advisor for the Norwegian Refugee Council response on Syria. She served as Executive Director of Asia Catalyst from 2013 to early 2016. A a respected and experienced human rights advocate and activist, Mohamed has lived and worked in Asia for most of the past 15 years. She has worked for the U.N., Human Rights Watch, and the Norwegian Refugee Council, both in emergency contexts and on long-term issues, in countries such as Indonesia, East Timor, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and most recently in Palestine.

Mohamed holds an Masters in Human Rights Law from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and a B.A. (Hons.) in Southeast Asian Studies and Indonesian Language from the University of Hull. Mohamed is fluent in English, Indonesian, and Malay.