Apple’s Decision to Remove VPN Apps from the App Store in China Explained by Tim Cook
on August 2, 2017
Tim Cook has responded to criticisms that Apple is quietly removing apps from the App Store for the Chinese government.
China Chatbot Goes Rogue: ‘Do You Love the Communist Party?’ ‘No’
on August 2, 2017
Two chatbots with decidedly non-socialist characteristics were pulled from one of China’s most popular messaging apps after serving up unpatriotic answers about topics including the South China Sea and the Communist party.
Chinese State Media Mocks Trump’s “Emotional Venting” on Twitter
on August 1, 2017
“Only the Fake News Media and Trump enemies want me to stop using Social Media,” Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday morning, referring to himself, characteristically, in the third person. “Only way for me to get the truth out!” Of course, the list of people who would like the president to stop tweeting extends far beyond his “enemies.” His wife, Melania Trump, has urged him to give up the daily habit. His lawyers have begged him to stop, as has Kellyanne Conway’s husband and Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski (“Do you want to be remembered for your tweets or your accomplishments?”). G.O.P. leadership lives in fear of what he might say next. Polls repeatedly show that voters across the ideological spectrum wish he would give it a rest. Of all the challenges facing newly installed White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, perhaps the most daunting is trying to reform and reorder the West Wing when the president routinely blows up the day’s talking points, resets the news cycle, and undermines his own agenda by going rogue on Twitter.
Globalization against Democracy
on August 1, 2017
Globalization has reconfigured both the external institutional framework and the intrinsic operating mechanisms of capitalism. The global triumph of capitalism implies the embracing of the market by the state in all its variants, and that global capitalism is not confined to the shell of nation-state democracy. Guoguang Wu provides a theoretical framework of global capitalism for specialists in political economy, political science, economics, and international relations, for graduate and undergraduate courses on globalization, capitalism, development, and democracy, as well as for the public who are interested in globalization. Wu examines the new institutional features of global capitalism and how they re-frame movements of capital, labor, and consumption. He explores how globalization has created a chain of connection in which capital depends on effective authoritarianism, while democracy depends on capital. Ultimately, he argues that the emerging state-market nexus has fundamentally shaken the existing institutional systems, harming democracy in the process. —Cambridge University Press
Joan Kaufman on Foreign Nonprofits and Academia in China
A Sinica Podcast
on August 1, 2017
Joan Kaufman is a fascinating figure: Her long and storied career in China started in the early 1980s, when she was what she calls a “cappuccino-and-croissant socialist from Berkeley.” Today, she is the director for academics at the Schwarzman Scholars program at Tsinghua University and a lecturer in the department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Debt-Ridden Chinese Giant Now a Shadow of Its Former Size
on August 1, 2017
The Han Show here in central China was supposed to turn the city of Wuhan into a leading tourist destination, with a dazzling spectacle of lights, water jets and acrobats by the former creative director of Cirque du Soleil. But the custom-built 2,000-seat theater is seldom even half full despite deeply discounted tickets.
Joining Apple, Amazon’s China Cloud Service Bows to Censors
on August 1, 2017
Days after Apple yanked anti-censorship tools off its app store in China, another major American technology company is moving to implement the country’s tough restrictions on online content.
Top Senate Democrat Urges Trump to Block China Deals over North Korea
on August 1, 2017
The top Democrat in the Senate on Tuesday called on President Donald Trump to block Chinese investments in the United States in an effort to pressure China “to help rein in North Korea’s threatening and destabilizing behavior.”
China Rebukes Trump: ‘Emotional Venting’ Is Not Policy
on August 1, 2017
President Donald Trump's tweets and “emotional venting” aimed at China over the weekend can't serve as a substitute for substantive policy discussions, the country’s state news agency said late Monday.
China's Show of Military Muscle Gives Neighbors Plenty to Think about, Analysts Say
on August 1, 2017
China’s military parade on Sunday and the comments made by President Xi Jinping at the event will undoubtedly have caught the attention of its neighbors, especially those with which it has territorial disputes, analysts said.