Plamen Tonchev

on July 10, 2018

Plamen Tonchev is Head of the Asia Unit at the Athens-based Institute of International Economic Relations (IIER) and a founding member of the European think-tank Network on China (ETNC). His latest publications include the IIER report on “Chinese Investment in Greece and the Big Picture of Sino-Greek Relations” (co-authored, 2017), “China’s Image in Greece, 2008-2018” (co-authored, 2018), the paper “Along the Road: Sri Lanka’s Tale of Two Ports” (European Union Institute for Security Studies, 2018), “Chinese Investment in Greek and Sri Lankan Sea Ports: Analogies and Lessons Learned” (LKI, 2019), and “China’s Soft Power in Southeast Europe” (FES, 2020). Plamen contributes frequently to The Diplomat.

Blood Letters

By Lian Xi on July 10, 2018

Basic Books: The staggering story of the most important Chinese political dissident of the Mao era, a devout Christian who was imprisoned, tortured, and executed by the regime.

Blood Letters tells the astonishing tale of Lin Zhao, a poet and journalist arrested by the authorities in 1960 and executed eight years later, at the height of the Cultural Revolution. Openly and steadfastly opposing communism under Mao, she rooted her dissent in her Christian faith—and expressed it in long, prophetic writings done in her own blood, and at times on her clothes and on cloth torn from her bedsheets.

Miraculously, Lin Zhao’s prison writings survived, though they have only recently come to light. Drawing on these works and others from the years before her arrest, as well as interviews with her friends, her classmates, and other former political prisoners, Lian Xi paints an indelible portrait of courage and faith in the face of unrelenting evil.

Book Review: 

J.P. O’Malley, South China Morning Post (April 26, 2018)

Joseph C. Goulden, The Washington Times (March 18, 2018)

Amy Peterson, Christianity Today (February 20, 2018)

Kirkus Reviews (January 8, 2018)

Related Reading:

“The Chinese Dissident Who Wrote in Blood,” Lian Xi, Wall Street Journal, April 13, 2018

“Sensitive Words: Trying to Visit Lin Zhao’s Grave,” Anne Henochowicz, China Digital Times, May 6, 2015

“Remembrance of Dissident Lin Zhao Obstructed on 45th Execution Anniversary,” Patrick Boehler, South China Morning Post, April 29, 2013

Author’s Recommendations:

How the Red Sun Rose: The Origin and Development of the Yan’an Rectification Movement, 1930–1945, Gao Hua (Chinese University Press, 2018; Chinese version published in 2000)

Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine, 1958-1962, Yang Jisheng (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013)

God Is Red: The Secret Story of How Christianity Survived and Flourished in Communist China, Liao Yiwu (HarperOne, 2012)

Kurt Campbell on U.S.-China Diplomacy

A Sinica Podcast

By Kaiser Kuo on July 9, 2018

Kaiser talks to former Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell about his career, his critique of engagement, and the fascinating events that happened on his watch—including the extrication of blind activist lawyer Chen Guangcheng and the attempted defection of Bo Xilai’s former police chief in Chongqing, Wang Lijun.

Asia Dialogue

on July 5, 2018

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Asia Dialogue is the online magazine of the University of Nottingham Asia Research Institute. The University of Nottingham’s Asia Research Institute brings together world-leading research and expertise concerning the major sustainable development challenges in Asia through engagement with practitioners and partners in the region. Its aim is to increase dialogue with, and to make an impact on, the ongoing debates within the region, together with Nottingham’s Chinese and Malaysian campuses.

A U.S. View on China’s So-Called ‘Debtbook Diplomacy’ Agenda

A China in Africa Podcast

By Eric Olander, Cobus van Staden & more on July 5, 2018

For the past year or so, senior U.S. government officials have been accusing China of engaging in so-called “debtbook diplomacy,” a tactic that Washington contends intentionally burdens developing countries with billions of dollars of loans. When these countries, many of them some of the poorest in the world, invariably can’t pay back the loans, Beijing extracts concessions that further China’s geopolitical interests, according to the theory that is now widely held among U.S. politicians, academics, and strategists.

Alka Acharya

on July 5, 2018

Alka Acharya is a Professor at the Centre for East Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, where she has taught courses on Chinese Foreign Policy and Political Economy and guided Doctoral research since 1993. She was Editor of China Report (New Delhi) from 2005-2013 and Director and Senior Fellow of the Institute of Chinese Studies, Delhi from April 2012 to March 2017. She was nominated to the India-China Eminent Persons Group (2006-2008) and was a member of the National Security Advisory Board of the Government of India during 2006-2008 and 2011-2012. She is the joint editor of the book Crossing A Bridge of Dreams: 50 years of India-China, and the author of China & India: Politics of Incremental Engagement. Her current research focuses on India-China-Russia Trilateral Cooperation and the Chinese strategic response to the post-cold war Asian regional architecture.

Only Two New Representative Offices in June

on July 5, 2018

Only two new representative offices were registered in June. The last time we saw such low registration numbers was between mid-February and mid-March of last year (right after the Foreign NGO Law came into effect). We don’t yet know if this drop-off is indicative of a general slowing-down in registrations or if it simply illustrates how variable the registration numbers are from week to week and month to month.