The Author’s Students, 1979
on June 10, 2020
Judy Polumbaum’s students in front of the Institute of Journalism under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, Fall 1979.
For Me, the Breakdown in U.S.-China Relations Is Personal
on June 10, 2020
In my childhood, they were the Red Chinese. In my husband’s upbringing, we were the American imperialists. U.S.-China reconciliation after ping-pong diplomacy enabled us to meet and marry 40 years ago. Those of us with a foot in each world find the renewed hostilities of the Donald Trump-Xi Jinping era especially dispiriting and disruptive.
Judy Polumbaum
on June 8, 2020
Judy Polumbaum was the first Western researcher to do fieldwork focusing on post-Mao journalism in mainland China. She taught journalism at the University of Iowa for nearly three decades, and as Professor Emerita, relocated from the Midwest to the Southwest, where she reads, writes, and walks her two little rescue beagles.
Scallion Dutch Baby
How I Revised My Recipe for Home
on June 5, 2020
The dishes I make myself flavor my moods, and season my experience of the news. As my birth country and my host country cast blame on one another, I eat four-cheese pizza with a side dish of blanched cauliflower seasoned with soy sauce, vinegar, and extra chili oil.
Hongshaorou
on June 4, 2020
A meal with a strong, simple identity: hongshaorou (red-braised pork belly) over white rice.
Yanduxian
on June 4, 2020
Yanduxian (soup made with spring bamboo shoots, cured and fresh pork, and knots of pressed bean curd), stir-fried chili pepper, bamboo shoots and pickled mustard, rice with steamed Kabocha squash.
Thai Shrimp Salad
on June 4, 2020
A meal with an ambiguous identity: Thai shrimp salad, Japanese hijiki salad, Chinese steamed eggplant.
Has COVID-19 Changed How China’s Leaders Approach National Security?
A ChinaFile Conversation
on June 3, 2020
While the world is reeling from the cascading shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic, China has continued a comparatively aggressive course in its foreign policy and security posture. Not only has it continued military and paramilitary activities in the South and East China Sea, including exercises around Taiwan, but actions have increased. China’s outreach efforts, including offers of medical supplies and advice, have at times been accompanied not only by vitriolic statements and dubious alternative pandemic origin stories from its Foreign Ministry officials and state media, but also by the leveraging of trade relations with the EU to censor criticism of these statements, as well as trade actions—official and unofficial—against Australian beef and barley imports in response to Canberra’s push for more transparency on China’s initial handling of the outbreak.
No Foreign NGO Representative Offices Registered in May
Last Month Was the First Since January 2017 with No New Registrations
on June 2, 2020
Public security officials did not register any new foreign NGO representative offices in the month of May, marking the first time since the the Foreign NGO Law first took effect in January 2017 that an entire month elapsed without any registrations. During the height of the COVID-19 outbreak in China, authorities were still reporting new registrations, with three new offices registered in January, three in February, and five in March.
Rorry Daniels
on June 1, 2020
Rorry Daniels is the Managing Director of the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI), where she leads and oversees strategy and operations for ASPI’s projects on security, climate change, and trade throughout Asia. She is also a Senior Fellow with ASPI’s Center for China Analysis. She was previously with the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, where she managed the organization’s Track II and research portfolio on Asia security issues, with a particular focus on cross-Taiwan Strait relations, U.S.-China relations, and the North Korean nuclear program. Her most recent research project audited the U.S.-China Strategic & Economic Dialogue to evaluate its process and outcomes.
Daniels regularly writes and provides analysis for major media outlets and newsletters on security issues in the U.S. and the Asia Pacific. She is a 2022 Mansfield-Luce scholar, a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and the National Committee on North Korea, a Pacific Forum Young Leader, and a Korea Society Kim Koo Foundation Fellow (2015 cohort). She earned her M.S. in International Relations at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs, where she focused her studies on East and South Asia. She is proficient in Mandarin and holds a B.A. in Media Studies from Emerson College.