Reports
08.18.15The Politburo’s Predicament
Freedom House
Drawing on an analysis of hundreds of official documents, censorship directives, and human rights reports, as well as some 30 expert interviews, the study finds that the overall degree of repression has increased under the new leadership. Of 17...
Conversation
08.18.15How Should the U.S. Conduct the Xi Jinping State Visit?
As tensions increase between China and the United States over the value of the yuan, human rights violations, alleged cyber attacks, and disputed maritime territories, among other issues, how should the Obama administration conduct the upcoming...
The NYRB China Archive
08.13.15China: The Superpower of Mr. Xi
from New York Review of Books
In the almost one-hundred-year existence of the Chinese Communist Party (C.C.P.), its current general secretary, Xi Jinping, is only the second leader clearly chosen by his peers. The first was Mao Zedong. Both men beat out the competition, and thus...
Two Way Street
08.10.15A Response to ‘China’s Foreign Policy Isn’t Transparent? You’ve Got to Be Kidding’
from Two Way Street
I’m pleased that my article on the lack of transparency in China’s political system has stimulated this intellectually interesting commentary from Chu Yin. Chu elaborates my argument that China’s leaders keep the policy process secret because they...
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08.07.15China’s Liberal Academics Fear Growing Censorship
Guardian
“It is getting worse,” said Qiao, 45, whose public advocacy of western-style democracy and civil rights made him a thorn in the government’s side. “Since [Xi] came to power the government has placed tighter controls on ideological research and...
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08.07.15The Singapore Lesson China Missed
Wall Street Journal
It’s impossible to understand Singapore’s success without recognizing the importance of state constraint. Since Mr. Xi acknowledges no such limits, he will have a hard time achieving Singapore’s results.
Conversation
08.05.15Should the U.S. Extradite Chinese Wanted by Beijing?
This week, The New York Times reported that Chinese officials have asked the U.S. government to help in apprehending Ling Wancheng, a wealthy Chinese business man and the brother of one of the highest-level officials to have been targeted in Xi...
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07.31.15Guo Boxiong Expelled From Chinese Communist Party in Bid to Reform Military
Sydney Morning Herald
The military has been a core focus of President Xi Jinping's campaign against official corruption.
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07.27.15China’s Un-separation of Powers
Foreign Affairs
U.S. industry has figured out how to pull the levers of power in China but also points to a substantial change in how China is governed. In the past, there was at least some separation between party and government roles, but it seems that the line...
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07.23.15Confucius Says, Xi Does
Economist
Since he came to power in 2012, Mr Xi has sought to elevate Confucius—whom Mao vilified—as the grand progenitor of Chinese culture.
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07.22.15Xi Turns Back the Clock on Women’s Rights in China
Wall Street Journal
Although it is unthinkable today, two decades ago 30,000 women from around the world converged outside Beijing to promote a host of social and political causes.
Conversation
07.21.15Is China’s Reform Era Over and, If So, What’s Next?
Fordham Law School professor and regular ChinaFile contributor Carl Minzner says we've arrived at “China After the Reform Era,” a development that’s “not entirely bad” but also has a “dark side.” Minzner’s conclusions, excerpted below, come...
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07.21.15Understanding Xi Jinping’s ‘Key Minority’
Wall Street Journal
Xi’s renewed attention to the performance of county leaders shows that he is relying on local officials to play a pivotal role in implementing his program.
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07.20.15Xi Warns China Military Amid Anti-Corruption Purge
Financial Times
Xi delivered the stern message to the home unit of Xu Caihou, formerly one of China’s highest ranking generals, arrested last year for bribery scandal.
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07.15.15The Real Risk Behind China’s Stock-Market Drama
New Yorker
More recently, the Party has offered annual targets for economic growth that almost always bear out, no matter what sort of creative policy, or accounting, steps are required
Features
06.16.15Does Xi Jinping Represent a Return to the Mao Era?
Following is an edited transcript of a live event hosted at Asia Society New York on May 21, 2015, “ChinaFile Presents: Does Xi Jinping Represent a Return to the Politics of the Mao Era?” The evening convened the scholars Roderick MacFarquhar and...
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06.16.15China Military Says Two More top Officers Probed for Graft
Reuters
Serving and retired Chinese military officers have said military graft is so pervasive it could undermine China's ability to wage war.
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06.10.15Conversation
06.06.15Should the U.S. Change its China Policy and How?
The past several months have seen a growing chorus of calls for the U.S. to take stock of its policy toward China. Some prominent voices have called for greater efforts by the U.S. and China to forge “a substantive sense of common purpose,” while...
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06.01.15Q&A—Willy Wo-Lap Lam on ‘Chinese Politics in the Era of Xi Jinping’
New York Times
Xi’s reversal of guiding principles guiding Chinese politics post-Mao signals “the closing of the Chinese mind.”
Two Way Street
05.28.15What China’s Lack of Transparency Means for U.S. Policy
from Two Way Street
I am a political scientist and former diplomat who has studied China for more than forty years, and yet I still can’t answer some of my students’ most basic questions about China’s policy-making process. Where—in which institutional arena and at...
Media
05.26.15Weighing Mao’s Legacy in China Today
At the May 21 Asia Society event ChinaFile Presents: Does Xi Jinping Represent a Return to the Politics of the Mao Era?, a discussion of author Andrew Walder’s new book, China Under Mao: A Revolution Derailed, sparked a lively debate about the...
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05.21.15Why the U.S. Needs to Listen to China
Atlantic
And why China needs to listen to the U.S. The importance of the mutual economic criticisms between two major world powers.
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05.18.15Despite Tension, Xi says U.S.-China Relations are Stable
Reuters
John Kerry's trip has been dominated by security concerns about Beijing’s maritime ambitions in the So China Sea.
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05.18.15ChinaFile Recommends
05.13.15Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping Aim to Shelve Rifts Amid Economic Courtship
New York Times
Indian and Chinese officials are promoting Modi’s three-day visit as a business trip filled out with displays of good will.
Two Way Street
05.12.15Share and Be Nice
from Two Way Street
Having followed the progress of the People’s Republic of China for more than half a century, it is disquieting to now find the atmosphere between Americans and Chinese so stubbornly cool. Indeed, in certain key ways there was a greater sense of...
Two Way Street
05.12.15We Need to Stay Coolheaded
from Two Way Street
In recent years, a noticeable change has occurred in China-U.S. relations. The “problem areas” where the two countries tend to clash are increasing in both number and scope, and there has been a greater degree of hostility in judgments about the...
Caixin Media
05.12.15The Urgency of Continuing with Reform
Concern about the middle-income trap has grabbed public attention again. The minister of finance, Lou Jiwei, recently said at Tsinghua University that China had a “50-50 chance” of sliding into it in the next five to 10 years. However, many...
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05.11.15The Sleeper Issue of 2016 Is China
Politico
Why are we so worried about the Islamic State when Beijing is the real challenge?
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05.08.15China, Russia Prepare $2 Billion Agricultural Investment Fund
Wall Street Journal
The fund will develop agricultural projects in the two countries and set up a free-trade zone between their key farming belts.
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05.08.15As Russia Remembers War in Europe, Guest of Honor Is From China
New York Times
China’s leader, Xi Jinping, is an imperfect symbol of the wartime past and an uncertain one for Russia’s future.
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05.06.15The Urgency of Continuing with Reform
The best way to side step the much-discussed middle-income trap is to forge ahead with changes to the growth model.
Caixin Media
05.05.15A Byronic Hero for China’s Supremo
A little known vignette about Xi Jinping’s fondness for Song Jiang, a fictional hero in the 14th century classic novel The Water Margin, gives a peek into the private thoughts of China’s most powerful man. For someone born with a red spoon in his...
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05.04.15The Battle for Taiwan’s Soul: The 2016 Presidential Election
National Interest
Xi Jinping and Kuomintang leader Eric Chu’s summit Monday is the first between respective party leaders since 2009.
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05.01.15Q. and A.: Francis Fukuyama on China's Political Development
New York Times
Stanford historian argues an effective political system has to balance state capacity against rule of law and democracy.
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04.28.15Forced Disappearances, Brutality, and Communist China’s Politics of Fear
Vice News
Low-ranking officials are in a state of continual fear as their colleagues vanish around them.
ChinaFile Recommends
04.28.15Wang Jianlin, a Billionaire at the Intersection of Business and Power in China -
New York Times
Wang tends to present himself as the pragmatic face of big business in China.
The China Africa Project
04.25.15China, Africa, and the PRC’s Massive New Development Bank
Fifty-seven countries, including two from Africa, are among the founding members of China’s new development bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). While the new bank’s primary objective will be to develop infrastructure projects in...
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04.24.15China Buzzing Over President's First ‘Selfie’
BBC
The photo was posted by Fadli Zon of the Great Indonesia Movement Party from the Asian-African Summit in Jakarta.
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04.23.15China’s Big Plunge in Pakistan
New York Times
If China can advance a stable Pakistan through development programs, the whole region would benefit.
ChinaFile Recommends
04.22.15Xi Jinping of China and Shinzo Abe of Japan Meet Amid Slight Thaw in Ties
New York Times
The meeting signaled a continued slight warming in otherwise frosty relations between Asia’s two top economies.
ChinaFile Recommends
04.20.15Shinzo Abe and Japan’s History
New York Times
But Japan cannot credibly help the U.S. to counter China in Asia if it seeks to repudiate criticism of its past.
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04.20.15China Defines Overall National Security Outlook in Draft Law
Xinhua
Economic security is the basis of national security, and military, cultural, as well as social security are safeguarding measures.
Media
04.14.15Henry Paulson: ‘Dealing with China’
from Asia Blog
Speaking at Asia Society New York on April 13 with New Yorker correspondent Evan Osnos, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson explained that it’s impossible to predict the timing or magnitude of a financial crisis, but any country with...
The China Africa Project
04.10.15Chinese Dreams and the African Renaissance
Leaders in both China and Africa have articulated new visions for their respective regions that project a strong sense of confidence, renewal, and a break from once-dominant Western ideologies. In both cases, argues East is Read blogger Mothusi...
ChinaFile Recommends
04.06.15Born Red
New Yorker
How Xi Jinping, an unremarkable provincial administrator, became China’s most authoritarian leader since Mao.
ChinaFile Recommends
04.02.15New App Collects Xi’s Wisdom
Xinhua
The free app makes available Xi’s books including “The Governance of China.”
The China Africa Project
04.02.15The Politics of Banning Ivory in China
In February 2015, China announced a one-year ban on ivory imports. While many conservation groups such as the Environmental Investigation Agency denounced Beijing’s policy as “ineffective,” the San Francisco-based group WildAid said the ban is an...
ChinaFile Recommends
04.01.15Xi Jinping Forever
Foreign Policy
Is China’s increasingly powerful president angling to break tradition and extend his rule indefinitely?
Reports
04.01.15U.S.-China 21: The Future of U.S.-China Relations Under Xi Jinping
Harvard University
We are, therefore, seeing the emergence of an asymmetric world in which the fulcrums of economic and military power are no longer co-located, but, in fact, are beginning to diverge significantly. Political power, through the agency of foreign policy...
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03.30.15How China Plans to Shape New Asian Order
Wall Street Journal
At the center of these efforts is the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and plans for pan-Asian infrastructure .
ChinaFile Recommends
03.30.15Full Text of Chinese President’s Speech at Boao Forum for Asia
Xinhua
Xi's speech, entitled, "Towards a Community of Common Destiny and A New Future for Asia"
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03.26.15ChinaFile Recommends
03.23.15Singapore Former PM Meets with Chinese Leaders
People’s Daily Online
Pepople's Daily photo archive of the late Lee Kwan Yew's meetings with five of China's top leaders.
ChinaFile Recommends
03.19.15China, Japan Start First Security Talks in Four Years
Reuters
Step aimed at thawing ties plagued by the legacy of Japan’s wartime aggression and a territorial dispute.
ChinaFile Recommends
03.18.15Party Investigates CNPC Executive Once Seen as Company’s Next Leader
Liao Yongyuan, who oversaw gas pipeline project crossing country, becomes target of inquiry by party graft-buster.
ChinaFile Recommends
03.18.15Xi Meets with Kissinger, Calls for More Trust Between China, U.S.
Xinhua
Kissinger hailed the ongoing historic reform in China.
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03.16.15Qiu He, top Yunnan Official, Ousted for Corrupt Land Deals
East by Southeast
Qiu was the catalyst for a swath of controversial infrastructure projects, including a new international airport finished in 2012.
ChinaFile Recommends
03.15.15Q. and A.: David Shambaugh on the Risks to Chinese Communist Rule
New York Times
Shambaugh’s recent essay argued that the “endgame of Chinese communist rule has now begun.”