Sinica Podcast
07.27.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/gettyimages-583502744.jpg?itok=a0eRtZYp)
Whose Century Is It, Anyway?
from Sinica Podcast
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...
The China Africa Project
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There Are a Lot More Chinese Soldiers in Africa Today... And Likely More To Come
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...
Reports
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The Condom Quandary
Asia Catalyst
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...
The China Africa Project
07.21.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/zuma_bochina.jpg?itok=5Qu7ucd_)
China’s Relationship Status with South Africa: ‘It’s Complicated’
South Africa’s relationship with China has undergone a profound transformation in a remarkably short period of time. In less than 20 years, the two countries have gone from barely acknowledging one another to developing a deep partnership that...
Sinica Podcast
07.20.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/kaiserkuo.jpg?itok=cLtjhLe4)
The Kaiser Kuo Exit Interview
from Sinica Podcast
This week, Kaiser sits in the guest chair and tells us about his 20-plus years of living in China. He recounts being the front man for the heavy metal band Tang Dynasty and the group’s tour stops in China’s backwater towns, shares his feelings on...
China in the World Podcast
07.19.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/gettyimages-546336924.jpg?itok=B8SPiVTX)
Interpreting the South China Sea Tribunal Ruling
from Carnegie China
International responses to the tribunal’s ruling in the South China Sea have raised questions about the stability of the Asia-Pacific region and what roles the United States and China have in it. In this podcast, Paul Haenle and Elizabeth Economy...
The China Africa Project
07.12.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/africansguangzhou.jpg?itok=MwALtjMw)
China Was Once a Hot Destination for African Migrants, Not Any More
It was not that long ago that entire neighborhoods in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou were overflowing with African migrants. Although there are no precise figures, scholars estimated that between 20,000-100,000 African immigrants used to...
Sinica Podcast
07.11.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/ck_for_schmitz_sinica.jpg?itok=SQlccO8z)
The Street of Eternal Happiness
from Sinica Podcast
Rob Schmitz, China correspondent for Marketplace, has been living in China on and off since 1995. He is the author of Street of Eternal Happiness: Big City Dreams Along a Shanghai Road, a book about the people living and working on Changle Lu in...
China in the World Podcast
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Uncertainty in China-Europe Relations
from Carnegie China
Economic relations between Europe and China remain highly salient due to the potential for increased trade and investment, as well as future cooperation on projects stemming from the Belt and Road initiative. Yet, in this podcast with Paul Haenle,...
The China Africa Project
06.30.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/elephantsnonambia.jpg?itok=94UqtHtM)
Namibia’s Chinese Ivory Smugglers
Namibia is the rare country in Africa that seems to be holding its own against ivory poachers. Whereas in most other southern African countries the elephant population is being decimated, in Namibia, according to the government, the number of...
Books
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John Birch
John Birch was better known in death than life. Shot and killed by Communists in China in 1945, he posthumously became the namesake for a right-wing organization whose influence is still visible in today’s Tea Party. This is the remarkable story of who he actually was: an American missionary-turned-soldier who wanted to save China, but instead became a victim. Terry Lautz, a longtime scholar of U.S.-China relations, has investigated archives, spoken with three of Birch’s brothers, found letters written to the women he loved, and visited sites in China where he lived and died. The result, John Birch: A Life, is the first authoritative biography of this fascinating figure whose name was appropriated for a political cause.Raised as a Baptist fundamentalist, Birch became a missionary to China prior to America’s entry into the Second World War. After Pearl Harbor, he volunteered for the U.S. Army in China, served with Claire Chennault, Commander of the famed Flying Tigers, and operated behind enemy lines as an intelligence officer. He planned to resume his missionary work after the war, but was killed in a dispute with Communist troops just days after Japan’s surrender. During the heyday of the Cold War in the 1950s, Robert Welch, a retired businessman from Boston, chose Birch as the figurehead for the John Birch Society, believing that his death was evidence of conspiracy at the highest levels of government. The Birch Society became one of the most polarizing organizations of its time, and the name of John Birch became synonymous with right-wing extremism.Cutting through the layers of mythology surrounding Birch, Lautz deftly presents his life and his afterlife, placing him not only in the context of anti-communism but in the longstanding American quest to shape China’s destiny. —Oxford University Press{chop}
Sinica Podcast
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Patrolling China’s Cyberspace
from Sinica Podcast
Adam Segal is the Maurice R. Greenberg Senior Fellow for China Studies and Director of the Digital and Cyberspace Policy Program at the Council on Foreign Relations. His latest book, The Hacked World Order, provides an in-depth exploration of the...
The China Africa Project
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Why the Stakes Are So High for China in South Sudan
Nowhere else in Africa do China’s financial, diplomatic, and geopolitical interests confront as much risk as they do in South Sudan. Beijing has invested billions of dollars in the country’s oil sector, deployed over a thousand troops to serve as U...
Books
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Tibetan Environmentalists in China
This book weaves together the life stories of five extraordinary contemporary Tibetans involved in environmental protection (as well as a host of secondary characters): Tashi Dorje, a well-known and celebrated environmentalist; Karma Samdrup, a philanthropist, businessman, and environmentalist; Rinchen Samdrup, Karma’s brother, another extraordinary environmentalist; Gendun, a painter, historian, and researcher from Amdo; and Musuo, a Tibetan from the Dechin area of northwest Yunnan who founded the Khawakarpo Culture Society.In the politically fraught and ever-worsening situation for Tibetans within China today, it is often said that the only possible path for a better solution will be through a change in the way that the majority Chinese society thinks about and understands Tibetans, their aspirations, histories, and desires. This book provides the first such account by drawing readers in with beautiful narrative prose and fascinating stories, and then using their attention to demystify Tibetans, cultivating in the reader a sense of empathy as well as facts upon which to rebuild an intercultural understanding. It is the first work that seriously aims to let the Chinese public understand Tibetans as both products of an admirable culture and as complex individuals negotiating religious ideals, economic change, and sociopolitical constraints. In short it opens up a whole new way of understanding Tibet. —Rowman & Littlefield/Lexington Books {chop}
Sinica Podcast
06.20.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/urbanplanningmuseum.jpg?itok=I55Mu9lR)
Arthur Kroeber vs. the Conventional Wisdom
In this episode of Sinica, we present an in-depth interview with Arthur Kroeber, the founding partner and head of research for Gavekal Dragonomics, an independent global economic research firm, and the editor-in-chief of its journal, China Economic...
The China Africa Project
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China’s Ambitious New ‘Silk Road’ Trade Route Takes Shape in Africa
Four years and hundreds of billions of dollars later, China’s ambitious global trading strategy known as the “New Maritime Silk Road,” or “One Belt, One Road” (OBOR), is now coming to life, particularly in parts of East Africa where major...
Books
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Street of Eternal Happiness
Modern Shanghai: a global city in the midst of a renaissance, where dreamers arrive each day to partake in a mad torrent of capital, ideas, and opportunity. Marketplace’s Rob Schmitz is one of them. He immerses himself in his neighborhood, forging deep relationships with ordinary people who see in the city’s sleek skyline a brighter future and a chance to rewrite their destinies. There’s Zhao, whose path from factory floor to shopkeeper is sidetracked by her desperate measures to ensure a better future for her sons. Down the street lives Auntie Fu, a fervent capitalist forever trying to improve herself with religion and get-rich-quick schemes while keeping her skeptical husband at bay. Up a flight of stairs, musician and café owner CK sets up shop to attract young dreamers like himself, but learns he’s searching for something more. As Schmitz becomes more involved in their lives, he makes surprising discoveries which untangle the complexities of modern China: A mysterious box of letters that serve as a portal to a family’s—and country’s—dark past, and an abandoned neighborhood where fates have been violently altered by unchecked power and greed.A tale of 21st century China, Street of Eternal Happiness profiles China’s distinct generations through multifaceted characters who illuminate an enlightening, humorous, and at times heartrending journey along the winding road to the Chinese Dream. Each story adds another layer of humanity and texture to modern China, a tapestry also woven with Schmitz’s insight as a foreign correspondent. The result is an intimate and surprising portrait that dispenses with the tired stereotypes of a country we think we know, immersing us instead in the vivid stories of the people who make up one of the world’s most captivating cities. —Crown Publishers {chop}
Sinica Podcast
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50 Years of Work on U.S.-China Relations
from Sinica Podcast
In this week’s episode of Sinica, we are proud to announce that we’re joining forces with SupChina. We’re also delighted that our first episode with our new partner is a conversation with President Stephen Orlins and Vice President Jan Berris of the...
The China Africa Project
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Industrialization in Africa: Ethiopia Wants to Become the New ‘Made in China’
There’s a pretty good chance that some of the clothes you’re wearing, the shoes on your feet, and even the device you’re using to read this were made in China. Even as its economy slows, China remains the world’s factory, churning out billions of...
The China Africa Project
06.01.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/node-26776.jpg?itok=leQYuK0p)
Online Outrage Over Racist Chinese Ad Says a Lot About How China and the West React to Racism
The company behind the racist Chinese laundry detergent ad that sparked widespread online outrage around the world issued a half-hearted apology for the uproar it caused. Actually, it was one of those “we’re sorry if anyone was offended” kind of...
China in the World Podcast
05.31.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/gettyimages-57365960.jpg?itok=QqZ74w6u)
View from Moscow: China’s Westward March
from Carnegie China
China and Russia are solidifying their bilateral relationship as the former looks westward and the latter turns to its east borders. In this podcast with Paul Haenle, Dmitri Trenin discusses the conditions that are leading to stronger China-Russian...
Books
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The China Triangle: Latin America's China Boom and the Fate of the Washington Consensus
In The China Triangle, Kevin P. Gallagher traces the development of the China-Latin America trade over time and covers how it has affected the centuries-old (and highly unequal) U.S.-Latin American relationship. He argues that despite these opportunities Latin American nations have little to show for riding the coattails of the ‘China Boom’ and now face significant challenges in the next decades as China’s economy slows down and shifts more toward consumption and services. While the Latin American region saw significant economic growth due to China's rise over the past decades, Latin Americans saved very little of the windfall profits it earned even as the region saw a significant hollowing of its industrial base. What is more, commodity-led growth during the China boom reignited social and environmental conflicts across the region.
Scholars and reporters have covered the Chinese expansion into East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australasia, Africa, the U.S., and Europe. Yet China’s penetration Latin America is as little understood as it is significant-especially for America given its longstanding ties to the region. Gallagher provides a clear overview of China’s growing economic ties with Latin America and points to ways that Latin American nations, China, and even the United States can act in order to make the next decades of China-Latin America economic activity more prosperous for all involved. —Amazon{chop}
The China Africa Project
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Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Chinese in Africa But Were Too Afraid to Ask
The Chinese presence in Africa has been so sudden and so all-encompassing that it’s left a lot of people confused. Chinese farmers now compete for space and customers in Lusaka’s open-air markets, Chinese textiles are undercutting Nigerian...
The NYRB China Archive
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The Heritage of a Great Man
from New York Review of Books
Why did communism grow deep roots and survive in China, while it withered and died in Russia? This is one of the central questions of modern history. A plausible answer to the question is that communism in China resonated with the two-thousand-year-...
The NYRB China Archive
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A New Language for Chinese Film
from New York Review of Books
Kaili Blues, an eccentric, remarkably assured first feature by the young Chinese director Bi Gan, is both the most elusive and the most memorable new movie that I’ve seen in quite some time—“elusive” and “memorable” being central to Bi’s ambitions...
Books
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Queer Marxism in Two Chinas
In Queer Marxism in Two Chinas, Petrus Liu rethinks the relationship between Marxism and queer cultures in mainland China and Taiwan. Whereas many scholars assume the emergence of queer cultures in China signals the end of Marxism and demonstrates China’s political and economic evolution, Liu finds the opposite to be true. He challenges the persistence of Cold War formulations of Marxism that position it as intellectually incompatible with queer theory, and shows how queer Marxism offers a nonliberal alternative to Western models of queer emancipation. The work of queer Chinese artists and intellectuals not only provides an alternative to liberal ideologies of inclusion and diversity, but demonstrates how different conceptions of and attitudes toward queerness in China and Taiwan stem from geopolitical tensions. With Queer Marxism in Two Chinas Liu offers a revision to current understandings of what queer theory is, does, and can be. —Duke University Press{chop}
The China Africa Project
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Why Chinese Agriculture Engagement in Africa is Not What it Seems
The Western and African media have long fueled the myth that Chinese investors are buying up vast tracts of land across Africa as part of a neo-colonial plan to export food back to China. Sure, on one level, the theory appears plausible: China has...
China in the World Podcast
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2016 Elections in a Changing Asia-Pacific
from Carnegie China
With Tsai Ing-wen taking office in Taipei next week and the U.S. presidential election approaching, new players will be taking the reins in the Asia-Pacific. In this podcast with Paul Haenle, Douglas Paal discusses the future of U.S.-China relations...
The NYRB China Archive
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Who Is Xi?
from New York Review of Books
More than halfway through his five-year term as president of China and general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party—expected to be the first of at least two—Xi Jinping’s widening crackdown on civil society and promotion of a cult of personality...
The China Africa Project
05.11.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/chineseimproveafrica.jpg?itok=ijWfvxxj)
Why Chinese Companies in Africa Are Improving Their Behavior
Chinese companies around the world, particularly in Africa, have a well-earned reputation for being bad corporate citizens. There are countless stories of labor rights violations, disregard of environmental policies, and lack of engagement with...
Sinica Podcast
05.09.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/26046.jpg?itok=eSQbvUjP)
The Cultural Revolution at Fifty
from Sinica Podcast
Fifty years ago, Mao Zedong launched the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, inaugurating a decade of political turmoil with his calls for young people to “bombard the headquarters.” In this special live edition of our podcast recorded at The...
Books
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Alibaba
In just a decade and half, Jack Ma, a man from modest beginnings who started out as an English teacher, founded and built Alibaba into one of the world’s largest companies, an e-commerce empire on which hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers depend. Alibaba’s $25 billion IPO in 2014 was the largest global IPO ever. A Rockefeller of his age who is courted by CEOs and Presidents around the world, Jack is an icon for China’s booming private sector and the gatekeeper to hundreds of millions of middle class consumers.Duncan Clark first met Jack in 1999 in the small apartment where Jack founded Alibaba. Granted unprecedented access to a wealth of new material, including exclusive interviews, Clark draws on his own experience as an early adviser to Alibaba and two decades in China chronicling the Internet’s impact on the country to create an authoritative, compelling narrative account of Alibaba’s rise.How did Jack overcome his humble origins and early failures to achieve massive success with Alibaba? How did he outsmart rival entrepreneurs from China and Silicon Valley? Can Alibaba maintain its 80 percent market share? As it forges ahead into finance and entertainment, are there limits to Alibaba’s ambitions? How does the Chinese government view its rise? Will Alibaba expand further overseas, including in the U.S.? Clark tells Alibaba’s tale in the context of China’s momentous economic and social changes, illuminating an unlikely corporate titan as never before. —HarperCollins{chop}
The China Africa Project
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Race, Culture, and the Politics of Being Black in China
Being black in China is not easy, but it’s not as bad as many would have you think, according to our two guests this week, who are both black immigrants currently living in Beijing. Sure, people stare a lot and there are often some inappropriate...
The China Africa Project
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As BRICS Slow Investments in Africa, Turkey Ramps Up
Remember when the BRICS were going to power the global economy? Well, the past few years have not been kind to Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. With the exception of India, the other members of this once elite diplomatic club are...
The NYRB China Archive
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A Revolutionary Discovery in China
from New York Review of Books
1.As Beijing prepared to host the 2008 Olympics, a small drama was unfolding in Hong Kong. Two years earlier, middlemen had come into possession of a batch of waterlogged manuscripts that had been unearthed by tomb robbers in south-central China...
The China Africa Project
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The Long Arm of Chinese Law Reaches All the Way to Kenya
The Kenyan government’s consent to a Chinese request for the deportation of dozens of alleged cyber and telecom fraud has now bloomed into a full-scale diplomatic crisis. Among those forcibly sent to China included dozens of Taiwan nationals, many...
China in the World Podcast
04.21.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/gettyimages-478984248.jpg?itok=Zc6K-Mr_)
China’s Relations with a Strategic Europe
from Carnegie China
For many years, China-E.U. relations have been driven singularly by mercantilism, but diplomatic engagement between Beijing and Brussels increasingly features a geopolitical component. In this podcast with Paul Haenle, Carnegie Europe Director Jan...
Sinica Podcast
04.19.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/gettyimages-487625907.jpg?itok=2P2gfkq1)
Public Opinion with Chinese Characteristics
from Sinica Podcast
The immense popularity of social media has afforded China watchers a terrific window onto public opinion in China. In recent years, a slew of English-language websites have emerged to interpret the various trends and phenomena, discourse, and...
Books
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China’s Future
China’s future arguably is the most consequential question in global affairs. Having enjoyed unprecedented levels of growth, China is at a critical juncture in the development of its economy, society, polity, national security, and international relations. The direction the nation takes at this turning point will determine whether it stalls or continues to develop and prosper.Will China be successful in implementing a new wave of transformational reforms that could last decades and make it the world’s leading superpower? Or will its leaders shy away from the drastic changes required because the regime’s power is at risk? If so, will that lead to prolonged stagnation or even regime collapse? Might China move down a more liberal or even democratic path? Or will China instead emerge as a hard, authoritarian, and aggressive superstate?In this new book, David Shambaugh argues that these potential pathways are all possibilities—but they depend on key decisions yet to be made by China’s leaders, different pressures from within Chinese society, as well as actions taken by other nations. Assessing these scenarios and their implications, he offers a thoughtful and clear study of China’s future for all those seeking to understand the country’s likely trajectory over the coming decade and beyond. —Polity Press{chop}
The China Africa Project
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China’s Growing Appetite for African Real Estate
Amid a prolonged economic downturn and a weakening yuan, Chinese investors have turned their focus to buying overseas assets. While there are a number of complicated reasons behind the massive capital outflows over the past 18 months, the fact...
The China Africa Project
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A Chinese Journalist Reflects on Reporting the China-Africa Story
How foreign journalists report on the China-Africa story is often determined by the national origin of their news organization. While there are no doubt exceptions, the U.S. news media frequently frame China as the neo-colonial aggressor and Africa...
The NYRB China Archive
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‘China’s Worst Policy Mistake’?
from New York Review of Books
Perhaps no government policy anywhere in the world affected more people in a more intimate and brutal way than China’s one-child policy. In the West, there’s a tendency to approve of it as a necessary if overzealous effort to curb China’s population...
The NYRB China Archive
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If Mao Had Been a Hermit
from New York Review of Books
At the annual meeting of BookExpo America that was held in New York last May, to which most leading U.S. publishers sent representatives, state-sponsored Chinese publishers were named “guests of honor.” Commercially speaking, this made sense. China’...
The NYRB China Archive
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Crackdown in China: Worse and Worse
from New York Review of Books
“As a liberal, I no longer feel I have a future in China,” a prominent Chinese think tank head in the process of moving abroad recently lamented in private. Such refrains are all too familiar these days as educated Chinese professionals express...
The China Africa Project
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When China Sneezes, Does Africa Catch a Cold?
Chinese government officials have been on an all-out public relations offensive across Africa lately to reassure increasingly nervous political and business leaders that even though China’s economy may be slowing it will not affect the P.R.C.’s...
The China Africa Project
03.25.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/gettyimages-453667452.jpg?itok=-4I1kla_)
Continental Shift: How China is Changing Africa
For their new book, Continental Shift: A Journey into Africa’s 21st Century, South African authors Kevin Bloom and Richard Poplak embarked on a 14-country odyssey across two continents over a span of five years to report on Africa’s changing...
Excerpts
03.22.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/gettyimages-459341254.jpg?itok=7TRYJr0C)
Beyond ‘Chicken or Beef’ Choices in China Debates
Growing up in California with no special interest in China, one of the few things I associated with the big country across the Pacific was mix-and-match meal creation. On airplanes and in school cafeterias, you just had “chicken or beef” choices,...
Sinica Podcast
03.16.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/gettyimages-454926990.jpg?itok=rtB-y8fB)
Everything Old is New Again
from Sinica Podcast
Members of the Politburo are rarely praised for their dancing skills, but consider Xi Jinping’s almost flawless execution of the political two-step: first casting himself as the voice of liberal moderation in the face of Bo Xilai’s mass propaganda,...
The China Africa Project
03.14.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/chinainafrica.jpg?itok=6kXymARx)
Africa’s Role in China’s One Belt, One Road Global Trade Strategy
China’s lofty ambition to revive its ancient silk road trading routes is now becoming a reality. When complete, One Belt, One Road (OBOR), or the Maritime Silk Road as it is more commonly known, will connect China via rail and shipping links with...
The NYRB China Archive
03.10.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/gettyimages-3095216.jpg?itok=GQyPG5ag)
China: The Benefits of Persecution?
from New York Review of Books
During decades of reading and reviewing books on China I have learned a great deal, even from those I didn’t like. Only a few have surprised me. Mao’s Lost Children is such a book, and those like me who believe that the Mao period was bad for China...
The China Africa Project
03.07.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/chineseinafrica.jpg?itok=68Vd8mxm)
As Economy Worsens, Chinese Migrants in Africa Confront New Challenges
Thousands of Chinese migrants who settled in Africa over the past 10 years now face mounting uncertainty as economic growth slows across the continent and back home in China. While there are no reliable estimates as to how many Chinese migrants...
The NYRB China Archive
02.25.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/diagram_of_i_ching_hexagrams_owned_by_gottfried_wilhelm_leibniz_1701.jpg?itok=Mev6AuGs)
What Is the I Ching?
from New York Review of Books
The I Ching has served for thousands of years as a philosophical taxonomy of the universe, a guide to an ethical life, a manual for rulers, and an oracle of one’s personal future and the future of the state. It was an organizing principle or...
The China Africa Project
02.24.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/gettyimages-452444632.jpg?itok=mkDmrJBd)
China/Africa Vs. China/South America
China’s engagement in Africa is often seen by many observers in a vacuum without a broader understanding of how the relationship compares to Beijing’s strategy in other regions of the world. South America, in particular, provides an interesting...
Books
02.23.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/books/system/meredith-oyen-web.jpg?itok=lhOfU1Fs)
![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/assets/images/books/covers/oyencover_cover.jpg)
The Diplomacy of Migration
During the Cold War, both Chinese and American officials employed a wide range of migration policies and practices to pursue legitimacy, security, and prestige. They focused on allowing or restricting immigration, assigning refugee status, facilitating student exchanges, and enforcing deportations. The Diplomacy of Migration focuses on the role these practices played in the relationship between the United States and the Republic of China both before and after the move to Taiwan. Meredith Oyen identifies three patterns of migration diplomacy: migration legislation as a tool to achieve foreign policy goals, migrants as subjects of diplomacy and propaganda, and migration controls that shaped the Chinese American community.Using sources from diplomatic and governmental archives in the United States, the Republic of China on Taiwan, the People’s Republic of China, and the United Kingdom, Oyen applies a truly transnational perspective. The Diplomacy of Migration combines important innovations in the field of diplomatic history with new international trends in migration history to show that even though migration issues were often considered “low stakes” or “low risk” by foreign policy professionals concerned with Cold War politics and the nuclear age, they were neither “no risk” nor unimportant to larger goals. Instead, migration diplomacy became a means of facilitating other foreign policy priorities, even when doing so came at great cost for migrants themselves. —Cornell University Press{chop}Correction: Meredith Oyen’s employer was misidentified in an earlier version of this video. She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Sinica Podcast
02.22.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/gettyimages-2673173.jpg?itok=yEwb2L62)
Allegiance
from Sinica Podcast
Kaiser and Jeremy recorded today’s show from New York, where they waylaid Holly Chang, founder of Project Pengyou and now Acting Executive Director of the Committee of 100, for a discussion on spying, stealing commercial spying, spying, and Broadway...
The China Africa Project
02.19.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/anti-poaching-23661.jpg?itok=oHx_C60d)
Why Reducing Ivory Demand in China Will Not Curb Poaching in Africa
“When the buying stops, the killing can too,” reads the popular slogan that WildAid uses in its anti-ivory campaign to raise awareness in China. WildAid, along with most Western environmentalists, contend that curbing demand in China for ivory is...
The NYRB China Archive
02.17.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/mountains-depart.jpg?itok=z0X4Xs-D)
Lost in China’s Exploding Future
from New York Review of Books
Chinese director Jia Zhangke’s new movie, Mountains May Depart, begins with a disco dance in a bleak mining town to the sounds of “Go West” by the Pet Shop Boys. It is the lunar New Year, 1999. Outside, the end of the millennium is celebrated in a...
The China Africa Project
02.11.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/gettyimages-506375256.jpg?itok=eC7rXEEW)
China’s Risky Gamble to Become a Major Player in the Middle East and North Africa
Chinese president Xi Jinping’s three-country tour of the Middle East and North Africa offers yet another example of Beijing’s expanding drive for increased global influence. During his first visit to the region, Xi traveled to Saudi Arabia, Egypt,...
Sinica Podcast
02.09.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/sincia-sauced.jpg?itok=f4oxd8eQ)
Sauced: American Cooking in China
from Sinica Podcast
Kaiser Kuo and David Moser are joined this week by Howie Southworth and Greg Matza, creators of the independent video series “Sauced in Translation,” a reality show that journeys into the wilder parts of China in search of local Chinese specialties...
The NYRB China Archive
02.09.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/gettyimages-163278903.jpg?itok=Fnt2v0NZ)
Why Are Tibetans Setting Themselves on Fire?
from New York Review of Books
February 27, 2009, was the third day of Losar, the Tibetan New Year. It was also the day that self-immolation came to Tibet. The authorities had just cancelled a Great Prayer Festival (Monlam) that was supposed to commemorate the victims of the...