Viewpoint
10.16.24
Where the Malan Blooms
This October 16 marks the 60th anniversary of the testing of the first Chinese nuclear bomb. When my friends and I coiled up our jump ropes and returned to class, we learned inspirational tales about the earliest generation of Chinese nuclear...
Viewpoint
02.27.23
How Much Does U.S.-China Tension Threaten Decarbonization?
A striking contradiction has emerged between Beijing’s growing geopolitical isolation on one hand, and its apparent continued commitment to tackling global climate change on the other. The big question, for China and for the world, is whether...
Notes from ChinaFile
11.07.22
China’s Next Act
While discussions of U.S.-China relations tend to revolve around trade and national security, more focus ought to be given to issues of environmental sustainability, including health, and to emerging technology, argues the University of Pennsylvania...
Conversation
09.09.22
Could China’s Very Hot Summer Revive Action on Climate Change?
For more than two months, China—along with the rest of the globe—has been struggling with extreme heat and severe droughts. Hundreds of cities are facing temperatures in the 90s and higher, and Beijing last month issued its first nationwide drought...
Conversation
11.08.21
When Will China Get off Coal?
As China looks to meet its energy demands, there has been a rush for coal, with prices hitting record highs in October. Despite pledges by Beijing to pull back from fossil fuels, the power crisis has exposed shortfalls in the country’s ability to...
Conversation
07.12.21
How Should the U.S. Approach Climate Diplomacy with China?
As China continues to emerge as a superpower and move forward with its colossal Belt and Road Initiative amid the climate crisis, American climate engagement with China is more critical than ever. What would an effective climate diplomacy for the U...
Photo Gallery
03.05.20
China’s New Deserts
From Madoi county, a settlement near the headwaters of the Yellow River, our two-car convoy headed out to visit a desert Yang Yong had first viewed through binoculars in 1997. From the roadside, the geologist had seen a small, wind-blown patch of...
Conversation
08.20.19
What Would a Larger Chinese Presence Mean for the Middle East?
China’s steady expansion of its Middle East footprint and influence poses significant questions for U.S. policymakers. The Middle East has long been a battleground for strategic competition between both regional and global powers. Is it poised to...
Depth of Field
02.25.19
Living by the Rivers
from Yuanjin Photo
If the stories in this edition of Depth of Field share a common thread—apart from their distinguished photographic storytelling—it’s their interest in the flux and churn of life in China in 2019, where nothing seems fixed and pressure of constant...
Conversation
02.15.19
China is Upping Its Aid and Development Game. How Should the U.S. Respond?
During his September 2018 U.N. address, President Donald Trump threatened that the United States may decide to only give foreign aid to “those who respect us and, frankly, are our friends.” In August, the White House attempted to cut foreign aid...
Features
11.28.18
Beijing’s Long Struggle to Control Xinjiang’s Mineral Wealth
The Silk Road Economic Belt—the overland component of Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)—promises to bind China to Central Asia and beyond through a new infrastructural network. Connecting through China’s far western Xinjiang...
Photo Gallery
10.11.18
Reform or Ruin: Chinese Cities on the Edge
China’s rapid industrialization has both led to, and been driven by, resource cultivation and extraction of breathtaking scope. But what happens when the resources run out?For many Chinese cities, local natural resources are a wellspring of jobs,...
Infographics
08.15.18
Visualizing China’s Anti-Corruption Campaign
“Catching Tigers and Flies” is ChinaFile’s interactive tool for tracking and, we hope, better understanding the massive campaign against corruption that Xi Jinping launched shortly after he came to power in late 2012. It is designed to give users a sense of the scope and character of the anti-corruption campaign by graphically rendering information about more than 2,000 of its targets whose cases have been publicly announced in official Chinese sources.
ChinaFile Recommends
08.07.18How Taming the Mekong Could Give China Unprecedented Power
Bloomberg
The deadly collapse of one of the dozen or so dams dotted along the Mekong River and its tributaries has highlighted the rapid development of a waterway that is increasingly important strategically for China and its neighbors.
Conversation
08.01.18
What Would a U.S. War—or Peace—with Iran mean for China?
China is the largest buyer of Iranian oil, Iran’s largest trading partner, and arguably its most important positive political relationship. What do Trump’s threats to Iran mean for China’s relationship with the country? And how would a war between...
ChinaFile Recommends
05.17.18China Has Decided Russia Is Too Risky an Investment
Foreign Policy
On May 4, the planned investment by the Chinese company CEFC China Energy into Russian state oil giant Rosneft fell apart, eight months after it was first announced.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.15.18China Gave Trump a List of Crazy Demands, and He Caved to One of Them
Washington Post
China’s list of economic and trade demands that suggest its negotiating position.
ChinaFile Recommends
05.03.18Another Problem with China’s Coal: Mercury in Rice
The Conversation
Mercury enters rice through local industrial activities and through burning coal.
ChinaFile Recommends
04.26.18China Lays out Its Ambitions to Colonize the Moon and Build a “Lunar Palace”
Quartz
China’s dream of residing in a lunar palace will soon become a reality
Conversation
04.25.18
Does China Want the Koreas to Reconcile?
This Friday, April 27, the South Korean and North Korean leaders will meet in the demilitarized zone dividing their estranged countries to discuss improving relations and possibly even formally ending the Korean War, which has continued in the form...
ChinaFile Recommends
04.25.18China Is Fueling a New ‘Resource Curse’ — and Riots around the World
Washington Post
During the past 15 years, China’s demand for primary commodities has triggered a dramatic increase in natural resource extraction in the developing world.
ChinaFile Recommends
04.25.18Police in Chinese City Seize 600 Computers Used to Mine Bitcoin
Reuters
Police in the north China city of Tianjin confiscated 600 computers used to mine bitcoin cryptocurrency after the local power grid operator reported abnormal electricity usage, Xinhua reported Wednesday.
ChinaFile Recommends
03.27.18China Needs More Water. So It's Building a Rain-Making Network Three Times the Size of Spain
South China Morning Post
China tests weather modification system to bring more rain to Tibet.
ChinaFile Recommends
03.15.18Hard-Charging Chinese Energy Tycoon Falls from Xi Government’s Graces
New York Times
A mysterious Chinese buyer surprised the financial world last year when it swooped in to buy a $9 billion chunk of Russia’s state oil company.
ChinaFile Recommends
03.07.18China and the Philippines Will Work Together to Tap the South China Sea’s Vast Oil Deposits
Forbes
China needs fuel to grow the world’s second-largest economy by 6.5% this year as established this week at annual legislative sessions.
ChinaFile Recommends
03.01.18China Energy Group Bonds Crash after Detention Report
Financial Times
Bonds of mysterious Chinese energy firm CEFC crashed on Thursday amid reports that its chairman Ye Jianming had been detained, complicating its deal to buy a $9bn stake in Russian oil company Rosneft.
ChinaFile Recommends
02.14.18Tesla’s China Dream Threatened by Standoff over Shanghai Factory
Bloomberg
Tesla Inc., the biggest-selling electric carmaker in the U.S., is in danger of being relegated to an expensive niche in China because Elon Musk can't clinch a deal to open a factory there.
ChinaFile Recommends
02.12.18Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Kills More Than 100 in China This Year
New York Times
Gas poisonings in southern China have left at least 104 people dead and hundreds hospitalized.
Conversation
02.01.18
Should Pacific Island Nations Be Wary of Chinese Influence?
British Prime Minister Theresa May’s three-day visit to China, from January 31 to February 2, has amplified ongoing debates in Europe about the costs and benefits of engagement with China and of Chinese investment. Attention to China’s role in...
ChinaFile Recommends
01.31.18China Creates Nuclear Powerhouse
Wall Street Journal
China is putting two of its largest nuclear-power firms back together as it seeks to bolster its state-owned enterprises and create a corporate powerhouse that can better compete for contracts in other countries.
ChinaFile Recommends
01.25.18Chinese Wind Turbine Firm Found Guilty of Stealing U.S. Secrets
CNN
A top Chinese wind turbine maker has been found guilty in the U.S. of stealing trade secrets -- an act that “nearly destroyed” an American tech firm, according to prosecutors.
ChinaFile Recommends
01.23.18Did Trump Just Start a Trade War with China?
CNN
President Trump's decision Monday to slap tariffs on imports of solar panels and washing machines risks inflaming tensions with China and other big U.S. trade partners.
Conversation
01.18.18
Are China’s Blue Skies Here to Stay?
In mid-January, the environmental group Greenpeace announced dramatic improvements in air quality across China. In 74 Chinese cities, measurements of PM2.5, the fine particles that have been a major contributor to the country’s choked skies,...
ChinaFile Recommends
01.16.18Huge Oil Spill Spreads in East China Sea, Stirring Environmental Fears
New York Times
Greenpeace said the disaster occurred in “an important spawning ground” for fish.
ChinaFile Recommends
01.09.18East China Sea Oil Tanker Burns for Third Day as Winds, High Waves Lash Rescuers
Reuters
The poor conditions, with rain and waves as high as 3 meters (10 feet), frustrated efforts to tame the fire and search for the 31 remaining tanker crew members, China’s Ministry of Transport said in a statement on Tuesday.
ChinaFile Recommends
12.19.17China Unveils an Ambitious Plan to Curb Climate Change Emissions
New York Times
China released plans on Tuesday to start a giant market to trade credits for the right to emit planet-warming greenhouse gases. The nationwide market would initially cover only China’s vast, state-dominated power generation sector, which produced...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.18.17China Plans to Kill Local Subsidies for Electric Cars
Bloomberg
The Ministry of Finance is working on a plan that would mandate authorities to phase out the incentives to discourage protectionism and help rein in state expenditure, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified discussing...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.12.17Trump’s Claim That West Virginia Is ‘Sending Clean Coal’ to ‘China’
Washington Post
“If you look at what’s happened in West Virginia and so many different places, we’re sending clean coal. We’re sending it out to different places — China," Trump said last Tuesday.
ChinaFile Recommends
12.12.17Need Stretchy Pants? China's Energy Squeeze May Mean Higher Prices
New York Times
Homes, businesses and even hospitals across northern China are running short of natural gas. Some schoolchildren are shivering. And in the chemical industry — well, the spandex supply is getting tight.
ChinaFile Recommends
12.05.17China Will Lead an Electric Car Future, Ford's Chairman Says
New York Times
Speaking in Shanghai, William C. Ford Jr., Ford Motor’s longtime executive chairman, outlined why in an unusually blunt comment. “When I think of where E.V.s are going,” he said, using an abbreviation for electric vehicles, “it’s clearly the case...
ChinaFile Recommends
11.20.17China on pace for Record Solar-Power Installations
Bloomberg
China, the world’s biggest carbon emitter, is poised to install a record amount of solar-power capacity this year, prompting researchers to boost forecasts as much as 80 percent.
ChinaFile Recommends
11.15.17Why China Wants to Lead on Climate, but Clings to Coal (for Now)
New York Times
Barely a month ago, in a landmark speech to the Communist Party Congress, President Xi Jinping of China promised that his country would take a “driving seat in international cooperation to respond to climate change.”
ChinaFile Recommends
10.10.17China Hastens the World toward an Electric-Car Future
New York Times
There is a powerful reason that automakers worldwide are speeding up their efforts to develop electric vehicles — and that reason is China.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.06.17Exclusive: Russia’s Rosneft Aims for Big Boost in Oil Exports to China - Sources
Reuters
Russia’s largest oil producer Rosneft (ROSN.MM) wants to boost its supplies of oil to China through Kazakhstan to as much as 18 million tonnes (36,000 bpd) per year from around 10 million tonnes in 2017, three industry sources said on Friday.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.05.17China Sees Difficulty Meeting 2017 Air Quality Targets: Minister
China faces difficulties in meeting its smog-fighting target for 2017, its environmental protection minister said during a visit to four heavily industrialized provinces in northern China, where the country’s air pollution problem is especially...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.04.17China’s Putting the Brakes on Coal for Heating Millions of Homes This Winter
Quartz
China might start to see better air this winter as it prepares to heat heat millions of houses for the first time by gas, and continues a clampdown on coal to battle its deadly pollution.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.27.17China's ‘Teapot’ Oil Refiners Feel the Heat as Competition Grows
Financial Times
China’s independent oil refiners face an uphill struggle as excess capacity in the sector and slower demand for fuel creates a tougher trading environment, a top executive has warned.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.27.17Chinese Cities Order Steel Output Cuts Earlier Than Expected to Fend off Smog
South China Morning Post
The city of Handan in the top steelmaking province of Hebei has ordered steel mills to halve output a month earlier than expected, according to media reports, the latest city to ramp up efforts to reduce the smog that blankets northern China during...
ChinaFile Recommends
09.25.17China Considers Rule Change That Could Aid Tesla
Wall Street Journal
The move could pave the way for Tesla Inc. to manufacture vehicles in China.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.15.17G.M. Chief, in China, Challenges Planned Bans of Gasoline Cars
New York Times
Speaking in Shanghai on Friday, Mary Barra, the chief executive of General Motors said her company was making a big push to develop electric cars but that consumers, not government dictates, should decide how cars are powered.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.12.17China Fossil Fuel Deadline Shifts Focus to Electric Car Race
Bloomberg
China will set a deadline for automakers to end sales of fossil-fuel-powered vehicles, becoming the biggest market to do so in a move that will accelerate the push into the electric car market led by companies including BYD Co. and BAIC Motor Corp.
ChinaFile Recommends
08.30.17China’s War on Smog Shakes up Ports; Tianjin Loses, Rivals Benefit
Reuters
China’s war on smog is shaking up the country’s busiest ports, which handle billions of tonnes of cargo a year, forcing Tianjin to overhaul its business as northern rivals snare a greater share of vast coal and iron ore shipments, results show.
ChinaFile Recommends
08.29.17Power of Love: China's Latest Arranged Match Rattles Utilities
Reuters
Beijing announced its latest arranged marriage by matching the country’s top coal miner with one of its biggest utilities to create a global powerhouse worth $280 billion on China’s Valentine’s Day.
ChinaFile Recommends
08.22.17China Says Economy Unaffected by Environmental Inspections
South China Morning Post
China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection said that recent environmental inspections did not hurt the country’s economy and blamed some ”inappropriate methods” conducted by local authorities for causing short–term market dislocation.
ChinaFile Recommends
08.22.17Ford in Talks to Launch Fully Electric Cars in China
Financial Times
Ford is in talks to launch fully electric cars for the Chinese market as the US carmaker plays catch up to international rivals in the race to develop battery vehicles.
ChinaFile Recommends
08.15.17China’s Energy Exports To North Korea Plummet–But It’s Not Because of Sanctions
South China Morning Post
China’s energy exports to North Korea — including electricity and oil and gas products — have fallen sharply.Experts said the drop may partly be due to Pyongyang becoming more self—sufficient in producing energy rather than the impact of sanctions...
Conversation
08.10.17
Should China Support the U.S. in a War with North Korea?
On August 9, U.S. President Donald Trump warned North Korea that if it does not stop threatening the United States, it will be “met with fire and fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before.” Just hours later, the...
Environment
08.02.17
Crowded Beijing Revives Old Plan for New Overflow City
from chinadialogue
On April 1, 2017—April Fool’s Day—the government made a surprise announcement that a satellite city bigger than New York would be built from scratch on the outskirts of Beijing. Official news site Xinhua described Xiong’an New District as the “plan...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.13.17Trump in Paris to Improve Ties despite Divergence on Climate, Trade
Xinhua
U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in Paris on Thursday morning in a diplomatic move to soften divergence with France over climate change and trade liberalization by seeking common ground on security and fight against terrorism.
Environment
07.06.17
Industrial Energy Efficiency Can Improve Air Quality
from chinadialogue
Despite extensive efforts by the Chinese government to improve air quality, including the introduction of the State Council’s “Ten Measures” Action Plan and implementation of regional air quality control measures, air pollution recently worsened in...