China Asks U.S. to End Close-Up Military Surveillance

Jane Perlez
New York Times
The United States should halt its “close-in” aerial and naval surveillance of China, a senior Chinese military officer told Susan E. Rice, President Obama’s national security adviser.

Japanese People Hate China More Than Ever

Megumi Fujikawa
Wall Street Journal
More than half of Japanese respondents who had a negative impression of China thought the country’s actions were incompatible with international rules.

Tibet in Sichuan

Miguel Cano
Diplomat
Traveling the Tibetan plateau in Sichuan Province with indepdendent journalist Miguel Cano.

From China to Jihad?

Richard Bernstein from New York Review of Books
It’s a very long way from China’s arid Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in the country’s far northwest to its semi-tropical borders with Vietnam, Laos, and Burma in the south, and then it’s another precarious distance from there, down rivers and...

'Capture' of Chinese national fighting with ISIS gives China jitters

Jaime FlorCruz
CNN
It's not clear how many Chinese nationals may be fighting with the ISIS. Wu Sike, until recently China's special envoy to the Middle East, earlier stated that there could be about 100 of them.

Sinica Podcast

09.05.14

ISIS and China

Kaiser Kuo, Jeremy Goldkorn & more from Sinica Podcast
With the recent capture of a Chinese ISIS soldier triggering speculation about the involvement of Chinese citizens in the Iraqi civil war, Kaiser Kuo and Jeremy Goldkorn are joined in our studio by Edward Wong from The New York Times and Prashant...

Culture

09.04.14

‘Transformers 4’ May Pander to China, But America Still Wins

Ying Zhu
Hollywood made news this summer with the China triumph of Transformers: Age of Extinction, which broke all previous Chinese box office records. The Chinese box office even outsold the North American box office. But jubilation over the film’s...

Iraqis Identify Prisoner as Chinese Islamist Fighter

Edward Wong
New York Times
Chinese officials have in the past expressed concerns about citizens’ venturing abroad to join ISIS or other jihadist groups in the Middle East, or of their being influenced by such groups to carry out attacks within China.

Rosneft Proposes Chinese Company Take Stake in Russian Oilfield

Jack Farchy and Lucy Hornby
Financial Times
Rosneft is proposing that China take a stake in one of its largest oilfields—a deal that would deepen energy ties between Moscow and Beijing at a time when the future of western companies in Russia is uncertain.

China Opposes Proposed EU Sanctions Against Russia

Sui-Lee Wee
Reuters
EU proposed sanctions against Russia over accusations Moscow was sending troops into Ukrainian territory, saying the European Union's push to draw up more measures would only complicate the crisis.

Media

08.27.14

A ‘School Bus and a Ferrari’

Communication between China and the United States can often resemble ships passing in the night—or planes passing through international airspace. But when it comes to this particularly fraught bilateral relationship, perhaps metaphors are best...

Xi Eyes Mended China-Vietnam Ties

Xinhua
China and Vietnam will earnestly implement a basic guideline for the resolution of China-Vietnam maritime issues signed in October 2011.

China’s Supersonic Submarine? Not Gonna Happen

Jeffrey Kluger
Time
To hear Chinese military sources tell it, the country is on its way to developing a submarine that can travel 6,100 mph—which is why you should never listen to Chinese military sources.

China Says 8 Executed in Western Region; Charges Stem From Separatist Attacks

Chris Buckley`
New York Times
The executions were the latest in a succession of displays of might and resolve by the Chinese government, which is trying to extinguish increasingly violent discontent among Uighurs in Xinjiang.

New Map Shows China’s True Expanse, General Says

Edward Wong
New York Times
A new vertical map of China issued in June by the Hunan Map Publishing House, uses 10 dashes around the South China Sea to broadly delineate China’s claims to contested waters, shoals, rocks, reefs and islands there.

China Said to Deploy Drones After Unrest in Xinjiang

Didi Kirsten Tatlow
New York Times
Three days after an eruption of violence in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang this summer left nearly 100 people dead, the region’s “antiterrorist command” asked the country’s biggest space and defense contractor for help.

Japan’s Abe Avoids Yasukuni Shrine

Anna Fifield
Washington Post
Japanese prime minister skips visit to controversial shrine to war dead in hopes of meeting with China’s Presidnet Xi Jinping.

In China’s Shadow, U.S. Courts Old Foe Vietnam

Jane Perlez
New York Times
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, courted Vietnam over the past several days.

Vietnam and China—Through a Border Darkly

Economist
Relations between two Communist neighbors are at their lowest point in decades.

China Says Japan Fighter Jets Shadowed its Planes over Disputed Waters

Michael Martina
Reuters
Tension has been high between Asia's two largest economies in recent months, with each accusing the other of flying military aircraft too close to its own jets in a long-running territorial dispute.

China Cracks Down on Messaging Apps

Ned Levin and Min-Jeong Lee
Wall Street Journal
China says rules aim to 'Help Build a Clean Cyberspace' and safeguard national security

China Imposes Intrusive Rules on Uighurs in Xinjiang

Barbara Demick
Los Angeles Times
Black-clad, helmet-wearing paramilitary forces were seen in several locations in recent days, stopping Uighur men to check their IDs and scroll through the playlists of their phones.

China Says Can Build What It Wants On South China Sea Isles

BEN BLANCHARD
Reuters
China can build whatever it wants on its islands in the South China Sea, a senior Chinese official said on Monday, rejecting proposals ahead of a key regional meeting to freeze any activity that may raise tensions in disputed waters there.

China Says Can Build What it Wants on South China Sea Isles

Ben Blanchard
Reuters
China can build whatever it wants on its islands in the South China Sea, a senior Chinese official said, rejecting proposals ahead of a key regional meeting to freeze any activity that may raise tensions in disputed waters there.

China Says Violent Xinjiang Uprising Left Almost 100 Dead

James T. Areddy
Wall Street Journal
Chinese police gunned down 59 people and arrested 215 during a violent uprising last week in the Xinjiang region, in a statement that shed fresh light on what dissident groups had earlier described as a major clash in the area.

22 Attackers Shot Dead in Xinjiang Violence as Extremists Wielding Axes Targeted Civilians

South China Morning Post
Attack on government office and police station follows series of violent incidents in restive province.

Defining Taiwan’s Status Quo

Timothy Rich
Thinking Taiwan
This month, the Democratic Progressive Party chairperson proposed a controversial amednment to the party charter that includes a freeze on the party’s independence clause.

Caixin Media

07.22.14

Stability the Watchword for Progress in China

Chinese diplomacy has had a busy few months, with numerous visits abroad by leaders and a constant stream of foreign leaders coming to the country.Amid the flurry of activity, two meetings were particularly noteworthy: the sixth U.S.-China Strategic...

China’s Response to the MH17 Tragedy? Condemn the West

Hannah Beech
Time
Despite memories of decades of Cold War frostiness, Beijing is now quite chummy with Moscow.

Helping China’s Doves

Kishore Mahbubani
New York Times
Since Beijing wants to focus on domestic problems the international community should ask itself one simple question: What can we do to help the doves?

Chinese Oil Rig Near Vietnam to Be Moved

Jane Perlez
New York Times
The China National Petroleum Corporation, a state-owned company, said the billion-dollar rig, known as HD 981, would be relocated to an area around the Qiongdongnan basin, closer to Hainan Island, a southern province of China, and apparently in...

Many Asian Nations Believe That a War With China Is Looming

David Stout
Time
A majority in the Asian countries polled in a new Pew study say they fear a looming military conflict with China.

Chinese Hackers Extending Reach to Smaller U.S. Agencies, Officials Say

MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
New York Times
After years of cyberattacks on the networks of high-profile government targets like the Pentagon, Chinese hackers appear to have turned their attention to far more obscure federal agencies.

Kerry Presses China to Abide by Maritime Laws to Ease Tensions

Jane Perlez
New York Times
In a closed-door session at a high-level gathering of Chinese and American officials here on Wednesday, Secretary of State John Kerry urged China to follow maritime law in nearby seas to reduce regional tensions.

Chinese Hackers Pursue Key Data on U.S. Workers

Michael S. Schmidt, David E. Sanger and...
New York Times
Chinese hackers in March broke into the computer networks of the United States government agency that houses the personal information of all federal employees, according to senior American officials.

Conversation

07.09.14

The U.S. and China Are At the Table: What’s At Stake?

William Adams & Zha Daojiong
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew are in Beijing this week for the sixth session of the high level bilateral diplomatic exchange known as the Strategic and Economic Dialogue. We asked contributors what's likely...

The Untold Story of China’s Forgotten Underground Nuclear Reactor

Jeffrey Lewis
Foreign Policy
How social media and a little sleuthing turned up a Mao-era nuclear program.

China’s Rise and Asian Tensions Send U.S. Relations Into Downward Spiral

Simon Denyer
Washington Post
Hundreds of rocky islands, islets, sandbanks, reefs and cays lie scattered across Asia’s eastern waters, unimportant-looking to the naked eye but significant enough to spark what may be the most worrying deterioration in U.S.-China relations in...

China’s State Media Goes Into Overdrive Over the Marco Polo Incident

Te-Ping Chen
Wall Street Journal
President Xi Jinping led other members of the leadership to the area on the western outskirts of Beijing where 77 years ago Japanese troops attacked Chinese soldiers. The 1937 skirmish led to Japan invading much of eastern China and...

From Mountains, Island, Secret Town, China’s Electronic Spy Shop Watches

James T. Areddy, Paul Mozur, and Danny...
Wall Street Journal
Using Chinese government websites, academic databases and foreign security expertise, The Wall Street Journal assembled an overview of some secret operations of China's global monitoring organization, the Third Department of the People's...

China Thinks It Can Defeat America in Battle

David Axe
Week
China is wrong — and for one major reason. It apparently disregards the decisive power of America's nuclear-powered submarines.

Shadow of Brutal ’79 War Darkens Vietnam’s View of China Relations

Jane Perlez
New York Times
She was 14 when Chinese artillery fire echoed across the hills around her home in northern Vietnam, and hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers swarmed across the border.

Is Xi Jinping Trying to Provoke Anger Against Japan?

Celia Hatton
BBC
More than 1,000 top Communist officials, military veterans and young children, turned out for a highly choreographed memorial marking the Marco Polo bridge incident which sparked the Sino-Japanese in 1937.

Is Japan Targeting China in Next Move?

Xinhua
The Japanese government’s endorsing of a reinterpretation of its pacifist Constitution on Tuesday for the right to collective self-defense is a dangerous move that will lead to security worries for other Asian countries.

Top China Military Official General Xu Caihou Accused

BBC
One of China's most senior military officials has been accused of accepting bribes and expelled from the Communist Party, state media report.

Chinese Territorial Claims Driving Asia Closer to U.S.

Rob Taylor
Wall Street Journal
Muscle flexing by the Chinese in the South China Sea is driving Asian neighbors into a closer alliance with the U.S. and feeding regional insecurity, cautioned one of Australia's most senior government ministers.

U.S. Navy Official Says China Military Relations Have Improved ‘Modestly’

Chun Han Wong
Wall Street Journal
Relations between the U.S. and Chinese militaries have improved “modestly” in the past year, a senior U.S. Navy official said, despite discord over territorial tensions and strategic issues in the Asian-Pacific region.

Books

06.25.14

Chinese Comfort Women

Peipei Qiu with Su Zhiliang and Chen Lifei
During the Asia-Pacific War, the Japanese military forced hundreds of thousands of women across Asia into "comfort stations" where they were repeatedly raped and tortured. Japanese imperial forces claimed they recruited women to join these stations in order to prevent the mass rape of local women and the spread of venereal disease among soldiers. In reality, these women were kidnapped and coerced into sexual slavery. Comfort stations institutionalized rape, and these "comfort women" were subjected to atrocities that have only recently become the subject of international debate.Chinese Comfort Women: Testimonies from Japan's Imperial Sex Slaves features the personal narratives of twelve women forced into sexual slavery when the Japanese military occupied their hometowns. Beginning with their prewar lives and continuing through their enslavement to their postwar struggles for justice, these interviews reveal that the prolonged suffering of the comfort station survivors was not contained to wartime atrocities but was rather a lifelong condition resulting from various social, political, and cultural factors. In addition, their stories bring to light several previously hidden aspects of the comfort women system: the ransoms the occupation army forced the victims' families to pay, the various types of improvised comfort stations set up by small military units throughout the battle zones and occupied regions, and the sheer scope of the military sexual slavery—much larger than previously assumed. The personal narratives of these survivors combined with the testimonies of witnesses, investigative reports, and local histories also reveal a correlation between the proliferation of the comfort stations and the progression of Japan's military offensive.The first English-language account of its kind, Chinese Comfort Women exposes the full extent of the injustices suffered by and the conditions that caused them. —Oxford University Press {chop}

Books

06.25.14

Tiananmen Exiles

Rowena Xiaoqing He
In the spring of 1989, millions of citizens across China took to the streets in a nationwide uprising against government corruption and authoritarian rule. What began with widespread hope for political reform ended with the People's Liberation Army firing on unarmed citizens in the capital city of Beijing, and those leaders who survived the crackdown became wanted criminals overnight. Among the witnesses to this unprecedented popular movement was Rowena Xiaoqing He, who would later join former student leaders and other exiles in North America, where she has worked tirelessly for over a decade to keep the memory of the Tiananmen Movement alive. This moving oral history interweaves He's own experiences with the accounts of three student leaders exiled from China. Here, in their own words, they describe their childhoods during Mao's Cultural Revolution, their political activism, the bitter disappointments of 1989, and the profound contradictions and challenges they face as exiles. Variously labeled as heroes, victims, and traitors in the years after Tiananmen, these individuals tell difficult stories of thwarted ideals and disconnection that nonetheless embody the hope for a freer China and a more just world. —Palgrave Macmillan {chop}

Vietnam Vows Stand Against China as Sea Collisions Continue

John Boudreau and Nguyen Dieu Tu Uyen
Bloomberg
Vietnam accused Chinese ships of ramming one of its fishing boats yesterday, saying relations between the two countries have been “deeply damaged” by the their standoff over a disputed oil rig in the South China Sea.

China Confirms Deadly Xinjiang Attack, Shows Graphic Footage of October Violence

Globe and Mail
Chinese authorities have confirmed an attack on security personal at a checkpoint in the restive far western region of Xinjiang, which a U.S.-backed radio service said left five dead.

China Threat: Air-Sea Battle vs. Offshore Control?

Wendell Minnick
Defense News
There are doubts in Washington that a US president would ever approve the bombing of China. This notion demonstrates that the Pentagon’s Air-Sea Battle operational concept is seriously flawed, said T.X. Hammes, a senior researcher at the department’...

32 Terrorist Groups Smashed in Xinjiang, China Says

Edward Wong and Chris Buckley
New York Times
Officials in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang said an antiterrorism crackdown that began in late May had resulted in the smashing of 32 terrorist groups and the sentencing of 315 people to prison. 

Books

06.18.14

The People’s Republic of Amnesia

Louisa Lim
On June 4, 1989, People's Liberation Army soldiers opened fire on unarmed civilians in Beijing, killing untold hundreds of people. A quarter-century later, this defining event remains buried in China's modern history, successfully expunged from collective memory. In The People's Republic of Amnesia, NPR correspondent Louisa Lim charts how the events of June 4th changed China, and how China changed the events of June 4th by rewriting its own history.{node, 5555}Lim reveals new details about those fateful days, including how one of the country's most senior politicians lost a family member to an army bullet, as well as the inside story of the young soldiers sent to clear Tiananmen Square. She also introduces us to individuals whose lives were transformed by the events of Tiananmen Square, such as a founder of the Tiananmen Mothers, whose son was shot by martial law troops; and one of the most important government officials in the country, who post-Tiananmen became one of its most prominent dissidents. And she examines how June 4th shaped China's national identity, fostering a generation of young nationalists, who know little and care less about 1989. For the first time, Lim uncovers the details of a brutal crackdown in a second Chinese city that until now has been a near-perfect case study in the state's ability to rewrite history, excising the most painful episodes. By tracking down eyewitnesses, discovering U.S. diplomatic cables, and combing through official Chinese records, Lim offers the first account of a story that has remained untold for a quarter of a century. The People's Republic of Amnesia is an original, powerfully gripping, and ultimately unforgettable book about a national tragedy and an unhealed wound. —Oxford University Press {chop}

China's Clampdown on ‘Evil Cults’

Murong Xuecun
New York Times
The government’s anti-religion campaign is not borne of concern for public security stemming from a horrific murder. This is a concerted effort to bring independent churches and their followers into line.

To Bolster Its Claims, China Plants Islands in Disputed Waters

Edward Wong and Jonathan Ansfield
New York Times
China has been moving sand onto reefs and shoals to add several new islands to the Spratly archipelago, in what foreign officials say is a new effort to expand the Chinese footprint in the South China Sea.

Rigged: Comradely Relations Go From Bad to Worse

Economist
Vietnam and China share a long history of enmity—and of managing to patch things up when they go wrong. But their latest dispute is not running true to form.

China, Japan Blame Each Other for Jet Encounter

Mari Yamaguchi and Matthew Pennington
Washington Post
The Chinese government released video that purports to show Japanese fighter planes flying dangerously close to a Chinese fighter planes over the disputed waters of the East China Sea.

Terrorism: U.S. and China’s Common Enemy in Africa

Eric Olander, Cobus van Staden & more
While U.S. and Chinese interests often have divergent interests in Africa, they do share at least one common enemy: terrorism. Chinese nationals have been kidnapped and held for ransom in a number of African countries, including South Sudan, Egypt,...

China Cultivates India Amid Tension With Neighbors

Christopher Bodeen
ABC
Amid fierce disputes with Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines, China is reaching out to India in a warming trend that could help ramp up economic exchanges and dissipate decades of distrust between the two giant neighbors.