US Wins WTO Luxury Car Ruling Against China

BBC
The World Trade Organization found no basis for duties that China imposed on saloons and off-road vehicles between 2011 and 2013 in retaliation for US trade policies.

Residents Try to Move On After Terrorist Attack in China

Andrew Jacobs
New York Times
By the time the vehicles exploded at opposite ends of the block, 43 people were dead and more than 90 people were wounded, according to an updated casualty list.

Special Report: The Power Struggle Behind China's Corruption Crackdown

Benjamin Kang Lim, David Lague and...
Reuters
When Xi Jinping was named President in March last year, the 48-year-old billionaire Liu Han was detained and surrounded by corruption investigators and prison guards.

Media

05.23.14

“What’s Been Done to My Beautiful Homeland?”

Nigel Maiti, an ethnically Uighur host for Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, is a well-known and popular entertainer with more than 1 million followers on the social media site Sina Weibo. After 31 were killed by a coordinated bomb and truck attack at...

The Smooth Path to Pearl Harbor

Rana Mitter from New York Review of Books
In mid-February, as part of the plans for his official visit to Germany, Chinese President Xi Jinping asked to visit one of Berlin’s best-known sites: Peter Eisenman’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. The request was declined when it became...

Books

05.22.14

Age of Ambition

Evan Osnos
From abroad, we often see China as a caricature: a nation of pragmatic plutocrats and ruthlessly dedicated students destined to rule the global economy—or an addled Goliath, riddled with corruption and on the edge of stagnation. What we don’t see is how both powerful and ordinary people are remaking their lives as their country dramatically changes.As the Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker, Evan Osnos was on the ground in China for years, witness to profound political, economic, and cultural upheaval. In Age of Ambition, he describes the greatest collision taking place in that country: the clash between the rise of the individual and the Communist Party’s struggle to retain control. He asks probing questions: Why does a government with more success lifting people from poverty than any civilization in history choose to put strict restraints on freedom of expression? Why do millions of young Chinese professionals—fluent in English and devoted to Western pop culture—consider themselves “angry youth,” dedicated to resisting the West’s influence? How are Chinese from all strata finding meaning after two decades of the relentless pursuit of wealth?Writing with great narrative verve and a keen sense of irony, Osnos follows the moving stories of everyday people and reveals life in the new China to be a battleground between aspiration and authoritarianism, in which only one can prevail. —Farrar, Straus, and Giroux {chop}

Vietnam PM Says Considering Legal Action Against China Over Disputed Waters

Rosemarie Francisco and Manuel Mogato
Reuters
Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said his government was considering various "defense options" against China, including legal action, following the deployment of a Chinese oil rig to South China Sea waters Hanoi also claims.

China and Russia: Best Frenemies

Economist
Does the new collaboration between Russia and China amount to a renewal of the alliance against America?

China Threatens Security Checks for Tech Firms After U.S. Indictments

Christopher Buckley
New York Times
China will establish new procedures to assess potential security problems with Internet technology and services used by sectors “related to national security and the public interest.”

UglyGorilla Hacker Left Tracks, U.S. Cyber-Hunters Say

Michael A. Riley and Dune Lawrence
Bloomberg
Prosecutors building a case against Wang Dong, one of five Chinese military hackers indicted for economic espionage, were helped by Wang’s apparent willingness to break a cardinal rule of spying: Leave no tracks.

“The Big Bang Theory” and Our Future with China

Evan Osnos
New Yorker
The United States has never faced a rival whose ordinary people lead lives that have so much in common with ours in America. (The Soviets did not get Carson.)

Ex JPMorgan China banker questioned in HK

Jamil Anderlini
Financial Times
Hong Kong authorities have interviewed Fang Fang, JPMorgan Chase’s former head of investment banking in China, as they investigate government bribery allegations.

Under Pressure, ‘Naked Official’ Chooses Early Retirement

Amy Qin
New York Times
How China is dealing with its longstanding problem of “naked officials”—those who have packed off their family and, often, ill-gotten wealth abroad.

Russia Signs 30-Year Gas Deal with China

BBC
Russia's President Vladimir Putin has signed a multi-billion dollar, 30-year gas deal with China, 10 years in the making, and worth some $400 billion.

China’s Xi Issues Veiled Warning to Asia Over Military Alliances

John Ruwitch
Reuters
Chinese President Xi Jinping appeared to warn some Asian nations about strengthening military alliances to counter China, saying this would not benefit regional security.

China Accuses U.S. of Hypocrisy Amid Charges of Economic Espionage

Massoud Hayoun
Al Jazeera
Unresolved allegations that the U.S. National Security Agency spied on a Chinese telecoms giant Huawei have resurfaced amid growing anger from Chinese officials over accusations that the PLA hacked American databases.

China summons U.S. Ambassador Over Indictment Against Chinese Military Officers

Xinhua
China's Assistant Foreign Minister summoned U.S. Ambassador to China Max Baucus to lodge a complaint over a U.S. indictment against five Chinese military officers.

Media

05.20.14

Netizens Complain Chinese Government Was Slow to Respond to Violence in Vietnam

On May 18, Hong Lei, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said China “will suspend some of its plans for bilateral exchanges with Vietnam in response to the deadly violence against Chinese nationals in the country,” according to...

Tiananmen: How Wrong We Were

Jonathan Mirsky from New York Review of Books
Twenty-five years ago to the day I write this, I watched and listened as thousands of Chinese citizens in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square dared to condemn their leaders. Some shouted “Premier Li Peng resign.” Even braver ones cried “Down with Deng...

Conversation

05.19.14

Is This the Best Response to China’s Cyber-Attacks? 

Robert Daly, Chen Weihua & more
On Monday, the United States Attorney General Eric Holder accused China of hacking American industrial giants such as U.S. Steel and Westinghouse Electric, making unprecedented criminal charges of cyper-espionage against Chinese...

Media

05.19.14

One Uighur Man’s Journey in Two Cultures

Over the past two months, the relationship between China’s estimated 10 million Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking people, most of whom follow some form of Sunni Islam, and the majority Han population has deteriorated after a series of violent incidents...

Caixin Media

05.19.14

“White Glove” Sisters at Center of Coal Country Graft Scandal

Two sisters with business savvy and important friends in high places are now the standout figures in the mysterious case of a former Shanxi province government official, Jin Daoming, charged with corruption.Few details of the Jin case have emerged...

Department of Justice Indicts Chinese Hackers: What Next?

Adam Segal
Council on Foreign Relations
The US indicted five Chinese military officers for cyberspying, but the Snowden revelations about alleged NSA activities make it hard to build support for diplomatic efforts from the rest of the world.

Viewpoint

05.16.14

Government Steps Up To Labor’s Demands

Kevin Slaten
On April 14, most of the 40,000 workers at the Dongguan Yue Yuen shoe factory—supplier to Nike, Adidas, and other international brands—began what would become a two-week work stoppage. While there are thousands of strikes in China every year, the...

Environment

05.15.14

Anti-Chinese Sentiment on Rise in Myanmar

from chinadialogue
The Shwe pipeline shaves an angry bald strip across the red clay hills and disappears into the morning mist. A sign hanging above an area cordoned off by bamboo fencing warns in English, “Severe punishment on pipeline destruction.”“Families were...

Infographics

05.15.14

China’s Fake Urbanization

from Sohu
This infographic explains why it is so hard for rural migrants to settle permanently in cities. For starters, city dwellers were the first to get rich after Reform and Opening Up, which created a large income disparity between them and people living...

Media

05.15.14

Evan Osnos: China’s ‘Age of Ambition’

Evan Osnos & Orville Schell
New Yorker correspondent Evan Osnos discusses his new book, Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China, with Orville Schell, Arthur Ross Director of Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations.{chop} 

Don’t Call Me Dude, Boss or Bro. It’s Comrade to You

Didi Kirsten Tatlow
New York Times
A new notice demands greater “naming discipline” from party members and officials, warning that using “vulgar” terms of address in the workplace was “wrecking inner-party democracy.” 

Up to 21 Dead as Anti-China Riots Spread in Vietnam

Nguyen Phuong Linh, Martin Petty,...
Reuters
The deaths occurred in rioting around Chinese factories that amount to one of the worst breakdowns in Sino-Vietnamese relations since the neighbors fought a brief border war in 1979.

China: Detained to Death

Renee Xia & Perry Link from New York Review of Books
On May 3, fifteen Beijing citizens—scholars, journalists, and rights lawyers—gathered informally at the home of Professor Hao Jian of the Beijing Film Academy to reflect on the 25th anniversary of the 1989 June Fourth massacre in Beijing. Two days...

Shoe Maker Yue Yuen Suspends Vietnam Production Amid Protests

Donny Kwok and Rachel Lee
Reuters
Vietnam accounts for about a third of Yue Yuen's global production capacity, which amounted to 313 million pairs of shoes last year.

25 Years Ago: Zhao Ziyang Appears to Win Backing

China Digital Times
To commemorate the student movement, CDT is posting a series of original news articles from 1989, beginning with the death of Hu Yaobang on April 15 and continuing through the tumultuous spring.

Chinese Police Charge British Former Head of GSK in China With Bribery

Megha Rajagopalan and Kazunori Takada
Reuters
The case is the biggest corruption scandal to hit a foreign company in China since the Rio Tinto affair in 2009, which resulted in four executives, including an Australian, being jailed for between 7-14 years.

Protestors Torch Factories in Southern Vietnam as China Protests Escalate

Euan McKirdy
CNN
Properties in the Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Parks (VSIP) I & II in Binh Duong were targeted by thousands of protesters demonstrating over China's deployment of an oil rig in disputed waters.

China May Seek Extradition of Corrupt Officials from U.S.

Massoud Hayoun
Al Jazeera
The specter of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s sweeping anti-graft campaign has in recent months ousted officials of all ranks and even banned authorities from purchasing ostensible symbols of corruption.

China Inc. Moves Factory Floor to Africa

Peter Wonacott
Wall Street Journal
Faced with rising labor costs at home and negative perceptions about their employment practices in Africa, Chinese companies are setting up new factories on the continent and hiring more Africans.

China Isn’t Overtaking America

Michael A. Levi
New York Times
Twenty-first century rivalry between the United States and China will be as much about economic might as military power.

State Sector is China’s Secret Sauce

Joe Zhang
South China Morning Post
The state sector has provided essential organization, capital and the ability to survive turbulence collectively. That’s the Chinese edge, like it or not.

China Real Estate Falls Back to Earth

Keith Bradsher
New York Times
One of the world’s longest-running bull markets finally seems to be stalling, with broad consequences for China’s economy and possibly its politics as well.

China’s Coal Dependency Threatens Efforts to Curb Warming

Michael Forsythe
New York Times
China's coal consumption contributes one-fifth of the world’s total emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from fossil fuels, which, if it continues, will make it change “almost impossible." 

China to Build Railway Linking East Africa

Agence France-Presse
Leaders agree $3.8bn project to link Kenya's port of Mombasa to neighboring Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan.

China Tightens Security in Beijing

BBC
China has deployed armed police patrol vehicles in Beijing after three attacks at transport hubs around the country.

Conversation

05.09.14

The China-Vietnam Standoff: How Will It End?

Daniel Kliman, Ely Ratner & more
Daniel Kliman:Five thousand miles from Ukraine, off the coast of Vietnam, China is taking a page from Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s playbook. Beijing’s recent placement of a huge oil drilling rig in disputed waters in the South China Sea leverages...

Media

05.08.14

The Chinese Are Coming! (And That’s OK)

On April 29, the United States Chamber of Commerce, a U.S. lobbying group, announced that Chinese investment in the United States surpassed U.S. investment in China for the first time. The news has been a long time in coming: Over the past decade,...

The China Challenge

Ian Johnson from New York Review of Books
In 1890, an undistinguished U.S. Navy captain published a book that would influence generations of strategists. Alfred Thayer Mahan’s The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660–1783 posited that great nations need potent, blue-water navies backed...

Conversation

05.07.14

How is China Doing in Africa?

Tendai Musakwa, Kathleen McLaughlin & more
On his current weeklong tour of Ethiopia, Nigeria, Angola, and Kenya, Premier Li Keqiang announced a new $12 billion aid package intended to address China’s “growing pains” in Africa. China is by turns lauded for bringing development to the...

Caixin Media

05.06.14

Growing Pains for a Megalopolis in Transition

Twenty years of on-and-off government discussions have yielded little progress toward the goal of coordinating urban and industrial development in a key Chinese megalopolis—the region encompassing the nation's capital Beijing, neighboring Hebei...

China Denies Preparing for North Korean Collapse

Tania Brannigan
Guardian
Experts say leaked contingency plans, which include the detention of leaders and establishment of refugee camps, may be valid but do not suggest that the alliance is weakening.

Rights Lawyer Detained Ahead of Tiananmen Anniversary

Austin Ramzy
New York Times
Pu Zhiqiang, 49, has been detained by the Beijing police one month before the 25th anniversary of the deadly crackdown on the Tiananmen protest movement.

China Corruption Campaign: On the Trail of Zhou Yongkang

Carrie Gracie
BBC
Until recently one of China's most powerful politicians, Zhou Yongkang has simply disappeared, presumed victim of the Orwellian security apparatus he once controlled.

Young Party Members ‘Top Earners’

Li Jing
South China Morning Post
 Survey of China's 'post-80s' generation finds high pay tied to official status inside the Chinese Communist Party.

China Jails Man for Leaking Military Data

Marin Patience
BBC
News reports have not named the country which received the information leaked by a man surnamed Li in 23 classified documents, of which 13 were considered highly classified, state media said.

A New Kind of Spy

Yudhijit Bhattacharjee
New Yorker
Greg Chung worked on NASA’s space-shuttle program. Then, in 2010, he became the first American to be convicted of economic espionage. He was eager to help China: “He has a big heart,” his wife said.

China's 'Ordinary' Billionaire Behind Grand Nicaragua Canal Plan

Mathew Miller
Reuters
Wang Jing, the businessman behind Nicaragua's $50 billion Interoceanic Grand Canal, insistis he's not an agent of the Beijing government.

China Premier Arrives in Africa Eyeing Better Ties

Elias Meseret
Associated Press
China's Li Keqiang arrived Sunday in Ethiopia for a four-country tour of Africa, calling for deeper ties with his country and seeking to recast a relationship that has admittedly faced difficulties.

Why India Will Soon Outpace China

James Gruber
Forbes
India’s decentralized, often chaotic economic model has been seen as inferior to China’s authoritarian, top-down model. A reappraisal of that view may soon be in order.

China's Half-Year Report Card on Economic Reform: Slow, Safe and Steady

Kevin Yao and Tomasz Janowski
Reuters
Incremental steps promise to reach enough critical mass to sustain reform momentum and help the world's second-largest economy shift down fairly smoothly after decades of red-hot growth.

Conversation

04.30.14

Will China’s Economy Be #1 by Dec. 31? (And Does it Matter?)

William Adams, Damien Ma & more
On April 30, data released by the United Nations International Comparison Program showed China’s estimated 2011 purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rate was twenty percent higher than was estimated in 2005. What does this mean? China's...

Environment

04.30.14

China’s Environmental Law Good on Paper

from chinadialogue
China’s environmental protection law, which stirred great controversy during its amendment process, has finally been passed. The updated law makes significant progress in the area of public interest litigation and strengthens the legislative tools...

Media

04.30.14

Five Lessons From the Axing of ‘The Big Bang Theory’

It’s a plot twist few saw coming. Not long ago, China’s video streaming sites were trying to clean up years of copyright violations by paying big bucks to license popular U.S. television shows. For their part, Chinese fans had begun to abandon the...