Viewpoint
11.06.17
On the Road with Trump in Asia: Day One, Tokyo
Many are fearful that Xi Jinping’s ability to awe his visitors with over-the-top manifestations of pomp and ceremony will turn Donald Trump to Jell-o. But having watched Trump arrive in Japan yesterday on the first leg of his five-country trip, it’s...
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11.03.17China and Vietnam, Best ‘Frenemies’ Forever
Forbes
You know those boyfriend-girlfriend relationships that break up, get back together, and break up again? Maybe the two viscerally don’t get along but need each other for some indispensable reason. That pattern describes ties between China and Vietnam...
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11.03.17Beijing Says It Peacefully Resolved a South China Sea Dispute with Vietnam
CNBC
China and Vietnam have reached an agreement on managing their dispute in the South China Sea through friendly talks, a senior Chinese diplomat said on Friday, following an ugly spat over the summer between the two communist neighbors.
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11.03.17China Bank Barred from US Financial System over North Korea Ties
Financial Times
The U.S. Treasury department has severed a small Chinese bank’s ties with the U.S. financial system over its alleged support for North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
Viewpoint
11.03.17
The Future of Particle Physics Will Live and Die in China
from Foreign Policy
“Don’t you dare kill my project.”My phone interview with a senior official at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) had started with bland, yet polite, responses. But it took a sharp turn toward audible agitation and hostility as I raised my final...
Conversation
11.02.17
Trump Goes to Asia
Chinese officials like to talk about practicing “win-win” diplomacy. Their American counterparts sometime joke that this means China wins twice. From November 3 to November 14, Donald Trump will visit Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines,...
Conversation
10.27.17
What’s the Takeaway from the 19th Party Congress?
The day after the Party Congress ended on October 24, Xi Jinping strode across the stage of the massive Great Hall of the People with the six newly announced members of the 19th Politburo Standing Committee, the body that rules China. What might...
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10.27.17Chinese Scientists Warn North Korea about Disaster Threat at Nuclear Test Site
South China Morning Post
Chinese geologists have warned their North Korean counterparts of a potential catastrophic collapse of a North Korean underground nuclear test site on China’s doorstep.
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10.27.17Ahead of Trump Trip, China Urges U.S. Not to Allow Taiwan President In
Reuters
China urged the United States on Friday not to allow Taiwan’s president to travel through U.S. territory en route to the island’s diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a sensitive visit shortly ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s trip to Beijing.
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10.27.17Why Trump's Fawning over China's Xi Jinping Probably Won't Work
New Yorker
A couple of weeks ago, The Economist put a drawing of Xi Jinping, the President of China, on its cover under a headline that said “The world’s most powerful man.” In an editorial in the same issue, the editors acknowledged that China is still no...
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10.27.17The Rise of China's Xi Jinping Told in Six Front Pages
Washington Post
The People’s Daily is the official mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, its front pages offering as clear a window as we can get into the message the party leadership want to transmit to its members.
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10.27.17China’s Global Ambitions Could Split the World Economy
Bloomberg
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, many economists and policymakers assumed the world would become one happy, prosperous economy. Aided by the spread of capitalism and technology, countries would be increasingly knit together by trade, finance, and...
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10.26.17North Korea’s Kim Congratulates China’s Xi after Congress
Reuters
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent a rare congratulatory message to Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday at the end of China’s Communist Party Congress, wishing him “great success” as head of the nation, the North’s state media said.
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10.26.17Life Is about to Get Even Harder for Foreign Media in China
Diplomat
It is widely known that foreign journalists encounter various strict restrictions when reporting on China — particularly since Chinese President Xi Jinping came into office five years ago. But China just sent another strong message to the “trouble-...
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10.26.17Kushner Will Take a Diminished Role on Trump’s China Trip
Politico
Back in December 2016, the Chinese foreign minister traveled to Manhattan to meet privately with Jared Kushner for emergency discussions after President-elect Donald Trump’s unorthodox phone call with the president of Taiwan.
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10.26.17Taiwan President Calls for Thaw in Ties with Mainland China
South China Morning Post
Taiwan and mainland China need to drop historical baggage to seek a breakthrough in cross-straits relations, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen said in her first public comments since the Communist Party unveiled a new leadership line-up.
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10.26.17China’s Communist Party Has Come of Age – the West Should Wake Up
Guardian
The Chinese Communist party congress displayed all the qualities beloved by Leninist institutions over the ages, of deep secrecy mixed with stern pageantry, leveraged in the service of reinforcing their leaders’ inviolate right to rule.
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10.26.17Inside China’s Secret ‘Magic Weapon’ for Worldwide Influence
Financial Times
On the Google map of Beijing there is an empty quarter, an urban block next to the Communist party’s leadership compound in which few of the buildings are named. At street level, the aura of anonymity is confirmed. Uniformed guards stand by grand...
The NYRB China Archive
10.26.17
Sexual Life in Modern China
from New York Review of Books
Throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, Chinese writers grappled with the traumas of the Mao period, seeking to make sense of their suffering. As in the imperial era, most had been servants of the state, loyalists who might criticize but never seek to...
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10.25.17Xi Jinping Unveils China’s New Leaders but No Clear Successor
New York Times
President Xi Jinping thrust China into a new era of strongman politics on Wednesday, unveiling a leadership team without a likely successor among the six officials who will help him rule for the next half decade.
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10.25.17Singapore’s Delicate Balancing Act between the US and China
CNN
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong may have been in Washington on Monday to consolidate his country's economic and political partnerships with the US, but he appeared to dedicate much of his time concentrating on another nation whose...
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10.24.17China Enshrines ‘Xi Jinping Thought.’ What Does That Mean?
New York Times
Restoring China to greatness is a central message of “Xi Jinping Thought,” and a goal that has already guided policies to build up the military.
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10.23.17China’s Pursuit of Fugitive Businessman Guo Wengui Kicks Off Manhattan Caper Worthy of Spy Thriller
For months, Guo, from his self-imposed exile, had been using Twitter to make allegations of corruption against senior Chinese officials and tycoons.
Viewpoint
10.21.17
The Ayes Have It
On April 1, 1969, delegates to the Ninth Congress of the Chinese Communist Party convened in the Great Hall of the People on the western flank of Tiananmen Square. The hall had been constructed as one of the Ten Grand Edifices 十大建築 hastily...
Viewpoint
10.20.17
Mao Wished He Could Upend the World Order. Does Xi?
In his October 18 speech opening the 19th Party Congress, Chinese Communist Party Secretary Xi Jinping cautiously embraced the future. Eyeing thousands of Party delegates, Xi spoke for three-and-a-half hours about turning China into a “great modern...
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10.20.17Xi Jinping's Leninist Quest for a Dynasty Inspires Congressional Love-In
Guardian
While the explosion of sycophancy over China’s president may seem almost comical, his reign will have ramifications far beyond the country’s borders
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10.20.17Which Industries Will China Set up in Xiongan, the President's Dream City?
South China Morning Post
Appointment of banking regulator to key role would boost confidence that the shrinking reform camp will still be able to influence policy
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10.20.17Why China’s Xi Jinping is Unlikely to Anoint a Successor
South China Morning Post
Hu Chunhua and Chen Miner unlikely to win promotion to Communist Party’s top decision-making body
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10.20.17Dark Horses, Sure Bets: Who Could Rule China in the Next five Years (and Beyond)
CNN
In the world's most populous nation, seven men sit atop 1.4 billion people.
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10.20.17China’s Party Congress Brings Crackdown on Critics, Nightclubs and Airbnb
New York Times
President Xi Jinping is sending a stern message to China and the world: I am in charge, and nothing can stand in my way.
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10.19.17China Warns US to Drop Its Bias after Tillerson’s ‘Blunt’ Message
South China Morning Post
Beijing warned the United States to drop its bias against China after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Washington wanted to “dramatically deepen” ties with New Delhi to counter China’s influence in Asia.
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10.19.17China’s Reform Hopefuls Watch for Names. Only One May Matter.
New York Times
A decade ago, this city in southeastern China had a reputation as one of the country’s grimmest, with smoggy skies, chronic traffic jams and streams so foul that they had to be paved over to contain the stench.
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10.19.17China’s "Rogue Aid" to Africa Isn't as Much or as Controversial as We Thought
Quartz
A decade ago, a New York Times columnist coined the term “rogue aid” to describe China’s financial assistance in the developing world: nontransparent, nondemocratic, and above all self-interested. Since then, the label has stuck.
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10.19.17Move over, America. China Now Presents Itself as the Model ‘Blazing a New Trail’ for the World.
Washington Post
American presidents are fond of describing their nation as a “city on a hill” — a shining example for other nations to follow. But China is now officially in the business of styling itself as another polestar for the world, with a very different...
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10.19.17Xi Jinping: China's President ‘to Get Own Political Theory’
BBC
It will be known as “Xi Jinping Thought” and has 14 principles, the agency says.
Viewpoint
10.19.17
Could Xi Jinping Stay in Power After He Retires? Here’s How Deng Xiaoping Did It
It was the worst kept secret in Chinese politics. From 1978 until his death in 1997, Deng Xiaoping was Beijing’s ultimate decider, even though he never held any of the top official titles in this period: not general secretary of the Chinese...
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10.18.17How Xi’s Redefinition of Deng Xiaoping’s Guiding Principle Could Change China’s Policy Course for Decades to Come
South China Morning Post
President Xi Jinping on Wednesday redefined the “principal contradiction” faced by Chinese people, signalling a shift in the country’s development focus for the years, if not decades, ahead from unbridled economic growth to better quality expansion...
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10.18.17China Is Quietly Reshaping the World
Atlantic
The Pakistani town of Gwadar was until recently filled with the dust-colored cinderblock houses of about 50,000 fishermen. Ringed by cliffs, desert, and the Arabian Sea, it was at the forgotten edge of the earth. Now it’s one centerpiece of China’s...
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10.18.17China Vows to Scrap Secret Interrogations of Communist Party Members
Reuters
China’s ruling Communist Party will scrap the practice of secretive interrogations known as “shuanggui”, President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday, part of broader reforms of its anti-corruption architecture.
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10.18.17China’s Challenges Abroad: How Do You Solve a Problem Like North Korea?
Forbes
The importance of the Chinese Communist Party’s 19th party congress to the future of Xi Jinping’s leadership and the direction of China has paralyzed policy debates on many issues, including North Korea. The paralysis has persisted despite the...
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10.18.17Xi Jinping Opens China's Party Congress, His Hold Tighter Than Ever
New York Times
When Xi Jinping strode out in the Great Hall of the People five years ago as China’s new leader, his tight smile barely hid the atmosphere of smoldering crisis.
Viewpoint
10.17.17
Stein Ringen: ‘The Truth About China’
Democracies have found it difficult to deal with the great dictatorships. So now with China. The first difficulty is to recognize just what we are up against, and to avoid wishful thinking.In his first five years, Xi Jinping has reshaped the Chinese...
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10.17.17A Dazzling Spectacle of China's Totalitarianism
Washington Post
When the Congress of the Chinese Communist Party convenes in Beijing on Wednesday, the world will be served up a dazzling spectacle of power and procedure.
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10.17.17Delegates to Party Congress Highly Representative: Report
Xinhua
The presidium of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) held its first meeting on Tuesday afternoon, approving a report on the examination of delegates’ qualifications by the delegate credentials committee.
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10.17.17Exile Guo Wengui Casts Shadow over China's Party Congress
Financial Times
If anyone thought that what happens in the Chinese Communist party stays in the Chinese Communist party, a determined gadfly ensconced in New York has proven them wrong.
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10.17.17The Communist App Store: China's Endless Apps for Tracking, Organizing, and Motivating Party Members
Quartz
China’s Communist Party is getting into app development big time, with dozens of apps to educate and promote social networking among party members hitting the country’s Apple and Android app stores.
Viewpoint
10.16.17
Why Do We Keep Writing About Chinese Politics As if We Know More Than We Do?
In the coming weeks, every major Western newspaper and many top China analysts will be making strong claims about Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s political position in the wake of the 19th Party Congress. These reports will build off years of tea-leaf...
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10.16.17Guo Wengui, the Maverick Chinese Billionaire Who Threatens to Crash Xi’s Party
Guardian
He paints himself as the Che Guevara of Chinese crony capitalism, a billionaire insurgent vowing to bring down the system from the comfort of his $68m New York home.
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10.16.17China Stands at ‘a New Historic Starting Point,’ Communist Party Says
CNBC
China is boasting of its growing economic and political development as the country comes to a standstill for the once-every-five-years Communist Party Congress.
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10.16.17“We Could All Be Potential Refugees”: Ai Weiwei on the Epic Journey Of “Human Flow”
Salon
Ai shot 900 hours of footage and conducted 600 interviews over the course of a year, and edited the film over six months.
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10.16.17China's Pollution Crackdown Is Gaining Momentum
Bloomberg
That political will overlaps with an economic need to rein in surplus production of steel, aluminum and other basic materials after years of over-investment. How and when that capacity gets replaced will be a key factor in the economy’s performance...
Conversation
10.16.17
What to Watch at China’s Party Congress
The Chinese Communist Party’s 19th Party Congress, a hugely important political meeting usually held once every five years, will begin on October 18 in Beijing. Like many events involving China’s ruling party, the most important decisions and...
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10.13.17China September Exports up 8.1%, Imports up 18.7% as Trade with North Korea Slides
CNBC
China reported strong trade data on Friday just days ahead of a major Communist Party Congress.
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10.12.17Xi Jinping Has More Clout Than Donald Trump. The World Should Be Wary
Economist
American presidents have a habit of describing their Chinese counterparts in terms of awe. A fawning Richard Nixon said to Mao Zedong that the chairman’s writings had “changed the world”. To Jimmy Carter, Deng Xiaoping was a string of flattering...
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10.12.17China Rebuffs Criticism of Decision to Bar British Activist from Hong Kong
Guardian
China has rebuffed criticism of its decision to bar a prominent British activist from Hong Kong, declaring itself unshakably opposed to foreign interference in the former colony’s affairs.
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10.12.17China Offers Support to Spanish Government amid Catalonia Crisis
South China Morning Post
China understands and supports the Spanish government’s efforts to protect the country’s unity and territorial integrity, Beijing said on Thursday, amid moves by Catalonia to declare independence.
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10.12.17China Targets Pollution on Eve of Xi Jinping’s Second Term
Financial Times
A wave of environmental inspections in China has led to the closure of tens of thousands of businesses producing commodities from industrial chemicals to cement and rubber, pushing up prices and disrupting some global supply chains.
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10.12.17China Threatens U.S. Congress for Crossing Its ‘Red Line’ on Taiwan
Washington Post
In a rare pressure campaign, the Chinese government is demanding that the U.S. Congress back off passing new laws that would strengthen the U.S. relationship with Taiwan. Beijing’s efforts are the latest sign that it is stepping up its campaign to...
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10.11.17The Communist Party Ghostwriters Who Wrote the Book on Xi Jinping
South China Morning Post
The call came in 2015. He Yiting, a vice-chairman of the training ground for top Communist Party cadres, was given a mission that would take the next two years of his life.
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10.11.17China's Xi Looks Set to Keep Right-Hand Man on Despite Age
Reuters
Chinese President Xi Jinping is likely to retain his right-hand man, the graft-buster Wang Qishan, in a senior position at a key Communist Party Congress this month even though he has reached retirement age, according to a majority of people with...