Analysis: Lost in Debate - Reality of U.S.-China Ties

Associated Press
U.S. presidential politics vilifying China obscures how deeply entwined the two countries have become. 

China and Its Trade Tactics are Coming to the Debates

Sharon LaFraniere
New York Times
China's economic relations with U.S. could feature hotly in next Presidential debate.

Romney Can Invoke Japan Overtaking China as U.S. Lender

Wes Goodman and Daniel Kruger
Bloomberg
China is poised to lose its place as the U.S.’s biggest creditor for the first time since the height of the financial crisis, blunting one of Mitt Romney’s favored attacks in the presidential campaign.

American Politics and Chinese Data

Bill Bishop
Deal Book
In the midst of increasingly heated election rhetoric about China, Beijing has released some important economic data as its currency hits record highs. Both Mitt Romney and his running mate, Paul D. Ryancriticized...

Is Mo Yan a Stooge for the Chinese Government?

Brendan O'Kane
Rectified.name
Even before the Swedish Academy announced Mo Yan as the 2012 Nobel Literature Prize winner, the Chinese internet was abuzz with discussion of his work and his relationship with the Chinese government. 

Against Backdrop of Dispute with China, Japan Shows Off Navy

Associated Press
Associated Press
Japan’s navy marked 60th year with major exercise, showing off maritime strength amid territorial dispute with China.

Blind Chinese Activist Says Nephew Could Face Unfair Trial

Sui-Lee Wee
Reuters
Chen Guangcheng said Chinese police sent his nephew, charged with knife attack, to state prosecutor, paving way for unfair trial.

Ryan Criticizes Obama Administration China Policy

Thomas Kaplan
New York Times
Romney Republican running mate slams President for delaying report on currency manipulation. 

Mo Yan Calls for Liu Xiaobo’s Release

Andrew Jacobs
New York Times
Mo Yan, the new Nobel laureate who strenuously avoided antagonizing the Communist Party during much of his literary career, stepped into a political minefield on Friday by calling for the release of Liu Xiaobo, the imprisoned writer and...

New Details of How Wife of Chinese Politician Thought She Was Poisoned

Edward Wong
New York Times
The wife of Bo Xilai, the disgraced Chinese politician, was told several years ago by a doctor that her nervous system had suffered irreversible damage because she had been steadily ingesting poison that someone had slipped into...

Caixin Media

10.12.12

Bo Xilai as a Catalyst for Political Reform

No matter how you look at it, the disciplinary process surrounding the case of Bo Xilai will have historic implications.Details of the crimes committed by Bo, his wife, Bogu Kailai, and his former right-hand man, Wang Lijun, reflect a level of...

Review: Ai Weiwei at the Hirshhorn

Roberta Smith
New York Times
Mr. Ai, who seems to lose his sense of humor only rarely, has characterized his increasingly dangerous jousting with the Chinese government as a kind of performance art. 

Reports

10.12.12

Chinese Direct Investment in California

Daniel H. Rosen and Thilo Hanemann
Daniel H. Rosen
Asia Society
To build the case for a robust response to these opportunities and looming risks, this report analyzes Chinese investment in California in depth, mining a unique database for insights about California’s comparative advantages, the Chinese firms most...

Japan and China Agree to Talks on Rift after Noda Call

Isabel Reynolds and Takashi Hirokawa
Bloomberg
Talks aim to reduce tensions over territorial dispute, avoid suffering in Asia’s biggest economies.

Environment

10.11.12

China’s New Leaders Must Respect Environmental Rights

from chinadialogue
China has achieved remarkable economic successes over the last three decades. For years, it has led the world in GDP growth. But widespread industrialization and urbanization, along with growth based on increased use of resources, mean the nation...

An Honest Writer Survives in China

Ian Johnson from New York Review of Books
A little over a year ago, I went with the Chinese writer Yu Hua to his hometown of Hangzhou, some one hundred miles southwest of Shanghai, and realized that his bawdy books might not be purely fictional; their characters and situations seemed to...

Reports

10.11.12

Standing Their Ground

Amnesty International
The forced eviction of people from their homes and farmland has become a routine occurrence in China and represents a gross violation of China’s international human rights obligations on an enormous scale. Despite international scrutiny and censure...

Censorship Reaching 1,000 Miles Exposed on China’s Twitter

Yueran Zhang
Netizens exposing public servants' taste for expensive timepieces has sparked an online and newspaper crackdown.  On October 9, Wang Keqin (@王克勤), an Economic Observer (@经济观察报) reporter posted on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter, that...

Noda Calls for China Talks as Island Spat Threatens Growth

Matthew Winkler, Isabel Reynolds and...
Bloomberg
PM calls for talks to contain economic damage from dispute with Japan's No. 1 trade partner.

Over A Distressed Europe, It's Super China To The Rescue

Kenneth Rapoza
Forbes
China is considering lending even more money to bail out the region’s recessionary economies.

Five Points on the Deeply Flawed U.S. Congress Huawei Report

Graham Webster
Transpacifica
Chinese telecomms firms painted as shady, but evidence to back up allegations is hidden in report's classified sections.

As Romney Repeats Trade Message, Bain Maintains China Ties

Sharon LaFraniere and Mike McIntire
New York Times
China-related holdings by funds in which Mr. Romney has invested are a reminder of how he inhabits two worlds. 

China Gets Back to Work

Bill Bishop
New York Times
After China's Golden Week holiday, a round-up of important recent stories on economy and politics.

What Han Han's App Means for Chinese Censorship

Liz Carter
By publishing "The One" as an iPhone app, China's superblogger bypassed the State Administration of Radio Film and Television.

The Pivot (Video)

Mike Chinoy
University of Southern California, U.S.-China Institute
The Obama administration has made Asia a top priority for U.S. foreign policy. The move has been dubbed "The Pivot," and it has the potential to be one of the most enduring legacies of the Obama presidency.

No Ancient Wisdom for China

James McGregor
YaleGlobal Online
The much-vaunted China Model has morphed in the past decade to a one-of-a-kind system of authoritarian capitalism that is in danger of terminating itself – and taking the world down with it. It is also proving incompatible with global trade...

Review of Ai Weiwei at the Hirshhorn

James Panero
Wall Street Journal
Ai Weiwei will probably be regarded as the most important artist of the past decade. He is certainly its most newsworthy and arguably its most inspiring. Over the repressions of Chinese authorities, he has used a wide range of resources to broadcast...

Huawei Fires Back at the U.S.

SIOBHAN GORMAN And JURO OSAWA
Wall Street Journal
Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Inc. lashed out Monday at a scathing congressional report, calling allegations that it may be spying on Americans and violating U.S. laws "little more than an exercise in China-bashing."

Former Wife of Fallen Chinese Leader Tells of a Family’s Paranoid Side

EDWARD WONG and DAVID BARBOZA
New York Times
Just months before his fall from power, Bo Xilai asked the brother of his first wife to meet him at a government compound in the southwest metropolis of Chongqing.

Fu Manchu Returns

Jeffrey Wasserstrom
Wall Street Journal
Fear of China is back. But it's a nebulous fear, and this creates both an opportunity and an obstacle for the male and female anti-heroes of Christopher Buckley's latest look at the surreal world of lobbyist, the uneven but occasionally...

Ralls vs. CFIUS: What Are the Implications for Chinese Investment?

Daniel H. Rosen and Thilo Hanemann
Council on Foreign Relations
First, this was not a political move by the President to position himself as tough on China, as suggested by some. The timeline of the review through the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and the Presidential...

The Mixed Bag of Socialism

Qian Gang
China Media Project
Ahead of the 18th National Congress, the phrase “socialism with Chinese characteristics” is as strong as ever.

What the U.S. Presidential Debate Looked Like From China

Lily Kuo
Atlantic
 Chinese netizens shared mixed views of the U.S. election, some cynical, some optimistic.

Mistresses and Corruption

Adam Minter
Bloomberg
Which came first? The corruption or the mistresses? In China, they most often go together. The stories abound: from the corrupt official in Fujian who, in 2002, held the first (and only) annual competition to judge which...

Han Han: “Why Aren't You Grateful?”

Ian Johnson
New York Review of Books
When looking for Chinese reactions to the anti-Japanese riots that took place in late September, it was probably not much of a surprise that the Western press turned to Han Han, the widely read Shanghai-based blogger. In characteristic form, Han...

Beijing Blocks Dissident’s Art Company

Edward Wong
New York Times
Liu Xiaoyuan, a lawyer friend of Ai Weiwei, the artist and frequent critic of the Communist Party, has said in an online posting that Chinese officials have revoked the business license of Mr. Ai’s art production company, Beijing Fake...

Disgraced Chinese Official’s Son Defends Him

Edward Wong
New York Times
The youngest son of Bo Xilai, the former Communist Party leader who is expected to be tried on a wide range of criminal charges, has released a statement defending his father as “upright in his beliefs and devoted to duty.”

Sensitive Words: Bo Xilai’s Expulsion

Anne Henochowicz
China Digital Times
Since Bo Xilai’s expulsion from the Communist Party and announcement that he would face criminal charges, a number of Sina Weibo terms related to Bo which were previously blocked from search results are now live once again...

National Identity: Pictures of the Enemy

N.D.
Economist
The national identity has become so unfortunately bound up with demonstrations against Japan. So we turn from recent differences to subjects less timely. The horrors of the Nanjing massacre of 1937 have long stoked the imagination of...

Han Han: ‘Why Aren’t You Grateful?’

Ian Johnson from New York Review of Books
When looking for Chinese reactions to the anti-Japanese riots that took place in late September, it was probably not much of a surprise that the Western press turned to Han Han, the widely read Shanghai-based blogger. In characteristic form, Han...

Bo Xilai's Case: China's Pandora's Box

Evan Osnos
New Yorker
The Chinese Communist Party has just done something it hates to do: hang its dirty laundry out in public. With a level of force and lurid color that surprised just about everyone who pays attention to these things, on Friday the...

Ousted From Party in China, Bo Xilai Faces Prosecution

Edward Wong
New York Times
Chinese leaders announced on Friday that Bo Xilai, a disgraced Communist Party aristocrat, had been expelled from the party and would be prosecuted on criminal charges, as the date for the 18th Party Congress, climaxing China’s once-a-decade...

Caixin Media

09.28.12

Bo Xilai Ousted from Communist Party

The Communist Party has expelled Bo Xilai, the former party chief of Chongqing, who’s been embroiled in corruption allegations since early this year.The Politburo made the decision on September 28, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Bo will next...

Chinese Female Official Aspires to Top Role

Leslie Hook
Washington Post
Most of the 25 members of China’s Politburo are uncannily similar, with their black-dyed hair, dark suits and science degrees, but one stands out.With her trademark blue skirt-suit and pearls, Liu Yandong, 66, the top official in charge of health,...

China Politics Stall Overhaul for Economy

Andrew Jacobs
New York Times
When it comes to confronting economic slowdowns, the Chinese government has not been shy about making bold moves. Faced with the contagion of global recession four years ago, policy makers created a $585 billion stimulus package that helped...

Reports

09.27.12

China Analysis: Gaming North Korea

Nathan Beauchamp-Mustafaga, Antoine Bondaz, François Godement, and David Péneau
European Council on Foreign Relations
China and North Korea have had an uneasy relationship in recent years. While the PRC has sometimes played the role of buffer state in North Korea’s dealings with the United States, South Korea, and other nations, Chinese leaders have also expressed...

Protests Roiling, China’s Mainstream Media Showed an Alternate Reality

Sandra
It’s already entered the annals of China’s brief but rich Internet history: On Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter, posts showing massive anti-Japan protests in China went viral on September 15th and 16th. Out in the real world, protestors across dozens of...

China’s Lost Decade

Ian Johnson from New York Review of Books
It’s hard to believe, but just twenty years ago China was on the verge of abandoning the market reforms that have since propelled it to its current position as a world power. Conservatives had used the 1989 Tiananmen massacre to reverse the country’...

What the Foxconn Riot Says About China

Evan Osnos
New Yorker
Day by day, Chinese workers expect better conditions and greater guarantees that when companies go bust, the employees will not. And, yet, China permits no independent trade unions or free collective bargaining. Complaint and mediation procedures...

Still a Model? Revisiting the Rebel Village of Wukan

Josh Chin
WSJ: China Real Time Report
A little over a year ago, residents of the small southern Chinese fishing village of Wukan ransacked the offices of the local government in protest over a land grab by local officials. The death in police custody of one of the protest leaders a few...

China Shows Off an Aircraft Carrier but Experts Are Skeptical

Jane Perlez
New York Times
In a ceremony attended by the country’s top leaders, China put its first aircraft carrier into service on Tuesday, a move intended to signal its growing military might as tensions escalate between Beijing and its neighbors over islands in nearby...

The Persistence of Problems in China’s Factories

Stanley Lubman
Wall Street Journal
A riot involving 2,000 workers at a factory in the northern Chinese city of Taiyuan on Sunday night once has once again shined a light on conditions at factories owned by Apple Inc. supplier Foxconn. The cause of the riot appears to have been a...

Media

09.24.12

Law Professor He Weifang on Why Wang Lijun’s Trial Scared Him

Amy Qin
Today, the Chinese state news agency Xinhua announced that Wang Lijun, the former Chongqing police chief, has been found guilty by a court in Chengdu of four criminal charges, including defection, abuse of power, taking bribes, and bending the law...

Chinese Official Linked to a Murder Scandal Is Convicted

Edward Wong
New York Times
Chinese court officials have found Wang Lijun, a former police chief, guilty of four criminal charges after he fled to a United States Consulate last February and told diplomats there that the wife of a senior politician had murdered a British...

Who Stripped the Law of Its Dignity

Hu Shuli
A common refrain in official statements and court documents is: "China is a socialist country run by the rule of law. The dignity and power of law shall not be trampled." But how Bogu Kailai and her accomplices were able to disregard...

Verdict on Wang Lijun Expected

Christopher Buckley
Reuters
The ex-police chief who triggered China's most spectacular political upheaval for decades is virtually sure to be convicted on four charges on Monday, turning attention to the fate of his disgraced former boss, Bo Xilai.A court in southwest...

Qian Gang: The Power of Separation

Qian Gang
China Media Project
If I suggested to my audience that “separation of powers,” the tripartite model of state governance common to many of the world’s democracies, exists in the Chinese Communist Party too, they would probably revile me. “You must be...

Lunch with the FT: Chen Guangcheng

Jamil Anderlini
Financial Times
As we start our meal, I ask Chen how he likes the food in New York. His wife gives him a piece of pizza, telling him what it is and that he can use his hands to eat it. He smiles and says he likes all kinds of cuisine, especially Japanese and Indian...

In Shark-Infested Waters, Resolve of Two Giants Is Tested

Martin Fackler
New York Times
 The voyage to these remote islands at the center of one of Asia’s most heated territorial disputes is a bone-jarring seven-hour boat ride from one of Japan’s southernmost ports, a long enough journey that the fishermen who brave...