The NYRB China Archive
10.01.12Han Han: ‘Why Aren’t You Grateful?’
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...
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09.28.12Bo Xilai’s Case: China’s Pandora’s Box
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...
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09.28.12Ousted From Party in China, Bo Xilai Faces Prosecution
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...
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09.27.12Chinese Female Official Aspires to Top Role
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,...
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09.27.12China Politics Stall Overhaul for Economy
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
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...
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09.27.12Protests Roiling, China’s Mainstream Media Showed an Alternate Reality
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...
The NYRB China Archive
09.27.12
China’s Lost Decade
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’...
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09.25.12What the Foxconn Riot Says About China
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...
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09.25.12Still a Model? Revisiting the Rebel Village of Wukan
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...
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09.25.12China Shows Off an Aircraft Carrier but Experts Are Skeptical
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...
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09.24.12The Persistence of Problems in China’s Factories
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
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...
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09.23.12Chinese Official Linked to a Murder Scandal Is Convicted
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...
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09.23.12Who Stripped the Law of Its Dignity
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...
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09.23.12Verdict on Wang Lijun Expected
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...
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09.23.12Qian Gang: The Power of Separation
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...
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09.23.12Lunch with the FT: Chen Guangcheng
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...
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09.22.12In Shark-Infested Waters, Resolve of Two Giants Is Tested
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...
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09.21.12The Chinese View of Obama and Romney
New Yorker
China has been pulled into the center ring of the U.S. Presidential campaign in recent weeks, with the candidates seeking to outdo each other on pledges to harden up on trade, currency, and security. In the Times...
Sinica Podcast
09.21.12
The Island Imbroglio
from Sinica Podcast
As Xi Jinping has stepped back into the public eye this week, the reappearance of China’s heir apparent has been upstaged by large demonstrations across the country as tensions mount over territorial claims to the Diaoyu (or Senkaku) Islands. As...
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09.20.12China and Japan Must Break Out of History’s Trap
Bloomberg
So what about the Sino-Japanese relationship periodically enrages nationalists in both countries? What is this trap of historical memory and nationalist myth-making in which both countries find themselves?
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09.20.12State to Tighten Oversight of International NGOs
China Daily
By amending existing law, China will set clear rules for international NGOs to register on the mainland and will strengthen supervision of their activities. Li Liguo, minister of civil affairs, made the announcement at a news conference inBeijing on...
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09.20.12Chinese Villagers Threaten Fresh Protests
Financial Times
Zhang Jiancheng was a rebel with a cause. His detention with four other protesters in December sparked a stand-off in the southern Chinese village of Wukan, where 13,000 people faced down police in an 11-day siege.After the provincial...
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09.20.12Beijing’s Dangerous Game
New York Review of Books
Many have ascribed the vehemence of the protests to deep-rooted anti-Japanese sentiment linked to injustices committed by Japan eighty years ago. But there is little evidence to support this. Rather the protests appear to have everything to do with...
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09.20.12Obama’s Evolution to a Tougher Line on China
New York Times
President Obama’s patience with China had been fraying for months, and by November 2010 he was fed up. Meeting with President Hu Jintao in Seoul, South Korea, Mr. Obama warned that if China did not do more to curb...
Caixin Media
09.20.12
Hit TV Show Sings Song of Media Model Success
A reality-talent TV songfest popular in more than forty countries around the world has become an instant hit in China, underpinning enthusiasm for an experimental business model linked to media sector reform.The Voice of China’s debut show in July...
The NYRB China Archive
09.20.12Beijing’s Dangerous Game
from New York Review of Books
Over the past few days, angry crowds in more than thirty Chinese cities have trashed Japanese stores, overturned Japanese cars, shouted “Down with Japan,” and carried banners that demand Chinese sovereignty over the uninhabited Diaoyu Islands in the...
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09.19.12Trial of Ex-Police Chief in China Scandal Ends in a Sign of Leniency
New York Times
A former Chinese police chief helped to cover up the murder of a British businessman by the wife of Bo Xilai, the Communist official toppled from power this year, but he also secretly collected evidence used to convict her, according to a...
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09.19.12In China, Panetta Says U.S. Focus on Asia Is No Threat
New York Times
Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta declared on Wednesday that the United States was not trying to contain a risingChina, and he stressed that with patience and effort current tensions between the giant rivals on opposite sides of...
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09.19.12Prominent Chinese Writer: I Am a Traitor
Li Chengpeng, an influential writer and social commentator, has published an article on his blog denouncing the boycott of Japanese goods and the violent anti-Japan sentiment currently sweeping China as the two wrangle over the Diaoyu Islands,...
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09.19.12Total Denial and the Will to Forget
China Media Project
Anyone who regularly observes the topsy-turvy world of Chinese politics understands that the past, even the remote past, can exert a powerful influence on the present and future. Major historical anniversaries — like that of the 1989 Tiananmen...
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09.19.12State Media Call For “Rational” Patriotism
China Media Project
After two days of violent anti-Japanese protests in China stemming from a territorial dispute over a chain of islands in the East China Sea, media in China are now calling on the public to remain calm and “rational,” apparently concerned about how...
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09.18.12Beijing both Encourages and Reins in Anti-Japanese Protests, Analysts Say
Washington Post
As anger increases over a territorial dispute between China and Japan, Chinese authorities have been playing both sides of the issue by quietly encouraging recent anti-Japanese protests, then publicly reining them in.Experts point to signs that...
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09.18.12In Car Country, Obama Trumpets China Trade Case
New York Times
In a vivid display of the powers of incumbency, President Obama on Monday filed a broad new trade case against China at the World Trade Organization, announcing the action in this industrial battleground where Mitt Romney has pressed his argument...
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09.18.12China Warns of ‘Further Actions’ as Anti-Japan Protests Resume
New York Times
China drove home its opposition to Japanese control of a contested group of islands on Tuesday, with angry protests in dozens of cities and a warning from its defense minister that “further actions” were possible.
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09.18.12Seriously Hooked on Nationalism
Rectified.name
This is the worst kind of dispute because everybody’s right and nobody’s right. Japan and China have more than their share of nationalist nitwits, but nobody actually lives on these rocks and it’s not like you can go and ask the goats what...
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09.17.12Anti-Japan Protests in China Turn Violent, Cooler Heads Prevail Online
On Saturday protestors in dozens of Chinese cities took to the streets to voice their anger at the Japanese government’s nationalization of the Diaoyu Islands (Senkaku Islands in Japanese) in the East China Sea as a flagrant violation of Chinese...
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09.17.12China Commentary Slams Romney’s “Foolish” China-Bashing
Reuters
In a strongly worded English-language commentary, Xinhua said Romney’s anti-China rhetoric, if converted into policy upon him assuming office, would trigger a catastrophic trade war and damage the already weak global economic recovery.
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09.17.12Panetta to Meet Xi Jinping on Extended Trip to China
Reuters
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s trip to China has been extended by a day and will include meetings with Vice President Xi Jinping, U.S. defense officials said on Monday.
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09.17.12U.S. Files W.T.O. Case Against China Over Cars
New York Times
The United States on Monday filed a broad trade case against China at the World Trade Organization, alleging unfair subsidies for exports of cars and auto parts.
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09.17.12China’s Anti-Japan Riots Are State-Sponsored. Period.
ChinaGeeks
But anyone who has followed domestic protests in China for even a short period of time should be clear on the fact that if it wants to, the government has the means to totally shut these protests down. They may have sent in the tanks back in ’89,...
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09.17.12As Scandal Shook China, Quiet Spy Game Unraveled
Wall Street Journal
In spy-speak it is known as a “walk-in”—an unsolicited approach to a diplomatic mission by a foreigner claiming to have sensitive information. And when an agitated former police chief, Wang Lijun, entered a U.S. consulate in early February...
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09.17.12The Anti-Japanese Eruptions in China
Atlantic
Six years ago, in the first article I filed after moving to Shanghai, I listed the things that struck me as different, compared with my initial visits to China 20 years before. At the top of the list was the increased virulence of anti-Japanese...
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09.17.12Envy and Spectacle: America’s Presidential Race Finds an Adoring Audience in China
Atlantic
After the Democratic and Republican National Conventions closed, as candidates charged back to the campaign trail and as the American media moved on, the campaign speeches made their way across the Pacific Ocean to China, where they are still...
Caixin Media
09.17.12
How a Protest in Beijing Stuck to the Script
On the afternoon of September 16, rows of policemen and security personnel in black T-shirts lined Beijing’s Liangmaqiao Road near the Japanese embassy during protests over the Diaoyu Islands controversy. Security guards were visible everywhere,...
Caixin Media
09.16.12No Excuse for the Excuses Officials Hand Us
Putting the right spin on one’s words is a science, and civil servants with fiduciary responsibility have to master this subject. It helps to shift blame to someone else; a child, a spouse, or a convenient foreigner will do.Several weeks ago Yang...
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09.16.12Ming Pao: Rules for Anti-Japan Protests
China Digital Times
Numerous mainland cities are experiencing days-long Anti-Japan protests in defense of China’s sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands. Authorities have begun exerting increasingly strict control over the demonstrations. Police...
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09.16.12A Chinese Leader Returns Amid Tumult
New York Times
The reappearance on Saturday of Xi Jinping, a top Chinese leader who had vanished from public view, removes one question mark facing the Communist Party, but a wave of protests against Japan is a sign that internal power struggles are far...
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09.14.12Keywords: Preserving Stability
China Media Project
The two-character Chinese phrase weiwen is an abbreviated form of the full phrase, weihu wending, meaning to preserve or safeguard stability. The Chinese Communist Party has many such shortened phrases, compact verbalisms that pack a political punch...
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09.14.12Reading Deep Red
China Media Project
On the question of political reform, there is one important terminology in particular we should remain alert to if we hope to read, between the lines as it were, the larger political climate of the 18th National Congress: the “Four Basic Principles...
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09.14.12Off-Script Scramble for Power in a Chinese Leader’s Absence
New York Times
With still no sign of China’s designated new leader, Xi Jinping, who has not been seen in public since Sept. 1, many insiders and well-connected analysts say the Chinese political ship is adrift, with factions jockeying to...
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09.14.12Review: Ai Weiwei’s Blog (The Book)
Los Angeles Review of Books
On May 28, 2009, the readers of artist and activist Ai Weiwei’s blog — hosted on Sina, a popular Chinese internet portal — logged onto blog.sina.com.cn/aiweiwei to find the message “This blog has already been closed. If you have queries,...
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09.11.12Where’s Xi? Using New Code Words, China’s Netizens Speculate by the Thousands
It’s a cat and mouse game for netizens who are interested in Mr. Xi’s coming and goings. Certain code words for Mr. Xi, such as “Crown Prince (太子)” or XJP, are blocked search terms on Sina Weibo. However, netizens have invented others, such as heir...
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09.11.12Watchwords: The Life of the Party
China Media Project
To outsiders, the political catchphrases deployed by China’s top leaders seem like the stiffest sort of nonsense. What do they mean when they drone on about the “Four Basic Principles,” or “socialism with Chinese characteristics”? Most Chinese are...
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09.11.12What “911” Means in Chinese
Even in Chinese, “911” is shorthand for September 11 and the events that transpired 11 years ago today. Web users in China have taken to social media to mark the anniversary, some waxing philosophical about the passage of time and the elusiveness of...
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09.10.12China’s Presumptive New Leader Is Mysteriously Absent
New York Times
Speculation intensified on Monday over the whereabouts of China’s presumptive new president, Xi Jinping, who has been missing from public view in recent days as the country prepares for a crucial leadership change.
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09.10.12A Panoramic View of China’s Cultural Revolution
New York Times
Li Zhensheng’s photographs of the Culutural Revolution are perhaps the most complete and nuanced pictorial account of the decade of turmoil ignited by Mao Zedong.Mr. Li was a photojournalist for the local paper in Harbin, capital...
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09.10.12Rumors Swirl as China’s Xi Vanishes
Financial Times
Over the last week Mr Xi has cancelled at least four scheduled meetings with visiting dignitaries, including a Russian delegation, the prime minister of Singapore and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last Wednesday, and the prime minister of...