ChinaFile Recommends
12.16.12China Watches Newtown: Guns and American Credibility
New Yorker
Authoritarian states ward off calls for political freedoms arguing that U.S.-style democracy is no guarantee of good policy.
Caixin Media
12.16.12Mobile Phones Souring Africa’s Image of China
Every day, about a dozen mobile phone wholesalers field orders and manufacturer offers from offices inside a nondescript, five-story building on Luthuli Avenue in downtown Nairobi.The building doesn’t look like a hub for global commerce, nor does it...
Sinica Podcast
12.14.12
China 3.0
from Sinica Podcast
Today on Sinica, join us for a discussion on economics, politics, and geopolitics with Mark Leonard from the European Council on Foreign Relations. Our specific focus is China 3.0, the council’s recent compendium of essays on contemporary Chinese...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.13.12Rectification of Names, 鸿海 Division
Atlantic
Now you might be thinking: Oh, no! Another Chinese company whose name I have to remember and that I have to care about. Calm down. As people who operate in China know, and as one "by the way" clause in the story points out, Hon Hai...
Media
12.12.12
The “Chinese Dream” Means One Thing to its Leaders, and Another to its People
Since China unveiled the new Politburo Standing Committee at the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, the country’s Web users have been paying close attention to the new elite group of leaders who will set the country’s agenda for...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.12.12In the People’s Liberation Army
New York Review of Books
Mo Yan, recent recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, describes an experience in the People's Liberation Army in the 1970s. This text is excerpted from his part fiction, part memoir Change.
ChinaFile Recommends
12.12.12China Reportedly Strips Shanghai Bishop of His Title
New York Times
A Roman Catholic bishop who stunned congregants and Communist Party officials last July when he renounced his government position during his consecration has been stripped of his religious title, according to two Catholic Web sites that cited...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.12.12The “Just Sisters” Defense: China’s Sex-Scandal Surge
New Yorker
Faced with a sex scandal of breathtaking tackiness, a Chinese police district could be forgiven for feeling perhaps a flicker of relief last week when someone in the office stumbled on what must have felt like good news under the circumstances—a...
Culture
12.11.12
Sheng Keyi on Mo Yan: “Literature Supersedes Politics and Everything Else”
In a recent conversation at the Asia Society, novelist Sheng Keyi said she felt the critism of Mo Yan’s Nobel Prize was unjustified. The controversy, she said, arises from Mo Yan’s politics rather than his literature, “and I think to critique him on...
Culture
12.11.12Yu Jie: Awarding Mo Yan the Nobel Prize Was a “Huge Mistake”
Mo Yan accepted his Nobel Prize for Literature in Stockholm on December 10.The 57-year-old novelist often writes stories based on memories of his village childhood, and his work and his political views have triggered wide debate. In...
Out of School
12.11.12
What Mo Yan’s Detractors Get Wrong
When Chinese novelist Mo Yan accepted the Nobel Prize in Literature earlier this week, the relationship between literature and politics attracted much attention. The award is often given to writers who forcefully oppose political repression. When...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.10.12Keep Smiling! – You’re Being Watched
China Story
Frequent media reports of overwhelming popular support for mass surveillance are propagandistic in tone and content. However, is there nonetheless some truth in the ‘happy Chinese panopticon’? An international comparative survey on privacy and...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.09.12Chinese Survey Shows a Higher Jobless Rate
Wall Street Journal
A new survey shows that the real unemployment rate in China is double the official level, and layoffs rose sharply among migrant workers in the past year, underlining a challenge for China's new leaders to maintain growth. The survey...
Media
12.09.12
New Leaders’ Common Touch Gives Netizens “Great Hope”
Glad-handing with the locals. Kissing babies. Eating fast food. These are tried and true ways that American politicians seek to advertise their common touch; but when China’s new leaders employ these methods, it is greeted as a pleasant surprise,...
Sinica Podcast
12.07.12
Time to Leave China?
from Sinica Podcast
It wasn’t very long ago that the Chinese blogosphere became engrossed with two near-simultaneous and very public posts by well-known expats marking their decisions to leave China for greener pastures. While grumbling about this country is nothing...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.06.12Detained China Nobel Wife Speaks Out
Associated Press
Liu Xia trembled uncontrollably and cried as she described how her confinement under house arrest has been absurd.
The NYRB China Archive
12.06.12
Does This Writer Deserve the Prize?
from New York Review of Books
On October 11 Peter Englund, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy in Stockholm, announced that the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2012 will go to the fifty-seven-year-old Chinese writer Guan Moye, better known as Mo Yan, a pen name that means “...
My First Trip
12.03.12
A China Frontier: Once the Border of Borders
In 1961, when I first arrived in Hong Kong as an aspiring young China scholar, there was something deeply seductive about the way this small British enclave of capitalism clung like a barnacle to the enormity of China’s socialist revolution. Because...
Caixin Media
12.03.12When Hope Dies
A nationwide uproar paralleled the investigation that led to the identification of five street children who suffocated in a large rubbish bin in the city of Bijie, Guizhou province.Officials learned the victims were the sons of three brothers. The...
Caixin Media
12.03.12
Toxic Effects and Environmental Nondisclosure
High-profile talk emphasizing environmental action at the Communist Party’s 18th national congress attracted a lot of attention. News from the November proceedings spurred industry demands for more information and pushed stock prices higher for...
ChinaFile Recommends
11.30.12China Bans Rowdy Game Show After Mother's Rant about Turning her Daughter into 'Sexy Goddess' of China
Associated Press
China suspended a broadcaster after an unaired segment of a TV game show leaked online showing a shouting match with a woman who calls her daughter the next Lady Gaga.
Environment
11.28.12
Russia’s Siberian Dams Power “Electric Boilers” in Beijing
from chinadialogue
The underdeveloped, sparsely populated Eastern Siberia region that shares a 4,000-kilometer border with China has vast resources to offer its heavily populated and fast-developing neighbor. Hydroelectricity is key among them.A major new...
ChinaFile Recommends
11.27.12How Ordinary Chinese Are Talking And Fighting Back
NPR
Roughly 400 million Chinese use Weibo, China's Twitter, and often do so to expose corruption.
Caixin Media
11.26.12
When Tradition is Flattened by Policy
A “tomb-flattening policy” in Henan province has sparked intense controversy, with millions of tombs reportedly destroyed by local authorities in a quest to turn graveyards into farmland.The policy can be seen as a historical extension of land-...
Caixin Media
11.23.12
Asset Transparency Urged to Fight Government Graft
Calls for government officials to disclose personal and family assets are growing louder in China, mainly in reaction to the rising number of corruption cases affecting officialdom.And some officials are listening. A local Communist Party official...
The NYRB China Archive
11.22.12
China: Worse Than You Ever Imagined
from New York Review of Books
Last summer I took a trip to Xinyang, a rural area of wheat fields and tea plantations in central China’s Henan province. I met a pastor, a former political prisoner, and together we made a day trip to Rooster Mountain, a onetime summer retreat for...
ChinaFile Recommends
11.21.12Women in China Leadership Fewer Than Under Mao
Bloomberg
The chart of the day shows the falling percentage of women in the ruling Communist Party’s Central Committee, a group of about 200 members that includes all seven men on the nation’s top decision-making body, the Politburo Standing...
ChinaFile Recommends
11.20.12Corruption in China's Orphanages
Financial Times
One of my children is from an orphanage where the director, a government official, has created a nice little business in orphan homecomings, which include a lavish meal, hugs from the caregivers, and a shower of gifts for the returning child. The...
Media
11.19.12
A Conservative Commentator Calls Out Chinese Liberals, and Liberals Shout Back
Speech on the Chinese Internet, it seems, is beginning to thaw once more following the country’s leadership transition. After months of speculation, new Chinese leader Xi Jinping was announced on November 16 at the close of the 18th Party Congress,...
ChinaFile Recommends
11.12.12China, Are You Ready for Some American Football?
New York Times
The NFL is hoping that American football’s flash could someday give basketball and soccer a run for their money in China.
ChinaFile Recommends
11.11.12Recording the Untold Stories of China’s Great Famine
NPR
A young man trudges doggedly around his village, notebook in hand, fringe flopping over his glasses. He goes from door to door, calling on the elderly.The young man has one main question: Who died in our village during the Great Famine?This is the...
Books
11.09.12
Strong Society, Smart State
The rise and influence of public opinion on Chinese foreign policy reveals a remarkable evolution in authoritarian responses to social turmoil. James Reilly shows how Chinese leaders have responded to popular demands for political participation with a sophisticated strategy of tolerance, responsiveness, persuasion, and repression—a successful approach that helps explain how and why the Communist Party continues to rule China.Through a detailed examination of China's relations with Japan from 1980 to 2010, Reilly reveals the populist origins of a wave of anti-Japanese public mobilization that swept across China in the early 2000s. Popular protests, sensationalist media content, and emotional public opinion combined to impede diplomatic negotiations, interrupt economic cooperation, spur belligerent rhetoric, and reshape public debates. Facing a mounting domestic and diplomatic crisis, Chinese leaders responded with a remarkable reversal, curtailing protests and cooling public anger toward Japan. Far from being a fragile state overwhelmed by popular nationalism, market forces, or information technology, China has emerged as a robust and flexible regime that has adapted to its new environment with remarkable speed and effectiveness. Reilly's study of public opinion's influence on foreign policy extends beyond democratic states. It reveals how persuasion and responsiveness sustain Communist Party rule in China and develops a method for examining similar dynamics in different authoritarian regimes. He draws upon public opinion surveys, interviews with Chinese activists, quantitative media analysis, and internal government documents to support his findings, joining theories in international relations, social movements, and public opinion. — Columbia University Press
ChinaFile Recommends
11.08.12In China, Paranoia Around Twitter Hackings
Wall Street Journal
Activists, journalists and a political cartoonist had their Twitter accounts hacked the opening day of China’s 18th Party Congress.
Features
11.06.12
Fragments of Cai Yang’s Life
The man suspected of smashing the skull of fifty-one-year-old Li Jianli, the owner of a Japanese automobile, has been arrested by police in Xi’an; he is twenty-one-year-old plasterer Cai Yang.Cai Yang came to Xi’an from his hometown of Nanyang [...
ChinaFile Recommends
11.06.12Neil Heywood 'Was MI6 Informant'
Telegraph
Neil Heywood, the British businessman murdered in China, gave MI6 info on Bo Xilai.
Caixin Media
11.05.12
Thanks, But No Thanks
On the last day of Zhao Xiang’s short life, her request to donate every organ possible to save the lives of others was brushed off by the president of Shenzhen Liulian Hospital.Zhao, her parents, and transplant specialists from the Shenzhen branch...
Viewpoint
11.05.12
The Big Enterprise
In days of yore, when a new dynasty was established in China and a new emperor was enthroned, it was known as dashi, “The Big Enterprise,” and it usually involved mass social upheaval and civil war. The latter-day version of changing...
ChinaFile Recommends
11.02.12Online Poll Shows Overwhelming Support For End to China’s One-Child Policy
Out of 30,006 votes cast, 71.7% support abrogating the one-child policy, and only 28.3% want to keep it. The poll was conducted after a study by the China Development Research Foundation emerged, recommending an abolition of the...
ChinaFile Recommends
11.02.12One-Child Policy Up for Reform in China?
Associated Press
The unpopular policy should be phased out, says a Chinese government think tank.
Media
11.02.12
Chinese Movie Mogul Promises New Party Leaders Will Open Market to Hollywood
A wise old cartoon turtle in Kung Fu Panda advises Po, the portly black and white star of the 2004 DreamWorks Animation blockbuster film, not to fret about honing his fighting skills, but rather to focus on the moment and do his...
ChinaFile Recommends
11.01.12Silencing a Voice for Justice
New York Times
I have been recently seeking to use the rule of law to achieve social justice. This isn’t easy in a country where legal vagueness and arbitrary enforcement make advocacy a constant uphill battle. But in my career, I’ve encountered few cases as...
Postcard
10.30.12
Wenzhou’s Italian Uncles
0039 Ristorante Italia sits in the middle of West Jiangbin Street, one of many long and large stretches of concrete that cross Wenzhou east to west, parallel to the Oujiang River, running next to some of the city’s visible wealth—in the form of...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.28.12A Third Day of Protests in China Against Refinery Reach Third Day
New York Times
Hundreds protesting a petrochemical plant's expansion plans, swarmed Ningbo port tossing water bottles at riot police officers.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.28.12In China, 'Mad Men' Reflects Reality of Modern Life
Los Angeles Times
The 1960s-driven TV drama resonates with ambitious young Chinese professionals.
Media
10.26.12
Myanmar Envy
Chinese netizens’ reactions to tentative democratic reforms in neighboring Myanmar, including to the recent repeal of censorship rules for private publishers by the Southeast Asian nation’s reformist government, reflect just how closely it’s...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.23.12The Battle for Breakfast
Economist
Chinese love fast food but no Western chain has figured out how to please the hungry in the morning.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.23.12An Alternative Look at China’s Labor Markets
Wall Street Journal
Unemployment is arguably the most important, but least well measured, factor in China’s economy. Low unemployment and rising wages signal economic health, making it less likely that the government will rush to pump up growth. The reverse –...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.20.12"The Revolutionary": An Unrequited Love for China
NPR
In a new documentary on his life, Sidney Rittenberg, who once translated for Mao, refers to his jailer as both a hero and criminal.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.20.12China's Consumer-led Growth
Economist
Official data show that consumption contributed over half of China's growth so far this year, more than investment's contribution.
Caixin Media
10.19.12
Flying Splinters
Liu Futang expressed a sense of foreboding just before his recent arrest by posting a microblog entry that began, “If one day I’m invited out for tea, please don’t worry about me.”“Drink tea” is a euphemism in China for an unwanted interrogation by...
Postcard
10.19.12
Desperately Seeking City
At the world’s only International Sister City Museum, located in far northeast China, a guide leads a group of Harbin middle school students past displays for each of their hometown’s twenty-seven “twins.” “Our government’s friendship with these...
Caixin Media
10.19.12Tapping into Crowd Power with Website Finance
Investing like an angel now costs no more than an average duck dinner in Beijing.The force driving China’s growing ranks of small-scale angel investors are crowdfunding websites, which offer individuals access to business financing pools for as...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.18.12Li Lei and Han Meimei, The love affair of a whole generation
Offbeat China
Two characters in China’s English textbook used 20 years ago are back, sparking a wave of nostalgia.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.18.12Radio: Shanghai Residents Discuss U.S. Presidential Debate
NPR
Eight Chinese watched and discussed Tuesday's U.S. presidential debate at the NPR Shanghai bureau.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.17.12Chinese elite politics: It's still a man's world
Associated Press
It's easier for a Chinese woman to orbit Earth than land a spot atop Chinese politics.
Environment
10.16.12
Chinese Boycott Airline China Southern After Mysterious Death of Dog
from chinadialogue
On the morning of October 10, a high-profile lawsuit against China Southern, one of China’s “big three” airlines, opened at Chaoyang People’s Court in Beijing. The plaintiffs? Zhao Nan and Chen Lei, a couple from Tianjin, north China, who blame the...
Caixin Media
10.12.12Bo 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...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.12.12Forbes China 100 Richest List
Forbes
Forty-five of China’s 100 biggest fortunes slipped from last year’s FORBES ASIA Richest List.
Sinica Podcast
10.12.12
No Ancient Wisdom, No Followers
from Sinica Podcast
As China continues to subsidize inefficient state enterprises on a massive scale, an increasing number of critics—domestic and foreign—are questioning whether current policies mark a rejection or corruption of the vision championed by reformers like...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.11.12Mo Yan Mines a Deep Well
New York Times
Mo Yan's work recalls a Soviet dissident's quip that in his country “reality and satire are the same.”