A Dream Deferred

Phelim Kine
Foreign Policy
The challenge the ICIJ expose poses to Xi's reputation as an anti-corruption crusader, is a vindication of Xu's advocacy. 

Features

01.26.14

For Freedom, Justice, and Love

Xu Zhiyong from China Change
Following is legal activist Xu Zhiyong’s closing statement at the end of his trial in Beijing on January 22, 2014. According to his lawyer, Xu was only able to read “about ten minutes of it before the presiding judge stopped him, saying it was...

Li Na Beats Cibulkova to Win Australian Open Title in Her 3rd Appearance in the Final

John Pye
Associated Press
Li Na made beat Dominika Cibulkova 7-6 (3), 6-0 the Australian Open final on January 25 to become the oldest woman to clinch the title in the Open era.

China Loses its Allure

Economist
Life is getting tougher for foreign companies. Those that want to stay will have to adjust.

China Media: Xi's Chinese New Year Greetings

BBC
President Xi Jinping said the Communist Party of China “firmly relying on the people, including non-communist members, defeated various challenges and difficulties in the last year and achieved outstanding results.”

Why China Needs to Rethink the Way It Treats the Foreign Press

Evan Osnos
New Yorker
A new report on elite wealth by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists suggests Beijing may need to change its whack-a-mole strategy of removing offending reporters one by one.

Sinica Podcast

01.24.14

Talking About Taiwan

Kaiser Kuo & David Moser from Sinica Podcast
This week on Sinica, Kaiser Kuo is joined by David Moser and Paul Mozur for an in-depth discussion about everyone’s favorite renegade province. This is a lively conversation that stretches from questions of Taiwanese personal identity to its media...

Media

01.23.14

Carpe Coin: Crowdfunding Could Change Chinese Politics

Crowdfunding, which allows web users to contribute small sums of money to fund collective projects like concerts and films, is taking off in China—and just how far it will go is more than a business question. By allowing netizens to vote with their...

Investigative Stories Delve Into the Use of Offshore Companies by Chinese

Edward Wong
New York Times
This year's first big China investigative story has come from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

Media

01.23.14

Out of the Dark Room

Sharron Lovell
Photographers document China’s breakneck development in fractions of a second every single day. Yet the work of Chinese photojournalists remains largely unseen outside their homeland. Of the thousands of images of the country illustrating the pages...

“Chinaleaks” Stories Censored in Mainland China

Michael Hudson, Marina Walker Guevara,...
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
Chinese authorities blocked online access to news reports exposing the secrecy-cloaked offshore holdings of China's political and financial elites.

Why It Matters That Ellen is the First U.S. Talk Show in China

Lily Rothman
Time
The show may be a spark for change in attitudes toward LGBT Chinese.

Report Says China’s Elite Use Offshore Companies

Andrew Jacobs, David Barboza
New York Times
The report names many of China's wealthiest citizens, as well as relatives of Xi Jinping, Wen Jiabao, and descendants of the CCP's founders.

Report Links Chinese Elite to Offshore Tax Havens

Joe McDonald
Associated Press
Attention is on President Xi Jinping's family and its wealth at a time when Xi has emphasized fighting corruption.

China Mobilizes Cyber-cops After Leak on Elite Overseas Wealth

Benjamin Carlson
Global Post
(Op-ed) “surprising behavior from a government that says it really wants transparency to flush out corruption.”

China Suffers Massive Internet Outage, Analysts Suspect Hackers

Paul Armstrong
CNN
The state-run China Internet Network Information Center blamed the blockage on a “malfunction in root servers.”

ICIJ Offshore Records Reveal Tax Haven Clients in China, Hong Kong

Marina Walker Guevara, Gerard Ryle,...
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
More than 50 reporting partners in Europe, North America, Asia and other regions investigated 2.5 million leaked files.

How We Did Offshore Leaks China

Marina Walker Guevara
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
Chinese, European and Western journalists worked together to successfully leak a highly sensitive and secretive story.

China Teams Up with Hollywood for Terracotta Army Superhero Movie

Ben Child
Guardian
"Super Terracotta Warriors" is China's response to the recent slew of Hollywood films based on comic books. 

China’s Temporary-Worker Ploy

Murong Xuecun
New York Times
Scandals are often blamed on lin shi gong, or “temporary workers," but why have they been hired in the first place?

China, Japan Slug It Out in World’s Press

Matthew Pennington
Associated Press
Escalating disputes between Japan and China are spilling onto newspaper opinion pages around the globe as the rivals try to sway attitudes abroad and placate nationalist fervor at home.

Media

01.17.14

You’ve Got Mail: Chinese Communist Party Received Almost Two Million Complaints in 2013

In 2013, China’s Communist Party disciplinary organs received an eye-popping 1.95 million citizen complaints about officials. This is a 49.2 percent jump from 2012, according to a January 13 report from state-run website China News Online—but...

Spring Festival Gala Performance by Chinese Rock Icon in Doubt

Luo Tian
New York Times
The popularity and pizzazz of China's “Godfather of Rock” is not worth the political risk for CCTV. 

Books

01.16.14

Debating China

Nina Hachigian (Editor)
America and China are the two most powerful players in global affairs, and no relationship is more consequential. How they choose to cooperate and compete affects billions of lives. But U.S.-China relations are complex and often delicate, featuring a multitude of critical issues that America and China must navigate together. Missteps could spell catastrophe.In Debating China, Nina Hachigian pairs American and Chinese experts in collegial “letter exchanges” that illuminate this multi-dimensional and complex relationship. These fascinating conversations—written by highly respected scholars and former government officials from the U.S. and China—provide an invaluable dual perspective on such crucial issues as trade and investment, human rights, climate change, military dynamics, regional security in Asia, and the media, including the Internet. The engaging dialogue between American and Chinese experts gives readers an inside view of how both sides see the key challenges. Readers bear witness to the writers’ hopes and frustrations as they explore the politics, values, history, and strategic frameworks that inform their positions. This unique volume is perfect for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of U.S.-China relations today.—Oxford University Press{chop}{node, 4406, 4}

Found in Translation: King’s ‘Dream’ Plays in Beijing

Howard W. French
New York Times
The CCP emphasizes American history of inequality while leaving out points of domestic overlap. 

Though I am Gone

Hu Jie
Fast Company
(Vid) Wang Jingyao chronicles the murder of his wife, the first victim of the Cultural Revolution. 

Bowed and Remorseful, Former Red Guard Recalls Teacher’s Death

Chris Buckley
New York Times
“How a country faces the future depends in large part on how it faces its past,” said former Red Gaurd in public apology for past violence. 

The New York Times Hires Michael Forsythe

Kristen Hare
New York Times
Forsythe left Bloomberg after writing an article that threatened the Publication's presence in China. 

New Detail Emerges About Bo Xilai’s Downfall

Edward Wong
New York Times
Sanlian Life said Australian reporter, John Garnaut, was involved in the Bo Xilai case. 

White House Responds to Jimmy Kimmel’s China Controversy

Ted Johnson
Variety
A joke concerning the killing of Chinese people to avoid paying down U.S. debt was said live on ABC.  

Media

01.10.14

Shaq in China: A Love Story

At seven-foot-one, roughly 350 pounds, and with a smile that’s been featured on everything from cereal boxes to CD album covers, Shaquille O’Neal isn’t particularly hard to recognize. And yet there I stood at the airport arrival gate in Chongqing, a...

Major Leadership Shake-Up at China Film Group

Clifford Coonan
Hollywood Reporter
La Peikang will take over from Han Sanping as the new head of the all-powerful state-backed film company, in a rare power transition for the Chinese industry.

China Fines ‘House of Flying Daggers’ Director for Breaching One-child Policy

Tania Branigan
Guardian
Film-maker Zhang Yimou, who has three children with wife Chen Ting, has to pay £750,000 for breaking law.

China Renews Western Journalists’ Visas After Months-Long Standoff

William Wan
Washington Post
Several Western journalists who faced expulsion from China were issued renewed visas by the Chinese government, ending a months-long standoff. But China is still on track to force at least one New York Times reporter to leave for the second year in...

Why are China and Japan Accusing Each Other of Being Voldemort?

Justin McCurry
Christian Science Monitor
Ill-tempered media exchanges between the Chinese and Japanese ambassadors to London invoked the universal cultural icon to embellish attacks over islands in the Asia-Pacific. 

Guardian Website Blocked in China

Gerry Mullany
New York Times
The newspaper said that it may be due to a recently run article about ethnic tensions in the western region of Xinjiang.

Media

01.07.14

Grand Theft China: Tase Corrupt Officials in New Online Game

Official corruption in China is a serious matter: In January 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping openly vowed to tackle it, and a 2013 Pew study found that fifty-three percent of Chinese consider it a “very big problem.” But fighting bribery,...

‘Saturday Night Live’ comes to China's Internet

Louise Watt
Associated Press
One such episode portraying Hu Jintao berating Barack Obama over the national debt shows the potential for more political discussion in China's television industry. 

Conversation

01.06.14

Will Xi Jinping Bring a Positive New Day to China?

Paul Mooney, Andrew J. Nathan & more
Chinese President Xi Jinping, just over a year in office, recently made a rare appearance in public in a Beijing restaurant, buying a cheap lunch and paying for it himself. Shortly thereafter, President Xi delivered a brief televised New Year...

Snowden Lied About China Contacts

Gordon G. Chang
Daily Beast
The New York Times has urged the Obama administration to offer Edward Snowden “a plea bargain or some form of clemency,” calling the former NSA contractor “a whistle-blower” for his exposure of “the vast scope” of the NSA’s “reach into the lives of...

Media

01.03.14

2013, According to the Chinese Communist Party

What did the year in foreign policy look like in Chinese official circles? Divining the thoughts and motives of China’s leadership is a famously abstruse exercise even for Chinese citizens, who are often left to parse bland quotes or keep their ears...

Environment

01.03.14

Predictions for China’s Environment in 2014

from chinadialogue
From dead pigs in the Shanghai river to toxic smog in major cities, 2013 was a year of dramatic environmental stories in China. We asked some of our contributors for their predictions on how these and other stories are likely to develop in the...

China 2013 Box Office Surges 27 Percent to $3.6 Billion

Clifford Coonan
Hollywood Reporter
Chinese box office revenue rose $760 million to $3.57 billion, an increase of 27 percent over last year's $2.8 billion (17 billion yuan), data from China's biggest online film review site, Mtime, showed.

China of My Mind

Virginia Pye
New York Times
When I tell people that I have recently published a novel set in China, one of the first questions they ask is whether I’ve been there. My response seems to be a letdown.

Sinica Podcast

12.27.13

Sinica Goes to the Movies

Kaiser Kuo, Jeremy Goldkorn & more from Sinica Podcast
As much as expats in China like to complain about the state of Chinese film and television, this week Kaiser and Jeremy remind us that there is a lot of great art out there, too, in a show that asks the critical question of: what is worth our...

Other

12.26.13

2013 Year in Review

As the year draws to a close, we want to take a moment to look back at some of the stories ChinaFile published in 2013. We hope you’ll find something that interests you to read—or watch—over the holidays.It’s hard to remember a recent year that didn...

Chinese Netizens Give Max Baucus a Chinese Name

Little Bluegill
China Digital Times
The new U.S. Ambassador to China, Max Baucus, asked for suggestions for his Chinese name. Everyone unanimously replied, “Meikesi? Baokesi.” [“He hasn’t died of coughing? It’s guaranteed he’ll die of coughing.”]

Are You Qualified to Be a Journalist in China? Take the Test

Mia Lee and Bree Feng
New York Times
The test is seen as another step in tightening the party’s control over media. At a conference in August, President Xi Jinping called for the “consolidation of mainstream ideology and opinion” to ensure a correct political direction by media outlets...

Paying a Price to Cross China’s Border

Perry Link
Washington Post
For Chinese critics of the government, the border long ago acquired a political toll booth: Whichever way you cross, you pay a price.

Other

12.23.13

[Transcript] One Year Later, China’s New Leaders

J. Stapleton Roy, Susan Shirk & more
Nearly a year to the day after seven new leaders ascended to their posts on the Standing Committee of China’s Politburo, the Asia Society held a public conversation with The New Yorker’s Evan Osnos; Dr. Susan Shirk of the University of California,...

China Pressures Media to Tone Down Cash Crunch Story

Jamil Anderlini and Simon Rabinovitch
Financial Times
Chinese propaganda officials have ordered financial journalists and some media outlets to tone down their coverage of a liquidity crunch in the interbank market, in a sign of how worried Beijing is that the turmoil will continue when markets reopen.

Li Ruigang’s CMC Buys Stake in Caixin Media

Patrick Frater
Variety
China Media Capital, a $833 million venture capital fund with connections to Rupert Murdoch, Time Warner and Jeffrey Katzenberg, has bought a stake in Caixin Media, one of China’s leading independent news organizations.

The New Face of Chinese Propaganda

Murong Xuecun
New York Times
Not too long ago, the party’s Propaganda Department was renamed the Publicity Department. Old militant expressions like “overthrow,” “thoroughly destroy” and “strike hard,” and images of muscular workers and peasants in heroic postures, have been...

Culture

12.19.13

Chinese Literature Online

Michel Hockx
In July of last year, Brixton, U.K.-based novelist Zelda Rhiando won the inaugural Kidwell-e Ebook Award. The award was billed as “the world’s first international e-book award.” It may have been the first time that e-writers in English from all over...

Media

12.19.13

Chinese Admiral to U.S. Navy: ‘We Will Block You’

On December 5, the U.S. missile-carrying cruiser Cowpens almost collided with a Chinese ship in international waters. The Cowpens was observing the maiden voyage of China’s new aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, when a vessel accompanying it cut across...

Riot in China’s Xinjiang Kills 16, ‘Terror Gang’ Blamed

Ben Blanchard
Reuters
Chinese police shot and killed 14 people during a riot near the old Silk Road city of Kashgar in which two policemen were also killed, the latest unrest in a region that has a substantial Muslim population. 

Is Beijing About to Pull the Plug on Two Major American News Operations in China?

Mary Kay Magistad
Public Radio International
In an unprecedented move, the Chinese government has declined to process visa applications for the entire Beijing bureaus of The New York Times and Bloomberg News, in apparent retaliation for investigative reporting those two media organizations...

Apple Blocks Anti-Censorship ‘FreeWeibo’ App in China

Agence France-Presse
U.S. technology giant Apple has removed the FreeWeibo application intended to allow users to read sensitive postings on Sina Weibo, a Chinese equivalent of Twitter, from its Chinese app store on orders from Beijing. 

China Spins Mandela to Fit Its Political Narrative

Dan Levin
New York Times
State-run newspaper Global Times dismisses Western media comparisons between recently deceased anti-apartheid campaigner Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison in South Africa, and veteran Chinese human rights advocate, Liu Xiaobo, now serving...

Japan, S.Korea Hold Joint Sea Drill in China Air Zone

Agence France-Presse
The navies of Japan and South Korea, two Asian democracies, carried out a joint maritime rescue drill in international waters covered by China's new air defence identification zone (ADIZ).