Japan Sharpens Censure of China Disputed Sea Activity

BBC
Japan is nearing approval of changes to a national security law that would allow Japanese troops to fight overseas for the first time since World War II.

One-Time Aide to China’s Ex-President Accused of Corruption

CNN
Party investigators accuse Ling Jihua, 58, once aide to former President Hu Jintao, of accepting bribes and illegally obtaining party and state secrets.

Xi Warns China Military Amid Anti-Corruption Purge

Charles Clover
Financial Times
Xi delivered the stern message to the home unit of Xu Caihou, formerly one of China’s highest ranking generals, arrested last year for bribery scandal.

Caixin Media

07.20.15

How Beijing Intervened to Save China’s Stocks

Top executives from 21 securities firms spent the morning of Saturday July 4 pinned to government office chairs while the future of China’s stock markets hung in the balance.They’d been summoned on a day off to the Beijing office of the China...

China Locks Up Lawyers, Defending the Rule of Law

Economist
Amnesty International says 120 lawyers, and more than 50 support staff, family members and activists, have been rounded up in China since July 9th.

Conversation

07.14.15

China’s ‘Rule by Law’ Takes an Ugly Turn

Nancy Tang, Eva Pils & more
Yet another crackdown has begun under Chinese President Xi Jinping. This time, the target is so-called “rights lawyers,” loosely defined as those who defend unpopular or dissident clients, or bring cases against the state that rest on claims of...

Reports

07.14.15

Lawyers and Activists Detained or Questioned by Police Since 9 July 2015

Amnesty International
Amnesty International has compiled this list of Lawyers and Activists in China who have been detained or questioned by police since July 9, 2015. The list was collated based on various sources. Amnesty International attempted to confirm all...

A Blind Lawyer vs. Blind Chinese Power

Evan Osnos from New York Review of Books
In early 2012, Chen Guangcheng, a self-taught lawyer who had been blind since infancy, lived with his wife and two children in the village of Dongshigu, where he’d been raised, on the eastern edge of the North China plain. They were not there by...

China’s War Against One American Journalist

Casey Michael
Slate
Shohret Hoshur’s brothers are being disappeared by the Chinese government. Beijing is trying to silence an American reporter by sentencing his brothers to China’s gulag.

New Chinese Security Law Opens Door To Tighter Restrictions: U.N.

Tom Miles
Reuters
China's legislature adopted a sweeping national security law last week that covers everything from territorial sovereignty to measures to tighten cyber security.

Hillary Clinton Says China Hacks into “Everything that Doesn’t Move”

Jake Flanigin
Quartz
The Democratic presidential candidate accused Chinese hackers of stealing “huge amounts of government information.”

China Stocks Rise as Beijing’s Emergency Moves Brings Some Relief

Samuel Shen and Pete Sweeney
Reuters
Support measures unleashed by Beijing brought some relief to a market after headlong slide over three weeks. 

China National Security Law Won’t Apply to Hong Kong

Jeffie Lam
South China Morning Post
Hong Kong has a provision on national security law-Article 23, stating that it can enact laws to prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition, or subversion.

China National Security Law Aims to Create 'Garrison State'

Chun Han Wong
Wall Street Journal
The law marks a crackdown on activism and dissent, featuring repression of civil-society groups, and warnings against the spread of Western ideas.

Jitters in Tech World Over New Chinese Security Law

Paul Mozur
New York Times
New language in the rules calls for a “national security review” of the technology industry — including network and other products and services — and foreign investment.

Features

07.01.15

Hong Kong’s Umbrella Protests Were More Than Just a Student Movement

Samson Yuen & Edmund Cheng
For almost three months in late 2014, what came to be known as the Umbrella Movement amplified Hong Kong’s bitter struggle for the democracy its people were promised when China assumed control of the territory from Britain in 1997. Originally a...

Media

06.26.15

A Chinese Feminist, Made in America

Nancy Tang
In August 2010, two weeks after turning 18, I traveled about 6,700 miles from Beijing, China to attend Amherst, a liberal-arts college in Massachusetts in the northeastern United States. I packed a copy of Harvard economist N. Gregory Mankiw’s...

South Africa Tourism in Crisis as Chinese Reject New Visa Regulations

Eric Olander, Cobus van Staden & more
South Africa’s tourism sector is in crisis as a series of new visa regulations have prompted dramatic falls in arrivals, particularly from the world’s largest source of tourists: China. The number of Chinese visitors to South Africa has plunged a...

Environment

06.25.15

Growing Pains for China’s New Environmental Courts

from chinadialogue
In recent years, China has set up hundreds of new environmental courts as part of institutional reforms that aim to encourage greener growth and curb pollution, but the country will have to speed up training and recruitment to ensure judges have the...

With Beijing’s Voting Plan Dead, Hong Kong Looks Ahead

Michael Forsythe
New York Times
The rejection of a Beijing-backed plan to let the public elect Hong Kong’s top officials begs the question of what happens next.

Alibaba is Selling US E-Commerce Site 11 Main Just a Year After it Opened

Josh Horwitz
Quartz
Alibaba’s been more tentative in the U.S. than it has in China, because it is a latecomer in a mature market.

Caixin Media

06.22.15

Why Fukuyama Still Beats a Drum for Democracy

American author and political scientist Francis Fukuyama has long extolled the virtues of democracy against the backdrop of the Soviet Union’s collapse and the end of the Cold War.Fukuyama’s best-selling book The End of History and the Last Man...

Attack Gave Chinese Hackers Privileged Access to U.S. Systems

David Sanger, Nicole Perlroth and...
New York Times
Chinese intruders' attack gave them “administrator privileges” into Office of Personnel Management computer networks.

China Extends Reach into Hong Kong to Thwart Democrats

James Pomfret and Greg Torode
Reuters
Democrats rejected a Beijing-backed Hong Kong electoral reform package but face an increasingly organized Chinese government.

Hong Kong Vetoes China-Backed Electoral Reform Proposal

Donny Kwok and Yimou Lee
Reuters
The rejection was expected and will likely appease activists who demanded a veto of what they call "fake" reforms.

Conversation

06.17.15

Has China’s ‘One Country, Two Systems’ Experiment Failed?

George Chen, Alvin Y.H. Cheung & more
As Hong Kong’s legislature began debate this week on the reform package that could shape the future of the local political system, the former British colony’s pro-democracy lawmakers swore again they will reject electoral reforms proposed by the...

China Military Says Two More top Officers Probed for Graft

Reuters
Serving and retired Chinese military officers have said military graft is so pervasive it could undermine China's ability to wage war.

Former CIA Chief Says Government Data Breach Could Help China Recruit Spies

Damian Paletta
Wall Street Journal
Retired Gen. Michael Hayden calls records a ‘legitimate foreign intelligence target’.

‘Jurassic World’ Speaks A Universal Language

Neda Ulaby
NPR
Jurassic World was No. 1 last week in China, where only about 30 Hollywood movies may screen officially each year.

Hong Kong Police Detain 9 After Finding Materials for Explosives

Alan Wong and Austin Ramzy
New York Times
Police linked the arrests to the most strident local voices against the Chinese government.

Chinese Hackers Circumvent Popular Web Privacy Tools

Nicole Perlroth
New York Times
The attackers compromised websites frequented by Chinese journalists as well as China’s Muslim Uighur ethnic minority.

Investors Flee China Funds in Historic Rush

Alanna Petroff
CNN
Chinese funds just experienced the biggest exodus of money ever.

China’s Troubling Robot Revolution

Martin Ford
New York Times
China may face a staggering challenge as it attempts to adapt to the realities of a new age.

Breaking Beijing?

Lynette H. Ong
Foreign Affairs
The government's harsh crackdown could crack the regime.

Top Leaders to Host Suu Kyi on Her 1st Visit to China

Louise Watt
Associated Press
The five-day visit includes no public appearances and gives Beijing a chance to get to know Suu Kyi as her country has shifted toward the West.

Caixin Media

06.09.15

China’s Cabinet Unveils Plan to Improve Rural Schools

The State Council has released a plan for improving the quality of education in rural areas over the next five years—a move the cabinet says is aimed at improving the quality of teaching at primary and secondary schools in the country’s less-...

China Blacklists 38 Cartoons, Violence, Porn Cited

Clifford Coonan
Hollywood Reporter
Among the banned are a 2014 animated TV series set in a Tokyo after a terrorist attack has destroyed the city.

Tencent Customers Come for the Music, Stay for the Perks

Juro Osawa
Wall Street Journal
Internet giant tries to pull off something few have achieved in China: get people to pay for digital music.

The $6.5 Trillion China Rally That’s Making Stock-Market History

Kyoungwha Kim
Bloomberg
 The sum is the value created in just 12 months of trading on Chinese stock exchanges, a rally some say has gone too far.

Uber Spends Heavily to Establish Itself in China

Paul Mozur and Mike Isaac
New York Times
Fat with almost $6 billion in venture capital, San Francisco-based Uber is doling out bonuses up to three times its fares.

China Issues White Paper on Human Rights

Xinhua
China has made "tremendous achievements" on the "the correct path of human rights development that suits its national conditions."

Feeling Valued

Economist
The IMF changes its tune on China’s currency.

Sale of High-Tech Battery Plants to China May Haunt Hillary Clinton

Todd Spangler
Detroit Free Press
@tsspangler http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/06/05/clinton-sale-michigan-china-gop/28525387/

China in Focus as Cyber Attack Hits Millions of U.S. Federal Workers

Matt Spetalnick and David Brunnstrom
Reuters
Hacks possibly compromised the personal data of 4 million current and former federal employees.

China Is Exporting its Tiananmen Censorship, and We Are All Victims

Foreign Policy
Twenty six years after the killing of student protesters, the code of silence is spreading worldwide.

China Tries To Put A More Positive Spin On Cruise Ship Sinking

Frank Langfitt
NPR
Dozens are confirmed dead and the number is expected to pass 400.

Chinese Democracy Isn’t Inevitable

Daniel Bell
Atlantic
Can a political system be democratically legitimate without being democratic?

Ship Sinks in China’s Yangtze River with 458 Aboard

Jethro Mullen
CNN
The captain and chief engineers were among the only 15 survivors and five bodies recovered as of Tuesday night.

Will China Close Its Doors?

New York Times
The draft “Foreign NGO Management Law” is part of a package of legislation that includes strict laws on national security and antiterrorism.

China Voice: South China Sea Issue Should not Hinder China-U.S. Ties

Xinhua
A U.S. anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft flew over waters off China's Nansha Islands last month.

China Cares Little for Other Countries’ Territorial Claims

Steve Tsang
Guardian
Beijing’s actions in building man-made islands in the South China Sea are motivated by a desire to impose its sovereignty.

Conversation

05.29.15

Did the Game Just Change in the South China Sea? (And What Should the U.S. Do About It?)

Yanmei Xie , Andrew S. Erickson & more
As the 14th annual Asia Security Summit—or the Shangri-La Dialogue, as it has come to be known—gets underway in Singapore, we asked contributors to comment on what appears to be a recent escalation in tensions between the U.S. and China over the two...

Environment

05.28.15

Chinese Posters Warn of the Dangers of Smog

from chinadialogue
{slideshow, 16211, 4}An exhibition of smog-inspired posters is touring the polluted cities of northern and eastern China this month to draw attention to the impending environmental disaster.Created by a group of Chinese designers, the 300 posters...

Two Way Street

05.28.15

What China’s Lack of Transparency Means for U.S. Policy

Susan Shirk from Two Way Street
I am a political scientist and former diplomat who has studied China for more than forty years, and yet I still can’t answer some of my students’ most basic questions about China’s policy-making process. Where—in which institutional arena and at...

Corrupting the Chinese Language

Murong Xuecun
New York Times
The author fears Orwell’s prediciton: “If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”

How America Should Respond to China’s Moves in the South China Sea

J. Randy Forbes
National Interest
U.S. military superiority is required to keep the Asia-Pacific region from getting out of hand. 

Caixin Media

05.26.15

Time for Reform Advocates to Step to the Fore

As the reform of China’s economy and society deepens, attention is turning to the people tasked with the job of spearheading and carrying out change. Thus, it was gratifying to hear the call by President Xi Jinping, made at the 12th meeting of the...

Sex Trade Goes Underground in China’s ‘Sin City’

Johan Nylander
CNN
More than 2,000 hotels, saunas and massage parlors were shut down in Dongguan. 

Paris Can’t Be Another Copenhagen

New York Times
The U.S. and China must rapidly increase collaboration on climate change both within and beyond the framework of the conference.