ChinaFile Recommends
11.03.14A Comb Worth Fighting For
Economist
By one estimate, the number of Chinese Christians could by 2030 have reached 250 million—the largest Christian population of any country in the world.
ChinaFile Recommends
11.03.14Wanted: 500,000 Pilots for China Aviation Gold Rush
Reuters
The aviation boom comes asChina allows private planes to fly below 1,000 meters from next year without military approval, seeking to boost its transport infrastructure.
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11.03.14Taiwan Leader Stresses Support for Hong Kong Protests
New York Times
“If mainland China can practice democracy in Hong Kong, or if mainland China itself can become more democratic, then we can shorten the psychological distance between people from the two sides of the Taiwan Strait,” President Ma Ying-jeou said.
ChinaFile Recommends
11.03.14Tigers and Flies
South China Morning Post
The South China Morning Post has collected the CCDI’s announcements of graft probes since the beginning of Xi’s reign two years ago, and visualised them on a map. Party probes have spread across China and dramatically intensified since early 2014.
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10.31.14In Hong Kong Photographer, China Sees Image of Spy
New York Times
Dan Garrett, a gnarled, tattooed former Pentagon intelligence analyst, has attracted more stares than usual lately when he prowls the streets here with a camera fitted with a 300-millimeter lens, snapping images of pro-democracy demonstrations,...
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10.31.14Taiwan Puts Curbs on Study in China, WeChat for Top Officials
Wall Street Journal
Taiwan and China have fostered closer commercial ties recent years, and since 2008 have signed some 21 trade agreements. But both sides remain at loggerheads over Taiwan’s political status. Beijing regards Taiwan as a renegade province that must be...
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10.31.14Plenum Didn’t Decide on Zhou Graft Case ‘As He Is No Longer State Leader’
South China Morning Post
The Party's anti-graft watchdog announced three months ago that it was investigating Zhou—making him the first serving or former member of the elite Politburo Standing Committee to be probed—but there has been no word since on progress in the...
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10.31.14Key Points in China’s Flood of Legal Reform Rhetoric
Wall Street Journal
One core focus of the plenum documents is extra-judicial interference in the work of the courts, which is a source of intense public dissatisfaction with China’s legal system. Notably, they call for the establishment of “circuit courts” operating...
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10.31.14AFP Follows Chinese Fugitive Money Trail
Agence France-Presse
The son of China’s most famous fugitive spent the five years before his father was placed under investigation for corruption setting up two Australian companies and buying a development site in Sydney’s Neutral Bay.
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10.31.14India-China Border Standoff: High in the Mountains, Thousands of Troops Go Toe-to-Toe
Wall Street Journal
The mountain standoff lasted weeks and at times involved tense shoving-and-shouting matches, according to Indian border-patrol troopers who participated. Both armies called in helicopters. The scale and duration of the clash are signs of mounting...
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10.31.14Hong Kong Politician Likens Protesters to African-American Slaves
New York Times
“American slaves were liberated in 1861, but did not get voting rights until 107 years later,” she was reported as saying by The Standard, an English-language Hong Kong newspaper. “So why can’t Hong Kong wait for a while?”
Media
10.29.14
Foot Spas, Steamed Buns, and Midday Drinking
It may not be Monty Python’s famous “Ministry of Silly Walks,” but it’s close.The Office of Forbidding Midday Alcohol Consumption, a local government initiative in China’s southern Henan province which seeks to reduce alcohol consumption at...
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10.29.14Nine out of 10 Hong Kong Activists Say Will Fight on for a Year
Reuters
The most tenacious protests since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997 have already persisted beyond most expectations.
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10.29.14China to Ban Extralegal Administration with Power List
Xinhua
The new policy hopes to curb problems in administration and law enforcement such as failure in strictly observing or enforcing the law, putting their power above law, bending law for personal gains and power-for-money trades, Xi Jinping said.
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10.29.14Taking Back Hong Kong’s Future
New York Times
Since the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997, less than a year after I was born, the people of this city have muddled through with a political system that leaves power in the hands of the wealthy and the well-connected.
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10.27.14Xinhua Insight: China's Legal Renaissance Sounds Death Knell for Guanxi
Xinhua
As the curtain fell on a key meeting on rule of law on Thursday, Israeli Yuval Golan, 29, felt good about his business prospects in what should be a more transparent and predictable China.
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10.27.14China’s Crackdown on Dissent Shows How Nervous Its Leaders Are
Washington Post
The legal assault on a critic of Mao gives a flavor of the current climate. Tie Liu is the pen name of Huang Zerong, 81, who has collected and published memoirs of people who were purged by Chinese dictator Mao Zedong in the 1950s and 1960s.
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10.27.14China Considers Abolishing Death Penalty for Nine Crimes
Reuters
China is considering trimming nine crimes from the list of offenses punishable by death, state media said, as the ruling Communist Party considers broader reforms to the country's legal system.
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10.27.14The Secret History of Hong Kong’s Stillborn Democracy
Quartz
By September 29 peaceful protesters had been clogging Hong Kong’s downtown for less than a day, but to the Chinese Communist Party this already smacked of ingratitude.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.27.14China Began Push Against Hong Kong Elections in ’50s
New York Times
Beginning in the 1950s, the colonial governors who ran Hong Kong repeatedly sought to introduce popular elections but abandoned those efforts in the face of pressure by Communist Party leaders in Beijing.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.27.14Pro-Democracy Movement’s Vote in Hong Kong Abruptly Called Off
New York Times
The referendum boiled down to two simple questions: Did voters endorse demanding that the Hong Kong government press Beijing to make democratic concessions on election rules, and did they agree that the changes should apply to city Legislative...
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10.27.14Troubles in China Rattle Western Banks
Wall Street Journal
Foreign lenders in China have been stung by a string of suspected fraud cases and problem loans in the country as Beijing investigates company executives and seizes assets in a crackdown on corruption.
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10.24.14China Vows Better Rule of Law, But No Word of Disgraced Security Chief
Reuters
The moves, made at a closed-door meeting of the ruling party's elite, are pivotal to the workings of China's market economy.
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10.24.14Net Closes on Ling Jihua, One-Time Top Aide to Ex-President Hu Jintao
South China Morning Post
Hu has been conspicuously silent over the investigation.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.24.14Ministry Said to Propose Local Governments Issuing Bonds to Cover Debts
Outstanding central and local government debt totaled 20.7 trillion yuan at the end of June last year, data from the National Audit Office show.
Conversation
10.23.14
Are China’s Economic Reforms Coming Fast Enough?
Economic data show a slowdown in China. At least two opposing views of what’s next for the world’s largest economy have just been published: one skeptical, from David Hoffman at The Conference Board, and one cautiously optimistic, from Dan Rosen and...
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10.21.14Hong Kong’s High Court Orders Protesters Off Roads in Mong Kok and Admiralty
South China Morning Post
In an interview with The New York Times, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying hinted at possible intervention by the central government if the situation remained unresolved.
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10.21.14Presumed Guilty in China’s War on Corruption, Targets Suffer Abuses
New York Times
One beating left Wang Guanglong, a midlevel official from China’s Fujian Province, partly deaf, according to his later testimony.
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10.21.14China Focus: By Rule of Law, China On the Way to Improving Governance
Xinhua
At 7:00 a.m., Shanghai-based lawyer Zhang Jie opened his computer at home, logged onto the Judicial Opinions of China website, and read a court ruling on a case he had offered legal aid to. The whole process took no more than one minute.
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10.21.14Hong Kong’s Leader Blames Foreigners for Fanning Protests
Bloomberg
“There is obviously participation by people, organizations from outside of Hong Kong,” Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said in an interview on Asia Television Ltd.
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10.21.14China Launches Massive Rural ‘Surveillance’ Project to Watch Over Uighurs
Telegraph
They arrived at the fringes of China's modern day empire in early March, setting up base in a family planning center with riot shields, helmets and two sharp 6-foot spears propped up inside the front door.
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10.20.14The Hong Kong Protesters Who Won't Negotiate
Atlantic
Pro-democracy protests took a violent turn in Hong Kong, as police officers clashed with demonstrators in the territory's Mong Kok neighborhood.
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10.20.14What China Means by ‘Rule of Law’
New York Times
There’s plenty of evidence that China sees the rule of law in nuanced and complex ways.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.20.14The U.S. Is No Role Model in Hong Kong’s Democracy Fight
Quartz
C.Y. Leung explains the protests that continue to paralyze parts of Hong Kong, after thwarting a police crackdown over the weekend: they are being supported by “external forces."
The NYRB China Archive
10.19.14
China’s Unstoppable Lawyers: An Interview with Teng Biao
from New York Review of Books
Teng Biao is one of China’s best-known civil-rights lawyers, and a prominent member of the weiquan, or “rights defenders,” movement, a loosely knit coalition of Chinese lawyers and activists who tackle cases related to the environment, religious...
Conversation
10.17.14
Rule of Law—Why Now?
In a recent essay, “How China’s Leaders Will Rule on the Law,” Carl Minzner looks at the question of why China’s leaders have announced they will emphasize rule of law at the upcoming Chinese Communist Party plenum slated to take place in Beijing...
Viewpoint
10.15.14
How China’s Leaders Will Rule on the Law
Last week, as the world watched the student demonstrations in Hong Kong, China’s Politburo announced the dates for the Communist Party’s annual plenary session would be from October 20-23. As in previous years, top leaders will gather in Beijing to...
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10.14.14‘People’s Democratic Dictatorship’ Wrongly Targeted
Global Times
A CPC-owned magazine published an article recently, saying it is wrong to negate or replace the people's democratic dictatorship with the rule of law.
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10.14.14Maid in Hong Kong Fights for Justice Against Abuser
Wall Street Journal
Maids from Indonesia and the Philippines are an indispensable part of the Hong Kong’s vibrant economy and society. But incidents of abuse often stay hidden from public view.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.14.14When Hong Kong Protests Are Over, Where Will the Art Go?
Wall Street Journal
As Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests wane, what will become of the iconic artwork Umbrella Man, the Lennon Wall of sticky notes and all the banners?
ChinaFile Recommends
10.14.14LIVE: Police With Shields and Batons Push Back Protesters On Lung Wo Road
South China Morning Post
Hundreds of police with power tools tore down protesters’ barricades on Queensway in Admiralty, following a swiftly executed dawn operation to remove a number of blockades in Causeway Bay.
Conversation
10.14.14
Will Asia Bank on China?
Last week The New York Times reported U.S. opposition to China's plans to launch a regional development bank to rival the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. If, as some say, the the launch is a fait accompli, should Washington focus...
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10.13.14China Detains Scholar, Bans Books in Crackdown on Moderate Voices
Reuters
China has detained prominent scholar Guo Yushan, who helped blind dissident Chen Guangcheng flee to the United States two years ago and has banned books by eight writers in a crackdown on dissent.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.10.14China ‘Strongly Displeased’ by U.S. Rights Report
ABC
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a news briefing that the independent U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China "twisted facts and attacked China on purpose" in its report.
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10.10.14Taiwan Leader: China Should Try Democracy—Starting with Hong Kong
Los Angeles Times
Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou's comments reflect popular local support for the tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents who launched democracy protests on Sept. 27 in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory.
Environment
10.09.14Locals Attack Factory After Children Poisoned with Lead
from chinadialogue
Villagers from the township of Gangkou in Jiangxi province, southeast China, have smashed up a new lead recycling plant which was due to begin operating.Unconvinced by reassurances from the owners and local government that there would be no...
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10.08.14Chinese Communist Party as the Mafia Boss
China Change
The next surprise for the protesters came as assaults from members of the mafia, posing as ordinary citizens. We now have enough evidence that the Anti-Occupy Central crowd, emblazoned with blue ribbons, can count on the government’s support, if not...
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10.08.14Picture Mixed Over Anti-Foreigner Bias of Chinese Regulator
Financial Times
The alleged anti-foreigner bias of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, which enforces pricing provisions of the 2008 Anti Monopoly Law, has become an increasingly common complaint among multinational executives working in the country.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.08.14Japan, US Revising Defense Plans With Eye on China
ABC
The revision, the first since 1997, comes at a time of heightened Japan-China tensions over islands claimed by both countries in the East China Sea, as well as continuing concern about North Korea's missile and nuclear weapons development.
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10.05.14Hong Kong Protesters Promise to Keep Up Occupation
Guardian
The student federation said it would not end the protests as no progress had been made on political reform and because the police had yet to address their handling of violent attacks on protesters.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.03.14Hong Kong Isn’t the Only Protest Chinese Leaders Are Worried About
Businessweek
Hong Kong’s democracy movement could jeopardize one of China’s main goals: weiwen, or maintenance of stability. For more than a decade the government has been defusing labor unrest.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.03.14What China Promised Hong Kong
Washington Post
The peaceful demonstrators in Hong Kong, with their umbrellas and trash bags, will not be swept off the streets like garbage or bullied into submission by tear gas and pepper spray.
Environment
10.02.14
China ‘Not Ready to be a World Leader’ on Climate Change
from chinadialogue
The U.N. Climate Summit 2014 in New York last week passed, as expected, with public statements of intent but no sign of firm commitments to reducing climate emissions.If a deal is to be reached in Paris next year, at the latest “last hope” climate...
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10.01.14In Hong Kong Protests, Both Sides Are Wondering How This Will End
Washington Post
As many thousands of Hong Kong residents kept up their occupation of the streets Wednesday night, leaders on both sides began strategizing with an eye toward the endgame.
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10.01.14China Issues Warning Over Hong Kong ‘Illegal’ Protests
BBC
China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, visiting Washington, also warned that the matter was an "internal affair" for China.
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10.01.14Full Text of the Chinese Communist Party’s Message to Hong Kong
Quartz
"Cherish Positive Growth: Defend Hong Kong’s Prosperity and Stability," People’s Daily, October 1, 2014, translated by Quartz.
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10.01.14Chow Yun-fat, Andy Lau Speak Up Against Use of Tear Gas on HK Protesters
Channel NewsAsia
Both famous actors spoke against the police use of tear gas, and urged that the safety of the student demonstrators should be a priority.
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10.01.14China is Hong Kong’s Future – Not its Enemy
Guardian
Protesters cry democracy but most are driven by dislocation and resentment at mainlanders’ success.
Conversation
10.01.14
Is This the End of Hong Kong As We Know It?
Over the past week, tens of thousands of Hong Kong people have occupied the streets of their semi-autonomous city to advocate for the democratic elections slated to launch in 2017. The pro-democracy protestors have blocked major roads in the...
Reports
10.01.14
‘Not an Idea We Have to Shun’
Institute for National Strategic Studies
China’s expanding international economic interests are likely to generate increasing demands for its navy, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), to operate out of area to protect Chinese citizens, investments, and sea lines of communication. The...