An almost forgotten episode under Communist rule was the Third Front, an 200 billion Renminbi effort to move from 1964 much of the economic power to China´s inland. Journalist Ian Johnson with historian Covell Meyskens his work on an upcoming monography and his weblog with 5,000+ pictures for the New York Times.Read More →

President Xi Jinping has developed into one of the strongest leaders in China since Deng Xiaoping, and it looks like he is going to stay on longer as party secretary, says political analyst Victor Shih to AFP. Since there is no obvious successor, China´s political elites might have to accept that, as they gather for their annual conclave at the Beidaihe beach resort .Read More →

The doping scandal in Russia got intensive coverage before the start of the Olympic Games in Rio, but other countries, including China, have their doping issues too. Journalist Ian Johnson dives into some scandals, including China´s position, for the New York Review of Books.Read More →

Uber learned much from the failures of other American internet companies who tried to enter the China market, but still failed. China veteran Kaiser Kuo looks in ChinaFile at the competitive market in China, making it almost impossible for foreign internet companies to gain substantial market share. Read More →

The world´s most populous country is facing an unprecedented crisis, as its population ages fast, tells former New York Times Shanghai-bureau chief Howard French to PBS. The fast rising demand for social security, health care and a diminishing work force, will narrow down China´s economic expansion in the near future. The aging crisis not only shows the immense failure of the one-child policy, it will also force the country to become more welcoming to much-needed immigrants.Read More →

I did it for the kids, says former Baidu communication director Kaiser Kuo in his exit interview on the Sinica podcast. He recently swapped Beijing for Chapel Hill, NC in the US. I wanted them to be truly bi-cultural, and after learning and submerging in China during their first years, going to college in the US was inevitable. `We planned this move for five years.” While the political climate is not improving, it was not the reason to leave, he says. “It was way worse when I arrived here.”Read More →

Getting the US-China relations right is tough because so many misunderstandings persist in the US when it comes to China. Recently returned China veteran Kaiser Kuo sits down with The Diplomat trying to deal with some of those wrong perceptions. “China has been far more of a rule-taker than it has been a rule-maker.”Read More →

Zhang Lijia´s upcoming novel Lotus: A Novel will only appear early 2017, but the first raving reviews are already coming in. Renowned Indian author Amitav Ghosh praises the story the main figure migrant Lotus and the way she ends up in prostitution.Read More →

President Xi Jinping has been addressing the nation on the 95th anniversary of the Communist Party and the tough Marxist tone has been striking, says political analyst Victor Shih. Where his predecessors followed a more flexible road on economic development, Xi goes for a nationalistic approach, he tells AP.Read More →

China is becoming more mercantilist, and – in a narrow way – Donald Trump is right about China, says author Arthur Kroeber of China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know® in an interview with Bloomberg. And the US are following a global trend for more protectionism.Read More →