After a boycott over the past three years, Japan is back as a favorite in 2015 for Chinese tourists, now relations are more stable, tells business analyst Shaun Rein to WSJ wealth editor Wei Gu. Hong Kong is passe, and domestic travel is in, especially for youngster who do not focus on shopping anymore.Read More →
Coal used to be literally gold in China, but those days are over. Formal coal capital Lüliang has now been the center of president Xi Jinping´s anti-corruption drive, writes journalist Ian Johnson in the New York Times. A case study on disrupting the Party establishment.Read More →
Capital punishment is declining in China, although the country still executes more than the rest of the world combines. Author Zhang Lijia paints in the New York Times the struggle of daring lawyers who fight for their clients, and the slow success of their campaign. Read More →
China´s spending spree starts at Single´s Day, and ends with Spring festival, but even Christmas has gained support among the consumers, writes financial analyst Sara Hsu in the Diplomat, although it a a indigenous Christian celebration.Read More →
Facebook has suspended the account of the exiled Chinese author Liao Yiwu, writes journalist Ian Johnson in the New York Times. Not or the first time, the censorship of the internet giant hits the wrong person. Liao opposes the move: “I didn’t knuckle under the Communist Party, and I won’t knuckle under Facebook.”Read More →
Former factory worker, and now author Zhang Lijia looks on her weblog into the fate of Xu Lizhi, a 24-year old Foxconn worker, who of many who jumped to death on September 20. Xu was not only a migrant worker, but also a poet, she tells us.Read More →
Remembering the gruesome past of the Cultural Revolution has been a touchy issue, suppressed by the government, even though many at the current leadership have been victims themselves. Journalist Ian Johnson describes how things might be changing in the New York Review of Books.Read More →
Until last week both Jack Ma of Alibaba and Wang Jianlin were in the race to become the richest man in China in 2014. A poor IPO in Hong Kong spoiled his chances, explains China Rich List founder Rupert Hoogewerf, in the China Daily. But it is not the end of the game.Read More →
Economist Arthur Kroeber argued last week that China´s leadership accepts that its authoritarian strength triggers off collateral damage: it will never become a leader in technology or soft power, including censorship. Journalist Ian Johnson disagrees in the ChinaFile, the people might not accept that trade-off.Read More →
Author and journalist Howard French discusses his book China’s Second Continent: How a Million Migrants Are Building a New Empire in Africa, at the Sinica Podcast with Kaiser Kuo and Jeremy Goldkorn. He explains why the original title The Haphazard Empire, covers his book better: the unplanned migration of over a million of Chinese to Africa.Read More →
Dropping housing prices have put pressure on real estate firms. But while smaller companies might fail, larger ones try to remain profitable by sometimes daring diversification of their investments, writes financial analyst Sara Hsu in the Diplomat.Read More →
Tibetian Buddhism has become popular in the West, but also among rich Han Chinese. Journalist Ian Johnson discusses with author John Osburn the reasons behind this popularity in a two-piece interview for the New York Times.Read More →