Paul French, author of the Fat China: How Expanding Waistlines are Changing a Nation (China in the 21st Century) summarizes for The Guardian what the government has done over the past decade to fight obesity. He is underwhelmed.Read More →
The environmental documentary “Under the Dome” by Chai Jing has become more influential, even after Chna´s censors banned it from the internet. Not only because between 100 and 200 million already watched the documentary, says author Zhang Lijia to Bloomberg. The government can no longer brainwash the people.Read More →
A reasonable price and still a premium, those are the assets of the iPhone 6 as a key gift for Chinese New Year business analyst Shaun Rein notes at CNBC. “The anti-corruption drive is more serious than most analysts realize,” said Rein.Read More →
Religion is making a comeback in China. But the position of Daoism, the fifth of the larger religions in China, is rather unclear, as it is hard to trace than other religious, explains journalist Ian Johnson to PRI. What is the place of Daoism in today´s China? From a transcribed phone interview.
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Officially gender discrimination is banned, but until recently that law was not enforced. That is changing now women take the offenders to court, and get their legal rights, writes author Zhang Lijia on her weblog. She discusses the cases of Huang Rong and Cao Ju.Read More →
President Xi Jinping anti-corruption drive has opened a new front as land sales by local governments are surveyed by the central government, notes financial analyst Sara Hsu in TripleCrisis, and she applauds the move. Much of the social unrest in the past years has been caused by those transaction, where citizens often lost from greedy officials.Read More →
Unlike many other large cities, China has been avoiding the establishment of large slums and related instability, argues author Jeremy Wallace in an interview with journalist Ian Johnson at the New York Times. The abolishment of the hukou system is not expected any time soon, since it serves the government well.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 →
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 →
China is getting a law to protect women from domestic violence. An important step forward, although many have been critical about the draft law, writes author Zhang Lijia at her weblog, and it is far from enough to change the attitude of men. Read More →