China’s MIIT, the ministry of industry and information technology, prepares new legislation on apps for mobiles, aimed at protecting the end users. The new regulations will force this new industry into maturity rather than censor it, tells industry analyst Ben Cavender in ZDNet. Read More →
Gu Kailai, the wife of disposed leader Bo Xilai, was the last woman in a Chinese tradition of so-called dragon ladies. Historian and author Paul French puts her in that tradition together with empress Cixi, Jiang Qing and many others in Foreign Policy. Read More →
The US bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999 started to change the life of rock musician Kaiser Kuo, then part of the famous band Tang-dynasty. In “Americans in China” he explains how he became an American in Beijing, and spokesperson of the country’s search engine Baidu.Read More →
How can the West or China support South Sudan? That question has become urgent, now the country is heading for another crisis and in The Atlantic, former Africa and China correspondent Howard French looks at what China or the West can do.Read More →
Illegal house churches continue to suffer from government prosecution. Wrong, says the author Zhang Lijia in The Guardian. Religious movements should be accepted at a positive force.Read More →
When Google decided to withdraw its search engine from China, it was not just a corporate decision, but had large repercussions inside the country’s government too, explains business analyst Shaun Rein in the Pandodaily.Read More →
Former China-correspondent Howard French wonders what the US is fighting for in Africa in The Atlantic, responding to a Washington Post article. “If Washington really wants to promote African democracy, why is it partnering with the continent’s autocrats to create military spy programs?”Read More →
What is Chen Guangcheng’s future, wonders author Zhang Lijia, as she recalls her earlier meetings with the blind lawyer and his diligent way to make a difference in China. How can Chen stay China’s bright and honest son, she asks in The Diplomat.Read More →
The US embassy in Beijing and US consulate in Shanghai tweet regularly their measurements of the pollution in those cities. No allowed, said a representative of the environmental authorities in China this week. Denying the problem is not going to help, tells business analyst Shaun Rein in Marketplace.Read More →
On Thursday 31 May the Beijing-based author Zhang Lijia will answer questions on political reform in China in an upcoming Hangout-on-air. Are we seeing merely window-dressing, or are there real options for change. Basis will be her opt-in in the New York Times, where she sounds rather pessimistic.Read More →
China needs to shift its economy from state investments to domestic consumption to survive. But can China withdraw that kind of power from state institutions, wonders political and financial analyst Victor Shih in the Financial Times.Read More →
Former colonial powers have been anxiously watching how China has been entering Africa. While it is too early to give a final verdict, former foreign correspondent in Africa and China Howard French sees more positive than negative effects, he tells in AllAfrica.Read More →