Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr Contrary to its intentions, Google has been rather damaging than helping China’s internet reform and opening up, writes Shaun Rein in an editorial in USA Today. Reform-minded officials have been trying to give Google access to the Chinese market, and Google decided to turnRead More →

Paul French by Fantake via Flickr The Worldexpo 2010 in Shanghai is mean to make the Beijing Olympics look small: bigger, more expensive and meant to attract many more visitors. Apart from the US pavilion, the other 190 national pavilions are government-funded, even in these financially disturbed times, as it isRead More →

Janet Carmosky by Fantake via Flickr Our March 2010 newsletter of the China Speakers Bureau is out. For those who missed it (you can subscribe in the top-right corner), you can read it here too.This month ambassador Sergio Marchi debates the WTO, we publish our top-10 speakers list for MarchRead More →

Zhang Lijia, with hooker in Shenzhen by Fantake via Flickr A candid report from the International Literature festival 2010 at the Bookworm in Beijing brings up a range on controversies between different Asian writers in the China Daily: Does putting a qipao-clad woman on the cover create instant brand recognitionRead More →

Kaiser Kuo by Fantake via Flickr In the Google debate, at the US side the players do not see they are losing the hearts and minds of the Chinese internet users, argues Kaiser Kuo in the Wall Street Journal. China’s nationalists are winning this fight: “Even if it is theirRead More →

Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr Education is lagging in China, warn Shaun Rein, who sees a country that is too content with its current achievements and stalls much needed reforms, he tells in Forbes.Some of the faculty are becoming world class and much money is being spent, but thatRead More →

Hurun by Fantake via Flickr Just in time for our March Newsletter, we discovered a small bug in the registration tool for our popular newsletter. You can now register again for our newsletter by filling in your email address in the box at the right top part of this website.Read More →

Kaiser Kuo by Fantake via Flickr Many China commenters have given their verdicts about what the departure of Google’s search engine from China means. Here a short overview of what the members of the China Speakers Bureau had to say in the past few days.Global Post: Kaiser Kuo, a Beijing-basedRead More →

Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr At Bloomberg Shaun Rein describes the rising tension in China’s bureaucracy after Google decided last night to redirect its China searches to Hong Kong. While he praises the government’s “measured response” (or merely the lack of any response to Google’s actions), now he seesRead More →

Victor Shih by Fantake via Flickr The world is in too many cases waking up too late from a prolonged winter. China has jumped into action, after the annual meetings of the NPC and CPPCC meetings in Beijing, and also at the global offices of the China Speakers Bureau hibernationRead More →

Arthur Kroeber by Fantake via Flickr Local governments in China depend for their income mostly on the sales of land, not on tax revenue. As debts went up and only the larger cities have still enough land to sell off, that methods might not be sustainable in the long run,Read More →