What’s It Like to Have China Build You a Port? Ask Cameroon.

China is investing in ports from Malaysia to Mozambique as part of its vision for a Maritime Silk Road (MSR) linking eastern China with Europe via the Indian Ocean, Red Sea, and Mediterranean Sea. With the ambitious plan drawing more attention to the pros and cons of Chinese investment in […]



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Hong Kong student protest leader Joshua Wong: ‘We will win’

By his own admission, Joshua Wong isn’t physically intimidating. An unlikely hero of last year’s Hong Kong protests demanding free elections, the slender 18-year-old with a bowl haircut and black-framed glasses laughs off Beijing propagandists’ claims that he is in Los Angeles this week for military training by his U.S. […]



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China’s Real Property Problem

As China slows down, leaders in Beijing are understandably turning to one of their favored growth stabilizers: housing. A record decline in new-home prices in January has, as my Bloomberg News colleagues reported this week, prompted Chinese officials to contemplate additional stimulus measures, including reducing the required down payments on […]



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China’s Anti-Corruption Org Seeks ‘Hidden Tigers’

Your weekly round-up of China links: China’s top anti-corruption body, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection warned that there are high-ranking corrupt officials who remain “very well hidden” within the Party. The CCDI, writing on its website in a piece picked up by Xinhua, said that the cases of Zhou […]



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Countering China’s Maritime Coercion

Is China-U.S. competition for primacy in Asia this century’s greatest threat to peace? Some analysts think so. But in leaping from Sino-American competition to potential world war, they miss the obvious: Chinese leaders probe, seize opportunities, and challenge the international system with creeping assertions of sovereignty in the East and […]



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Mr. Xi Goes to Washington

The recent announcement in Washington and Beijing that Chinese President Xi Jinping will pay a state visit to the United States in September underscores the continuing momentum in the improvement of bilateral relations. Potential conversation points could be climate change, territorial disputes, and ISIS.



Minxin Pei, Professor, Claremont McKenna College via CHINA US Focus http://ift.tt/1FBu1ck

The Political Reform Hong Kong Needs Is not “Real Elections”

The call for “real elections” has been the rallying cry of Hong Kong protestors, but open and direct elections of the Chief Executive may actually exacerbate the problem by introducing political gridlock. Lawrence Zhang explore three structural problems in the Hong Kong political system, highlighting the need to link up the Exco and Legco in a way that creates more effective and responsive government in practice as well as in the perception of the voting public.



Mandy Peng via CHINA US Focus http://ift.tt/1GyyptD

Overblown Hype over China-U.S. Trade Rivalry in Asia

While the TPP is not attractive to several APEC economies because of its U.S. dominance, the proposed FTAAP, which embraces all of the 21 APEC economies, is meant to be an all-inclusive, all-win trade initiative that represents the largest single trade liberalization in history.



Mandy Peng via CHINA US Focus http://ift.tt/1wnlPrn

Chinese Dissident Accuses Top U.S. Diplomat of Lying

In April 2012, blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng escaped from house arrest in a rural village and sought refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. The ruling Chinese Communist Party was furious, and demanded that Chen leave the embassy. When U.S. officials negotiated with Chen to find a way for […]



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China’s Fertile Ground for Islamic State

Three hundred Chinese citizens, members of the country’s Uighur ethnic group, have recently traveled to the Middle East to join Islamic State. Those Uighurs are part of a broader Muslim migration, spurred by a government crackdown, away from China’s western province of Xinjiang, where Muslims have lived for over 1000 […]



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Philippines Expels China Experts Amid South China Sea Concerns

The Philippine government said earlier this week it would end Chinese technical involvement in the country’s power grid partly due to lingering security concerns. On the night of February 23, Philippine media outlets had first reported that Philippine Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla had said that the government would not […]



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The SEC Caves on China

U.S. stock-market regulators say they promote transparency and fair play, but this month the Securities and Exchange Commission quietly carved out a China-size exception: When Chinese companies list on U.S. markets, basic auditing rules won’t apply. Why? Because China’s government doesn’t want them to, and Washington bent to Beijing’s pressure. […]



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Taking US-China Relations Global

We’re still over six months away from Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States, but you wouldn’t know it from the number of bilateral meetings being billed as in preparation for Xi’s arrival. The latest, a meeting between U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice and Chinese State Councilor […]



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Taking US-China Relations Global

We’re still over six months away from Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States, but you wouldn’t know it from the number of bilateral meetings being billed as in preparation for Xi’s arrival. The latest, a meeting between U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice and Chinese State Councilor […]



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Obama More Confident in Future National Security Strategy

Jia Chunyang discusses the outstanding features of the U.S. National Security Strategy report. In general, the new report is a basic follow-up to the Obama administration’s opinions about China as well as its diplomatic philosophy reflected in its 2010 edition. But it has a more confident tone.



Jia Chunyang Assistant Research Fellow, Chinese Institutes of Contemporary Int'l Relations via CHINA US Focus http://ift.tt/1zger19

China’s Internet “Firewalls” Serving the Needs of the Country and 632 Million Netizens

China’s Great Firewall restricts access to the main Internet communication platforms in the U.S. (Facebook, Twitter, Google), thus leading to a general western perception that China lacks Internet openness and access altogether. Stephen Harner argues that Internet protectionism actually allowed China to create rival services (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) that have developed into a thriving Internet industry.



Stephen Harner, Former US State Department Official via CHINA US Focus http://ift.tt/1zgep9y

Iraq and Syria: Not the Only Battleground Against IS

In order to defeat IS, action needs to be taken well beyond Iraq and Syria. The entire campaign will not be measured in months. It needs to be a global, multi-pronged and long-term battle and requires global input and cooperation to extirpate this universal scourge.



He Wenping, Senior Fellow, Chahar Institute via CHINA US Focus http://ift.tt/1BeDnMf

Russia Could Make China King South of Seea

What Robert Kaplan so smartly dubbed “Asia’s Cauldron”— the South China Sea— might be set to boil once again. But the real kicker is who might be turning the switch to “high” on that virtual stove: none other than Russian President Vladimir Putin. Events thousands of miles away in Ukraine […]



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Xi Jinping: China’s Undecided Decider

The Diplomat has published two excellent and thoughtful responses (here and here) to a piece I wrote last month asking whether the Legalist thought of Han Feizi – “China’s Machiavelli” – is a significant influence on Xi Jinping’s political views, and, if so, how. Crucially, my interlocutors seem to differ […]



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China’s Affair with the ‘Other Korea’

China is playing good cop/bad cop with South Korea in ways that may be detrimental to the Republic of Korea’s (ROK) security and the U.S.-ROK alliance. While Xi Jinping’s visit to Seoul (pointedly snubbing North Korea) last July was a seductive move to woo the ROK, Chinese defense minister Chang […]



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Is a China-India-Russia Coalition Inevitable?

A new global order is emerging, though much of its shape is still uncertain. At the very least, many would agree that while the U.S. will remain a great power for many decades to come, its share of global power will decline relative to other rising powers. These other powers, […]



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Building a Cleaner China from the Grassroots Up

Increasingly, China’s local environmental groups are finding themselves well positioned to ensure governmental support for environmental improvement and accountability. The national government of China has signaled a green light for citizen groups to take an active part in forging a more sustainable development path, but local governments are still unsure of the role that civil society groups can and will play in improving China’s environment.



Kristen McDonald China Program Director, Pacific Environment via CHINA US Focus http://ift.tt/1FqPogi

Collective Action, Strategic Patience, and U.S. Leadership

President Obama is very cautious in using military force. The transforming foreign policy strategy for the U.S. has been to share the cost of hegemony. For the United States, the main risk comes from the possibility of lacking confidence in U.S. strength among the allies and partners, but the strong leadership has reassured that the question is not whether the U.S. will lead, but how it will.



Chen Jimin, Assistant Research Fellow, CPC Party School via CHINA US Focus http://ift.tt/1JJRyyd

Steady on the Renminbi

The renminbi has appreciated sharply over the past several years, exports are sagging, and the risk of deflation is growing. Under these circumstances, many suggest that a reversal in Chinese currency policy to weaken the renminbi is the most logical course. That would be a serious mistake.



Stephen Roach, Faculty Member, Yale University via CHINA US Focus http://ift.tt/1JJOF0r

China Cracks Down on ‘Western Values’ in Textbooks, but Embraces Hollywood’s ‘Captain America’

The Federalist Papers may be out, but “Captain America” is in. China’s top education authorities have recently launched a campaign to curb the teaching of “Western values” in universities through primary texts that promote individual liberty, rule of law, an independent civil society and distrust of political authority. Yet Chinese […]



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Asia’s New Triple Alliance

Democracy has not featured as a theme of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy. He took office promising to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and Iraq, not to remake those countries in America’s image. The Arab Spring turned into a nightmare, leading Obama to back strongmen in Cairo and Riyadh. Outreach to […]



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How the West Was Lost

Last week’s White House summit discussed the best way to counter violent extremism. It’s too bad key Chinese officials weren’t there — they might have learned something. China faces an extremely serious problem domestically with armed militants. There is growing violence in Xinjiang, a massive region populated by a predominantly […]



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What China and North Korea Really Think of Each Other

For all of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s globe-trotting over the last two years, the most notable destination might be one Xi hasn’t visited — close neighbor North Korea. As time goes on, his failure to visit a country that predecessor Hu Jintao described as being as close with China as […]



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Anti-Mainland Sentiment on the Rise in Hong Kong

Two months of sit-ins in Hong Kong ended in December 2014, but the discontent that motivated the protests is far from gone. In some ways, in fact, things have gotten worse. While the “Occupy Protests” focused their attention on politics, recent activism has crossed the line into full-blown anti-mainlander sentiment. […]



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Fretting About the Yuan

American protectionists have long insisted that a fundamentally undervalued yuan is to blame for the large U.S. bilateral trade deficit with China. They call on the U.S. Treasury to declare Beijing a “currency manipulator” and impose punitive tariffs. The Obama Administration has resisted this step, but it also has pressured […]



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China’s Branding Problem

Chinese leaders have advocated for the idea of public diplomacy, however implementation and execution of media and materials have been lacking – an essential aspect of China’s branding problems. Sean Ding argues that better branding requires a more open decision-making process, greater awareness of global and cross-cultural communications within the institutions, and ongoing consultation with the intended audience.



Sean Ding, Founder, Dialogue Group via CHINA US Focus http://ift.tt/1LxM9px

China, US and Russia Contrasted Relationships in Perspective

Not only do conflicts between U.S., China and Russia affect the world, their interdependence and occasional synergy also shapes world affairs. The U.S. and Russia still have an unstable relationship and could learn confidence building from the China-U.S. or China-Russia relationships.



Yu Sui, Professor, China Center for Contemporary World Studies via CHINA US Focus http://ift.tt/17sJBfm

Why China’s Leaders See Corruption as a Mortal Threat

The anti-corruption drive -- the longest and most systematic in Chinese history -- is changing the way public officials do business. Any sensible official will now think twice before accepting a bribe.



Daniel Bell, Professor, Jiaotong University & Tsinghua University via CHINA US Focus http://ift.tt/1Dh6wFy

Xi Jinping’s Passion and Composure

The destiny of China, and that of China's ruling party, hinges on whether the current anti-corruption campaign will bring about a clean, efficient and service-oriented government.



Qin Xiaoying, Research Scholar, China Foundation For Int'l and Strategic Studies via CHINA US Focus http://ift.tt/17pmZfH

Religious Liberty in China: The Key to a Stable, Peaceful, and Harmonious Order

Beijing has varied in its response to the increasing popularity of Christianity in China. Doug Bandow describes the historical ways in which Christianity has interacted with sovereignty, and states that the Beijing government would best respond in a way that uses increased religious faith to encourage peaceful social progress.



Doug Bandow Senior Fellow, Cato Institute via CHINA US Focus http://ift.tt/17pn1UV

Lessons of an Imbalanced Dream

Like the original creation of the American Dream, the Chinese Dream has been utilized institutionally to show that anything is possible for the average individual, with the right amount of drive and hard work. Over time, the American Dream has become driven more by the material signifiers of a house and car. China must nurture a more balanced dream to avoid the emphasis on materialism.



Zheng Wang & Leigha Wentz from Center for Peace and Conflict Studies via CHINA US Focus http://ift.tt/1DJ5SDq

Reefer Madness: Why Is China on a Building Spree in the South China Sea?

China’s frantic construction activity on a series of disputed reefs in the South China Sea has set off alarm bells across the Pacific and in Washington, raising fears that Beijing is putting steel in the ground to back up its contentious claims to a big swath of one of the […]



Foreign Policy via CHINA US Focus http://ift.tt/1EyPXEF

Trouble Ahead? Chinese-Korean Disputes May Intensify

The Christmas release of The Interview, however coarse in depiction, underscores the Korean peninsula’s tremendous geostrategic importance and potential for disruptive change. Brookings scholar Jonathan Pollack aptly terms it “the East Asian pivot.” Historically, it has been an important battleground—the latest major instance being the still-unresolved Korean War (1950-53). The […]



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Fighting Fast Track: Is It Really China or Us?

Is it really China or us? If we don’t set the rules, China will, President Obama warned in his State of the Union Address, which was otherwise mostly a welcome call to action against economic inequality. President Obama stressed that Trade Promotion Authority, or Fast Track, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership […]



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Are China’s THAAD Fears Justified?

The U.S. has been giving out ambiguous signals on whether it intends to deploy Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) batteries to South Korea. For its part, China has repeatedly expressed serious concerns and deep unhappiness about the prospect. From a South Korean perspective, this is regarded as a political […]



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China vs. the US: Who Blinked?

Recently I had a visit from a friend of mine who works at a U.S. embassy. I hadn’t heard from him for a while – he said that he had been inspired to catch up with his old friend after reading my piece “Why Read Xi Jinping’s Book?” on The […]



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China’s ‘One Belt, One Road to Where’?

The celebrated revival of the Silk Road would seem to herald the return of China’s charm offensive, winning over neighbors and other countries in the region through increased trade incentives and transport connectivity. If developing a sound soft power strategy is the mark of a rising world power, does this […]



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Hong Kong’s Classroom Crackdown

In attempting to stifle Hong Kong’s democracy movement, local officials and their pro-Beijing allies have been squeezing independent media, courts and police. Now they’re targeting university professors and students. Johannes Chan is a Hong Kong University legal scholar, former law dean and leading candidate for pro-vice chancellor, one of the […]



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What Is China’s Way?

Michael Auslin, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, recently wrote a commentary titled “The Twilight of China’s Communist Party,” which was published in the Wall Street Journal. The author quoted “one of America’s most experienced China watchers” as saying “the CCP has entered its endgame” and added […]



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Easing Won’t Be Easy in China

As Chinese leaders attempt to guide their slowing economy into a soft landing, they’re counting heavily on People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan to keep conditions stable. It’s a daunting task. Firming U.S. growth is increasing the odds the Federal Reserve will boost interest rates soon. Europe, meanwhile, is […]



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China Integrates the African Continent

China and the African Union are partnering to help create a more connected continental infrastructure which would assist the development of Africa by breaking away from colonial linkages and the fostering of intra-African trade and well as Pan-African identities. The signed agreement hasn’t specified the infrastructure development plan, but it could prove transformational.



Robert I. Rotberg, Fellow, Woodrow Wilson Int'l Center via CHINA US Focus http://ift.tt/1DzZ7Cj

Obama Administration Reaffirms China Policy in Key Documents

Both the responses the next U.S. Defense Secretary gave to the Senate Armed Services Committee and the latest U.S. National Security Strategy adopt a benign tone regarding China. These documents generally affirm a desire to improve overall relations and continue China-U.S. defense exchanges even while seeking greater Chinese military transparency and the peaceful resolution of China’s maritime claims in the Pacific.



Richard Weitz, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute via CHINA US Focus http://ift.tt/1AcQpHK

RMB Exchange Rate Trends after European QE Policy

European quantitative easing policy lead to the depreciation of the RMB exchange rate, but this depreciation is being carefully and intentionally observed by China’s central bank to observe the actual impact on the Chinese economy. A more flexible and internationalized RMB will be better to guard against depreciation.



Yi Xianrong, Researcher, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences via CHINA US Focus http://ift.tt/17EvpRd

China-U.S. HA/DR Exercise and its Implication for the Asia-Pacific

A Sino-American joint military exercise on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HA/DR) to a typhoon-hit country was held in Haikou, Hainan Province. These cooperative exercises are still in the early phases; non-traditional threats such as counter-terrorism, peacekeeping and maritime security, are still institutionally, logistically, and legally lacking.



Zhou Bo, Honorary Fellow, PLA Academy of Military Science via CHINA US Focus http://ift.tt/1EAVydB

In India, Glimpses of Economic Optimism and Frustration

Arriving at the new international airport here last month, I felt like I had gotten on the wrong connecting flight and ended up in Shanghai. Instead of the smelly and decaying terminal I remembered from the four years I spent here as a news correspondent, the building was sparkling. The […]



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