China kicks off the Asian Games with no fireworks and a parade of global leaders
Asia’s version of the Olympics kicked off with dazzling light shows, an esports debut, and a slew of top dignitaries in attendance. Xi courted top Syrian and South Korean officials amid the fanfare,...
View ArticleZoe Liu on sovereign funds and how the Chinese government makes strategic...
Deploying sovereign wealth on behalf of state power has been one of the keys to China’s global rise. Zongyuan Zoe Liu’s comprehensive analysis of the evolution of China’s sovereign funds shows how...
View ArticleTaiwan’s opposition candidate outlines tougher new strategy against China
Hou Yu-ih, the Kuomintang candidate for president of the Republic of China, visited the U.S., where he signaled a tougher line on China than his party has previously taken with his 3D Strategy: The...
View ArticleNepal and China ink 12 deals, despite tensions over maps and infrastructure...
The visit of Nepal's prime minister to Beijing saw a flurry of bilateral cooperation agreements signed. But no one mentioned China's controversial new map, and questions remain over the details of...
View ArticleAzerbaijan and China have many mutual interests, but Baku isn’t completely...
Azerbaijan, located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and West Asia, has growing trade and political ties to China but the Transcaucasian nation isn’t going all-in on the Belt and Road.
View ArticleViolence in Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan might sabotage China’s plans to...
Baloch nationalists and the Taliban are among the militants making China’s Belt and Road rocky.
View ArticleThe Philadelphia Orchestra commemorates the 50th anniversary of its...
This week on Sinica, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the 1950 concert tour of China by the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1973, Kaiser chats with Matías Tarnopolsky, Alison Friedman, and Wu Fei...
View ArticleOutrage at China’s life sentence for Uyghur folklore scholar Rahile Dawut
The renowned Uyghur anthropologist Rahile Dawut disappeared in 2017 and was convicted of "splittism." Confirmation that her appeal was rejected means she’ll likely spend the rest of her life in a...
View Article‘The Chinese want to make sure Taiwan’s pilots are stressed out’
The latest military exercises and gray-zone warfare around Taiwan come at a time of high political importance for China, the U.S., and Taiwan, and Beijing is not messing around.
View ArticleChina brings Syria back on to the world stage with a red carpet welcome
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad just returned from a visit to China, where Xi Jinping pledged to assist in rebuilding Syria’s economy and called on the West to lift sanctions on Syria while Assad...
View ArticleLessons from the black box of Chinese politics
We know almost nothing about how the senior leadership of the Communist Party makes decisions, but that does not stop wild speculation in the media about factional fighting and even attempts to...
View ArticleChina invites the world to join its mission to explore the Moon
China is now accepting bids to join Chang’e-8 (CE-8), the country’s lunar exploration mission. It’s both space diplomacy and China’s latest push to become a leading space power at a time when countries...
View ArticleSoutheast Asia’s first high-speed railway opens in Indonesia after cost...
Mostly funded by Beijing and built by Chinese engineers, Indonesia's first high-speed railway line opened on October 2. The first passengers were delighted, but there have also been controversies, and...
View ArticleHow China’s tobacco monopoly also has ensured that China keeps smoking
This week on Sinica, Kaiser is joined by journalists Jason McLure and Jude Chan, who worked on a fascinating expose of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration — and how it has managed to be both the...
View ArticleLong prison sentence for book-loving Uyghur who tried to preserve history and...
In January 2018, China sentenced writer, critic, and educator Yalqun Rozi to 15 years in prison for "splittism" and "extremist ideas."
View ArticleChina to double the size of Tiangong space station
China just offered international partners the chance to participate in its lunar programs. And yesterday, it announced plans to expand Tiangong, its space station that was completed in 2022 and is...
View Article‘The higher they fly, the harder they fall’ — Phrase of the Week
The founder and chairman of Evergrande has been placed under investigation by Chinese authorities.
View ArticleBRI at 10: Checking in on the ‘green silk road’
The “green silk road” is a sustainability-flavored subtheme to the Belt and Road Initiative, designed to burnish Beijing’s green credentials and advance its claims to global leadership on environmental...
View ArticleChina calls for ‘two-state solution’ after Hamas attacks Israel
China has expressed “sadness” at the “civilian casualties caused by the conflict,” but stopped short of condemning Hamas for its attack on Israel.
View ArticleThe Maldives faces a tricky balancing act between China and India
Some observers believe Mohamed Muizzu's recent election win will cause the Maldives to shun its traditional ally, India, in favor of China. The reality is a little more complicated.
View ArticleAndrew Cainey on ‘Xiconomics’ and strategies for foreign businesses
In a newly published book, Andrew Cainey, the founding director of the U.K. National Committee on China and a senior fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, delves into the complexities of...
View ArticleChina releases Australian journalist Cheng Lei from prison
After more than three years behind bars, during which Australia-China relations deteriorated significantly, Cheng’s release points to a thaw. But another Australian citizen, Yang Hengjun, is still...
View ArticleGold mined by Uyghurs forced to work for Chinese firms ends up in Western...
Blackstone, State Street, and Vanguard; Dell, Google, J&J, and Sony among global firms linked to mining conditions akin to slavery.
View ArticleThe morality of U.S.-China policy
This week on the Sinica Podcast: a lecture by Robert Daly, director of the Wilson Center’s Kissinger Institute, delivered last year to D.C.-based Faith & Law at its Friday Forum. The lecture,...
View ArticleBRI at 10: China’s Maritime Silk Road
Beijing aspires to a leading position on the high seas. This has made multiple countries uncomfortable, for different reasons.
View ArticleIsraeli embassy staffer stabbed in Beijing
A member of the Israeli embassy staff in Beijing was stabbed by an unknown assailant. The victim is reported to be in a hospital in stable condition.
View ArticleThe China-Palestine relationship, explained
In trying to stay neutral in the Israel-Hamas war, China may have angered Israel and scuppered its chances of mediating peace in the region.
View ArticleChina’s Belt and Road Forum begins in Beijing
Xi Jinping has so far met the leaders of Ethiopia, Serbia, Chile, and Kazakhstan, among others, in what Chinese state media has described as “the most important diplomatic event hosted by China this...
View ArticleKidnappings in China, 100 years ago and now — Q&A with James Zimmerman
It’s becoming more and more difficult for investors, journalists, and scholars to get information about China. How does this affect doing business there? And what can we learn from the story of a...
View ArticleXi and Putin give a show of unity in Beijing
In speeches and a three-hour meeting at the Belt and Road Forum, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping did not mention the “no limits” partnership they announced just before Russia invaded Ukraine, but they...
View ArticleSurprise attendees, notable absences, and Vladimir Putin at the Belt and Road...
The third Belt and Road Forum concluded on Wednesday. During the two-day forum, Chinese President Xi Jinping sought to frame the Belt and Road Initiative as part of a greater struggle against...
View ArticleUyghurs in Afghanistan fear Taliban buying Huawei surveillance tech
Facial-recognition analytics that China uses to oppress the marginalized peoples of Xinjiang could soon spread through Central Asia.
View ArticleIsrael-China relationship in danger as state media blames Israel, U.S., and...
China’s Foreign Ministry and media have not criticized Hamas for the October 7 attack and have blamed Israel for the conflict. And there has been a dramatic spike in online antisemitism.
View ArticleEmpires of lies
How Chinese and Russian state media appropriated an apocryphal Orwell quote to criticize the West.
View ArticleThe China Agenda for October 22–29: Newsom to China and NPC legislative meeting
This is what’s on the diplomatic, political, and business agenda for the week of October 23–29.
View ArticleApple contractor Foxconn hit with tax and land-use probe in China
The Taiwanese government came to the defense of Foxconn, the company that makes most of the world’s iPhones, with some saying the move from Beijing constitutes election interference.
View ArticleChina hosts separate phone calls with Israel and Palestine
Foreign Minister Wang Yi reiterated China’s calls for a cease-fire and a “two-state solution” during separate talks with his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts.
View ArticleAngela Zhang on why the West should pay more attention to Chinese antitrust law
In this installment of China Book Chats, Christopher Marquis talks to Angela Zhang, author of ‘Chinese Antitrust Exceptionalism,’ a book that delves into one of China's underappreciated tools for...
View ArticleHigh-level firings, Patriotic Education Law, and economic measures announced...
Former defense and foreign ministers Li Shangfu and Qin Gang have finally been officially cashiered, a new law is on the books to root out “historical nihilism,” and Beijing seems set to release new...
View ArticleChina launches its youngest-ever astronauts into space
Three new astronauts are heading to China’s Tiangong space station, which is about to get even bigger in the coming years.
View ArticleWhen ‘poverty alleviation’ means forced labor for Uyghurs
Outside of the well-documented internment camp system, the Poverty Alleviation through Labor Transfer program is normalizing forced labor for Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in China, according to a...
View ArticleChinese ex-premier Li Keqiang dies of a heart attack at 68
The former senior official was well liked at home and abroad, but in the New Era of Xi Jinping, Li was never more than China’s No. 2.
View ArticleThe Chinese diaspora ‘needs to rise up’ about atrocities against Uyghurs —...
Rayhan Asat comments on China’s stance on the Israel-Hamas conflict, the Muslim world’s silence on ongoing rights abuses against Uyghurs in China, and the responsibility of the Chinese diaspora in...
View ArticleChina in limbo over importing Middle East oil overland through Pakistan
Ongoing violence in Balochistan and Xi Jinping’s shifting Belt and Road priorities may end Pakistan and China’s pipeline dreams.
View ArticleWhy does Zelenskyy accept China’s ‘neutrality’?
Writing from Kyiv, Ukrainian Sinologist Vita Golod explains why her country’s president has not criticized China for its moral support of Russia after Putin invaded last year.
View ArticleChina’s crackdown on data ensnares ‘foreign-related’ weather stations
China’s Ministry of State Security investigated 3,000 meteorological stations for sending weather data abroad, as the country tightens up on cross-border data flows and beefs up its anti-espionage...
View ArticleThe Party takes firm control of China’s financial sector
The Central Financial Work Conference signaled a willingness for the central government to inject more money into the economy and inhibit local government debt, while emphasizing increased government...
View Article‘Lived in frustration, and died in vain’ — Phrase of the Week
A new phrase describes the sentiment in China toward the sudden death of Li Keqiang.
View ArticleChina’s cognitive dissonance in the Israel-Hamas war
The underlying premises driving China's approach in the Middle East seem increasingly out of sync with the shifting realities. Perhaps most ironically, Hamas (and its supporters in Iran, etc.) embrace...
View ArticleXi and Albanese meet in Beijing
Xi Jinping and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met for the second time in Beijing today. It’s the strongest signal to date that ties between their two countries are improving after years of...
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