Two weeks ago the Obama Administration celebrated the first successful U.S.-China military-to-military talks of the new administration. Then this past Sunday, they found out relations with China were not always going to be so easy. Five Chinese ships harassed the USNS Impeccable in international waters off the cost of Hainan …
Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal had a front-page story on soaring unemployment among China’s rural migrants. While official Chinese employment statistics are spotty, the gigantic figures being thrown around are no surprise. The Journal and other outlets emphasize the Communist Party’s overwhelming fear of political instability caused by job loss. This …
The Sino-American trade conflict I wrote on last month has just become more likely. Chinese trade numbers show exports declining and imports collapsing at the end of 2008, the latter plunging 21% in December. The grave weakness in imports puts paid to the once-popular but unfounded notion that China could …
China has been rightly criticized for censoring speech on the Internet. It is the one major economy in which the government has denied free speech and free access online. But this could change if the Orwellian-sounding “Minister of Culture” in Britain gets his way. The Minister, Andy Burnham, would like …
From Reuters: China has started building a new nuclear power plant in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, the second of three Beijing aimed to begin constructing in the final two months of the year. The 70 billion yuan ($10.2 billion) Yangjiang plant, in Yangjiang City, will have six units …
The realization that China is in no position to be especially helpful in coping with the financial crisis is finally beginning to sink in with the mainstream media. The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and Financial Times today ran front-page stories that Chinese exports and imports contracted in November. This …
