The ouster of Shanghai’s powerful party chief may be the first salvo in the battle for supremacy among the next generation of Chinese leader. Read more:
Category: AP China
guangzhou wealth and discontents
Guangzhou, the chaotic export capital in southern China, appeared to hit a major Chinese milestone this month, becoming the country’s first city to reach a per capita income of $10,000 — more than five times the nationwide figure and a rough threshold for becoming a “developed” country.
But in a measure of just how problematic prosperity can be here, the city will institute a ban on motorcycles and motorized bicycles on Monday, hoping to quell a crime wave that has been building to more than 100,000 offenses a year.
'Who Controls the Internet?'
Fresh Air from WHYY, April 27, 2006
Recent controversies such as Google’s business in China and the U.S. government’s role in policing eBay transactions have put a spotlight on the intersection between governments and the Internet. Legal scholars Jack Goldsmith and Tim Wu address the issue in their new book, Who Controls the Internet? Illusions of a Borderless World.
Article on Women in China
SUSAN PERRY is an assistant professor of international affairs at the American University of Paris. Read her piece Holding Up Half the Sky
The Complex and Evloving Social Fabric China
For Chinese punks today, it might take screaming to be heard. They make up a small slice of the music industry here, and they play to a largely underground scene. But their struggle to gain attention provides a glimpse of what it’s like to be a rebel in a country that suppresses dissent and individuality, and an artist in a culture that worships money and Western fads. Sociological phenomenon. Political implications?
Dog Lovers arrested in rare Beijing Protest
The Internet Keeps the Tianenman Spirit Alive
My Lecture Notes
In case you need them, here are my lecture notes on the PRC
Economist Survey 2000
You have been assigned to read the Economist’s Survey of China from 2006.
Economist Survey 2006 Questions
Here is the 2000 version of the same survey
Read it, compare it with the 2006 version and create a post.
Other Resources for China
Here are some more pertinent English language resources from China
People's Daily Online
Read The People’s Daily Here Newspaper articles in the People’s Daily are often not read for content so much as placement. A large number of articles devoted to a political figure or idea is often taken as a sign that that official is rising.
The People’s Daily is the party’s leading official newspaper. Therefore editorials in the People’s Daily are also still regarded as fairly authoritative statements of government policy. It is important here to make the distinction between editorials, commentaries, and opinions.
The Tank Man
After all others had been silenced, his lonely act of defiance against the Chinese regime amazed the world. What became of him? And 17 years later, has China succeeded in erasing this event from its history?
Watch this PBS Frontline Episode free and explore the site for further insight. Feel free to join the discussion on the weblog section.
In China, Blogs Are Revolutionary Tool of Opinion
China has more than 30 million bloggers, by some estimates. A few are political. Some are unusual, such as Mumu, a Communist Party member who has clips of herself doing dances. But the typical Chinese blogger is more like Jasmine Gu (“It’s all about me, myself and my life.”).
CHINA: ERRATIC STATE, FRUSTRATED SOCIETY
Lucian Pye is the Ford Professor of Political Science at MIT. Read the article here
A symphony of civilizations
Used to innumerable discourses on the differences between the West and the East, one is not prepared to recognize two facts.
First, although Europe and China have been slowly elaborating two distinct civilizations, they cannot be absolutely separated. Having in common long maturations over millennia, the two old worlds have developed affinities and, despite all the exotic representations, the two edges of Eurasia are closer than they seem.
Second, one should not reduce the West to the US: that country, which from a colony has been rising to the rank of global hyperpower in only 230 years…
It is precisely based on their affinities that Europe and China have to build a partnership that goes beyond ever-varying trade, scientific or even political interests. In other words, by placing culture as the keystone of their relationship, the two Eurasian civilizations would enter a really stable and meaningful cooperation having over time global constructive impact.
Does the Future Belong to China?
Fareed Zakaria reminds us (warns us?) that China, “is a country whose scale dwarfs the United States. 1.3 billion people, four times America’s population. For more than a hundred years it was dreams of this magnitude that fascinated small groups of American missionaries and businessmen. 1 billion souls to save; 2 billion armpits to deodorize, but it never amounted to anything. China was very big, but very poor. All that is changing. But now the very size and scale that seemed so alluring is beginning to look ominous.”
Read it here