It is the political season in China, with the dual National People's Congress (NPC) and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) swinging into annual two-week sessions. The period is normally a huge gift-giving event and a tremendous boon to the luxury goods industry. Business people hoping to curry favor with...

Part of the China by the Numbers Series

There is no doubting the appeal of stories about average Chinese holding out for more compensation for their homes and farms by resorting to homemade rocket launchers and Kung Fu or nail houses that continue to stand

While I very much enjoy blogging about China, I often feel that by addressing already popular stories, many of which I do not think were terribly substantial to begin with, I provide only limited value-added. In an effort, therefore, to make more of a...

This January, residents of Beijing have been treated to record levels of air "pollution 45 times the recommended safety levels, causing widespread public outrage, grounded flights and leaving many with health problems housebound." Considering that Beijing's plans for addressing the issue were greeted with little enthusiasm,...

In the fall of last year, Tang Hui, the mother of an 11-year -old young girl who had been kidnapped, raped, and sold into prostitution by seven men, was sentenced to 18 months in China's reeducation through labor (RETL) system. Her only crime was her outspoken...

Last week, Wang Yang, the reformist Party Secretary of Guangdong Province, sent a farewell letter thanking the netizens of Guangdong for their support and understanding, as it was announced that he will be replaced by rising CCP star and previous cultivator of an awesome mustache, Hu...

One could say that the dust has only just settled from the Chinese Communist Party's 18th National Congress, which ended on November 14th, but it might be more accurate to say that the leadership transition went so smoothly that barely any dust was kicked up in the first...

"Gangnam Style," the enticingly absurd Korean pop song, music video, and associated dance has been dominating pop, rap, and dance charts around the world, even inspiring European flash mobs in the tens of thousands. While many readers may be loath to suffer through one...

Judging from coverage of the Bo Xilai scandal and the recent New York Times expose on the "Hidden Riches" of the family of China's Prime Minister, Wen Jiaobao, the Anglophone media seems to have acquired a sudden interest in the wealth of China's political...

In the second presidential debate of 2012, both candidates engaged in some standard China-bashing, claiming to be tough on China without actually explaining why that was desirable. (For the record, Mr. Romney's claim that "there's even an Apple store in China that's a counterfeit Apple store, selling counterfeit goods," is...

On September 24th, Hurun, the premier magazine about and for China's uber-wealthy, published its annual "rich list" of the 1,000 wealthiest people born and bred in mainland China. Zong Qinghou regained the top spot by ratcheting his family's net worth up to $12.6 billion....

One of the wonderful features of Aung San Suu Kyi's visit to the University of Louisville on September 24, and there were many, was the significant length of time that was given over to questions and answers. It was particularly exciting to see the exchange between...

"Gangnam Style," the enticingly ridiculous Korean pop song, music video, and associated dance created by a Korean rapper known as Psy has taken Asia, and the world, by storm. On September 20, 2012, Guinness World Records recognized "Gangnam Style" as the "Most...

A recent cover of the Economist showed a picture of a few small uninhabited islands and asks "Could China and Japan really go to war over these?" The islands, every news article and blog post will tell you, are "called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in...

Recently, while reading an unofficial report on the proceedings of the trial of Gu Kailai, I noticed something that has long fascinated me about modern China. Those following the news may have seen that Gu, the wife of fallen Communist chief Bo Xilai, has just received...

The Bo Xilai affair has all the makings of a truly great political scandal... or a mediocre thriller. But the real value of this sordid tale is the divide it demonstrates between the manner in which the Western public and the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) top leadership understand China's politics....

For Chinese democrats, it has been a rough couple of decades. Despite hopes of democratization or liberalization following the Tiananmen protests, there has been little progress and in some areas even a tightening since the relative liberalism of the late 1990s. Yet in the past couple of months, maybe, just...

As the Republican primary turns vicious, Mitt Romney is mobilizing his pro-business credentials by attacking his rival, Rick Santorum, for his "unapologetic defense of big labor'' and framing himself as the true fiscal conservative. At first, there might seem to be little ground for doubting Mr....

Too often, discourse about China takes the same unfortunate format. I have seen it from the media, think tank and NGO reports, "popular" books written by academics, politicians, and even from students. First, a partial list of China's problems is...

Those who follow events in China will have noted recent reports of the intimidation, detention, abduction and torture of well-known Chinese activists, especially lawyers. While I would like to add my voice to those condemning this string of incidents, I would also like to sound a note of...