Mao Zedong was born in Shaoshan village in the Chinese province of Hunan on December 26, 1893. One of the most important, controversial and powerful figures in modern history, Mao was the founding father of the People’s Republic of China… Read More ›
Everyone has heard about China as an economic superpower bent on world domination. Its trade surplus with the world, especially with the United States, is vulgar. And for some time, China has been the fastest growing economy in the world,… Read More ›
Rumours have swirled in Beijing in recent weeks that China’s seemingly invincible leader, Xi Jinping, is in trouble, dogged by a protracted trade war with the US, a slowing economy and a public health scandal involving thousands of defective vaccines… Read More ›
The ruling Chinese Communist Party has announced new regulations that will ban foreign companies from publishing online media, games and other “creative” content within China’s borders from next month. The “Regulations for the management of online publishing services” also ban… Read More ›
The unstated reason Chinese Pres. Xi snubbed Zuckerberg is probably for his age. Chinese think a man can’t do business until he’s at least in his 40’s and “is old enough to grow a mustache”. Whatever the reason, China having… Read More ›
Taiwan warned officials and veterans Friday not to attend a military parade organised by China to mark Japan’s defeat in the Second World War, as the former bitter rivals vie over the history of the conflict. Beijing claims Communist troops… Read More ›
China plans to grant prisoner amnesties to mark this year’s commemorations of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two, only the eighth time this has happened since the Communists took power in 1949, state news agency Xinhua… Read More ›
Japan’s less-than-wholehearted remorse for its World War II-era atrocities has long been an unhealed wound in its relations with neighbours. The bruise is throbbing anew with the approach of August 15, the 70th anniversary of the announcement of Japan’s surrender…. Read More ›
Can Xi do it? This is the biggest political question in the world today. “Yes, Xi can,” some tell me in Beijing. “No, he can’t,” say others. The wise know that nobody knows. There is a great debate going on… Read More ›
In 1989, pro-democracy protests took place not just in Beijing but in cities across China, and they too were savagely suppressed On June 4, 1989, China’s Communist Party unleashed the People’s Liberation Army on protesters camped in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen… Read More ›
What does it mean to be Chinese? A strong tradition in premodern China held that it meant thinking, behaving, and living in a society in accord with heaven-sanctioned principles exemplifying the best way to be human. Other peoples could learn… Read More ›
The following is based on a translation from Chinese media: Hong Kong’s Singtao Daily reports that China’s official TV media CCTV’s anchor Bi Fujian, well-known for his humour, has been denounced by Maoists across the Chinese nation for mentioning the… Read More ›
Few economies in the world are more closely watched than China’s. It is the second largest and fastest growing economy, so there’s a lot of attention being paid to who’s running things. Chinese President Xi Jinping is the most authoritarian… Read More ›
China recently announced its military budget this year would increase by 10 per cent, to about $US141 billion ($180bn), marking the 21st consecutive year in which its military spending has grown by a double-digit increment. It is now the second… Read More ›
China continues to takeover the Pacific with ships and reclaimed reefs. Taiwan’s DPP continues to knock down statues of KMT-Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek, which further indicates that Taiwan’s popularity favors national sovereignty. The same sympathy continues to slant in Hong… Read More ›
I sometimes wonder how the Communist revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, who warned against taking “the capitalist road,” would feel about his face on all those Chinese bills being traded around the world these days. As of this week, the renminbi is being traded in… Read More ›
The recent development of Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption storm is the investigation of fourteen People’s Liberation Army (PLA) generals including Major General Guo Zhenggang, the son of Guo Boxiong, who retired as vice chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC) in… Read More ›
Over 1.2 million Tibetans died between 1949 and 1979. China still claims that what occurred during this period was the “peaceful liberation” of Tibet. But the whole world must know that there are so many unanswered questions about how these… Read More ›
“I can’t give you a date when it will fall, but China’s Communist Party has entered its endgame.” So says one of America’s most experienced China watchers to a small table of foreign diplomats at a private dinner in Washington,… Read More ›
China’s military has doubled the size of its Amphibious Mechanised Infantry Division (AMID) from about 30,000 to 60,000 men for a potential conflict in the East and South China seas as well as with Taiwan, according to Taiwan-based news site… Read More ›
They pounce on bloggers who dare mock their beloved Chairman Mao. They scour the nation’s classrooms and newspapers for strains of Western-inspired liberal heresies. And they have taken down professors, journalists and others deemed disloyal to Communist Party orthodoxy. China’s… Read More ›
Hong Kong protests, terrorist attacks and a crackdown on corruption by Xi Jinping characterised the year for China. On Sunday 28 September, Hong Kong exploded. Pro-democracy protesters barricaded major roads, as riot police tried in vain to disperse them with… Read More ›
Before Deng Xiaoping opened China to the world, a popular way to glimpse the sealed-off mainland was by peering across the border from Hong Kong. Decades later, that remains a great vantage point. The 75 days of Hong Kong’s Umbrella… Read More ›
The Chinese president Xi Jinping’s swift ascent to power raises human rights concerns and has caused anxiety among China’s neighbours, President Barack Obama warned on Wednesday. Obama told members of the Business Roundtable that Xi “taps into nationalism that worries… Read More ›
Even as his government was making red-carpet plans to host President Obama this week, the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, praised a young blogger whose writing is best known here for its anti-American vitriol. In one widely circulated essay published by… Read More ›
India and China are both peace-loving nations. They do not like the use of force and have never had the ambition to conquer the world. According to well-known scholars, that is the reason why, unlike Egypt, Babylon and others, their… Read More ›
Some analysts are nervous when they hear Chinese President Xi Jinping upholding Mao Zedong Thought. Will Xi resume Mao’s policies of class struggle and constant revolution, they wonder. Xi’s predecessor Hu Jintao tried to omit Mao Zedong Thought, but enabled… Read More ›
The Chinese film “Red Amnesia” shown in Venice is partly a ghost story that may or may not have a ghost, but its portrayal of how the Cultural Revolution left a trail of twisted lives that haunts China today is… Read More ›
Some readers of my posts have made enquiries about purchase of my new book “Space Era Strategy”. The book is interesting to them perhaps because of my special Chinese perspectives that make some of my readers believe that I take… Read More ›
China is on the verge of destroying a geopolitical miracle. In 1980, its economy was less than one-tenth that of the United States. In 30 years, China rose to become No. 2 in the world, without disrupting the world order…. Read More ›
The following stories are first-hand recollections of life in China during the years immediately after the Communists took power (1949-1951). They are written by Chan Kai Yee, author of Tiananmen‘s Tremendous Achievements (see link in right sidebar). We would recommend… Read More ›
Perhaps the 1995 rumours of the death of Hong Kong weren’t exaggerated after all. Nineteen years ago this month, Fortune ran its infamous “Death of Hong Kong” cover. By 2007, the magazine had changed its tune, deciding, in the Mark… Read More ›
In his bid to see China become a true superpower, President Xi Jinping has committed to a monumental task. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say he has staked his authority as president on it. Basically, he… Read More ›
On 12 February 1912, the Xinhai Revolution, or the Hsin-hai Revolution, also known as the Revolution of 1911 or the Chinese Revolution, culminated with the overthrow of the Empress Dowager Longyu and the infant Emperor Puyi that marked the end… Read More ›
Life is getting tougher for foreign companies. Those that want to stay will have to adjust. According to the late Roberto Goizueta, a former boss of The Coca-Cola Company, April 15th 1981 was “one of the most important days…in the… Read More ›
More than twenty policemen lined up at the gate of a massive mansion in a village in the central province of Henan at midnight on January 12, 2013, loading heavy crates onto two military trucks. Hours later—loaded with twenty crates… Read More ›
On Friday, Chinese state media reported that China Credit Trust Co. warned investors that they may not be repaid when one of its wealth management products matures on January 31, the first day of the Year of the Horse. The… Read More ›
Educational institutions – from primary schools to universities – will be a major target of a sweeping Marxist education campaign announced yesterday by the Communist Party. The unusually detailed action plan released by the ruling party’s General Office was seen… Read More ›
China celebrates the 120th birthday of Mao Zedong, the founder of modern China, on Thursday, but will be scaling back festivities as President Xi Jinping embarks on broad economic reforms which have unsettled leftists. Mao has become a potent symbol… Read More ›
An old schoolmate of mine is now a midlevel government official. This friend, Mr. Lin, is also a member of the Chinese Communist Party. He worships Mao Zedong and often quotes Mao’s saying, “Man must have some spirit.” He once… Read More ›
During the 1960’s, China was at a crossroads when it came to envisioning the future. On the one hand, the country was recovering from the shock’s of Mao’s “Great Leap Forward” – a program of rapid industrialization and collectivization that… Read More ›
The effects of the Tiananmen Square incident continue to ripple through China, but surprisingly little has been said about what China has done in the field of counterterrorism. A vehicle ran through crowds of tourists and was lit on fire… Read More ›
A senior military commander in China’s restive far west has been stripped of his position on a powerful Communist Party governing body after an attack in the nation’s capital last week that claimed five lives and deeply unnerved the Chinese… Read More ›
China’s mass line campaign is well in gear: self-criticisms are grabbing headlines, ideological warfare against all things foreign is underway and China’s online world continues its descent into digital hell. As it nears its fourth month, the government is trying… Read More ›
A country’s 64th birthday is usually the sort of humdrum occasion that is briefly marked and quickly forgotten. Not so in China on Tuesday, where the sight of 64s splashed across TV screens and on billboards has been jarring for… Read More ›
Guangzhou plans to empty its hard-labour camps by year’s end, state media reported yesterday, the latest locality to phase out the notorious punishment. Rights advocates have long complained that the “re-education through labour“, or laojiao, system which lets police send… Read More ›
With response to the article “Women’s Rights at Risk” by Leta Hong Fincher: What we can say about Mao’s policies during the Cultural Revolution and Great Leap Forward is that they were equally destructive to both men and women. In… Read More ›
Fallen politician Bo Xilai put up a feisty defence on Thursday as he faced China’s most political trial in decades, saying he was framed in one of the bribery charges against him and had admitted to it against his will during… Read More ›
In a move sure to dismay the people inside and outside China who hoped Xi Jinping would begin a new era of democratic reform, China’s president has “lurched” to the left, as the WSJ reports, promoting a revitalised version of nationalist Maoism… Read More ›
The trial of disgraced senior Chinese politician Bo Xilai will start on Thursday, when he will face charges of bribery, corruption and abuse of power in China’s most divisive and dramatic case in decades. The long-awaited trial of Bo, 64,… Read More ›
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