The question that everybody now is asking is this: Why this new development in China-Russia relations? Obviously, the main trigger is the recent Ukraine crisis that has seriously damaged Russia-West relations, thereby pushing Russia closer to China. However, there is also a larger strategic reason. That is, there are mutual strategic needs as both China and Russia […]
A spate of suicides among officials in China has caught the country’s attention. Beijing’s censors have quickly moved to end speculation about the deaths, indicating the Communist Party’s sensitivity, but everyday people remain suspicious. Read Here – WorldAffairsJournal
The United States is on the brink of committing a cardinal sin in foreign policy: antagonizing two major powers simultaneously. There are frictions in bilateral ties with both Moscow and Beijing that have reached alarming levels over the past year or so. Read Here – The National Interest
Facebook and Google, the favored tools of dissidents, are now shaping Taiwan’s relationship with China. Read Here – The Diplomat
China’s new leaders, including President Xi Jinping, haven’t embraced environmental protection by choice. They’ve been compelled by a new political reality: an informed Chinese public. Read Here – Businessweek
Xi Jinping’s hold on political power is both more direct and came earlier than Deng Xiaoping’s, who had to combat Mao’s designated successor Hua Guofeng for influence. Even after winning the power struggle, Deng still ruled only indirectly, as he never formally served as the CCP’s general secretary or China’s president or premier. In contrast, […]
China’s economy grew 7.7 percent in 2013, overshooting the official target of 7.5 percent, But a shaky start this year, as shown in soft manufacturing activity, has put the focus on how the government will pace and sequence its overhauls while guaranteeing solid growth amid the world’s fragile recovery. Economic growth predicted for 2014 at […]
One luxury sector in China that hasn’t taken a hit under President Xi Jinping’s austerity and anti-graft campaign is overseas travel. Last year, Chinese tourists made 97 million overseas trips—up from just 10 million in 2000 and 83 million in 2012. And their spending on overseas travel increased 28 percent in the first nine months of 2013, as compared with the same period […]
Fueled by a huge surge in government “mini-stimulus” lending in the second half of the year, China’s GDP increased by a higher-than-expected 7.7% for 2013 (link in Chinese) according to the National Bureau of Statistics. That might sound like a good thing, but it’s not: essentially the government freaked out at the prospect of missing its 7.5% target, and overshot […]
In 1934, an estimated 86,000 soldiers in the Communist Red Army decamped from their Soviet-style base in Jiangxi province in an attempt to escape from Chiang Kai-shek and his encircling Nationalist Army. The desperate retreat, which Mao Zedong later ingeniously labeled the “Long March,” lasted four trying seasons and crossed 11 provinces. Read Here – […]
looking beyond borders 