On July 15, 1971, a historic day for both China and the United States, President Richard Nixon announced his intention of traveling to China and meeting with Chinese premier, Zhou En Lai, to discuss normalizing relations between the two superpowers as part of a campaign to ease global tension in the testy "Cold War" political climate. Nixon, a formerly staunch anti-communist, proclaimed; more ›

"In much of our literature, China is now described as a rising country. No Chinese thinks of China as a rising country. In 18 of the last 20 centuries, China was the most powerful country in the world. And then there was the aberration, in the Chinese mind and experience, of the 19th and early 20th centuries in which China did not catch up with the Industrial Revolution, and was temporarily weak. But in the Chinese mind -- and I am reluctant to speak with so many Chinese in the audience here -- but as I understand it, in the Chinese mind, they do not think they are a rising country. The Chinese think they are reclaiming the place that has historically been China's. And they are returning to this place." more ›

We haven't heard much about this, but Henry Kissinger was a special guest last week at CPC darling Bo Xilai's massive Red Songs celebrations! He even gave a small speech to the gathered masses. In usual form, Kissinger, approximately one million years old, appeared on the verge of sleep as he delivered this absolutely impossible-to-understand address. Mostly we suggest you watch it for the expression on the face of the guy taking notes behind him. more ›

• China's class ceiling [LA Times] "China is the only ancient civilization in human history to have reemerged as a major force in the world. And Chinese are rightly proud of this. So why rock the boat? It is better to be ruled by boring technocrats like Hu who will keep things nice and steady. This is not the story one might hear from unemployed workers in the rust belts of northeastern China, or from rioting farmers in Guangdong province who have been pushed off the land by greedy developers working in tandem with corrupt party officials. Nor is this view necessarily shared by the brave lawyers willing to take on some of those corrupt officials, or intellectual dissidents who still get arrested for arguing that Chinese should be entitled to basic democratic rights. But it is the common line taken by people who benefit most from the current wave of fun, fashion and prosperity — the new urban elite, some of whom are pampered children of Communist Party bosses."
• What If China Had a Second Political Party Tomorrow? [The New Yorker] "On the prospects for multi-party democracy: If you had a second party alternative in China now, I think it would be an anti-foreign party. What else could you see as a platform to challenge the Communist Party, but to oppose the foreigners who are “buying up Chinese resources”?… There has to be a period of generally unfolding democracy. Not bang, all at once. And I think that will happen. I think it’s happening much too slowly."
• Editorial Dispute Threatens Caijing, a Chinese Magazine [NYTimes] "The owners of the magazine have recently come under pressure from some within the government to tone down or drastically alter Caijing’s aggressive journalism, people at the magazine say. Caijing’s managers have told staff members that they have been fighting to maintain the magazine’s editorial integrity. Caijing’s managers have been seeking to create a more independent publication by changing the magazine’s shareholding structure, seeking outside investors and pressing the owners to allow some employees to own a stake in the magazine. They also want a larger share of the magazine’s profits to be invested in new operations, including an English-language Web site."

A picture says a thousand diplomatic niceties. Apparently, so did Wen Jiabao when he met with Henry Kissinger yesterday for the inaugural China-US Track Two High Level Dialogue in Beijing. We're not sure what that means either, but here's a sound bite for you: more ›

Jimmy Carter, the former US president who formalised ties with China 30 years ago, meets Premier Wen Jiabao (温家宝) in the same room where he first met the late Deng Xiaopeng (邓小平). Carter said he visited China as a young man when he was in the navy and always thought of his life and destiny as being "very close to China". Accompanying Carter were other leading former US officials, including former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and National Security Advisers Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski. more ›

The Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci died recently at the age of 77. Known during most of her career for aggressive, throw caution to the wind type interviewing, she's had an audience with movers and shakers from the Ayatollah Khomeini to Henry Kissinger and Deng Xiaoping. In the New York Times obit/article linked to above, we found links to several of her interviews, including one with Deng Xiaoping in 1980. The interview is interesting as it takes place at a critical juncture in Chinese history -- Deng had assumed control two years earlier and launched the reforms that set the country on a drastically different path than the one Mao had envisioned. The interview deals with the legacy of Mao, the Gang of Four, the Cultural Revolution, and what the consequences of China's reforms. more ›

Photo by Moriirom taken from the Shanghaiist photos page. To see your photos on our photos page, use Flickr and tag your photos “shanghaiist”. Or you can email your photos to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically appear on our site. more ›