On May 17th, the United States Department of State sent out a policy directive to American universities sponsoring Confucius Institutes. It states that Chinese academics teaching grade-school levels at institutions without the proper accreditation are violating the terms of their visas and must leave the country at the end of the current term. more ›

The war of the future may not be decided by tanks on a sandy embankment or by the nuclear arsenals of various countries, but rather on a keyboard. Experts state that China demonstrates incredible prowess in the cyber-warfare arena, boasting the capacity to sabotage the US power grid, hack into the Federal Aviation Administration's flight database, and even crash its financial markets (or at least, crash them again) - capabilities that China might employ should a conflict arise between the US and China concerning Taiwan's self-governance. more ›

Hong Kong has officially entitled itself as most developed financial market in the world after it jumped from fourth position to first on the World Economic Forum index of financial market development. Beating out the established UK and US leaders, it has become the first Asian financial center ever to top the index. more ›

"We are in debt up to our ears to China. Well over $1 trillion we owe to them. That means we're making substantial interest payments to China. When we send our hard-earned money to China, that's our tax money. And what that means is we have less money for our military. And we just saw this year because of the failure of the Super Committee, $1 trillion less will be available for national defense. more ›

Chinese families are more easily able to afford food compared to their American counterparts, according to a Gallop poll released Wednesday. more ›

On Tuesday, Moo Ko-suen (慕可舜) was finally deported back to Taiwan after being arrested in Miami on November 9th, 2005. Homeland Security agents found Moo attempting to purchase and export a variety of military parts on China's behalf, including a F-16 aircraft engine for the Shenyang Aircraft Corporation, and also an AGM-129 cruise missile. more ›

Billionaire Donald Trump continues posturing for his potential 2012 presidential run by talking tough with China. “Nobody, other than OPEC, is ripping off the United States like China,” says Trump. “They’re making all our products, they’re taking all our jobs and then they loan the money back and we pay them interest. It’s an amazing phenomena.” Also, “China is an abuser. China is not our friend.” The solution to this situation, according to Trump, is to stop treating the Chinese president to a "beautiful five star state dinner" when he visits, and to impose a 25% tax on all Chinese products if China doesn't stop "manipulating" its currency. God help us all if this man becomes the president of the US.
more ›

More exciting, semi-non-news documents released by Wikileaks have revealed that China and the US, in a "mutual show of military strength" used missiles to blow up their own satellites! Actually the blowing shit up part isn't news, that happened two or three years ago, well covered by the press. But WHY they both blew up their respective satellites has been more clearly revealed: basically, it's Regan's 'Star Wars' all over again! more ›

Adding yet another superlative to its ever growing "World's leading" list, China has now been declared the world's leading "space polluter." more ›

It's been a full week since the UN's climate conference in Copenhagen started, and nothing ground shaking has come out of the meetings so far (beyond protesting, and an interesting scandal). Of course, gathering leaders from around the world to discuss tangible restrictions on carbon emissions seems to have only brought tension over the past decade, despite increasing evidence of global warming. Yet in the buildup to this year's talks in Copenhagen, there was a general agreement that the major players in climate change discussions would undoubtedly be America and China: the biggest polluting powers have the most at stake, yet finding a suitable agreement on reduction would undoubtedly be difficult. Tensions have already risen between the two powers, and with only two days before Premier Wen Jiabao and President Obama go to Copenhagen (and only four more days of conference), time is running out. more ›

This is an advertisement. The USA Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo 2010 is now recruiting! We are offering an exciting number of positions across a variety of teams. Please visit our website at usapavilion2010.com/jobs for the opportunity to be a part of the world’s biggest-ever event! More job ads. Place a job ad. more ›

There's a general energy in the air over Obama's upcoming visit. Judging by the many, many taxi and motorcycle drivers who have conversations with us to the effect of "美国好," Obama has become a cultural icon for the Chinese. While the American president represents a polar change in policy and practice for Americans, the Chinese seem to view him as an intelligent and fair man who will directly or indirectly help China in its ascendant world superpower-dom. more ›

• Why China might turn on North Korea [CSMonitor] "China has long seen its national interests served by the status quo on the Korean Peninsula. According to a cold-war perspective about strategic balance and a post-cold-war emphasis on internal development, Beijing prioritized maintaining a buffer state and preventing North Korea's problems from spilling over China's border. While Beijing retains these priorities, the chances of it getting tough with Pyongyang are low. However, the China of today is not the China that came to Pyongyang's aid during the Korean War - its national identity has evolved over decades of rapid development and international integration. The ideas of communist solidarity and laying low to focus on modernization are becoming obsolete."
• Beijing Always Wins [NYTimes] "THE riots in the Xinjiang region, the home of China’s Muslim Uighur minority, will affirm to many analysts outside the country that social unrest is a direct threat to the continued rule of the Communist Party. If officials don’t take a long, hard look at how to avoid such uprisings, this argument will run, the government could eventually fall. If only Chinese officials saw things that way."
• Shenzhen Mayor Under Investigation [eChinacities] "Xu Zongheng(许宗衡), 54, was removed from his post as mayor of Shenzhen and is under investigation into allegations of corruption and graft that have stretched to include a former Olympic gymnast and several actresses. Xu became mayor of Shenzhen in 2005, advocating changes in the city’s bureaucracy. Many view Xu as partially responsible for the subsequent collapse of Shenzhen’s real estate market. The allegations revolve around bribes received for awarding government posts and bids."

There have now been nine confirmed cases of H1N1 on th Chinese mainland, with two new patients cropping up in Beijing and Fujian province over the weekend. In Fujian, a two-year-old girl tested positive for swine flu after returning from the U.S. with her family via Hong Kong. Meanwhile, in Beijing, the confirmed was a 46-year-old man surnamed Zhang who had flown over from Canada. Unfortunately, he took the subway several times before showing symptoms, possibly contaminating all of Beijing. Meanwhile, there are two suspected cases in Zhenjiang province and Shanghai. The Zhenjiang patient is a 19-year-old boy who came to New York. The Shanghai case is a 30-year-old Chinese man working for an Australian company who flew in from Melbourne. So far, swine flu has claimed no casualties in this country. Source: China Daily more ›

What if the U.S. broke up (much like the Soviet Union did in the early 1990s)? According to one Russian professor, it means that Governer Ahnold may need to learn Chinese. more ›

The deviant little grass mud horse has struck again - only this time, it's a real alpaca rather than an internet one that's the center of this controversy. According to Forbes Asia, two Chinese men used an elaborate scam to trick an oblivious 74-year-old Tennessean Alpaca farmer into giving them business visas. more ›

Remember the government's proposed 45 billion yuan effort to ensure that the rest of the world sees a media more aligned with what the central politico wants it to see? It's started! more ›

Rebecca MacKinnon, formerly CNN's Beijing bureau chief and now Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong, writes an open letter to President Barack Obama in the Huffington Post, In Talking to China, Remember its People. She encourages the president to adopt a more nuanced view of the Chinese citizenry:

The point is that while these people are not citizens of a democracy, they are by no means an undifferentiated mass of brainwashed drones. Despite often crude censorship of the Internet and state-run media, despite manipulation, intimidation of dissidents and political astro-turfing of the blogosphere by paid commentators, there is no unity of thought in China today. Civic minded citizens manage to hold wide-ranging debates on the Chinese Internet, in living rooms, dormitories, office break rooms, and classrooms about many public issues. Reading the Chinese blogs I've found all kinds of views about you and your new administration. Many are inspired by your personal story and the idea of truly equal opportunity that you represent. Others hope that you will be more forthright and principled on human rights issues than the Bush administration was. Others are very concerned that you will be protectionist in order to help the American people in the short run, and that this will hurt the Chinese people economically. Others lament cynically that no matter what happens, the rich and powerful in both countries will be the relationship's main beneficiaries.

Just as you have used new technology to engage with the American electorate, your China policy can be greatly strengthened if you conduct a real conversation with the Chinese people. Listen as much as you talk; provide a much-needed platform for open discussion. The U.S. embassy in Beijing should build a Chinese-language website modeled after change.gov, focused not just on U.S.-China relations, but on the range of concerns and interests - from environment, to food safety, to factory safety standards, to education and real estate law -- shared by ordinary Chinese and Americans. Some linguistically talented State Department employees should start blogging in Chinese. Open up the comments sections, see how the Chinese blogosphere responds, then respond to them in turn. Translate some of the Chinese conversation into English for Americans to read and react, then translate it back. Sure there will be censorship problems on the Chinese side, but if enough Chinese find the conversation important and relevant to their lives, the censors ultimately won't be able to stop it. Nor should they want to if they're wise - because the resulting conversation would help both governments build a more stable and rational relationship that would truly benefit the people of both countries.

Chinese premier leaves Beijing for European tour [Xinhua] more ›