China has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty and president Xi Jinping vowed to give the last millions of poor also a better life. Economics professor Sara Hsu of the State University of New York explains in CCTV what the country’s receipt for poverty relief has been.Read More →
Self-sufficiency in food has long been the mantra of China. But that is changing, as the country even imports rice from the US. Aging farmers, pollution and other challenges makes this change necessary, tells assistant professor Sara Shu, as the domestic production cannot be guaranteed.Read More →
Europe and America are getting the message: they are behind China in e-commerce. China veteran William Bao Bean tells an European audience at Medialaan in Brussels it is not about technology, but about the speed of adoption of the users.Read More →
A relative slow growth, a rapidly aging population in an unprecedented demographic transition, and no serious social safety net. Author Howard French of Everything Under the Heavens: How the Past Helps Shape China’s Push for Global Power calls at the Asia Society the next 10, 15 years the most dangerous for China.Read More →
Journalist Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao explains at the acceptance of the Shorenstein for journalism award how after 100 years of self doubt and insecurity, religion revived. Folk religion, more than internationally established ones, has become a vibrant new source of inspiration.Read More →
Prostitution is a mirror of society, tells Beijing-based author Zhang Lijia at the BBC. Her book Lotus: A Novel shows some of China’s most urgent problems related to prostitution: migration, the gap between men and women and moral decline.Read More →
Howard French, author of Everything Under the Heavens: How the Past Helps Shape China’s Push for Global Power explains at the Pulitzer Center how China is searching for power at an international stage, and how the global power might change its relationship with Hong Kong and Taiwan.Read More →
Shanghai-based VC William Bao Bean explains why the China startups he supports focus on South-East Asia and Eastern Europe, rather than the US. “We are trying to break the grip of Google and Facebook on startups.”Read More →
Author Ian Johnson of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao discusses Taoism, Christianity and Buddhism and how they help Chinese citizens’ ideals and hopes for a better society at the Asia Society.Read More →
South-Korea was the latest country to suffer from economic boycott measures from China after it deployed THAAD missiles on its soil. Tourism backed out and Korean factories suffered surprise inspections. A standard procedure, says business analyst Shaun Rein to CBS. Norway, France, Japan, Taiwan and other suffered from similar boycotts.Read More →
The internet in China has become the country’s public sphere, says China watcher Kaiser Kuo, former Baidu communication director, at the Paulson Institute. Despite blocked websites and government control, it is the place where netizens express their opinions and discuss.Read More →
Journalist Howard French’s book Everything Under the Heavens: How the Past Helps Shape China’s Push for Global Power is reviewed by the Globe&Mail. Key argument: French counters the Chinese narrative of a benevolent force, unlike the greedy Western colonizators. And on Trump: “When two emperors appear simultaneously, one must be destroyed.”Read More →