Author Zhang Lijia will visit London for most of the month February She is currently finishing her novel about prostitution in China, and a frequent commentators on social affairs in China. Your can read some of her stories here.Read More →

Twice last week China´s stock markets were forced to stop trading, sending panic signals across the globe. That drove even economist Arthur Kroeber to despair, writes the Washington Post. China´s financial authorities did not learn their lessons from last year´s disaster, he writes.Read More →

Despite recent crackdowns on feminists and human rights activists, China´s judicial systems is slowly but surely moving into a more independent force in China´s bureaucracy, says Judge Jiang Huiling of the Supreme Court in an interview with journalist Ian Johnson for the New York Times. Courts get more autonomy, be it limited.Read More →

Beijing underwent for the first time a code red for pollution: officially the worst air quality ever. But the air had been worse before, even a week earlier. Beijing-based journalist Ian Johnson sees a silver lining on the code red: the people and the politicians start to see things have to change, he writes in the New York Review of Books. And that is good new for the Paris talks.Read More →

Compared to his predecessor Hu Jintao, China seems on the move under president Xi Jinping. But is he really. Journalist Ian Johnson wonders in the New York Review of Books after three years of Xi rule whether under the cosmetic moves, so much is changing.Read More →

While at the beginning of his tenure, market forces popped up regularly in the official parlance, by now it is clear that centralized power is key for president Xi Jinping, with markets at a second place at best, says economist Arthur Kroeber in the New York Times.Read More →

Beijing has many ways to dive into its colorful past. Author Zhang Lijia joined last Sunday the Boxer rebellion walking tour, an episode in China’s history where interpretation way much, depending whether you are a Western of a Chinese scholar.Read More →

If the big military parade in Beijing proved one thing, it is Xi Jinping is firmly in charge, writes defense analyst Wendell Minnick in Defense News. “Instead of party members, Russian President Vladimir Putin stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Xi.”Read More →