Why is China calling itself a democracy when it is not according to most definitions? China scholar Ian Johnson, a fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, discusses this and other political issues at the Council on Foreign Relations. In the same way, it is not a dictatorship where Xi Jinping can decide on all issues in the country, he says.Read More →
China expert Victor Shih, Director of the 21st Century China Center at the University of California San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy, discusses the current state of US-China relations with Bill Gertz of the Washington Post, covering questions like, “Is China an existential threat or a competitor?” and “Is China trying to replace the US as hegemon?” at PNYX.Read More →
In the ongoing war in Ukraine, China’s biggest fear is Russia becoming a democracy, says political analyst Victor Shih at a panel of the Brown China Summit. But “rationally, I agree that China would not intervene in any way,” says Shih.Read More →
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has raised multiple questions on China’s relationship with Russia, Taiwan, and the USA. CFR-scholar Ian Johnson looks at the CFR-blog at a wide range of the international fallout of recent affairs. And can and will China bail out Putin from the economic and financial sanctions?Read More →
CFR-scholar Ian Johnson discusses the way the West lost its interest in China and missed the wide-ranging intellectual debate in China. He reacts on contributions by David Ownby and Xiang Biao who plead for the inclusion of China’s intellectuals into the global debate, instead of ignoring them, at the Berlin Contemporary China Net (BCCN). You can find the full debate here.Read More →
Under president Xi Jinping, politics has become more dynamic than under his predecessor Hu Jintao. Anti-corruption, political reforms and increased infighting between different factions mark the news on an almost daily basis. And while everybody has an opinion, at the China Speakers Bureau we are happy to have a range of expert opinions on China´s political development.Read More →
Following the investigation into Russia meddling into US elections, California Congressman Jeff Denham has also accused China of the same. While there have been some minor spying incidents, political analyst Victor Shih, author of Factions and Finance in China: Elite Conflict and Inflation, does not see a similar effort for interference from China, he tells Politifact.Read More →
China veteran Kaiser Kuo looks back at the ups and down in the relationship between China and the US. Engagement is the only way forward, he says. Despite turns in the wrong direction, “not all the gains (of the past) have by any means been erased, he says at SupChina.Read More →
There is not shortage of experts who predict China cannot survive as a Leninist state, but David Shambaugh is certainly one of the more prominent ones. Journalist Ian Johnson sits down with him for the New York Times and discusses the future of current China.Read More →
China has three scenario´s to choose from by the end of next year, when the new Party Congress convenes, tells author Arthur Kroeber,China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know®, at the European Council of Foreign Relations. Or Russia-style nationalism, Japan-style slowdown 2.0 or a Singapore on steroids.Read More →
Journalist Ian Johnson interviewed democracy guru Liu Yu on her work and the political debate in China for the New York Review of Books. In this fragment they discuss how China´s internet users start to learn from those debates abroad, if they are interested, that is.Read More →
Economist Arthur Kroeber argued last week that China´s leadership accepts that its authoritarian strength triggers off collateral damage: it will never become a leader in technology or soft power, including censorship. Journalist Ian Johnson disagrees in the ChinaFile, the people might not accept that trade-off.Read More →