Worldcrunch
The center-right populist Italian government has recently bowed to Chinese flattery, announcing it was ready to sign a Memorandum of Understanding that will connect Rome and Beijing on a modern Silk Road. At the end of a long, slow path of decline and political confusion, Rome is in bad need of fresh investment to boost […]
As the two superpowers get closer to an agreement, the global trade regime could suffer. History offers several precedents.
How is it that analysis of the rising world power is reduced to an abstract notion from the field of genetics? Established experts on China are not looking at the future.
-Analysis- NEW DELHI — The Kashmir Valley has been gripped by fear and confusion created by a slew of unexplained government orders, which in turn have led to speculation that something major is afoot. From the sudden induction of 100 paramilitary companies (over 10,000 men) into the region, to midnight raids on Jamaat-e-Islami cadre, to cancellation of doctors’ leaves and instructions to hospitals to store medicines and food, these moves have sent people stockpiling supplies. A journalist from Srinagar called me to say that people were talking about army movement to the border. He connected this information with the recent […]
WASHINGTON — How long must you live, how strong must be your memory, to turn back and say: damn it, this world has really changed. Look at the millennials, they seem to be better educated than the boomers, but they are sui generis in their thinking, seemingly inspired and shaped by memes rather than historical […]
The Trump administration had more than America’s commercial deficit with Mexico in mind when it demanded an overhaul of the 25-year-old North American trade deal.
Three years after the end of the one-child policy, China’s fertility rates are now falling. To have, or not have, children ought to be built on personal and family wishes, something the government still hasn’t understood.
-Analysis- Two years ago Chinese President Xi Jinping — in the wake of the twin election victories of Brexit and Donald Trump — arrived at the Davos World Economic Forum as the would-be savior of international free trade. “We should adapt to and guide globalization, cushion its negative impact, and deliver its benefits to all […]
Facing severe social competition, China’s youngsters are under increasing academic pressure. Can a new government policy help ease their load?
-OpEd- TOKYO — The United States has turned to inward-looking politics, while the unifying force of Europe has waned due to rampant populism and confusion in Britain, Germany and France. The pillars that have sustained global stability are seemingly fading away. Given the situation, we cannot but be wary of confusion stemming from the intense […]
-Analysis- NEW YORK — What a difference two decades make. In 1997, China’s gross domestic product was about 11% of the U.S’s. By 2017, it was up to 63%. But this overstates the difference in living standards between the two countries, since prices are generally lower in China. In purchasing-power-parity terms, China’s economy became the world’s largest in about 2013. So which country’s economy is really bigger? The truth probably lies somewhere between these two figures. If China were to abolish its capital controls and open its currency to foreign speculation, there’s a good chance the yuan would rise in […]
WASHINGTON — My first encounter with China was, oddly, at the top of the Empire State Building. I was a young student, and climbing to the top of the Manhattan landmark was the last thing I did before returning home from my first visit to the U.S., where I now live. I was not particularly […]
Ethical concerns about last week’s CRISPR breakthrough in China are valid. But they can evolve quickly.
BEIJING — These days, it is not rare to bump into blond, slim, pretty teenage girls on the streets of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The majority of them, typically between 16 and 22 years old, come from Eastern Europe and are working temporarily as models in China. The pace picks up in the late summer […]
Since turtle shells are used in traditional Chinese medicine and their meat is considered a delicacy there, this bit of Guangzhou’s street market is definitely not a pet sale.
The U.S. has long enjoyed hegemony over the 2.7-million sq km Caribbean basin. But whether Washington likes it or not, Beijing is showing that it too wants a piece of the pie.
BEIJING — A video is making the rounds across China’s internet. On a bus in the western city of Xi’an, an elderly man is seen shouting at a pregnant woman that she should give up her seat. “I am an old person! Can’t you see?” His attitude was so appalling that commentators online came down […]
Ancestral agricultural practices can provide a sustainable and creative way to boost rural economies in Latin America. And China could help.
BEIJING — Fan Bingbing, China“s highest-paid actress and star of the 2014 blockbuster X-Men, recently received some unwanted public attention—an accusation of tax evasion. The Chinese actress was accused by Cui Yongyuan, a TV presenter and producer, of signing “Yin-Yang contracts’ for the films she stars in. This allows her to pay lower tax via […]
GUNJUR — Edrissa Sackh stands on Gunjur beach, a small frown developing on his face as he mends his net. The remote Gambian fishing town of 25,000 people overlooking the North Atlantic Ocean is where Sackh, 31, has been fishing for 16 years. “They are taking the fish,” he says with bated breath, pointing toward two Chinese mechanized fishing vessels in the sea. “Right now there are no fish and we need fish.” A few inches away, his small hand-painted wooden canoe sits idle. Strong winds mean “there can be no fishing today,” he explains. But the trawlers he sees […]
Chairs have been removed from the cafeteria in a high school in Henan Province. The reason: save more time for studying…
Rising tariffs between the U.S. and China may boost trade between China and Latin American states, but ultimately this could harm their economies if all China wants is energy and commodities.
BEIJING — It’s that time of a year again when an ever growing number of Chinese students are leaving to study abroad. These young people attract a lot of attention, often envied by their peers around them. Labeled as the “Fu-er-dai”, meaning “the second-generation rich brats,” some live a “luxurious and decadent life” overseas, while […]
Donald Trump’s all-out trade war has a singular source of ammunition, even as China is pushing to make the RMB a global currency on par.
BEIJING — Yang Ke works for a high-tech company in Shenzhen on the southeast coast of China. Thanks to a few years spent abroad, he has saved up a considerable amount of money and is looking to invest it in foreign real estate. After intensive discussions with real estate agents, he decided that property in […]
More than just a vehicle to communicate, language expresses and helps construct identity. As such, it has the power to inspire and unite people — but language can also be a source of division, or an impediment to peace between groups already in conflict. From squabbles over things like spelling and pronunciation, to minority groups […]
The U.S. web giant may be planning a return to China. But would web users there actually embrace it? An online pull (that mysteriously disappeared after just a few hours) offers some hints.
The Chinese public wants answers, and decisive government action, after learning that two vaccine manufacturers distributed substandard products.
BEIJING — Chinese talk about ancient China as an “acquaintance” society, structured with a unique pattern of human associations. Such a pattern is also referred to as “difference in intimacy of relationship” and means that each person deals with their own social relations — close or distant, without regard for the people’s status — provided […]
-OpEd- PARIS — My conversation partner is a Japanese banker. He has just returned from Amman, the capital of Jordan. And he’s talking about the Chinese who were also there at a joint meeting of the EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) and the AIIB (Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank). “They were everywhere and everyone […]
China’s efforts to maintain control over citizens now include implementing volunteer ‘stability-maintenance information officers.’
GWADAR — Landing at Gwadar International Airport is a bit like landing on the moon. The tarmac lies in the middle of a desert, and there’s no other aircraft in sight except for a C-130 from the United Arab Emirates Air Force. The place seems all but abandoned. In the area around the airport, houses […]
The Asian giant is like a super-charged Formula 1 car racing past a beautiful, but old Fiat 500.
With facial recognition cameras and Big Data, the Chinese leadership is pushing its penchant for surveillance to new heights.
As Donald Trump stares down NATO, we may be witnessing the dying days of the post-War alliance between Europe and the U.S..
BEIJING — The exhibition was called “Secret,” and opened in the Wuhan Art Museum in April. And what was in the show? The personal information of the 346,000 citizens of the central Chinese city of Wuhan that the artist Deng Yufeng had bought on the black market. Previously treated with a special chemical, certain parts […]
Over the past decade, there have been countless reports about the boom in cosmetic surgery in Asian countries such as China, Japan and South Korea. Names have even been given to particular facial features in vogue, including the term “red net face,” taken from the “red net” young female internet celebrities making a mark in […]
It’s time for other countries to push back rather than just sit back and accept the consequences of Trump’s me-first approach to trade and diplomacy.
-Analysis- BEIJING — The “invisible poor” has become a new online — and ironic — moniker in China. It describes young people who earn more than 10,000 RMB ($1,570) a month, a considerable income for most Chinese, but who are also big spenders. They wear $500 suits, get regular facials, drink top-class Chilean wine, and […]
Climate change is a real and alarming problem. But there’s another — and intimately related — ticking time bomb threatening our planet: overpopulation.