Times are tough for corrupt officials who have long counted on cashing in when the Chinese New Year festival arrives.
Tag: china
BEIJING — Last week Maison Boulud Beijing, a French restaurant owned by the three-Michelin-star chef Daniel Boulud, shut down. Just before closing its doors for good, the restaurant suddenly became busy. Eating the foie gras, a Belgian expatriate couldn’t help but sigh: “It’s one less place to dine out and experience French haute cuisine.” Maison […]
For this Chinese writer, Rupert Murdoch’s ex-wife is a symbol of all that’s wrong with the power women of the new century.
BEIJING — It’s not something most of us have to worry about these days, but for some, having too much money can pose serious problems. Take, for example, your average corrupt Chinese official. Former deputy director of Hohhot Railway Bureau in Inner Mongolia, Ma Junfei, was arrested, tried, sentenced to death and then reprieved for […]
BEIJING — For many Chinese, the successful Dec. 14 moon landing of the Chang’E-3 spacecraft was a moment of particular pride and joy. China has become the third country in the world to independently achieve a soft landing on the Moon and begin a round of lunar prospecting. It is also a milestone in China’s […]
China is asking hard questions about what it takes to make a big nation a great nation.
BEIJING — Winter has come to the capital, and Wang Jie (a pseudonym) feels particularly cold. The multinational communication equipment company where he’s worked for 20 years has just announced widespread layoffs in the marketing, sales and service departments. Wang’s name was on the list. When he joined the firm in 1994, he was part […]
Tuesday, January 6, 2014 GERMANY DIVIDED AS PEGIDA PROTESTS GROWA record 18,000 people gathered in the eastern German city of Dresden last night for a weekly “anti-Islamization of the West” march, while similar protests are spreading across the country in cities like Berlin, Cologne and Stuttgart. The protesters were met with smaller, opposing rallies denouncing […]
From the four corners of the planet, the 7 most-read articles that Worldcrunch published over the past year.
Dubbed the new ‘cave dwellers’ of Beijing, these people were recently found living in the city’s underground water system. Society’s lowest rung raises hard questions about modern China.
Russia and China risk setting off global conflicts for the sake of national pride. A century later, the lessons of Otto von Bismarck are being ignored again.
BEIJING — That the profitability of a single U.S.-to-China airline route is equivalent to that of three domestic routes and seven times that of transatlantic flights is an open secret within the airline industry. And until recently, U.S. airlines executives could more or less count on this lucrative segment of the business. But for the […]
SHENYANG — Zhang, who runs a wedding planning service, was doing her best to convince me over the phone to come in to visit what she describes as a “giant reception showroom.” It has been a week since my future mother-in-law put down the deposit for our wedding venue, a newly opened five-star hotel in […]
The migration of rural population into Chinese cities is seen by some as the way to ensure a new burst of economic growth. But urbanization-by-state-planning is not the right road.
A senior judge in Yunnan province writes an open plea for such advances as live-streaming trials and online coverage of courts to help make Chinese justice more open, free and fair.
BEIJING — After months of public debate, China’s Education Ministry has finally decided that the college entrance exam will no longer include the subject of English. Instead, students will take several English tests spread over the course of the school year. This recurring topic is once again heated, bitterly dividing those with starkly divergent viewpoints. […]
‘Filial Piety,’ in which children were responsible for caring for the aged, was China’s ancient and efficient retirement system. Modern forces have slowly dismantled it over the past half-century.
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The Risks Of China’s GDP Obsession
BEIJING — Last month, Chinese leader Xi Jinping gave a speech and released a document to local authorities reaffirming a key new reform message: From now on, “officials should no longer blindly compare only their GDP when it comes to performance and success.” Xi added that “the problem of “GDP-based promotions’ shall be rectified.” His […]
BEIJING — Both the definition of “Free-Trade Zone” and the “Pacific” should be called into question as the U.S. and Japan try to seal a deal on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) by the end of the year. As an ambitious multilateral trade cooperation mechanism outside the World Trade Organization (WTO), the TPP would not currently […]
Concerns grow in Beijing, especially as the American boom in shale-gas production is helping the U.S. move toward energy independence.
WUWEI — Twilight is falling at the edge of the Tengger Desert, and the vines stretching out row after row are a snapshot of peace and serenity. A towering red castle-like building standing not far from the vineyard displays the name of the property — Weilong (Grand Dragon) Desert Oasis Organic Winery. “We are about […]
Chinese business owners should know that low prices alone are not a recipe for longterm export success, says a renowned German industrial design expert.
BEIJING — The recent government shutdown in the United States prompted a chorus of comparisons in China of the two countries’ political systems. The general sentiment? “The American model of democracy is not the only way. The Chinese style may be another option.” But the comparison is inappropriate because it is based on two false […]
BEIJING — Belly dancing has long been associated with the Middle East, but there seems to be plenty of evidence to suggest that its future may be here in China. There has been a huge growth in popularity of belly dance shows, contests and schools across the country. A recent belly dancing convention in Beijing brought stars from around the world for a weekend of workshops and performances. Two dozen dancers are going through their routines at an afternoon class at the Wen Kexin Belly Dancing School, located in a plush new commercial complex on Beijing’s east side. Fan Hui […]
Destination: Moscow. Setting out from Beijing, I had the choice of two passenger railway lines to connect to the famed Trans-Siberian. One of the lines, the K19, goes through the border town of Manzhouli, while the other, the K3, arrives via Mongolia. Beijing-Manchuria: familiar, strange and quiet For most Chinese railway passengers, it is a […]
Masters in the art of skirting real estate regulations…
Social policy and mentality both must change for China to face its looming demographic crisis. Beijing’s recent decision to loosen its one-child policy is just a start.
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China’s Car Market Is Humming Again
BEIJING — China’s automobile market is now expected to see double-digit growth by the end of this year, after two consecutive years’ of relatively low growth. According to data published last week by the China Automobile Association, for the first 10 months of 2013, China’s car sales totaled 17.8 million vehicles, with a growth rate […]
-Commentary- In the southern province of Guangxi, a pregnant woman was recently shot dead by a drunken policeman. After the incident, the local government proposed to compensate the victim’s family with 700,000 RMB ($115,000), which included damages for the deceased and child support for the victim’s two children. This was done on the grounds that […]
BEIJING — It took just three days after its recent third plenum meeting for the Chinese Communist Party to issue its blueprint for major reforms in the country. The fact that the content of the resolution it had agreed upon was released so quickly demonstrates both the importance of major economic reforms here and the […]
BEIJING — Both the Internet and China’s mighty role as manufactured goods exporter have given new prominence to the Chinese language around the world. Here are 5 expressions from China already on the road to being exported themselves. 1.) The Beijing Youth Daily recently reported that a new Chinese buzzword, tu-hao, could be be included […]
SHANGHAI — Recently, two Shanghai hospitals have held special training courses for their doctors. One invited a Taekwondo coach to teach the physicians self-defense skills, while the other featured a local police expert in crisis negotiation to brief them about violence prevention. The Chinese public of course understands what this is all about. Just two […]
BEIJING — The Chinese authorities have recently introduced a “Ten Thousand Talents Support Program,” a nationwide project for selecting outstanding talent in all areas of scientific and technological innovation. Among those, 100 people would be identified as potential Nobel Prize winners. Similar programs, equally generous and costly, have been put in place before. But regrettably, […]
NANJING — War crimes should never be forgotten, no matter how misleading may be their names. Asia’s history includes “comfort stations,” places used during World War II by Japanese forces to provide sexual services to their soldiers, often by imprisoned women from other countries. A recent controversy in this eastern Chinese city, infamous for the […]
Chinese business leaders have everything, except for their health.
Tuesday, November 11, 2014 APEC SUMMIT ENDS WITH CHINESE FREE-TRADE PROGRESSAfter two days of meetings at the Beijing-hosted Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, leaders of the 21 regional economies agreed to begin work toward possible adoption of a free-trade pact proposed by China, AP reports. A two-year study of the initiative will be launched with the […]
BEIJING — The Chinese capital likes to dazzle visitors with the biggest and best projects in the world. Consider, for example, the Olympic Park built for the 2008 games. It is spread over nearly 12 square kilometers, intersected by a canal that, seen from above, resembles a dragon. The park is an exhibition of the […]
Over the past 30 years, while China opened up to the outside world, the Chinese business community has gradually accumulated more and more knowledge of the world as well. Access to the World Trade Organization and modern information technology also helped speed along that process of global understanding. Still, there are limits. Since the vast […]
SHANGHAI — Some inhabitants near Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport are reporting something far more odious than the usual noise pollution. According to Zhou, who lives just south of Shanghai in Luchaogang, even on sunny days, he can see “golden raindrops” falling down, accompanied by a bad smell, the Dongfang Daily reported. The droppings, which Dongfang […]
-OpEd- BEIJING — Chen Yong Zhou, a reporter working for Guangzhou city’s New Express newspaper in the southern city of Guangzhou, was detained recently by police who had arrived all the way from Hunan, 425 miles away. Chen was accused of damaging the reputation and commercial interests of Zoomliom, a Hunan construction machinery and sanitation […]