Thinking About China

Lately, the P2P crash has fostered many predictions about China’s impending Minsky moment. The “Minsky moment,” named for American economist Hyman Minsky, refers to the moment at which the value of assets collapses suddenly. In China today, the two main indicators identified by Minsky — increased debt and a rising leverage ratio, have manifested quite […]

On September 3, Chinese President Xi Jinping declared at the opening ceremony of the Forum on China–Africa Cooperation Beijing Summit in 2018 that China is willing to provide to African countries $60 billion through various channels including government assistance, financial institutions, and corporate investment. Some of the countries in this list are among Africa’s least […]

A video showing policemen in Shenzhen walking into a young woman’s apartment last month and taking her away in the middle of the night viral went in China. The police had no arrest or search warrant, and when the woman demanded an explanation, the police responded by asking, “What have you posted on the internet […]

In late August, a Chinese trade delegation, led by China’s Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen, headed to the United States for a fourth round of negotiations. It was generally expected that there wouldn’t be any meaningful results. The Chinese stance is presented in the article “A Long-Term View of China’s Historical Changes and the […]

Benjamin Franklin once said, “Never ruin an apology with an excuse.” In the wake of the obvious fact that the U.S.-led Western effort to democratize China through so-called constructive diplomatic and commercial engagement has failed over the decades, advocates of this policy may now feel compelled to have something to explain. In “How the West […]

Washington is understandably seeking to resort to all available means to level the playing field in the current trade war with Beijing. This war is specifically about the U.S. trade deficit with China, which has reached $152.2 billion, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But it’s really about much more than that. The U.S. Trade […]

On Aug. 11, officials in the Chinese city of Weizhou, in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, gave into the demands of thousands of protestors and delayed the demolition of the city’s Grand Mosque. By announcing the delay in the face of mounting unrest, the local government signaled it was playing a weak hand, and this […]

The Changchun Changsheng Bio-tech scandal, involving over 250,000 faulty doses of the DPT infant vaccine, has further diminished the Chinese people’s trust in the authorities, just days after an expose of a defective rabies vaccine. Including chairwoman Gao Junfang, 18 Changsheng executives have been arrested and placed under investigation by local authorities in Changchun, the […]

Dear Mr. Vice President: This is a letter of request from Falun Gong practitioners exiled in Thailand. We fled from mainland China due to the extermination and suppression of the Falun Gong, a peaceful meditation practice, and after strict review by the UNHCR’s political asylum program, were recognized as U.N. refugees in Thailand. The refugees […]

With communism abandoned in Europe and most parts of the world, only a handful of communist regimes are left. Just like how former U.S. president Ronald Reagan was instrumental in bringing about the demise of communism in the Eastern Bloc and the collapse of the Soviet Union, President Donald Trump is also helping end communism […]

China coins its political system “socialism with Chinese characteristics.” Despite preserving the name “Chinese Communist Party,” the current Chinese Party/State is purely fascist by any dictionary definition of fascism. That fact warrants our attention. The fascist intent is clearly backed by the Chinese regime’s Chief Justice Zhou Qiang who explicitly rejected during the 19th Party […]

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, I’m honored to participate in tonight’s debate. In discussing the influence of the East tonight, given the limits of time, I may not be able to talk much about other Asian countries. I will focus on the country that frequently comes to mind: the rising red empire of China, which […]

The number of Chinese acquisitions approved by Ottawa has garnered crucial consideration since 2015 with the purchase of key Canadian businesses such as Norsat International, a satellite firm; Retirement Concepts, a retirement home chain; and ITF Technologies, a high-tech firm. China’s latest $1.5 billion bid to buy Canada’s Aecon Group is thankfully now under a […]

Recently, the news of the United States–China trade war has dominated the headlines of media all over the world. U.S. President Donald Trump signed a memorandum on March 22, aimed at curbing “China’s economic aggression.” It has caused an uproar of criticism over the internet. The predicted consequences have been seriously exaggerated. However, if one […]

Even before the United States starts a trade war with China, some have declared that China has won and President Trump has lost. Keith Richburg, director of the University of Hong Kong’s Journalism and Media Studies Center, argues it is too late for the U.S. to fight back on trade. He contends that China has […]

With noticeable disappointment and discontentment toward U.S. policy, China’s ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai, said during an event in Washington, D.C., that the “recent trend indicates that Americans have a lack of cognizance about China and some misguided strategic judgements.” More specifically, Cui believed that “some people seemed frustrated about the path on […]

President Donald Trump’s Asia trip highlighted the difficulty in reducing barriers to entry for American companies to key Chinese sectors. American innovation in the electronic payment services sector, for example, places the United States’ leading finance companies on the cusp of a breakthrough into the coveted Chinese marketplace. But China’s unfair trading practices threaten to […]

President Donald Trump on Dec. 21 put the world on notice that America will no longer accept severe human rights abuses and corruption taking place around the world. Trump issued an executive order declaring a national emergency to deal with those who commit such crimes. In explaining his actions, Trump makes reference to the importance of values, […]

PERSPECTIVE During Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s China trip last week, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang reiterated his comments that the two countries are entering a “golden era” in their relationship, notwithstanding that the leaders didn’t agree on launching formal free trade talks. With exploratory talks to continue, there’s no telling if the two sides will come […]

An American in China wrote to me concerned about the Chinese people’s apparent acceptance of censorship. This is my response. Hi Jeremy, In your email, you commented that it was your impression that most Chinese people you encountered in everyday life were indifferent to the media censorship imposed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). I […]