Monthly Archives: 4 月 2016

Jeffrey Wasserstrom: The Great Fall of China

The country has entered the ‘middle income trap.’ It can only escape by taking the lead in industries that depend on brains—not brawn.

David Shambaugh is certainly prolific. His informative book “China’s Future” follows closely on the heels of “China’s Communist Party” (2008) and “China Goes Global” (2013) and fleshes out arguments first showcased in “The Coming Chinese Crackup,” a much discussed op-ed published in this newspaper a year ago. The George Washington University professor’s basic claim is easy to sum up: Unless the party’s general secretary, Xi Jinping, introduces major political reforms, the economy will tank and the party will crumble. Being too careful a scholar to express certainty about the exact timing of these events, Mr. Shambaugh writes only that they will likely happen in the next decade or so. Continue reading

‘Today, I Must Break My Silence’: Veteran Journalist Gao Yu

Gao Yu1

Journalist Gao Yu was sent on a forced “vacation” in southwestern China to remove her from Beijing when China’s parliament convened in March 2016.

Veteran Chinese journalist Gao Yu on Friday defied an official ban on giving media interviews to speak out in anger at the demolition of her garden by local urban management officers, known in China as “chengguan.” Continue reading

China Charity Law Hits Rights Groups Right in Their Sources of Funding

Charities Law

China’s restrictive Charities Law was adopted by the National People’s Congress on March 16, and will take effect on Sept. 1.

China’s new law regulating charities is a further blow to its rights activists, and could restrict any non-government group from raising funds to help some of the country’s most vulnerable people, an overseas-based rights group said. Continue reading