Every few months, China unrolls a plan that looks less-than well thought out. Maybe it’s censoring the media facilities during the Olympics. Or quarantining hundreds or thousands of travelers to Beijing over H1N1 fears, even though (or because) the country didn’t bother to do anything for the first three months of SARS six years ago. [...]
Continue reading “How China Can Fix its PR Problem” »
As you may have heard, China’s economy has changed over the last few years. In 1979 China’s economy was 10th biggest in the world between Spain and Holland. It is expected to pass Japan as the world’s second largest this year, if it hasn’t already.
And yet, with all of the changes that have taken place, [...]
Continue reading “Grow the Economy, Print Bigger Currency” »
We’re 20 years removed, and China is a far different place from where it was on that terrible day.
There are two schools of thought about what has changed in the 20 years since. The first argument is that China totally opened up its economy in the aftermath of being shunned by most of the world, [...]
Continue reading “Modern China: Hermit or Leader?” »
I get how gay marriage is a threat to democracy. That makes sense. Men being monogamous with other men. Women devoting themselves to another woman. I get it. That could really ruin a great country.
But surely Twitter couldn’t ruin a good autocracy, right? Those annoying one sentence blasts that usually link to something more interesting [...]
Continue reading “Twitter Threat to Autocracy” »
Speaking of brilliant ideas, how did China get to the point where it thought blocking YouTube would be a good idea. I know a few months ago there was a controversial video about Tibet (and when I say controversial, I mean it seemed to contradict a government account), but seriously, that was a month ago. [...]
Continue reading “China, the Fragile Superpower?” »
So, I’ve accepted that I’ve become to busy (euphemism for lazy) to continue posting as much as I did during the Olympic period. I’ve written a bunch of post that I never bothered to put up because I didn’t want to spend the time to work out the kinks. So I’ve moved to the laziest [...]
Continue reading “Twitter Account: CupOfCha” »
During my bike ride to work down the Second Ring Road yesterday, I noticed tiny little bugs–gnats or something–gathering on my shirt. As I looked at them and wondered if one of them would end up getting smeared across my work clothes, I realized that this was meant that Beijing spring had officially arrived. This [...]
Continue reading “The 10 Plagues of Beijing Spring” »
Zhou Xiaochuan, China’s central bank’s governor, recently proposed that a new international super currency be created to replace the US dollar as the international reserve currency. The currency, which I call “Esperanto Bucks,” would be tied to the Special Drawing Rights (SDR), a weighted basket of currencies the International Monetary Fund (IMF) currently uses [...]
Continue reading “China Pushes for Esperanto Currency” »
Obama’s coming to China later this year, according to reports coming out of London. It should be an exciting moment. I don’t really have any comment here, I just like the title of the entry. Feel free to add your own opinions about what Obama’s visit will mean for the US and China.
Here’s the FT [...]
Continue reading “Guess Hu’s Coming to China” »
For some reason, a lot of people in Beijing have decided that it is really cool to paint things onto the side of their cars. I have a friend who painted a giant Yankees logo onto the side of his car in New York, which seemed pretty dumb. But he was handed two world series [...]
Continue reading “Chinese Police to “Punish and Enslave”” »
Note: This is the end of the usable page. The image(s) below are preloaded for performance only.
