by David Shambaugh
China Watcher: Confessions of a Peking Tom by Richard Baum
China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know by Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom
China’s New Rulers: The Secret Files by Andrew J. Nathan and Bruce Gilley New York Review Books, 280 pp.
This article was first published in the September 30, 2010 issue of
In the next few weeks, an event will take place in Beijing on a par with anything dreamed up by a conspiracy theorist. A group of roughly three hundred men and women will meet at an undisclosed time and location to set policies for a sixth of humanity. Most China watchers will eventually learn that the meeting is taking place and scramble to figure out what is going on, but all the outside world will receive is a terse acknowledgment that it took place and a few gnomic sentences on its outcome. In the weeks that follow, learned scholars will plumb this statement for its deeper meaning, subjecting it to textual analysis and proposing a series
Posted by Sophie Beach | Sep 29, 2009
Premier Wen Jiabao plans a trip to Pyongyang next week, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu says Premier Wen’s visit will reciprocate a visit to China in March by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
Jiang says during this visit, China will review its relations with North Korea and “map out the development plan for the future of bilateral relations.”
She says the visit, which begins Sunday and ends Tuesday, will have concrete results, but gave no details.
The spokeswoman says the two sides will sign a series of cooperation agreements, dealing with trade, tourism and education.
Posted by Sophie Beach | Dec 3, 2007 Black and White Cat has posted the official Xinhua report about Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to an AIDS village in Henan Province, together with a post from activist Hu Jia about what really goes on when top leaders visit the area: Premier Wen Jiabao doesn’t know that the last time he visited, 1,200 police were dispatched to seal off the road to Wenlou from the county town of Shangcai and a large number of local cadres pretended to be villagers welcoming him. Yang Songquan personally made sure that people who were likely to meet Premier Wen would answer his questions in exactly the way the Henan government wanted, without getting a single word wrong. That show of being close to the people was a waste of time and money. As soon as Premier Wen left, the local authorities breathed a sigh of relief; the country’s premier had turned out to be easy to handle. Now, large numbers of Henan police have already been stationed in Wenlou and sealed off
the pentagon says it s because there isn t a proper long-term detention facility in afghanistan. about 200 people are taking part in the peaceful protest against the killings in a neighboring province. u.s. defense secretary leon panetta is on his second day of his visit to afghanistan. around the time he was scheduled to arrive, an afghan national stole a vehicle and drove it on to the runway. the car crashed into a ditch. the driver later died. nato says panetta was never in danger. myanmar state television broadcast a campaign speech by pro democracy lead yee yeer ann sue chi. she called for reforms and media freedom, but they say some criticisms of the ruling punta were censored. the broadcast marks the first time myanmar s government has aired a speech by su chi. world business today starts right now. good morning. from cnn london, i m nina dos santos. and welcome to world business today. the top stories this thursday, march 15th. and also great for britain.
the scene in kabul ended almost a full day after it began. six militants were killed after attackers shot at u.s. embassy, nato headquarters and afghan intelligence offices in kabul tuesday. the hours-long fighting that followed killed three afghan police officers and one civilian. the taliban claimed responsibility. the families of two american hikers held in iran for more than two years say they are overjoyed at reports the pair may be freed soon. josh fattal and shane bauer hiked along an unmarked border between iraq and iran. rescuers in southern india have managed to get all the survivors out of two trains that collided southwest of chinai. more than 60 were injured when the two trains collided. authorities say one of the trains smashed into the back of the other. the cause of the accident is under investigation. the latest u.s. census shows that more than 46 million americans were living below the poverty line last year. the nation s poverty rate has risen to 15%, t