Posted on 04 Mai 2012
Original PUblished: 14 May 2012, By Fareed Zakaria, Time
The storm over the blind activist Chen Guangcheng has understandably captured the world’s attention in the past week. But an event of much greater significance remains the ouster of Bo Xilai, the powerful party boss of Chongqing. The rise and fall of Bo is part of a much larger and potentially disruptive trend in China–the return of politics to the Chinese Communist Party.
We don’t much think of the party as a political organization these days. It is dominated by technocrats obsessed with economic and engineering challenges. These men–and they are almost all men–are comfortable talking about detailed economic and technical data, but they are not skilled politicians, adept at handling large crowds or palace intrigue. This apolitical system is a recent phenomenon and the outcome of a conscious decision by the founder of modern China, Deng Xiaoping.
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Posted on 04 Mai 2012
Original Published: 3 May 2012, The New York Times
The United States and China are meeting this week to talk about military and economic policy, but the headlines leading up to the talks have not been encouraging. Visiting the Philippines during a clash in the South China Sea, top American officials reaffirmed the alliance with Manila. And a Chinese activist escaped house arrest and briefly took shelter at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, after which China demanded an apology from the U.S.
Do these clashes point to a larger conflict? Are the U.S. and China headed toward a cold war?
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Posted on 04 Mai 2012
Original Published: 1 May 2012, by Eric Abrahamsen, Intl Herald Tribune
LONDON — Meet Ma Jian (Photo): Chinese novelist-in-exile and apparently the designated explainer of Chinese literature for foreign observers. For years now Ma Jian has provided Western journalists with a firm moral footing from which to consider the hazy issue of freedom of speech in China.
Ma Jian speaks in familiar terms of courage, conscience and integrity, accusing writers within China of cowardice. In a 2008 article for The New York Times, he wrote that “they refuse to admit their complicity with the repressive political system.” He appeared most recently, in mid-April, in the media flurry surrounding the London Book Fair, during which the choice of China as this year’s “Market Focus” country was described as “importing censorship” and the Chinese writers in the official delegation were decried as party hacks.
Commenters have borrowed Ma Jian in writing vigorous — sometimes caustic — attacks on the Chinese government. And even those inclined to feel sympathy toward Chinese authors seem disappointed that they’re not pushing harder. Everyone seems to be waiting for the writers to speak with the kind of courage and moral clarity displayed by political dissidents like Liu Xiaobo and Chen Guangcheng. What’s holding them back? Asked directly, most will say that they have perfect freedom to write but imperfect freedom to publish — namely, that self-censorship is not an issue.
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Posted on 24 April 2012
Original Published: 25 April 2012, By Wu Zhong, China Editor, Asia Times Online
HONG KONG - In an apparent effort to minimize the political shocks from the dismissal of Chongqing Chinese Communist Party (CCP) secretary Bo Xilai and rampant speculation of what he had done wrong, the CCP is now trying to play down the incident as an isolated "criminal case".
This strongly indicates that Beijing does not want the removal of Bo, also one of the 25 powerful politburo members, to escalate into an internal political struggle that could destabilize the transition of power at the 18th party congress later this year.
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Posted on 24 April 2012
Original Published: 25 April 2012, By James A Dorn, Asia Times Online
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have their say. Please click here if you are interested in contributing.
In a recent survey of nearly 6,000 high-income, college-educated individuals in 25 countries, the Edelman Trust Barometer found that 43% trusted government institutions. In the United States that figure was 45%, while in China it was 75%. The fact that more of the "informed public" in China trust government than in the United States may seem puzzling.
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Posted on 24 April 2012
Original Published: 23 April 2012, International Campaign for Tibet
Remarks by Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari to the Council on Foreign Relations Washington, DC, April 23, 2012
You know that I have been leading the Tibetan delegation for the dialogue with the Chinese government for the last many years. But I am not here today to give you a report on my progress because there is nothing new to say on that front. My last meeting with my counterparts in Beijing was in January 2010. Ever since, despite sincere and serious efforts on my part, we have been unable to reconvene. With the very critical situation in Tibet, the leadership changes both in Beijing and Dharamsala, and due to some other factors, I do not see any prospect for an early resumption, at least under my watch. However, having spent decades on this effort, I still do passionately believe that ultimately the only way for the Tibetans and Chinese to find a mutually acceptable solution for Tibet is through dialogue. I hope therefore that farsighted thinking and a resurgence of political will can prevail over intransigence among China’s leaders, and I am pleased that the democratically-elected Tibetan leader Dr. Lobsang Sangay the Kalon Tripa (Chairman of the Cabinet) has repeatedly expressed a strong continuing commitment to pursue the Middle Way approach initiated by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
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