Cloak and Daggers in California In the early 2000s, the CIA succeeded in recruiting the personal valet of one of China’s most powerful Communist Party members. Over the next few years, this source overheard hundreds of conversations that gave the CIA an intimate picture of the inner workings of China’s state security apparatus, Party plans, […]
Tag: Xi Jinping
The World’s Largest Security State Has Created its Own Security Problem
Violence In Western China The capital of the Chinese province of Xinjiang, Urumqi, looks like many Chinese cities. The horizon is full of construction machinery creating new factories, high-rises, and office buildings. More striking is that the streets of the developed sector are largely populated with ethnic Han Chinese. The Chinese government has incentivized Han Chinese to move […]
WeChat isn’t China’s Facebook. It’s something bigger.
It’s often hard for people outside of China to wrap their heads around the vast capabilities of WeChat. Writing it off as a “knock-off Facebook” does it an injustice. In fact, it might be the most potent form of propaganda China has ever employed. “China’s App for Everything” may appear to be but a copycat […]
The Term-inator: The Case for and Against Xi Jinping’s Indefinite Rule
RESOLVED: The People’s Republic of China should establish a presidential limit of three terms. Affirmative Constructive Speech (Sunny Malhotra) Having no term limits is detrimental for the future of the Chinese population and government. Xi Jinping’s abolishment of term limits is already taking course in the increased censorship of the people. BBC noted Sina Weibo, a […]
Power Dynamics: China’s Hard Path to Clean Energy
From Trump’s election through his decision to pull out of the Paris agreement, doomsday predictions about Trump’s approach to climate policy have largely mellowed to anxious reassurances that all is not quite lost. Rather than causing a collapse in American resolve to fight climate change, Trump’s public repudiation of the Paris agreement spurred American mayors, governors, […]
Homo Hominibus Tigris: Xi Jinping and the Rise of the Good Dictator
To the countries of the Western world, where the ancient Greek traditions of democratic governance have institutionalized over centuries, China is a peculiar, if not an intimidating, case against the conventional truth that democracy is good for humanity. American exceptionalism tells us that democracy is essential for economic growth, for the establishment of a just […]
China’s Debt Conundrum
President Xi Jinping and the standing committee. Analyzing China’s perilous macroeconomic position. As Martin Wolf of the Financial Times recently wrote, to understand the Chinese economy Stein’s law must be kept in mind. The economic law, named after Herbert Stein, Chairman of the Council of Economic advisors under President Nixon simply states that if something […]
No Longer a Gold “BRICS”?
“China and India could really go to war,” I said to myself when rolling down the comment area of a Chinese news site. “Group Fight between Indian and Chinese Troops, Indians Thought They Won!” the title of the article provocatively claimed, referring to the conflict between Chinese and Indian troops, in which both sides threw […]
AIIB – To Join, or Not To Join?
This summer, I had the privilege of interning in Washington, D.C. with Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (CA-19). While the current administration and Senate healthcare bill have certainly dominated national headlines, working on the Hill has also deepened my understanding of often-overlooked policy issue areas, including the U.S.-ASEAN relationship and potential U.S. membership in the Asian Infrastructure […]
The Thrilla in Manila
By Griff Potrock Since the recognition of independence in 1946 and the mutual defense treaty signed in 1951, the United States and the Philippines have been staunch allies. This alliance has included establishing US bases in the Philippines, joint Filipino-American military exercises, hundreds of millions of dollars in aid, and protection under the US […]