By Martin Oei, published: January 17, 2016   On January 15 a video was published online showing Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), a 16-year-old member of the K-pop girl group Twice, apologizing for holding a Republic of China flag in a photo shoot several months ago. The video was produced and published by the group’s South Korean management company [...] Keep reading »

By Yang Jianli, published: December 7, 2015   In Washington, D.C. recently, my friend Alan Curtis invited me to watch Chimerica, which was written by the British playwright Lucy Kirkwood. The play focuses on finding clues to the identity of Tank Man, the iconic and still unknown protester from Tiananmen Square, and explores the contemporary re [...] Keep reading »

By Bruce Lui, published December 4, 2015   The Chinese Communist Party marked the anniversary of its inaugural “National Constitution Day” on December 4 with more action than words: workers’ rights NGOs were raided and activists detained; the author of “A History of Brainwashing” was sentenced to nearly two years in prison; and a boo [...] Keep reading »

By Chang Ping, published: October 18, 2015 “Everyone’s already used to it, and that’s precisely the problem.”   Now the United Nations has its own, China-style “big tiger.” The former head of the UN General Assembly, John Ashe, is being charged with taking bribes from numerous Chinese business interests, and was arrested ne [...] Keep reading »

By Wu Qiang, published: October 12, 2015 “The coming new Cold War will be nothing less than a fight for our own freedom, a conflict in which the free world will be forced to contend with a China that is reverting to a 1984-style totalitarian state.”    Perhaps Sino-American relations really have reached a turning point: during Chi [...] Keep reading »

By Mo Zhixu, published: October 4, 2015 “[T]he existence of a relatively free, relaxed, and anonymous Internet for the regime is ‘the root of all evil.'”   August 5 was the last day that opinions were solicited by the government for its new Internet Security Law, meaning that in the near future the legislation will be formall [...] Keep reading »

By Ren Zhiqiang, published: October 3, 2015 Dissent keeps rolling in, not only from “dissidents.” Over the week-long National Day holidays in China, Ren Zhiqiang (任志強), a high-profile real estate mogul who has earned the nickname “the Cannon” online for his provocative opinions, took aim at the notion of the “New China.”  To a gl [...] Keep reading »

By Chang Ping, published: October 1, 2015 “Why would the results of a poll conducted by a neutral, respected polling organization tally so closely with the propaganda of a totalitarian government?”   Can it be that 92.8% of Chinese poll respondents are truly satisfied with the Chinese central government, and that among these, 37.6% are “ [...] Keep reading »

By He Qinglian, published: September 30, 2015   A flood of commentary has come out since the release of the long-anticipated Guiding Opinions on Strengthening and Reform of State-Owned Enterprises (《中共中央、国务院关于深化国有企业改革的指导意见》; “SOE Reform Program” or “Program” hereafter), jointly issued b [...] Keep reading »