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Global Studies: China

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1. Think Again: China, Harry Harding, Foreign Policy, March/April 2007. It's often said that China is walking a tightrope: Its economy depends on foreign money, its leadership is set in its ways, and its military expansion threatens the world. But the Middle Kingdom's immediate dangers run deeper than you realize.

2. Think Again: China's Military, Drew Thompson, Foreign Policy, March/April 2010. Is China's military a growing threat? Will China's "one child" generation weaken its military? Does China's military have global aspirations? A closer look at the world's largest armed forces.

3. The China Model, Rowan Callick, The American, November/December 2007. Economic freedom plus tight political control—this Chinese model seems to be displacing the "Washington Consensus" and winning fans from regimes across Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. One wonders, for how long?

4. China: A Threat to or Threatened by Democracy? Edward Friedman, Dissent, Winter 2009. How can one know whether China will or will not democratize? China has already evolved politically into a non-Stalinist authoritarianism. Joined by its authoritarian friends, China is well on the way to defeating the global forces of democracy.

5. Is China Afraid of Its Own People? Willy Lam, Foreign Policy, September 2010. The diplomatic tussle over the East China Sea has calmed down, but a bigger foreign policy problem waits: China's newly empowered masses won't take "no" for an answer, and Beijing is right to be scared.

6. Five Reasons Why China Will Rule Tech, Patrick Thibodeau, Computerworld, July 2010. China's focus on science and technology is relentless, and it's occurring at all levels of its society. There are five reasons why China may yet succeed in its goal to achieve world dominance in technology.

7. How Being Big Helps and Hinders China, David Pilling, Financial Times, October 2010. China's size has been crucial in getting it this far. Its seemingly limitless supply of cheap labor was a magnet for foreign investment and technology. Now, its potentially endless queues of shoppers are having the same effect.

8. China's Team of Rivals, Cheng Li, Foreign Policy, March/April 2009. A financial meltdown promises to test the Communist Party's power in ways not seen since Tiananmen. But theirs is a house divided, as princelings take on populists and Pekinologists try to make sense of it all.

9. China Offers Direct Line to Its Leaders, Kathrin Hille, Financial Times, September 2010. The Communist Party has initiated a new PR strategy to invite Chinese citizens to email party leaders now as a way to improve the party's image and shape public opinions.

10. Seven Notches on the Chinese Doorpost, David Pilling, Financial Times, December 15, 2010. 2010 was a milestone year for China, not just because it surpassed Japan to become the second largest economy, but also because of developments in several other areas. These developments include frustrations in China's diplomacy, China's standoff with Google, its achievements in high-speed rail network, continued pressure on Renminbi despite its appreciation, Liu Xiaobo's Nobel Peace Prize, China's dominance in rare-earth production, and a spate of suicides at Taiwanese-invested Foxconn.

11. China's Complicit Capitalists, Kellee S. Tsai, Far Eastern Economic Review, January/February 2008. There are over 29 million private businesses that employ over 200 million people and generate two-thirds of China's industrial output. Will China's growing capitalist class overthrow the Communist Party and demand democracy based on the principle of "no taxation without representation"?

12. Bye Bye Cheap Labor: Guangdong Exodus, Alexandra Harney, Far Eastern Economic Review, March 2008. Higher taxes, a new labor law and the growing demands of China's increasingly sophisticated workers are forcing manufacturers either up the value chain or toward the exits.

13. Liu Xiaobo and Illusions About China, Fang Lizhi, New York Times, October 11, 2010. Human rights have not improved significantly despite a soaring economy. The Nobel Committee's decision to award the Peace Prize to the imprisoned Liu Xiaobo should be applauded. The committee challenged the West to re-examine a dangerous notion that has become prevalent since 1989: that economic development will inevitably lead to democracy in China.

14. China Winning Renewable Energy Race, Steve Hargreaves, CNN, September 2010. China has already surpassed the U.S. in the amount of wind turbines and solar panels that it makes. China is also gaining on the U.S. when it comes to how much of their energy comes from renewable energy sources.

15. Mania on the Mainland, Dexter Roberts, Bloomberg Businessweek, January 2010. Chinese who have the money are desperately snapping up apartments for fear prices will rise further. Think the U.S. real estate bubble was bad? China's could be worse.

16. China's Reform Era Legal Odyssey, Jerome A. Cohen, Far Eastern Economic Review, December 2008. Thirty years ago, China was a legal shambles. China is still building a healthy legal system. It may take another 30 years to see significant improvements.

17. China's Final Frontier, Sophie Elmhirst, New Statesman, February 2009. The Chinese are latecomers to space, and desperate to catch up. Like it or not, the space race with the U.S. has begun.

18. China's Land Reform: Speeding the Plough, Tom Orlik and Scott Rozelle, Far Eastern Economic Review, November 2008. Neither farmers nor migrants are yet able to participate fully in the benefits of China's ongoing modernization. Nothing can benefit the 700 million strong rural population more than land reform.

19. Chinese Acquire Taste for French Wine, Patti Waldmeir, Financial Times, September 2010. China overtook the UK and Germany to become the top export market for Bordeaux wine in 2010. Wine consumption habits are becoming more sophisticated in China.

20. China Won't Revalue the Yuan, John Lee, Foreign Policy, September 2010. No amount of pressure or hectoring by the West is going to change the calculus of Chinese leaders. An undervalued currency may be critical to their very survival.

21. China's Unbalanced Growth Has Served It Well, Yukon Huang, Financial Times, October 2010. With both GDP and consumption increasing rapidly, why should China give up its unbalanced growth approach? The major concern is rather whether its high levels of investment will continue to generate adequate returns or are sustainable in a broader sense.

22. China Will not Be the World's Deputy Sheriff, David Pilling, Financial Times, January 2010. The world expects a lot from China these days, but China is not ready, or willing, to take up the leadership role. It prefers to keep a low profile and continue to build its economy.

23. China Extends Trade with Iran, Najmeh Bozorgmehr, Financial Times, February 2010. China has overtaken the EU to become Iran's largest trading partner, which underlines China's reluctance to agree to any further economic sanctions on Iran.

24. Africa Builds as Beijing Scrambles to Invest, David Pilling, Financial Times, December 2009. It would be wrong to be wide-eyed about China's investments. Whatever its side-effects, a scramble to invest in Africa has got to be better than the European precedent–a scramble to carve it up.

25. A New China Requires a New US Strategy, David Shambaugh, Current History, September 2010 The United States needs to revise its China strategy to deal with a complex new China. The worst thing Washington could do is to operate on autopilot, to assume that past strategies and policies are ipso facto indefinitely useful.

26. China and Taiwan Sign Landmark Deal, Robin Kwong, Financial Times, June 2010. The Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) is the centerpiece of Ma Ying-jeou's effort to mend relations with mainland China. Taiwan hopes the deal will also smooth the path to sign free trade agreements with other key trading partners.

27. Beijing and Taiwan Try Their Hand at Détente, Sandra Schulz, Spiegel Online, July 2008. Both Beijing and Taipei seem to understand that "soft power" carries more influence than "hard" military power. Part of the reconciliation stems from strong cultural and business ties as well as Taiwan relaxing its stance on "national" labels.

28. Who's Listening to Taiwan's People?, Julian Baum, Far Eastern Economic Review, November 2009. As President Ma Ying-jeou pursues an ambitious agenda that will require more accommodations with Beijing, he will need to deal with the popular affirmation of Taiwanese identity.

29. Behind the Dalai Lama's Taiwan Visit, Julian Baum, Far Eastern Economic Review, September 2009. For Taiwan's separatist opposition, the Dalai Lama's visit was a political coup. Taiwan is open, Democratic and practices freedom of religion. In some aspects, Taiwan exemplifies what Tibetans would like China to be.

30. Taiwan Caters to China's Giant Fish Appetite, Robin Kwong, Financial Times, September 2010. The China-Taiwan trade deal opens the door for Taiwanese grouper farmers, typically small family businesses, to develop into bigger companies by entering new markets such as supplying frozen fish to inland Chinese provinces.

31. Wen Hints at Scrapping Taiwan-Facing Missiles, Robin Kwong, Financial Times, September 2010. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has for the first time raised the possibility of removing some of the thousand-plus missiles the PLA has deployed facing Taiwan.

32. Hong Kong Closes in on Financial Top Spot, Brooke Masters, Financial Times, September 2010. London and New York are still the world's leading cities for banking and other financial services, but Hong Kong is breathing down their necks.

Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations

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