True Democracy?

As I alluded to several times in my previous posts, China has something called “democracy with Chinese characteristics.” On the one hand, for those who grew up in the PRC and went through “patriotic education,” the phrase has always been...
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Is China Playing Go?

The recent crackdown by Chinese authorities on their largely foreign-listed education and tech companies has caused much chaos among Western investors. As I hinted last year, the CCP leadership’s vision for China’s future appears to be a sophisticated version of high-tech big-data...
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“Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity”

By a vote of 2,895 to 0 (with one abstention), China’s rubber-stamp legislature near-unanimously approved sweeping changes to Hong Kong’s electoral process, ensuring that candidates will be “patriots only” per Beijing’s requirement. Concurrently, 47 politicians and activists in Hong Kong...
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China’s Anti-Monopoly Rules

The Financial Times reported that China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) recently published draft rules to prevent “monopoly behavior” on Internet platforms such as Alibaba, Tencent, and Meituan. Some observers are quick to point out that this move may...

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“Competent Pandemic Policy”

I cannot entirely agree with the take of some “China experts” on the so-called “competent pandemic policy.” Such a narrative precisely fits in with the CCP leadership’s wishes (正中下怀), but it is not logically sound. https://twitter.com/qingtianz/status/1292588543244742656 The main issue is...
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The Left Needs to Be Reminded

Re: Reuters reported that China’s foreign minister Wang Yi recently softened his tone on the U.S.-China relations. In his speech, Wang appeared to be “seeking common ground while reserving differences.” Wang claimed that the two countries should not attempt to...

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China Hawks Are Going After Wolf Warriors

Re: Josh Rogin at the Washington Post recently wrote a piece on the Trump administration’s China hawks. The latest episode involves current national security adviser Robert C. O’Brien giving a speech in Arizona widely seen as the harshest anti-CCP statement...

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New Wine in Old Bottles

James Traub at Foreign Policy recently wrote an article on America no longer being free. This has prompted some in the China watcher community to wonder whether the U.S., both as a polity and a dominant builder of international order,...

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