Macron’s Beijing Trip Reinforces Sino-Franco Ties, Alienates U.S., Worries Europe
by Arthur Kaufman | Apr 11, 2023
Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron fled a protest-rattled Paris and traveled to Beijing for a high-profile visit with General Secretary Xi Jinping. One of Macron’s main stated objectives was to ensure that China...
Read MoreHarsh Prison Sentences for Pioneering Civil Rights Lawyers Xu Zhiyong, Ding Jiaxi
by Alexander Boyd | Apr 10, 2023
Civil rights lawyers Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi have been sentenced to 14 and 12 years in prison, respectively, on charges of “subversion of state power” after closed door trials in Linshu County, Shandong. The charges stem from...
Read MoreChina’s BRI Bailouts Draw Mixed Reception
by Arthur Kaufman | Apr 6, 2023
Several reports published over the past two weeks shine a light on China’s lending practices abroad, in the context of an ongoing international debt crisis along parts of the BRI. The reports trace the evolution of BRI loans and...
Read MoreLi Wenliang’s Wailing Wall, March 2023: “This Society Allows Only One Voice—the Sound of Mutual Applause”
by Cindy Carter | Apr 4, 2023
Nearly three years and two months after whistleblower Dr. Li Wenliang’s death from COVID-19, the “Wailing Wall” that emerged in the comments section under his last Weibo post continues to serve as a repository for the hopes,...
Read MoreMan Imprisoned For “Inciting Subversion” Believed to be Legendary Chinese Blogger
by Alexander Boyd | Mar 31, 2023
For 12 years, the anonymous Chinese blogger program-think eluded authorities while writing on the most sensitive of topics: the Great Firewall, the Tiananmen Massacre, high-level factional politics, freedom of speech, and more....
Read MoreCensors Delete Viral “Kong Yiji Literature” Anthem
by Alexander Boyd | Mar 30, 2023
Every movement needs its anthem. In the now-censored musical parody “Sunny Side Kong Yiji,” the emergent “Kong Yiji literature” wave seems to have found one of its own. “Kong Yiji literature” is a genre of self-deprecating...
Read MoreWord(s) of the Week: “Kong Yiji Literature” (孔乙己文学, Kǒng Yǐjǐ Wénxué)
by Cindy Carter | Mar 29, 2023
“Kong Yiji literature” emerged as a self-deprecating meme among young Chinese netizens who joke that their academic credentials have made them “unemployable,” too overeducated or overqualified for the jobs currently available....
Read MoreUS Crypto Executive Charged With Bribing Chinese Official
by Alexander Boyd | Mar 29, 2023
Sam Bankman-Fried, the former cryptocurrency executive indicted on charges of fraud in 2022, has now been charged with violating the Foreign Corrupt Business Practices Act for bribing one or more unnamed Chinese officials. An...
Read MoreAdministrative Proceedings—“People Suing Government”—Removed From Chinese Legal Database in New Blow to Transparency
by Alexander Boyd | Mar 24, 2023
China Judgments Online, a database of legal documents run by the Supreme People’s Court, has removed nearly all administrative proceeding verdicts from its website. It is a major retreat from an earlier era of judicial...
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- U.S. Department of State – China Human Rights Report 2023
- VOA – Fact-checker on China’s Weibo targets US Embassy, Russian state media
- Wadham College, University of Oxford – “It’s the largest underclass in human history…”
- The Wire China – Steve Tsang on How Xi Jinping Thinks
- The Guardian – China Nobel prize winner tarred as one of ‘three new evils’ amid rise in nationalist fervour
- More...