China Analysis Digest #38
China Analysis Digest is a weekly published list of new China-related analyses.
Issue: 2021/38
- Date range: November 10-18, 2021
- Sources scanned: 101
- Content: 225 publications from 53 sources
- Download raw data (.csv)
Recommended Reading
History as Boredom — Another Plenum, Another Resolution, Beijing, 11 November 2021
Geremie R. Barmé | China Heritage | November 14
To mark the 6th Plenum and the resolution on history, Barmé offers Václav Havel’s ‘Stories and Totalitarianism,’ which provides a powerful counterpoise to the CCP’s claim to historical truth and logic. In this essay, Havel argues that the hallmark of a totalitarian system is the hostility towards different interpretations of truth and history:
The fundamental pillar of the present totalitarian system is the existence of a single, central agent of all truth and all power (a kind of institutionalised ‘rationale of history’) which also becomes, quite naturally, the sole agent of all social activity. This activity ceases to be an arena in which different more or less autonomous agents square off; and becomes no more than the manifestation and fulfilment of the truth and the will of a single agent. In a world governed by this principle, there is no room for mystery; proprietorship of complete truth means that everything is known ahead of time. And where everything is known ahead of time there is no soil for the story to grow out of.
I highly recommend Havel’s essay.
Remembering Zuo Fang
David Bandurski | China Media Project| November 15
Zuo Fang, the founder of Southern Weekly died on November 3. He had a profound impact on China’s media sector during the reform era. As a tribute to him, Bandurski translated a profile published by Hong Kong’s Asia Weekly magazine in 2014. This intimate portrait is worth reading for those interested in Chinese media, and a bygone era of liberalisation.
Reset relations with Chinese Australians
Richard McGregor | Australian Financial Review | November 14
McGregor, in lucid words, argues:
Australia’s diverse Chinese community, caught in the crossfire of a policy transition as China changes under Xi Jinping, should not be treated as a monolith with suspect loyalties.
Chinese Australians should not be treated with suspect loyalties. The fact that this needs to be said, and said out loud, is a testament to the sad state of the debate. Chinese Australians have become the internal “other,” the enemy within, Beijing’s victim but also its willing accomplice in its “silent invasion” of Australia. This needs to change.
McGregor’s message should be a no-brainer. Yet there are plenty of people without brains that need this injection of sense.
How China’s ‘leftover women’ are using their financial power to fight the stigma of being single
Chih-Ling Liu & Robert Kozinets | The Conversation | November 12
Liu and Kozinets’s research show that the so-called ‘leftover women’ (ie., single unmarried women in their late-20s) are fighting against stigma through their economic power:
Through conspicuous consumption, they promote themselves as morally upright, economically independent, successful citizens. [They] are deploying the power of the market to counteract the “sheng-nu” stigma and its spread.
…
Despite its rise in contemporary China and Hong Kong, the act of protesting can lead to imprisonment and severe consequences. For stigmatised “sheng-nu” women, direct confrontation in the form of social activism could lead to serious professional or legal consequences.
Full List
China Watching
China Neican
Reading the China Dream
- Interview with Li Zehou
- Li Qiang on Recent Changes in Chinese Society
- Chen Ruiyan on Rural Home Construction
- Su Qinian on Sexually Suggestive Images on Children's Clothing
China Heritage
China Media Project
- Buzzwords at the Biden-Xi Talks
- Visas and Vitriol
- Fandoms and “Digital Labor” in China
- Remembering Zuo Fang
- Law Education Plan Stresses Xi Thought
- Unpacking the 6th Plenum Communique
- “Hostile Forces” in the Digital Age
Opinion Pages
Project Syndicate
- Why Is China's Growth Rate Falling So Fast?
- Climate Change vs. the Sino-American Cold War
- MAD About Sino-American Trade
- The Sino-Russian Marriage
- The Sino-American Decade
- A New Sino-American Relationship?
- Beyond the Sino-Japanese Rivalry
Australian Financial Review
- Morrison didn’t mention China – he didn’t have to
- A Sino-US thaw would leave Australia stranded on a rock
- Reset relations with Chinese Australians
- Is China now too big to be resisted?
Blogs
Lawfare
- Learning From China's Techlash
- As Facebook Joins the Race to the Metaverse, Chinese Tech Companies Face Hurdles
The Interpreter
- China’s digital currency: Next stop, Africa?
- Cautiously optimistic: Chinese students keen to get back to Australia
East Asia Forum
- The irony and efficacy of China’s judicial reforms
- Iran on the go with the SCO
- Will the Chinese renminbi keep rising?
China Dialogue
- ‘Great mining migration’: Power-hungry Bitcoin leaves China
- China at COP26: Coal, 1.5C and short-term actions
- With coal off the menu, can China export its renewables model?
Pearls and Irritations
- Paul Keating responds to Peter Hartcher’s ‘King Canute’ column
- A Sino-US thaw would leave Australia stranded on a rock
- Our White Man’s Media again hides important Australian news about China
- The origins of COVID-19: why we are still in the dark
- What a relief to hear an Australian leader talking sense at last about China
- Paul Keating’s speech is a teaching moment in a fraught relationship with China
- Lowy report further divides and demeans Chinese Australians
- Diplomatic insanity: Canberra sacrifices China influence for US alliance
The Strategist
News & Magazines
Monkey Cage
- The U.S. and China agreed to work together on climate action. What would push this cooperation forward?
- How Xi Jinping could rule China for life
- China’s nuclear arsenal is growing. What does that mean for U.S.-China relations?
The Atlantic
The Economist
- China will stick to a zero-covid policy, for now
- Behind bars, Hong Kong’s democrats remain popular
- China still steals commercial secrets for its own firms’ profit
Sixth Tone
- For Chinese Men, Starting a Family Now Comes at a Price
- Pocket Science: Few Takers for China’s Many Factory Jobs
- Will the Next ‘Squid Game’ Be Made in China?
- How Boba Became a Symbol of ‘Asian Cool’
- Shanghai’s 20-Million-Person Social Experiment
- Why This Year’s ‘Double Eleven’ Felt Different
- Can China’s Other National Drink Make a Comeback?
- Sixth Tone China Writing Contest: Frequently Asked Questions
- China’s Underwater History
Quartz
- China is eyeing the metaverse as the next internet battleground
- Why Xi Jinping is a great leader, according to a 36,000 word Communist Party document
- Africans’ favorable view of China comes with one small caveat
- Naomi Osaka is asking China about Peng Shuai, missing since her #MeToo allegation
- Why Hollywood’s streaming strategy is killing its releases in China
- What did China say and do at COP26?
- What to expect from the Biden-Xi virtual summit
- Can Hollywood win back the global box-office crown from China?
China Digital Times
- Hong Kong’s M+ Art Museum Opens Amid Censorship Concerns; Badiucao Withstands Censorship Pressure Abroad
- Chinese Feminists and Global Tennis Stars Ask, “Where Is Peng Shuai?”
- In Resolution on History, Party Depicts Glorious Future
- On China’s “Journalists’ Day,” Renewed Calls to Free Jailed Journalists Zhang Zhan, Huang Xueqin and Labor Activist Wang Jianbing
- Three People Arrested for Sharing Online Appeal to Cast Blank Ballots in Hong Kong Elections
The Conversation
- Coal: why China and India aren’t the climate villains of COP26
- China’s retail revolution: innovations which could change the way the world shops
- How China’s ‘leftover women’ are using their financial power to fight the stigma of being single
- Xi Jinping puts his stamp on Communist Party history, but is his support as strong as his predecessors?
The Wire China
- Yes, This is a Cold War
- Daniel Rosen Gets Situated on the China Bull-Bear Spectrum
- The Trickle-Down Economics in China’s Poverty Alleviation Drive
- Shaping Up and Shipping Out
- Stalled Dreams
SupChina
- Li Gui’s diary: A 19th-century Chinese account of the West
- Biden-Xi meeting: No breakthrough, but a possible journalist visa thaw
- China hails country’s first Formula One driver, Zhou Guanyu
- Taiwan’s education soft power push
- COP26 agrees on ‘phase-down’ of coal after last-minute deal between U.S., China, EU, and India
- WTA calls for China to investigate Peng allegation
- EDG’s League of Legends win exposes ugly side of gaming world
- Shock Wave 2: Andy Lau returns in explosive blockbuster
- Mental health in China, explained by Shanghai-based clinical psychologist George Hu
- Talk like a Chinese shopper on Singles Day
- Xi Jinping’s greatest hits, so far
- Chinese grad student in Chicago killed in shooting
ThinkChina
- Biden-Xi virtual summit: Not quite a meeting with an ‘old friend’
- Is the ‘rise of China’ to blame for shifting China-Japan relations?
- Chinese local government’s two-day seminar on ‘first lady diplomacy’ backfires
- Xi-Biden virtual summit: Only a 'more polite' meeting
- Great power rivalry: Why Vietnam is not taking sides
- Wang Gungwu: China, ASEAN and the new Maritime Silk Road
- Both sides of the Taiwan Strait fear imminent war
- Can China achieve a soft landing for its housing market?
- How the CPC plans to seize the democracy narrative
- ASEAN’s deft diplomacy with its dialogue partners
- A Singaporean mother in China: The war games Chinese kids play
- Chinese economics professor: What to do when you have a stinky neighbour
- From Hong Kong movies to Greater Bay Area movies: A new Hollywood of the East in making?
- Will a Biden-Xi virtual summit change anything?
- Is a zero-Covid policy adversely affecting China’s economic recovery?
The Diplomat
- China and Russia Cooperate on Rival to GPS
- US Lawmakers Visit Taiwan Amid Flurry of Diplomatic Activity
- A Case for China’s Pursuit of Conventionally Armed ICBMs
- In Numbers: The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor
- Biden, Xi Emphasize Conflict Management at First Virtual Summit
- China’s Content Manipulation Reaches New Frontiers
- Justice for the Uyghurs: What the US Can Do
- The Gulf States in China-US Rivalry
- China’s Sixth Plenum Report Proclaims Bright Future Under Xi
- Taiwan to Host 1st WorldPride in East Asia: Why That’s Important
- Honduras’ President Is in Taiwan for a Surprise State Visit
- Did China Create New Facts on the Ground Along the LAC With India?
- China’s Global Network of Vocational Colleges to Train the World
- China Snubs India, Backs Pakistan in Dueling Afghanistan Meetings
- As Other Countries Try Living With COVID-19, China Keeps up Zero Tolerance
- Seoul Rejects Refugee Claims by Chinese North Korean Defectors
- Can China’s Singles’ Day Go Green?
Foreign Policy
- China Warms Up to Myanmar’s Generals
- U.S.-China Trade Talks Should Prioritize Opening Up China’s Internet
- Germany Can Learn From Japan’s China Strategy
- China Urged Republicans to Cancel Taiwan Visit
- Japan’s Foreign Minister Faces Tough Calls on China
- Trump-Branded China Hawks Look to Take Over Congress
- China’s Social Media Explosion
Think Tanks
MacroPolo
- The Impermanence of Permanent Magnets: A Case Study on Industry, Chinese Production, and Supply Constraints
- An Uncommon Theory for Common Prosperity
Center for Advanced China Research
Center for Strategic and International Studies
MERICS
- Consolidating China's electric car sector: From three hundred to a few
- Eight days a week: The CCP never sleeps
- Xi Jinping cements his power with resolution on history
Brookings Institution
Asia Society
Australia-China Relations Institute
- What would Australia’s public diplomacy agenda stand to gain from engaging with its Chinese-language media?
- Perspectives | The new/old benchmarks in Australia's PRC debate
Chatham House
Observer Research Foundation
- Made in China: A Digital Agenda for the Quad
- China resorts to lawfare: A new maritime policy
- The Xi-Biden virtual summit: A gamechanger?
- As China Strengthens Army Logistics, the Implications for India’s Eastern Frontier
- Is the India-China conflict intractable?
Did China Create New Facts on the Ground Along the LAC With India?
Bilateral
Politico China Watcher
Politico China Direct
Beijing to Britain
- Speech: Prime Minister Boris Johnson's foreign policy speech at the Lord Mayor's Banquet
- “Never Again: The UK’s Responsibility to Act on Atrocities in Xinjiang and Beyond”.
- Westminster sleaze, Truss in Asia, Taiwan at COP26
Beijing to Canberra and Back
Newsletters
Eye on China
ChinaTalk
Pekingnology
- Beijing‘s consensus with Washington on media issues
- Rapid roundup of the Xi-Biden video summit
- China's ex-securities regulator on green finance
- Transcript: Chinese Climate Envoy's press conference at COP 26
Takshashila PLA Insight
Tracking People's Daily
- History Resolution - Xi's Explanation - Biden-Xi Meeting - Chinese Scholars on US-China Ties - 6th Plenum & Political Party Building - Maintaining the Core is 'Top Priority'
- Xi in Qiushi on Arming the Party with Marxism - Establishment of Xi as Core and Xi Thought's Guiding Position is of 'Decisive Significance' - Economic Data - UFWD Chief on 6th Plenum Spirit
- 6th Plenum Spirit - Xi's APEC Speech - Cadres Should Pursue 无我 - Pan Dongsheng, an Exemplar - Liu Jianchao on Taiwan & Rules-based Order
- 6th Plenum Editorial - Provincial Secretaries back Xi's Leadership - Common Prosperity an 'Ancient Ideal'
- Sixth Plenum Communique Endorses Xi's New Era
- China-US Ties - Xi's Speech to APEC CEOs - What does Common Prosperity Imply? - Sci-Tech Cooperation Contradictions - Essay by Hou Yanqi
Beijing Channel
Misc
China Trade Monitor
Society & Culture
What's on Weibo
- Online Outrage after Pet Dog Gets Killed by Anti-Epidemic Workers in Shangrao
- The Dissertation Acknowledgement That Went Viral on Chinese Social Media
- Chinese Fashion Brand Peacebird Accused of Plagiarism (Again!)
- Weibo Discusses: How Has the Covid Epidemic Changed Your Life?
Chaoyang Trap House
RADII
Paper Republic
Greater China
Lausan
- What to know about the foodpanda delivery rider strike
- This revolution may not have been won, but please would you stay and stand witness together
- 50 Years after Baodiao: How Hong Kong Struggled Against All Nationalisms
Hong Kong Free Press
- Taiwan is on the frontline of confrontation with China, but will Beijing ever wage war?
- Why Hong Kong’s ethnic minority children struggle in Chinese-language classes
Taiwan Insight
- Remembering Chiang Kai-shek in Japanese Media
- From the New Wave to the Present: International Soft Power in Taiwanese Film and Television
- Embracing Taiwan in Vietnamese Media
- Taiwan’s Role in International Organisations and its Climate Change Efforts
- Taiwan’s Green Efforts
- Taiwan’s status at the science-policy interface for global climate change: why getting it right matters
Chinese Sources
爱思想
- 迎接RCEP生效实施的几点思考
- 中文法学之“权力”源流考论
- 庄子的视野与心境
- 拜登政府对华态势考察
- 中印伙伴关系复杂性的战略分析
- 市场与文明
- 经济学中的利益与理念
- “人文精神”的真实含义
- “近亲繁殖”与社会上升通道堵塞
- 乡村衰落的因素及其后果
- 复兴之路中国粮
- 读左方《钢铁是怎样炼不成的》
- 法治化治理的国家角色更新
- 围园除后密谋与维新变法的失败
- 双循环赋能经济增长的质量与效率
- 美国与盟友的关系非冷战化
中央党史和文献研究院
- 党在大革命时期的学习
- 高扬新时代中国共产党人的思想旗帜
- 第二个“历史决议”完成党在指导思想上的拨乱反正
- 第一个“历史决议”团结全党同志如同一个和睦的家庭
- 新中国恢复联合国合法席位的历史意义和现实启示（深入学习贯彻习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想）
- 坚定对中国化马克思主义的理论自信
- 周恩来与新中国的谈判建交制度
- 中国共产党百年历史经验研究
- 中华苏维埃共和国的故事
- 从百年党史汲取不懈奋斗的力量
- 在新时代新征程上赢得更加伟大的胜利和荣光（社论）
- “一篇马克思主义的纲领性文献”
- 中国共产党党内集中教育的历史进程、基本特征和当代启示
Full list of sources scanned:
China Neican, Reading the China Dream, Made in China Journal, China Heritage, China Media Project, China Leadership Monitor, China Brief, Project Syndicate, Australian Financial Review, China Story, ChinaFile, War on the Rocks, Lawfare, The Interpreter, East Asia Forum, China Opinion, China Collection, China Dialogue, Pearls and Irritations, The Strategist, Echo Wall, Asialink Insight, Palladium, Inside Story, Foreign Affairs, Monkey Cage, The Atlantic, The Economist, Los Angeles Review of Books, Sixth Tone, Quartz, China Digital Times, The Conversation, National Review, Internationale Politik Quarterly, The Intercept, The Wire China, SupChina, ThinkChina, The Diplomat, Foreign Policy, MacroPolo, Center for Advanced China Research, Pew Research Center, Congressional Research Service, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Center for Security and Emerging Technology, MERICS, Institut Montaigne, European Council on Foreign Relations, German Institute for International and Security Affairs, National Bureau of Asian Research, Brookings Institution, U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, China Data Lab, Rhodium Group, Asia Society, Australia-China Relations Institute, China Research Group, Center for New American Security, Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Chatham House, Lowy Institute, Atlantic Council, Observer Research Foundation, Australia Strategic Policy Institute, Politico China Watcher, Politico China Direct, The India China Newsletter, Beijing to Britain, Beijing to Canberra and Back, World Game, Eye on China, The Upheaval, Beijing Baselines, ChinaTalk, Pekingnology, Takshashila PLA Insight, Tracking People's Daily, Beijing Channel, Protocol | China, Chinese Storytellers, Chinarrative, Texas National Security Review, China Law Translate, China Trade Monitor, National People's Congress Observer, Supreme People's Court Monitor, What's on Weibo, Chaoyang Trap House, RADII, Paper Republic, Lausan, Hong Kong Free Press, Taiwan Insight, 中国：历史与未来, 爱思想, 《求是》, 中国现代国际关系研究院, 中央党史和文献研究院