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Latest China Brief Articles
CHINA’S EQUITY MARKETS: FLOATING WITH HELIUM, PART I
By Gordon G. Chang Forget the hype and follow the money. If you want to know the truth about China's growing equity markets, watch where the green is coming from. During the preceding three calendar years, Chinese companies raised an average of US$7.9 billion in... MORE
THE PLA STRENGTHENS ITS AMPHIBIOUS CAPABILITY
By Yihong Chang It has been fashionable for many Western analysts to discount the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) ability to mount an amphibious invasion of Taiwan, calling it a potential "million-man swim." But in the face of such doubts, the PLA is modernizing and strengthening... MORE
PROJECT HOPE: THEY COULD NOT KEEP A GOOD SCANDAL DOWN
By Arnold Zeitlin Despite furious efforts of the Chinese leadership to control it, the internet--assisted by a free-wheeling Hong Kong news media--serves as a formidable obstacle to suppressing news and information in China. A recent crackdown on news coverage at the end of March revealed... MORE
CHINA’S SPACE AGENDA
By Richard D. Fisher, Jr. China's recent successful third uninhabited test of its Shenzhou manned space capsule serves to highlight the political, military and diplomatic agendas of its manned space program. But before the United States and Europe can craft a proper response to either... MORE
STABILITY AT THE EXPENSE OF REFORM?
By Willy Wo-Lap Lam More than twelve years after Deng Xiaoping launched the open door policy, the Chinese leadership has still not solved the contradiction between stability and reform. Whenever the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) mandate of heaven seems in doubt, the Politburo would pull... MORE
CHINA’S BANKS: NO RECIPE
By Gordon G. Chang "Isn't slower better?" asks Dai Genyou. When it comes to certain things, he is surely right. But Dai is an official at the People's Bank of China, the central bank of the People's Republic, and he is talking about banking reform.... MORE
WEN JIABAO: A REFORMER AT HEART?
By Willy Wo-Lap Lam There seems little question that, given the constraints of Chinese politics, Vice Premier Wen Jiabao is a reasonably suitable candidate to succeed Zhu Rongji as premier next March. The big question is whether Wen has what it takes to defuse China's... MORE
THE DARK SIDE OF CHINA’S WESTERN DEVELOPMENT PLAN
By Josh Schrei In October 2000, an international economic conference was held in Beijing. Among the invited guests: Oil company representatives, World Bank executives, members of the media, Chinese Communist party officials and a host of international businessmen and businesswomen. The conference was the inauguration... MORE
TO GET RICH IS GLORIOUS–AND GOOD FOR DEMOCRACY
By David Da-hua Yang Wealth begets glory in today's China. But whether it will also beget democracy is an open question. True, an extensive network of civic organizations has sprung up across the country. But the government has cultivated it--as a way to maintain its... MORE
CHINA’S BANKS: THE ONLY TWO THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
By Gordon G. Chang There are two things to know about the banking system in China. First, the major state banks, the so-called Big Four, are insolvent. Second, the effort to bail them out is not working. Everything else is simply detail. The most important... MORE