By Willy Wo-Lap Lam Beijing cadres call it "settling one's score with history." This high-sounding term, however, refers to something much more mundane: ways by which a senior official ensures that his own interests--and those of his proteges--are best taken care of after his retirement.... MORE

By Gordon G. Chang It may not have been "the shot heard 'round the world," but it shook China nonetheless. Especially the modern metropolis of Shanghai. There were many unfinished tasks for the leader of China's most populous city, but when Xu Kuangdi returned from... MORE

By Wen Yu In China, the center of the Communist Party uses broad policy pronouncements to set the priorities it asks officials at lower levels to support and follow, priorities usually summarized in drab and banal political slogans. A new slogan signals a change in... MORE

By John Tkacik The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, held in Shanghai on October 20-21, was a glittering press spectacle with Shanghai's broad skyline a blazing neon rainbow and twenty Asia-Pacific leaders bedecked in silk brocade tunics. It was sweetness and light for economics... MORE

By Richard D. Fisher, Jr. Newspaper reports from December 3 noted that in one of its few acts of intimidation before the December 1 Taiwan elections, the People's Liberation Army Airforce (PLAAF) sent its new Sukhoi Su-30MKK fighter jets out to the midline Taiwan Strait... MORE

On December 1, voters went to the polls in Taiwan to select a new legislature, county magistrates and five mayors. It was the first national election following the opposition Democratic Progressive Party's upset victory in March 2000, which put Chen Shui-bian in the presidency and... MORE

The results of the December 1 election for Taiwan's parliament, the Legislative Yuan, undoubtedly shook Beijing almost as severely as it did that election's major loser, the once proud Nationalist Party, the Kuomintang (KMT). Ever since Chen Shui-bian's narrow victory in the March 2000 presidential... MORE

By Willy Wo-Lap Lam Jovial appearances and upbeat media reports to the contrary, President Jiang Zemin is hardly a happy man. And socioeconomic problems--particularly the adverse impact of accession to the World Trade Organization--are only the superficial reason for Jiang's disquiet. This is despite the... MORE

Ying Ma's Question & Duzhe Mei's Answer THE QUESTION I think that Mei Duzhe's "How China's Government Is Attempting to Control Chinese Media in America" in your November 21 issue overestimates the influence of the Chinese government and underestimates the willingness of Chinese to be... MORE

The U.S. Census 2000 data reveal dramatic growth over the past ten years in the Chinese American population. In these years the Chinese-American community has increased by 48 percent to over 2.4 million, making it the largest Asian ethnic group in the country. Notably, surveys... MORE