Tag: China

Andrew Bacevich: The defining lie at the heart of American foreign policy / Pratap Bhanu Mehta: US vs China is the new Cold War

“The thirty-year interregnum of U.S. global hegemony,” writes David Bromwich in the journal Raritan, “has been exposed as a fraud, a decoy, a cheat, [and] a sell.” Today, he continues, “the armies of the cheated are struggling to find the word for something that happened and happened wrong.” In fact, the armies of the cheated know exactly… Read More Andrew Bacevich: The defining lie at the heart of American foreign policy / Pratap Bhanu Mehta: US vs China is the new Cold War

Dilip

Prasenjit Duara – The Chinese World Order in Historical Perspective (2019)

The Imperialism of Nation-states or Soft Power    I seek to grasp the genealogy of China’s Belt and Road (BRI) in relation both to the imperial Chinese world order and the historical sequence of forms of global domination, i.e., modern imperialism, the ‘imperialism of nation-states’ during the inter-war and Cold War period as well as… Read More Prasenjit Duara – The Chinese World Order in Historical Perspective (2019)

Dilip

Xi Jinping set out to save the Communist Party. But critics say he made himself its biggest threat

As general secretary, Xi has returned the CCP to the center of Chinese life. Citizens celebrate the party’s much-edited history en masseat packed Red tourism sites, its founder Mao Zedong enjoys a new reverence, and once-dormant grassroots party cells have been revitalized. Since 2015, Xi has embarked on a widespread program of military reforms and modernization. But as… Read More Xi Jinping set out to save the Communist Party. But critics say he made himself its biggest threat

Dilip

Rana Mitter: China’s Communist party has rewritten its own past – but the truth will surface

A new museum commemorating the history of the Chinese Communist party (CCP) opened in June in Beijing as part of the runup to the party’s 100th anniversary. Online images of its collections show reverential black-and-white photos of the dozen or so young men who gathered at the party’s founding meeting in Shanghai in 1921. Those activists, one of… Read More Rana Mitter: China’s Communist party has rewritten its own past – but the truth will surface

Dilip

Joyce Cheng: Tiananmen Square protesters remember the bonds they formed with the Chinese police who held them captive

Chen Tianshi has kept a secret for the past 32 years. The former student activist was a key organiser of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 and was arrested in the aftermath of the massacre. Out of the bloody crackdown, unlikely friendships formed between some protesters and their captors. Today, on the 32nd anniversary of the Tiananmen… Read More Joyce Cheng: Tiananmen Square protesters remember the bonds they formed with the Chinese police who held them captive

Dilip

Uyghurs are being deported from Muslim countries, raising concerns about China's growing reach

Amannisa Abdullah and her husband, Ahmad Talip, were on their way to shop for baby clothes in Dubai, when the message that changed both their lives came through. Ahmad read it and announced an abrupt change of plan: He had to report to a police station immediately.  Ahmad dropped Amannisa off at a friend’s house that day in… Read More Uyghurs are being deported from Muslim countries, raising concerns about China's growing reach

Dilip

Tiananmen: Hong Kong vigil organiser arrested on 32nd anniversary // Louisa Lim: By banning Tiananmen vigils in Hong Kong, China is trying to rewrite history

Pro-democracy activist Chow Hang Tung has been arrested by Hong Kong police on the 32nd anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. Ms Chow is vice chairwoman of the Hong Kong Alliance which organises : annual vigils for victims of Beijing’s deadly crackdown on democracy protesters. She has been arrested for promoting unauthorised assembly.  It comes… Read More Tiananmen: Hong Kong vigil organiser arrested on 32nd anniversary // Louisa Lim: By banning Tiananmen vigils in Hong Kong, China is trying to rewrite history

Dilip

Ravi Bhoothalingam: Coronavirus and the Mandate of Heaven (March 13, 2020)

NB: This thoughtful essay appeared a year ago. I planned to post it then, but it seems much more appropriate to be read now. It reads like a prophesy. DS    The Mandate of Heaven is an ancient Chinese philosophical doctrine evolved during the Zhou dynasty in the first millennium BCE, to confer on an… Read More Ravi Bhoothalingam: Coronavirus and the Mandate of Heaven (March 13, 2020)

Dilip

China’s feminists protest against wave of online abuse with ‘internet violence museum’

Late last month, an “unknown hill in the Chinese desert” was blanketed in scores of large red and white banners, flapping vitriol in the breeze. “I hope you die, bitch,” said one. “Little bitch, screw the feminists,” said others. They were all actual messages sent to women, a direct act of harassment anonymised by social media.… Read More China’s feminists protest against wave of online abuse with ‘internet violence museum’

Dilip