Tag: China

  • Review: 'How New and Assertive is China's New Assertiveness' by Alastair Iain Johnston, Spring 2013

    [This review is part of a new experiment. I have read for general impressions, main points, and potentially useful material for myself and others. This is not a detailed methodological or theoretical examination, nor is it a conscientious summary. I have tried to consider both specialist and generalist audiences. Comments are very welcome, as I hope…

  • Updated: Did the Chinese government really call Diaoyu/Senkaku a 'core interest'?

    The Japanese news wire Kyodo News last week reported that the Chinese government called the Senkaku/Diaoyu island issue a ‘core interest.’ “The Diaoyu Islands are about sovereignty and territorial integrity. Of course, it’s China’s core interest,” ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a press conference, using China’s name for the Japanese-administered isles in the East…

  • Fighting 'the myth of unitary control' in China cybersecurity politics

    My latest for Al Jazeera English asks for more recognition of pluralism and ambiguity when governments and firms accuse “China” or the “Chinese government” of hacking. Check it out! For fun, my first piece for Al Jazeera fought the notion of a “cyber cold war” between the United States and China. In 2011. [Crossposted on…

  • On Chinese exceptionalism, politics in history, and an interview with Harvard's Mark C. Elliott

    The China Story website from Australian National University has a wonderful interview with Mark C. Elliott,* a professor at Harvard University and an authority on the role of Manchu and other ethnic ideas in Chinese history. The full interview is very much worth the read. In dialogue with Elisa Nesossi, Elliott offers perspectives on the continuities…

  • What it means when we say NYT is 'blocked in China'

    Shanghaiist has just posted a fairly snarky story claiming, as it summarizes well in the headline, that “The New York Times might or might not be blocked in China (but probably isn’t).” I think they’re off the mark. The writer’s claim that it seems to work fine for Shanghaiist staff most of the time is…