Month: November 2011

  • China cutting under-employed college majors: paranoid or good policy?

    Laurie Burkitt for the WSJ reports the Chinese Ministry of Education has announced plans to phase out college majors that don’t get people employed. Emphasis mine: Yet the government’s decision to curb majors is facing resistance. Many university professors in China are unhappy with the Ministry of Education’s move, as it will likely shrink the talent…

  • Fukuyama's evolution problem

    I haven’t read Francis Fukuyama’s most recent book, but I like this point made by John Gray in a TNR review. THE NOTION THAT ONLY one type of government can in the future be legitimate is as far-fetched as the idea that history has literally come to a halt. To be sure, it is not…

  • China–Japan maritime arrests: to care or not to care?

    After China’s stern reaction last year to the arrest of a Chinese sailor who rammed Japanese ships near islands disputed by the two countries, the world media has braced itself for another round of “tensions” following a new arrest. The fact that both Japanese and Chinese authorities are calling the incident a “regular fisheries case”…

  • Ma Jun and the motivation boomerang: clever environmental advocacy

    This evening I went to an event discussing human rights and the environment in China.* The big draw was Ma Jun, one of the most recognized names in Chinese environmental protection and the director of the Institute for Public & Environmental Affairs (IPE / 公众环境研究中心). Ma is a key figure in the movement for environmental…

  • Zhu Rongji's diplomatic rants

    Ella Chou has translated part of the recently published four-volume collection of materials on Zhu Rongji. Here’s a great rant, and go read some more. ZHU: (Reminded the Americans that China made concession even before April on the agricultural sector.) You come here this time, saying U.S. is making an unprecedented compromise; China is not responding…