SARAH LOHMANN WRITES — Chunyu’s life flows like water. She fits herself expertly into a shape demanded by her circumstances. In Zhang Ling’s tenth novel, Where Waters Meet (2023), people, especially women, are asked by the often harsh world to take the form of the formless, to fill their allotted…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: THE TWO LIFEBLOODS IN ZHANG LING’S WHERE WATERS MEET (2023)
GABY RUSLI WRITES— Do you have what it takes to become the next big thing? If so, would you do anything to have your shot at stardom? Translated into English, Siren Queen (2022) by Nghi Vo chronicles Luli Wei – a girl born and raised in a stereotypical traditional Chinese laundromat family in the pre-Code…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: SIREN QUEEN (2022) BY NGHI VO — IN THE LAND OF STARLETS AND MONSTERS
AMI FOUNDER TOM PLATE WRITES – Over the decades, even during rare warmish breaks in the tundra of US-China relations, I do not think I ran across a single American foreign correspondent who claimed that their Beijing posting was an easy job. The other day, while thoroughly enjoying former CNN…
Full Article ASSIGNMENT CHINA: MIKE CHOY’S ENGROSSING ORAL HISTORY
GONZALO REYES MONTANO WRITES – The United States is not the only country deeply concerned with the direction of China’s potential. Consider the substantially increased military spending plans proposed by the current government of the United Kingdom, based upon the fear of imminent danger posed by China. But what is…
Full Article CHINA AND ITS NEIGHBORS: HOW ELSE MIGHT IT DECIDE TO STRIKE BACK?
NASER ALMESHARI WRITES – China’s success in brokering the Saudi Arabia-Iran peace treaty signifies the possibility of its expanding role in the Middle East. Beijing’s initiative in mediating the discussion between the two conflicting countries marks its first significant attempt at establishing a prominent position in the region. China successfully…
Full Article MIDDLE EAST STABILITY: DOES CHINA PLAY A SMARTER GAME?
ANYA CHINAPPI WRITES – On Friday, Mar. 10, after seven years of tension, Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed to re-establish diplomatic relations in a deal brokered by China. The agreement was reached in Beijing after four days of previously undisclosed talks between the rival countries. With the current strain in…
Full Article CHINA: A DARING DIPLOMATIC DEEP DIVE IN THE MIDDLE EAST
MADELINE MICHEL WRITES – Everyone has their favorite Korean drama, Japanese anime, or Chinese martial arts movie, but what about their favorite live-action Boys Love (BL) series? Boys Love, which refers to shows in which the main narrative focuses on a romantic relationship between two male leads, is the newest,…
Full Article THAILAND SOFT POWER: BOYS LOVE PROGRAMMING – THE NEW GOLD MINE
BADER ALBANWAN WRITES – Early last month the Colombian Air Force detected a suspected Chinese spy balloon floating approximately 55,000 feet in its airspace. Unlike the spy balloon in the U.S., which provoked the Biden administration to order an F-22 Raptor from Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, to be shot…
Full Article BALLOON FADE-OUT: LATIN AMERICA KEEPS ITS COOL
HUNTER MYERS WRITES – With its severe Covid control administration, did Beijing blunder – or show the way toward a viable epidemic control option for the future? China’s experience with Covid Zero policy, and its subsequent, rather sudden lifting, provides valuable insights for other countries. It shows the importance of…
Full Article CHINA: WAS THE “ZERO COVID” POLICY 100% WRONG?
This column originally appeared on February 8, 2023, in the South China Morning Post. DISTINGUISHED SCHOLAR TOM PLATE WRITES – Hot air propels not just balloons. Embattled President Joseph Biden and his battle-prone Washington – the American capital more divided, presumably, than that of Chairman Xi Jinping’s Beijing – clashed…
Full Article CHINA-US POLICY: IS THE ‘MOON A BALLOON’?
AHMED AL SHAHRI WRITES – The Chinese Communist Party developed the social credit system in 2014 to monitor the behavior of its population and assign every citizen a ranking based on individual credit. So how is it working out? According to Business Insider, in an article published in 2021, the…
Full Article CHINA: HOW MUCH CREDIT DOES THE NEW SYSTEM MERIT?
BOOK REVIEW EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ELLA KELLEHER WRITES – A Harvard senior obsessed with the beautiful, Will Chen is the perfect Chinese son: hardworking, handsome, and respectful. Except when he is offered an illegal job by a mysterious wealthy Chinese benefactor to steal back art pieces from heavily guarded Western museums that…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: PORTRAIT OF A THIEF (2022) BY GRACE D. LI – A HEIST OF THE HEART
This column originally appeared in the South China Morning Post on January 4, 2023. CLINICAL PROFESSOR TOM PLATE WRITES – Is it conceivable that the risk-taking pilot of the Chinese Navy J-11 fighter that flew within metres of a US Air Force RC-135 over the South China Sea two weeks ago…
Full Article JAPAN: AMID US-CHINA TENSIONS, JAPAN MUST CHOOSE DEFT DIPLOMACY, NOT TOP GUN TOMFOOLERY, TO ENSURE PEACE
This column originally appeared on Dec. 7, 2022, in the South China Morning Post. CLINICAL PROFESSOR TOM PLATE WRITES – Did you know that, in American-speak, a group of flying Corvids is not called a “flock” but a “murder.” You could look it up! Right now, amid the warm Laguna…
Full Article US-CHINA RELATIONS: BOSS XI’S ‘OVERREACH’ CUTTING BEIJING DOWN TO SIZE?
CLINICAL PROFESSOR TOM PLATE WRITES — Maybe the lady intel officer who sought to recruit me for a CIA operation involving PRC espionage on the U.S. West Coast didn’t look the part – though, then again, perhaps she did. Modest in dress, controlled in comportment, she sat with me in…
Full Article CHINA AND THE CIA: INCISIVE NEW BOOK MAKES YOU WONDER
ABDULLAH ALHAJERI WRITES – “We too will make satellites.” These are the words of the ever-ambitious Mao Zedong, late leader of the Republic of China — words that have since reigned true. Zedong had dreams of making China the powerhouse of not only Asia but the world. How positively spacey…
Full Article SPACEY CHINA: LEAVING THE U.S. ORBITING BEHIND?