In The News

China's ‘Big Mamas' in a Quandary

Paul Mooney April 12, 2004
For quite some time now, the Chinese government and its net-surfing citizens have been involved in a series of serious net games. While the government seems bent on restricting the free flow of certain types of information into China that it fears will prove destabilizing – such as Taiwan, the Falun Gong – China's 80 million netizens (net citizens) appear equally determined to keep access to...

China's Net watchdogs: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Liyuan Lu April 3, 2004
Political dissidence in China has long searched for an appropriate outlet. With the advent of the internet, anger at politicians, foreigners, upper classes, and others has moved online. Sometimes, internet news forums have served as forces for progressive change – political prisoners have been released after online petitions and editorials became widespread. But at other times, the internet has...

Arabs Disunited

John R. Bradley March 30, 2004
For the first time since 1983, the Arab League cancelled its summit, citing "difference of views" as the reason. While Egypt wished to discuss US proposals for reform in the region, Syria wanted to focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Arab despots have often used the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to deflect attention from their own draconian rule, some have noted. The summit was...

A Normal Country

Andrei Shleifer March 30, 2004
In this Foreign Affairs’ essay, Andrei Shleifer and Daniel Treisman argue that the popular image in the west of Russia as a “disastrous failure” needs to be rethought. General belief holds that Russia has failed to leave its communist past behind, and as a result, has transformed itself into “a collapsed state inhabited by criminals threatening other countries with multiple contagions.” Contrary...

Chin Chin Choo!

Pallavi Aiyar March 18, 2004
Despite producing the largest number of films in the world, India's movie industry has yet to make a dent in the Chinese market. Relations between Beijing and New Delhi have warmed over the past few years, but the benefit of better ties has accrued almost entirely to trade in other products. China's strict quota on imported films, coupled with the strong appeal of American culture to...

China Clamps Down on Web News Discussion

Mark Magnier February 26, 2004
China has cracked down on the internet once again. This time, the government has targeted news discussion groups, which often feature independent reporting not approved by the government. While it is common for Beijing to quiet dissenting voices before an upcoming National People's Congress (one is scheduled for next week), some see this latest crackdown as particularly heavy-handed. In one...

Programming Jobs are Heading Overseas by the Thousands

Stephen Baker February 23, 2004
Future computer programmers in the US and India are approaching vastly different thresholds. As US software programmers' career prospects are dwindling, Indian tech graduates see futures "brimming with optimism." In the past three years, the number of jobs offshored from the US has nearly tripled, and economists predict that one in ten tech jobs in the US eventually will move to...