In The News

China Hits Out at Attempts to Politicize Olympics

Jonathan Watts January 31, 2008
Cities compete fiercely for the opportunity to host the Olympics and display their culture and sporting venues under a global spotlight. As Beijing prepares to host the 2008 Olympics, protesters also plan ways to call attention to a range of problems, including genocide in Darfur, repression in China and independence for Taiwan. "No country in the world will compromise its core interests to...

Slowly, But Surely, Pyongyang Is Moving

David Albright January 29, 2008
North Korea is dragging its feet on dismantling its nuclear program. The slow pace does not indicate that the country is backing away from commitments made during Six Party Talks, explain David Albright and Jacqueline Shire, with the Institute for Science and International Security. Evidence suggests that the country’s nuclear program may be less advanced that previously assumed. Reports that...

Next Stop Asia

January 24, 2008
With Asia’s emerging economies posting spectacular growth, Asian investors had hoped that a US recession would cause little concern for their economies. But then global stock markets took a big tumble. World markets are connected, but that does not mean a recession in one part of the world will necessarily devastate another part. Some Asian markets are more vulnerable than others, reminds this...

Globalization and the Markets – Part II

Xu Sitao January 24, 2008
As anxiety spread about a possible recession hitting the US, stock-indexes went into sharp decline in Europe and Asia. Not surprisingly, worried investors scrutinize the Chinese stock market, as conventional wisdom suggests that China investments are the world’s next over-valued bubble. But analyst Steven Xu points out that the Chinese market could continue to grow, especially this year as China...

A Crash Is China’s Chance for Reforms

Minxin Pei January 23, 2008
After spectacular growth over two years, China’s stock market has slipped into correction mode. “Because the Chinese government has been perceived as an active promoter of the country’s stock market, tens of millions of individual investors, members of the privileged urban middle-class, will direct their ire at the government,” writes Minxin Pei and Wayne Chen, researchers with the Carnegie...

China's Celebrities “Buy” Extra Children

Tania Branigan January 22, 2008
China, the most populous nation in the world, has a strict policy limiting families to one child. But growing numbers of wealthy Chinese bypass rules by paying the penalties. The penalty in the capital city is estimated at five times the average Beijing salary, a sum inconsequential for the rich and devastating for the poor. Bitterness over inequality has emerged in a country that remains...

Closing a Legal Gap Between China and WTO 　

Xi Si January 18, 2008
Governments are big spenders, and the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Government Procurement opens government purchases to international competition. The voluntary agreement, in effect since 1996, currently has 28 members, all developed nations, who agree to regulations and schedules. China has also applied, but other members balk at that application: “Chinese state-owned enterprises…are...