In The News

The Diplomat: Plans for South China Sea Nuclear Power Plants

Viet Phuong Nguyen May 11, 2018
Environmentalists express concerns about a floating nuclear power plant, the Akademik Lomonosov, dispatched by Russia in late April to the Arctic. China also plans as many as 20 floating nuclear reactors in the South China Sea: “In 2016, two major Chinese state-owned nuclear suppliers, the China National Nuclear Corp. (CNNC) and China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN), announced a plan to...

Times of India: The Wuhan Puzzle

Nayan Chanda May 7, 2018
China and India, the world’s two most populous nations, are rivals for trade and regional influence. A two-day summit between Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi may have been a quest for cooperation and Nayan Chanda, writing for the Times of India, refers to a Mao Zedong theory on setting priorities: “In his famous work ‘On Contradiction,’ Mao stated successful policy depends on identifying the...

South China Morning Post: China’s Textile Industry Faces Tough Times

Sidney Leng May 3, 2018
The textile industry does not stay in one location for long. Instead, clothing and textile manufacturers move around the world, following automation and low wages from India, England, New England and the US South and more recently to China. Now the textile and clothing industry may be starting to abandon China. “China’s textile and apparel makers are going through a painful industrial...

Inside Story: Domestic Disharmony for China and India

Kerry Brown and Marya Shakil April 27, 2018
Before aspiring to global leadership roles, China’s Xi Jinping and India’s Narendra Modi must demonstrate capability for handling domestic challenges. “Xi and Modi may operate in very different contexts, one in charge of the world’s largest Communist Party–controlled state, the other running the world’s largest democracy,” explain Kerry Brown and Marya Shakil for Inside Story. “But both can be...

Japan Times: Tourism Takes Its Toll on Coral

Jessica Kozuka April 24, 2018
Coral growth is a delicate process, depending on marine microeukarvotes living inside the marine networks. Coral dies without the photosynthetic organisms. The UN Environment Program recommends a dive site be limited to 6,000 visitors per year to remain healthy. Concerned that Japan’s coral reefs receives little monitoring, a marine scientist at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology...

Korea Times: Talks Underway to End the Korean War

Kim Rahn April 18, 2018
A formal peace treaty will be the topic for two summits, one between North and South Korea in April and a later one with the United States and North Korea. “The two Koreas remain technically at war as the Korean War ended only with the armistice agreement,” reports Kim Rahn for the Korea Times. North Korea, China and the United Nations Command signed the armistice agreement that suspended...

Harper’s: Buddhism Meets the Chinese Economy

Will Ford April 17, 2018
China’s fast-growing economy brings cultural changes and heightens tensions in Tibet. “As in many regions in China’s interior, the government was trying to kick-start development via tourism, promoting Tibetan culture, horse trekking, and hiking,” writes Will Ford for Harper’s. He describes Lhamo, a lopsided community with a main street that straddles two provinces, Gansu and Sichuan. The former...