Asia

The Global Times, a tabloid offshoot of the People’s Daily group that is routinely described as “strongly (or some varioation thereof) nationalist” recently launched an English-language edition. I have enjoyed reading the Chinese edition, which is mostly devoted to foreign affairs (obviously, I guess) and so covers issues I …

Last week I attempted to explain to a friend of a friend just what it’s like to ride a bike in Beijing. It’s better than riding in the U.S., because there are far more bike lanes. It’s worse because there’s far more traffic here. It’s better in Beijing, because Chinese drivers treat cyclists as legitimate road users. In the U.S. some …

So Treasury Secretary Geithner testified to Congress on Wednesday. Once again, he said that he did not consider China to be a currency manipulator. In fact, his whole approach to the problem makes it clear that the issue is going firmly on the backburner for the Obama administration, which is a big step. Whether that accommodating stance …

Here are a couple recent China stories on Time.com: Michael Schuman writes about the problems faced by Macau’s gaming industry, and I have a piece on the mainland’s notoriously violent city management officers.

FYI, Austin and I have a piece in this week’s dead tree edition on China’s massive stimulus program.

Last fall we mentioned Du Daozheng, a former high-level Party cadre and publisher of the reformist magazine Yanhuang Chunqiu. At that time he was resisting official efforts to force him to step down from the publication. It turns out that Du was up to much more than fighting for the magazine. Reuters reports that he had a key role in …

Recently I’ve posted links to a few videos on the Asia Society’s China Green page. Here’s another worth checking out. It’s a look at the controversial development of a largely rural island in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.

Last week I was on the road and thus missed out on an entertaining and unexpectedly illuminating media slapfest in Beijing. For fight fans who missed this clash, here’s a recap. Last month Peter Foster of the Telegraph wrote a short piece about a government campaign to boost patriotism ahead of the 60th anniversary of the People’s …

The number of Chinese babies adopted by American families has dropped by 50% since 2005, mainly due to stricter adoption policies Beijing rolled out in 2007. Here‘s the full story, also out in the current issue of TIME Asia.