Suggested Readings: March 15-31, 2018

作者：Robert A. Kapp  来源：US-China Perception Monitor

Culture

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2137168/xi-jinping-takes-leading-role-hit-propaganda-film-extolling?utm_source=emarsys&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20180314&utm_campaign=scmp_china&aid=190131336&sc_src=email_2180399&sc_llid=9226&sc_lid=149876362&sc_uid=XwqVfmpKWF&utm_source=emarsys&utm_medium=email   What’s scoring at the movie box office in China.  Not what you might expect in certain ways.  Hint: politics are at work.  But also hint:  a lot of Chinese people feel very good about China these days, and the film affirms that feeling.

https://list.juwai.com/news/2018/03/juwai-partners-jd-com-sell-overseas-property-chinese  Nearly three hundred million viewers of e-commerce giant JD.com can now hunt for real estate in the US, UK, Australia and Canada with a few mouse-clicks.  (Kudos to SupChina for the referral.)

National Essentials

https://tinyurl.com/y7xywrze  Former Australian Prime Minister (and longtime student of Chinese affairs) Kevin Rudd’s address to the U.S. Military Academy on “Understanding China’s Rise Under Xi Jinping.  Receiving much serious attention.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-keeps-tight-rein-on-bishop-as-vatican-deal-looms-1522342470  The delicate dance around the PRC relationship with the Vatican.  Sensitivities during Easter Week.

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/03/revered-rocket-scientist-set-motion-china-s-mass-surveillance-its-citizens A fascinating article about one of modern China’s greatest scientists, his core ideas, and their transplantation into China’s current massive effort at “social surveillance.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinese-financiers-fraud-trial-spotlights-broad-regulatory-confusion-1522330556  While some prominent analysts have essentially accused the long-standing “China establishment” in the US of myopia in believing that China was becoming “more like us” when in fact it was always going to go its own way (the charge is spurious but popular today), articles like this one touch on the deeper reality that “Chinese characteristics,” inherited from centuries past, make the erection of a meaningful “rule of law” today very, very difficult.  Glass half full?  Half empty?

https://supchina.com/2018/03/27/modern-chinese-intellectuals-are-spineless-peking-university-vice-dean-reportedly-resigns-after-provocative-essay/  At a time of political and ideological stringency, a pungent message from a prominent Peking University scholar and dean disappears quickly from the Web, and its author purportedly resigned from his deanship, but his article (translated here) was widely shared.

U.S.-China

https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/Section%20301%20FINAL.PDF  A foundational document.  “Findings of the Investigation into China’s Acts, Policies and Practices Related to Technology Transfer, Intellectual Property, and Innovation Under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.”  215 pages.  Trump trade actions against China are almost certain to occur in response to the findings of this Report, with unforeseeable consequences.

https://tinyurl.com/ydgaq2u2   Here goes.  PRC responds to US steel/aluminum tariff action by imposing higher tariffs on wide range of US products.  Still ahead:  US actions on matters discussed in preceding item.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/14/business/blackstone-cic-china.html  The sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corporation sells its stake in Blackstone, originally made in 2007.  Reasons unclear.  No one is talking.  Waters heating ominously between US and China on trade and investment.

https://www.csis.org/analysis/finding-right-ramp-trade-war  Claire Reade, who used to run the China shop at USTR, on what lies ahead as the first exchange of tariff increases portends bigger dangers.

https://www.csis.org/analysis/surviving-march-madness-us-china-trade-relations CSIS’s Scott Kennedy with a must-read on the unfolding economic conflict between Trump’s team and the China of Xi Jinping.

https://www.csis.org/analysis/pacnet-23-coming-crisis-us-china-relations  A dark view, from responsible analysts, on trends in U.S.-China relations.

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1095830.shtml  A China visit by a local Orange County, California orchestra arises from its home area’s large and growing Chinese diaspora population.  Interesting angle on cultural exchanges.

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2018-03-22/better-way-challenge-china-trade?cid=int-lea&pgtype=hpg Two veteran Inside The Beltway Asia policy types, Matthew Goodman and Ely Ratner, with thoughts on the best way to “Challenge China on Trade.” (May be paywalled).

PRC Foreign Policy

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1095891.shtml  A breathtaking editorial from Global Times about Canada.

http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/03/29/did-kims-visit-just-hand-china-a-trump-card/  One of the better post-mortems on the Kim trip to Beijing.  Bottom line: PRC-DPRK cordiality makes Trump’s task even harder than it already was, given Trump’s gestalt and the absence of any sign of organized US planning for the Trump-Kim “summit.”

https://tinyurl.com/yb9qde4a  The Belt and Road Initiative involves generous Chinese lending to recipients along the routes (e.g., Djibouti).  This author wonders what will happen when the loans come due.

Investigative Journalism

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/03/27/business/hna-group-deals-china.html?smid=tw-share&referer=https://t.co/eGkjNmnGkS?amp=1 Another deep dive by ace Times reporters Barboza and Forsythe, this time into the people and the maneuvers behind the rise and the current hesitation of the giant conglomerate HNA.  This time, one key figure, usually invisible, comes to prominence.

来源时间：2018/4/7   发布时间：2018/4/7

旧文章ID：15910