No IP Theft, No Problem: China’s Cutting-Edge Grid Technology

JEFFREY FU chronicles China’s grid technology development in response to doubts about China’s capacity for government-driven domestic innovation. U.S. President Donald Trump frequently alleges that China engages in state-sponsored intellectual property theft. To strengthen his accusations, he draws on the age-old narrative that China lacks the capacity for domestic innovation due to a combination of ineffective government policy and a culture of “rule-bound rote learners.” … Continue reading No IP Theft, No Problem: China’s Cutting-Edge Grid Technology

China’s Gamble of the Century: Five Years into the Belt and Road Initiative

QI HANG CHEN analyzes the Belt and Road Initiative five years after its announcement to gauge the early economic, environmental, and strategic returns. Introduction The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), also known as One Belt, One Road (OBOR), is China’s most ambitious infrastructure development project. It is also the largest overseas investment plan by any single country, dwarfing the Marshall Plan in comparison. It will have … Continue reading China’s Gamble of the Century: Five Years into the Belt and Road Initiative

Destroyers and Islands: The South China Sea and China’s New Strategy Abroad

JEFFREY FU revisits the South China Sea dispute to explore how the interplay of international law, economic power, and territorial ambition may be transforming China’s strategy. On September 30, 2018, a Chinese Luyang-class destroyer cut across the bow of an American destroyer, the USS Decatur, coming within 45 yards of collision before the Decatur maneuvered to avoid catastrophe. Such brazen disregard for maritime safety and American … Continue reading Destroyers and Islands: The South China Sea and China’s New Strategy Abroad

Enlightened Despot? Hybrid Legacy of Mao and Deng

ZHEYAN NI delves into Xi Jinping’s past to explain the present. In 1994, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s closest political aide and political strategist Wang Huning wrote in his diary, “Deng Xiaoping is practical and flexible while Mao Zedong is ambitious and idealistic.” Xi Jinping is trying to become both: a practical idealist leader of China. The highest figure of power in China always has a dual … Continue reading Enlightened Despot? Hybrid Legacy of Mao and Deng

The Chinese Investment Paradox

ALEX HERKERT contrasts the Chinese government’s control of overseas investment in the entertainment sector and the technology sector. Over the past decades, the inception and direction of Chinese outbound investment has become a topic of great significance with global ramifications. Total Chinese investment in the U.S. has grown from less than $2.5 billion between 1978 and 1999 to more than $178 billion from 2005 to the … Continue reading The Chinese Investment Paradox

All the World’s Stage

JASMINE GAN introduces the November 2018 International Theme, “Through the Looking Glass: China’s International Image.”  The English name “China” is thought to come from the Sanskrit word चीन cina, deriving from the transliteration of the Chinese 秦 Qin (pronounced “Chin”): the first dynasty of imperial China dating around 200 BC. Significantly, the Qin dynasty was the first to conquer the seven warring states to form … Continue reading All the World’s Stage

A Technological China

ISABELLA CHENG introduces the November 2018 Domestic Theme. In 2007, Apple released its first iPhone. If we compare it to our iPhones today, it’s astonishing that this little gadget was so revolutionary—the original iPhone had no third-party apps, no GPS, and no video recording capabilities. Fast forward just ten years later, the success of a product as primitive as the original iPhone is unimaginable. Technological advancement … Continue reading A Technological China