When I write and talk about how many Chinese are struggling, people often ask me why when China’s economy is doing so well. As a famous British author once wrote, “it is the best of times, it is the worst of times, we have everything before us, we have nothing before us, it is the spring of hope, it is the winter of despair.” A bit of hyperbole, but China is a Tale of Two Economies, with both the strong and weak sharing an uneasy co-existence. The Strong. Not surprisingly, we

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, arrived in Washington, D.C. this evening. He is here for a whirlwind, two-night state visit before leaving Friday. He will not even be attending the United Nations General Assembly which is in session in New York this week. A number of people have asked me why he has chosen to come at this time, questioning whether anything of substance will take place. The bar for this visit is admittedly low. There was apparently little advanced planning to set p

“The past is what happened, history is what is written about it.” This favorite quote from James Carter, Professor of modern Chinese history, has weighty implications for society and governance broadly. It also arises in less flashy, if not less important, venues. The questions raised are the same no matter the context. What is the past? Who gets to document this past in our histories for today and tomorrow? Spring Dawn over the Elixir Terrace, Lu Guang, 1369, Metropolitan Mu

Labels will be the death of us. They strip away humanity. They cloud judgment. They are weaponized in a zero-sum quest for dominance. They are devilishly effective and dangerous. Because of this, label warfare must be vanquished. America epitomizes this truth. The United States of America is fast becoming an oxymoron. We just celebrated a tense, politicized 250th anniversary. Society has suffered a collapse in civics. In this environment, Liberal, Conservative, Capitalist, So

Are China ‘s recently-released “Regulations of the State Council on Outward Investment” a manifesto calling for Chinese divesture from America? Though some of the frothier online headlines (particularly on YouTube and Facebook) scream yes and even more tried-and-true media (Bloomberg and NikkeiAsia) lean that way, I do not believe the answer is that simple. There are two explicit targets inside the new regulations and one under the surface. As for the first two, the Chinese g

“Promote Civility and Cultivate New Social Norms” (Zhengzhou, China) “A successful society is one that is supported by a majority of the people.” This comment during a recent conversation led us down a new path. I would add that a successful society is also one in which the people are proud, confident, and satisfied with their place in the world. By this metric, the People’s Republic of China is currently more successful as a society than the United States of America. In othe

The China Chronicle China’s healthcare revolution lives and breathes on data. Part One of this series explored how China transformed its domestic healthcare system. Part Two looked outward at how China is growing and reshaping global healthcare norms. This Part Three examines governmental collection, management, and control of personal information in China’s healthcare model and why this unnerves America. Data Banks in Guizhou Province, China (www.asiatimes.com) Information