China

It was just last year that those of us raising alarms about the massive half-decade market failure in the United States to adequately provision broadband services were facing a misinformation campaign that raw numbers mattered more than percentage rankings. According to this argument, the U.S. broadband market was sound because we had more broadband lines than anyone else.

The misinformation brigade got so much attention (mainly due to incumbents funding a propaganda campaign that "everything is fine here, nothing to see"), that public interest groups had to issue… more

Only a short time after China's magnificent Olympic coming-out party, the land of Mao's successors found itself making less celebratory news.

"Tainted Milk Formula Sickens Thousands of Chinese Infants" read one of many recent headlines. Twenty-two companies that produce or distribute milk powder had been secretly adding melamine, normally used for making plastics and glue, into milk powder, making thousands of infants sick and causing several deaths.

It is one of the puzzling questions about China: How can a country that organized such a splendid Olympic splash be the same country… more

During the Olympics, China showed the world that it can throw a heck of a coming out party. But traveling here afterward, one sees the many complexities and challenges facing this vast and ancient land. 

Especially in the rural areas--where most people still live--the impressive economic rise of China has penetrated only superficially. True, the Communist Party, which still runs nearly everything, brought electricity and other development here in the early 1980s. But while some appliances like television and telephones are increasingly common, indoor plumbing, electric ovens and… more

The rise of other global powers is a profound new reality of today’s world. As headlines remind us nearly everyday, China, India, Russia, as well as the European Union, Japan, and others are rapidly gaining strength and influence. How should the U.S. navigate this new world landscape? Does the rise of these powers represent an ideological challenge or an economic boom? Will global warming convince us we are all in the same boat? The Next World conference will explore… more

"One World, One Dream" -- that's the slogan the Chinese Olympic Committee chose for the 2008 Games in Beijing. But don't let the idealism fool you. This year, beneath the roar of the high-minded sloganeering, you could hear the same twin engines that have powered all modern Olympiads: nationalism and capitalism. While I was in China last week, I noticed that the media were doing the same dance they do in the U.S. They paid lip service to the Olympic ideal -- the… more

New York, NY-China has been the most egregious violator of the global arms embargo on Darfur, supplying guns and ammunition to the Sudanese government that have been transferred into the region, according to a new issue brief released by the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation. Since 2004, the vast majority of Sudan's small arms and light weapons have come from China, and many of them have found their way into the hands of the notorious Janjaweed militias in Darfur.

The issue… more

(The AP)--China has been the "most egregious violator" of a worldwide arms embargo, providing Sudan with the vast majority of its small arms and weapons used for mass murder in Darfur province. . .

The arms and also political support are being swapped for access to the African country's oil reserves, according to a report issued on the eve of the Summer Olympics in Beijing. . .

Recognizing fast-developing China's need for energy, William Hartung, a veteran foreign policy analyst and author of the report for… more

As a result of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, China will be exposed to a greater global audience -- and greater global scrutiny -- than ever before. In order to put its best foot forward, the Chinese government has spent record amounts on everything from increased security to environmental cleanup.

But there are some Chinese policies that are too controversial to be "cleaned up" at the… more

SHANGHAI -- "Most of them are so superbly ugly that they're exciting." That's what Qingyun Ma, dean of the architecture school at USC, told me last Tuesday afternoon when I asked him what he thought of this city's remarkable explosion of skyscrapers. We were in a taxi heading east on the elevated Yan'an Highway, in the heart of the city, continuing a conversation we had started an hour earlier in a conference room at the architecture firm he runs here in the French… more

On June 26 The New America Foundation's American Strategy Program and the Heinrich Böll Foundation hosted Reinhard Bütikofer, the leader of Germany's Green Party, for a discussion about possibilities of cooperation with China over the issue of climate change. Steve Clemons, the director of the American Strategy Program, moderated the discussion. An MP3 audio recording can be downloaded below, while video is available at right. Bütikofer began by detailing the importance for Europe of involving China in projects to… more