International Relations Commons^™

Symbols: Liu Xiaobo’S Nobel Peace Prize, Paulina Hartono

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Liu Xiaobo is, and now is probably much more so after Friday’s announcement, one of China’s most well-known dissidents—or activists, depending on the term you prefer. Most people who have heard of him know about his hand in penning part of Charter 08, a manifesto based on Charter 77, which advocates broad democratic political reform and human rights protections in China. Those who are more familiar with Liu’s name know of him for his hunger strike in Tian’anmen, or his prolific number of essays published in print and on the Internet.

China By The Numbers: The Chinese Professor And The Red Emperor, Charles W. Hayford

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Remember those jailbirds who know all of each others’ jokes? They don’t tell the whole joke, just shout out the number from the jokebook. Our public discourse on China has something of the same quality. Instead of shouting out a number, however, somebody “shouts out” a word or an image which evokes a whole China story. These stories can be persuasive, poetic, or insightful, but when we only “shout out” the number, then we don’t have the chance to examine the whole story. Painful facts or challenges to venerable beliefs can be papered over when the story is a misleading …

On Michael Jackson In Mongolia, Hanging Out At Shanghai’S World’S Fair, And Other Topics: A Quick Q & A With Marketplace’S Rob Schmitz, Jeffrey Wasserstrom

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Over the summer, there was a changing of the guard in the Shanghai office ofMarketplace, an American radio program that has consistently carried smart reports about China. Scott Tong moved from the PRC back to the US (where he continues to work for the show) and former Peace Corps volunteer Rob Schmitztook his place. I had the pleasure of meeting them both in Shanghai in July andran a post with the former in early August, in which he reflected on his time covering the China beat. Now, as a sequel to that post, comes a quick q and a with …

What I Read On My Summer Vacation (Iv), Ron Javers

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

I was booked to give a China talk in August, high season in the Hamptons, as part of the summer series at the Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton.

Analysis Of The Recent Made-In-China Campaign, Hongmei Li

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

China has recently launched its first global advertising campaign about products made in China. A 30-second television commercial, sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce of China and four Chinese trade associations, has been running on CNN, the Headline News and International Asia TV channels in the United States since November 23, 2009. Costing tens of millions of Yuan, the commercial was scheduled to run for six weeks. The commercial also started to run in some parts of Asia starting in December 2009.

More On Google + China

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Now that we’ve all had a few days to think deeply about the Google + China story, lots of commentaries and opinion pieces are coming across the wire. Here’s a sampling of those that caught our attention over the weekend:

Travelogue, Delhi-Beijing, Pallavi Aiyar

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The plane burps to a halt and almost immediately everyone is on their feet, jostling to open the over-head lockers, reaching high for their strolleys. My head feels stuffed with lead and I marvel at the nimble alacrity of my fellow travellers, at 3:00 in the morning. Slowly we shuffle off the Air China flight and make it into the inadequately-air conditioned environs of Indira Gandhi International Airport.

Blogging Aas 2010 (2), William Callahan

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

One of the pleasures of going to a conference is seeing what free goodies you can scam from various institutions. Lots of free pens were proffered by various publishers. A Chinese press was giving out some trinkets — but for some reason not to me. The International Institute for Asian Studies (Leiden) was once again giving out sheer canvas bags loaded with their newsletter and other readable items. UBC Press offered 50-year-old issues of Pacific Affairs for the antiquarians among us, as well as more recent issues.

The Religious Divide: Why Religion Seems To Be Thriving In The United States And Waning In Europe, Steven Pfaff

Sociology Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"In the decades following the Second World War, most social scientists expected convergence among the Western industrial democracies. Modernization was expected to bring prosperity and opportunity, initiating a “culture shift” to posttraditional values and lifestyles.

However, in recent years observers have remarked on a growing divide between Europeans and Americans. This divergence may be nowhere greater than in the religious sphere. While faith is loudly proclaimed and a bustling diversity of religious organizations jostles for attention in all arenas of public life in the United States, the European Union (EU) is described as thoroughly secularized, comprised of societies in which …

Edzia Carvalho On Human Rights: Politics And Practice. Edited By Michael Goodhart. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. 455pp., Edzia Carvalho

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Human Rights: Politics and Practice. Edited by Michael Goodhart. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. 455pp.

Kurt Mills On Governance, Order, And The International Criminal Court: Between Realpolitik And A Cosmopolitan Court. Edited By Steven C. Roach. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. 289pp., Kurt Mills

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Governance, Order, and the International Criminal Court: Between Realpolitik and a Cosmopolitan Court. Edited by Steven C. Roach. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. 289pp.

Hidetoshi Hashimoto On International Law (Sixth Edition). By Malcolm Shaw. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. 1542pp., Hidetoshi Hashimoto

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

International Law (Sixth Edition). By Malcolm Shaw. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. 1542pp.

Palestinian Refugees: Protection In Exile, Vivienne Chew

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The Palestinian refugee problem is perhaps the most critical and complex of the outstanding issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Sixty-two years have now passed since the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, in which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced en masse and rendered stateless. Since then, successive generations of Palestinian refugees have endured discrimination, insecurity, repeated cycles of displacement, and infringement of their basic rights and freedoms.

Amazigh Legitimacy Through Language In Morocco, Sarah R. Fischer

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Contemporary Morocco rests at a geographic and developmental crossroads. Uniquely positioned on the Northwestern tip of Africa, Morocco is a short distance away from continental Europe, cradled between North African tradition and identity, and Western embrace. The landscape is varied: craggy mountains trail into desert oases; cobbled streets of the medina anchor the urban centers; mud homes dot the rural countryside. Obscured from the outside observer, behind the walls of the Imperial cities and between the footpaths of village olive groves, Morocco’s rich and diverse Arab and Amazigh cultures and languages circle one another in a contested dance. Morocco’s identity …

Establishing Governmental Legitimacy In Iraq: The Path To Protecting Human Rights, Matt Mines

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Rule of law is essential for ensuring the protection of human rights in post-conflict societies. Contention and disagreements, however, often arise regarding the best ways to establish rule of law in a reconstructive state. It is a vital prerequisite to rule of law that a government be viewed as legitimate. Following an armed conflict, the restoration of basic services and infrastructure is essential for instilling confidence that the government is legitimate and is capable of providing for the needs of the local populace. The essential services include water, electricity, and security on a consistent basis. In order to ensure ongoing …

Necessary Fictions: Indigenous Claims And The Humanity Of Rights, Peter Fitzpatrick

Human Rights & Human Welfare

To begin, not propitiously. When checking whether my title ‘Necessary Fictions’ was being used elsewhere, Google revealed that it was going to be used in a future talk, and by me. It transpired mercifully that this use was going to be quite different to the present which suggested the prospect of a new academic genre: same title, different paper; rather than the standard combination of same paper, different title. Fortuitously, that contrast gave me the leitmotiv for this talk – that things ostensibly the same can be different, and that things ostensibly different can be the same.

© Peter Fitzpatrick. …

Tunisia–The Imprisonment Of Fahem Boukadous (Part One Of A Series), Rob Prince

Human Rights & Human Welfare

To most Americans with the exception of those few who, for whatever reason, have an attachment to the North African country of Tunisia, the name Fahem Boukadous, foreign to American ears, means nothing. It means a good deal more to "Reporters Without Borders” and to the US State Department that actually issued a statement (half way down the page) on his behalf, to the US intelligence agencies and military that have carefully followed the Spring, 2008 uprising in the Tunisian region of Gafsa–deemed the most extensive and militant social protest in that country’s history in the past quarter century.

© …

Blood In The Wells: The Troubled Past And Perilous Future Of U.S.-Saudi Relations, Maxwell Czerniawski

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

Perhaps no region other than the Near East plays a more important role in the shaping of both the foreign and domestic policies of the United States. The 9/11 terrorist attacks and subsequent deployment of hundreds of thousands of US soldiers to Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the massive budgetary burden placed upon the United States government (and, by extension, its citizens) as a result of the War on Terror, lay heavily upon the consciousness of the media and the concerns of the American people. Much recent focus has also been placed on the impact that the need for …

Paul Okojie On Darfur And The Crisis Of Governance In Sudan: A Critical Reader. Edited By Salah M. Hassan And Carina E. Ray. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2009. 528pp., Paul Okojie

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Darfur and the Crisis of Governance in Sudan: A Critical Reader. Edited by Salah M. Hassan and Carina E. Ray. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2009. 528pp.

Arbitrary Arrest And Detention Of Human Rights Defenders In Iran: Subduing The Voices Demanding Rights, Sachchi Karki

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Arbitrary arrest and detention, oftentimes used to curtail the freedom of opinion and expression, as well as the right to association and peaceful assembly, has continued to characterize Iranian regimes since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Such arrest and detention of human rights defenders (HRD)–who individually or with others act to protect and promote human rights—has demonstrated the repressive nature of the Iranian regime. Human rights lawyers, civil society representatives, journalists, and women’s rights movements and trade union activists are among the most commonly targeted HRD.

Ann Hui’S Films And The Poetics Of Mundane Redemption, Peter Zarrow

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Seen from above, people are ants. As ants are specks in nature, so people—at least Hong Kongers—are specks in the massive infrastructure of forty- and fifty-storey highrises, the limitless concrete of train and highway networks, and the forbiddingly busy shops. Seen up close, however, face-to-face, they become souls. The camera in the masterpiece directed by Ann Hui, “The Way We Are,” switches between these two perspectives. “The Way We Are” (lit. “Day and Night in Tin Shui Wai” 天水圍的日與夜, 2008) simply shows the quotidian, extremely ordinary events in the lives of a few characters, gradually revealing how they came to …

The New Red Guards

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

“Far out to the East of Beijing, past the city’s fifth ringroad, the Cultural Revolution isn’t over yet.

We’Re Back!

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

We’re returning from a two-week hiatus just in time to call your attention to the final event in a series of author talks that China Beat has produced in cooperation with several other UC Irvine organizations during the 2009-2010 academic year. Tomorrow’s dialogue at UCI, featuring Ian Johnson and Angilee Shah, is free and open to the public (details here).

The Tao Of Avatar — And Why This Sort Of Movie Cannot Be Made In The Prc At This Point In Time…, Sam Crane

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

We saw Avatar last night (I know, I’ve been on a movie kick of late…). It was visually stunning. The story was unremarkable: a melodramatic morality tale (the good guy wins in the end!). But it did have a couple of Taoist elements, which were no doubt quite consciously incorporated into the story.

China’S Promise, Geremie R. Barme

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The year 2009 was marked by a series of important anniversaries in the history of the People’s Republic of China. Some of these were commemorated with due pomp and circumstance in the official media and dissected at length during learned gatherings and discussions. Others, those events that I think of as ‘dark anniversaries’, passed by in an atmosphere of heightened alertness, surveillance and official anxiety. Dark anniversaries are the signposts of quelled protests, social unrest and state violence, events such as the 1959 rebellion in Lhasa, the shutting down of the Xidan Democracy Wall in Beijing in 1979, the tragedy …

Behind The Wheel, About To Snap, Peter Hessler

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

. . . A photo, that is. Below, Peter Hessler shares some of the photographs he took while traveling across China doing research for his latest book, Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory. Read our review of Country Drivinghere; for other takes on the book, check out Jonathan Yardley’s review at theWashington Post, and Adam Daniel Mezei’s write-up at his blog.

Readings Around The Web: Fun In The Sun Edition

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

• Heading for the beach and looking for the perfect book to toss in your tote bag? At Five Books, authors are interviewed and asked to recommend five books on a specific topic. Though the site covers far more than China, several of the features are China-focused and worth a look; check out Rod MacFarquhar on the Cultural Revolution, Isabel Hilton on China’s environmental crisis, and Richard McGregor on the Chinese Communist Party.

Expo Watch 2010, Shellen Xiao Wu

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In Shanghai these days it is impossible to avoid the World Expo. Hotels are packed with domestic tourists and school groups; subway and bus televisions show a constant news loop about events at the Expo; and Haibao, the rectangular, blue mascot of the Expo, graces numerous government offices, posters, and official merchandise stalls. To ensure the target of 70 million visitors is met and exceeded for the duration of the Expo from the beginning of May to the end of October, various government offices in Shanghai have handed out Expo “gift packs” of one free ticket per Shanghai resident family. …

Beijing Bibliophile, Part Ii: Market Change And New Technology, Eric Setzekorn

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Dozens of bookstores continue to dot Beijing but recent developments are changing the landscape for readers and publishers by forcing many smaller stores out of the market. Part of this trend is due to advances in public transportation, particularly the enlarged subway system, that make it possible to travel across town for a larger selection and lower prices, leading to a decline in neighborhood bookstores. A less positive part of the bookstore consolidation is the increasing leverage state sector bookstores such as Xinhua can exert on private booksellers using market and political forces. A mixed element in the dynamic Beijing …

Review: China’S Megatrends: The Eight Pillars Of A New Society, William A. Callahan

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The future is a hot topic in China; bookstores are full of tomes asserting the 21st century as China’s century: Liu Mingfu’s The China Dream(2010) and Chan Koon-chung’s The Gilded Era: China 2013 (2009) are but two of the most recent books that describe how China is destined to become the number one country in the world.