US Vice President Joe Biden’s trip to Asia next week could not come at a more timely moment. It is the first high level visit since President Obama cancelled his trip during the government shutdown in…
Making an emissions market work in China will be entirely different to making one work in the west.
Dai Luo
This week, China will launch the pilots of its Beijing and Shanghai emmissions trading schemes. But the operating environment for these schemes will be vastly different to that in Australia or the European…
A freer flow of money in and out of China presents opportunities for Australia.
SimonQ/Flickr
China has signalled its intention, reiterated in the recent Third Plenum, to open up its financial markets. This would be an important reform which carries significant risks and opportunities both for…
China’s one-child policy, however controversial, should be given some of the credit for positive outcomes such as rising levels of education.
EPA/Diego Azubel
The recent announcement that China’s one-child policy will be partially relaxed will be celebrated worldwide by libertarians, human rights activists and, most importantly, Chinese couples who have longed…
Former NBA player Yao Ming is pictured on a billboard in China, endorsing an anti-shark fin campaign.
Mike Fabinyi
In recent times, China has witnessed a series of campaigns aimed at persuading people to stop eating shark fin soup. So it is encouraging that, over the past year, shark fin consumption appears to have…
China’s rapid economic growth, and the development of Shanghai, Chongqing, and Shenzen into modern metropolises, might easily give observers the sense of a successful country, full of confidence. Clearly…
Out and about: Xi Jinping deploying soft power on a trip to Ireland.
PA
The Chinese leadership transition last year, with Hu Jintao handing over to Xi Jinping, finally laid to rest Deng Xiaoping’s long-running maxim that China should “keep a low profile and hide its brightness…
Despite the announcements made at the end of last week, the one-child policy is not being abolished in China any time soon, and it will take some dismantling when it is eventually abandoned. The reform…
From China to the world: Chinese companies have relied on business-to-business sales, and haven’t developed well-known brands.
EPA/Adrian Bradshaw
China manufactures an enormous amount of consumer goods. Its value to the global economy is estimated to be around US$7 trillion. But stigmatised as low cost, low quality products, Chinese brands have…
Five Uyghur suspects have been detained in relation to a Tiananmen Square incident earlier this month. What do we know about the ethnic minority?
Weibo/@jing_oppa
Flash occurrences of ethnic violence are on the rise in China. Last month, five Uyghur suspects were detained in connection with a car explosion in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, which claimed the lives of…
What is the best trade option for Australia’s future?
AAP/Alex Ibanez
One of the first acts of Tony Abbott’s government was to declare it intended to “embrace free trade” in its first term in office. Calling the trade minister Australia’s “ambassador for jobs”, the Coalition…
The Three Gorges Dam has changed the lives of millions - not always for the better.
Greg Baker/AP
China is the world’s largest energy consumer, its ferocious industrial expansion and urbanisation driving a demand for electricity that has risen 10% in a single year between September 2012-13. This has…
Western media often falsely assume Chinese locals are desperate for news from foreign outlets.
shutterstock.com
International reporting on China is dominated by stories of the Chinese government’s propensity to block access to a number of foreign online media outlets, search engines and social media forums. There…
Cold weather and coal-burning fires have plunged China into another air pollution disaster.
EPA/Hao Bin
The cold weather has come, the coal-powered heating has been switched on, and China’s north is once more swathed in thick smog. Air pollution has been a worsening problem in China in recent years, and…
Japanese prime minister has reiterated his desire to maintain control of the disputed Senkaku Islands in his latest show of assertiveness.
EPA
Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe has received praise from financial markets and economists for “Abenomics”, his set of economic stimulus policies which have so far returned positive growth to the long-stagnant…
Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei is in the spotlight again.
jontintinjordan/Flickr
In a move that has drawn criticism from Chinese authorities, the Abbott government is upholding a ban on Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei from tendering for the National Broadband Network, after…
Going, going: the Abbott government appears to have ditched the centrepiece of the Gillard government’s foreign policy, the Australia in the Asian Century white paper.
AAP/Paul Miller
In case you missed the news, the “Asian century” is over. Or it is as far as the Abbott government is concerned. In its continuing revamp of the apparatus and output of government, the Coalition has officially…
China has far more to lose from too few US dollars than it does from a dollar surplus.
Urbanartcore.eu/Flickr
The US debt crisis is over for now, but legislators have just kicked the can down the road. In this series on the US debt ceiling, academics from Australia, the UK and the US assess the lingering global…
There are a record 168 billionaires in China, according to the most recent Forbes list.
Adam Nelson
“To get rich is glorious” – Deng Xiaoping’s famous aphorism has clearly been taken to heart by at least 168 people in China. That’s the number of billionaires identified in Forbes’ annual China Rich List…
The economic argument for an FTA with China isn’t as strong as some may assume.
derekGavey/Flickr
Despite trade in goods and services between Australia and China exceeding A$125 billion in 2012, negotiations between the two countries for an FTA that began in 2005 have been so unproductive that both…