The Washington Post, Jan. 22, 2018  

China and U.S. tensions continue over the dominance of the South China Sea as both nations increase their presence through ships. Despite focusing on cooperating with China in matters concerning North Korea, President Trump has started to show a tougher crackdown on the question of ownership in the area. The Philippines, a long-time ally of the U.S. and the previous owner of Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, has also started to shift its attitude about reclaiming dominance. President Rodrigo Duterte claims that “the freedom of navigation operation near Scarborough Shoal … was ‘America’s problem.’” (Posted by Angela Xiao) 

TIME, Jan. 22, 2018

Prominent Chinese hip-hop artists have been banned from appearing on national television and other types of media as the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television of the People’s Republic of China (SAPPRFT) issued a list of rules which outlined the beliefs of the People’s Republic in regards to hip-hop. The rules state that “actors” who follow these subcultures are not “moral” or “noble.” Instead, are supporting “tasteless, vulgar and obscene” acts and beliefs. Many Chinese netizens have expressed their disapproval and claims that the actions of the government are going “back to ancient times.” (Posted by Angela Xiao) 

QUARTZ, Jan. 22, 2018 

China and America are continuing their race to see who will become the fastest nation to succeed in digitizing consumer shopping experiences. Amazon has the lead with its Amazon Go grocery store in Seattle that uses cutting-edge AI programs to help quicken the checkout experience. However, China has the edge with more shops opening at a faster pace. BingoBox already has more than 200 locations. It labels items with RFID tags and allows customers to pay with WeChat. These Chinese startups have also gained the support of the government. According to ITJuzi, the third quarter of 2017 accumulated “1 billion yuan [$156 million USD] in funding.” (Posted by Angela Xiao) 

Vanity Fair, Jan. 22, 2018  

Members of the National Security Council are expressing concerns about Kushner’s ties to China, further heightened by a recent article published by the Wall Street Journal on Wendi Deng Murdoch, the Kushners’ family friend. Officials are worried Kushner’s social and business ties to China may influence the decisions of the Trump Administration and leak confidential information to Chinese officials. Kushner has repeatedly failed to provide a detailed outline of all his foreign ties. After briefing on his meetings, a former senior official said, “... you think your background [will] allow you … to outsmart the Chinese ambassador? … He was acting with naivete.” (Posted by Angela Xiao) 

Vox, Jan. 22, 2018  

Before his election, President Trump made promises to crack down on China’s “rape” of the American economy. Last Wednesday, Trump told Reuters that he may fulfill his promises by punishing China with tariffs on solar panels, steel and/or aluminum. If Trump does crack down on trade relations, there may be serious retaliation from China. There may be a disturbance on agricultural relations and U.S. companies looking for opportunities in China, and more importantly, may help strengthen China’s relations with North Korea. This may cause China to economically support North Korea’s nuclear program and put American citizens in jeopardy. (Posted by Angela Xiao) 

Forbes, Jan. 25, 2018  

Traditionally, it was inevitable that Chinese students would stay in America after graduation even though they are appreciated by Chinese companies back home. However, the current situation seems to be inverted. In 2016, over half of the study-abroad students went back to China. There are two main reasons: firstly, large economy growth is happening in China, especially in the tech industry; secondly, the so-called “bamboo ceiling,” which makes it hard for Chinese students to get promotions in the tech industry, is driving students to go back China. Beside attracting Chinese students, China is also expecting to get more foreign students to study and work in China by reforming its visa program. (Posted by Jiayi Guan) 

CNN, Jan. 24, 2018  

Pirated songs and videos were so prevalent and easily accessible in China years ago. However, recently, this situation has improved. Chinese people are more likely to pay for intellectual properties. One of the most important reasons for this is the spread of online payment applications like WeChat Pay and Alipay that create an  easy way to pay for streaming videos and songs online. Beside this fact, big, local Chinese tech companies still hold a monopoly over the market for streaming videos and songs, striking deals with foreign media companies like Universal Music Group to get into the market. These dominated companies also buy mainstream popular shows from these companies to retain their membership rates. (Posted by Jiayi Guan) 

TIME, Jan. 25, 2018  

Senate investigators say that Chinese drugmakers are making use of weak U.S. postal censorship to export opioids to the U.S., which has to lead to an increasing death rate due to drug overdoses. The postal shipments from China to America have increased a lot recently because of e-commerce, while only one-third of the total 300 million packages are formally recorded on the Internet system. Chinese drugmakers exploit this system flaw to sell some of the most dangerous opioids like fentanyl to the U.S. and get payment commonly as Bitcoin. Spokesman of the U.S. Postal Service said that they were making progress in seizing opioids and recording packages online. (Posted by Jiayi Guan) 

Forbes, Jan. 25, 2018

President Trump decided to put a punitive 30% tariff on solar panel imports which are mostly made by Chinese manufacturers. According to this activity and his answer “but if it there is, there is” when asked about a trade war, he may trigger a formal trade war between the two countries. Before this decision, President Trump had made two policies against China: one is about punishing intellectual property theft, and the other is about national security threats Chinese steel and aluminum import have posed to America. However, a trade war may bring America many unintended consequences and threaten economic growth. It’s unlikely that a war will ultimately be started. (Posted by Jiayi Guan) 

CNBC, Jan. 24, 2018  

China Poly Group, a state-owned conglomerate, is going to enter the American market and continue its expansion into the U.S. sector while at the same time promoting Chinese culture. According to the chairman of the Chinese enterprise, bearing the laws of the land, the company is always welcomed by any country’s government. Besides making profit, the cultural business company wants to gain experiences and technology from their U.S. partners by communicating culture exchanges. On the broader context, at the 19th Communist Party Congress, President Xi appealed to the country to increase its soft cultural power. Ever since then, Belt and Road Initiative and Confucius Institutes have become powerful tools to show China’s quick developments among years and influences on global culture. (Posted by Jiayi Guan) 

The Economist, Jan. 11, 2018

The mass migration of people in mainland China from their ancestral provinces along with the legacy of the Cultural Revolution have proven to be major hurdles for people interested in researching their genealogy in the country. Richard Liu, a Chinese billionaire and the founder of JD.com (a digital marketplace), is seeking to infuse recent technology and to incorporate western practices such as online platforms into the research process to unburden the tasks. Other unique obstacles such as the lack of legal, governmental documentation of ancestry and historical targeting of families’ zupu (recorded lists of generational history) by the Mao regime have contributed to the difficulty. With recent funding and widespread interest amongst the public, Liu hopes these new initiatives will help ease the study of genealogy in China. (Posted by Htet Wint) 

New Yorker, Jan. 8, 2018

The Chinese government’s attempt to transform the historical Silk Road into a new Silk Road through the Belt and Road Initiative is raising some eyebrows amongst observers. The influx of China-backed funds into developing regions does not seem to be the main area of concern rather, it is the ambiguity on standards of environmental safety and addressing of social dislocation as a result of these new infrastructure projects under the model that has some analysts concerned. While the government heavily emphasizes this new initiative abroad, many locals are interested less in a concept of a global trade network, and more in increasing their wages and local economic activity. (Posted by Htet Wint) 

Nikkei Asian Review, Jan. 24, 2018

In an op-ed, Professor Minxin Pei of Claremont McKenna College conveyed the possibility of a heightened tension between China and the United States despite attempts, historically and recently, by both countries to avoid such circumstances. The underestimation of China’s economic rise by the U.S. and China’s increasingly assertive presence within its neighborhood have contributed to the deterioration of trust between the countries. The political trend of resorting to Chinese nationalism within China as a prism to understand Western engagement with the country has also become problematic according to some observers. Policymakers in Washington are changing course from one of engagement to one that is more confrontational when dealing with China; this change leaves the future riddled with uncertainty. (Posted by Htet Wint) 

NPR, Jan. 3, 2018

The mixture of a highly-censored digital entertainment space and the nostalgia amongst the growing Chinese urban middle-class has led to the proliferation of livestreaming in farming communities across China. Farmers are making profit by livestreaming aspects of their daily lives because their audience are enchanted to witness such events. Their virtual profits can sometimes translate to a day’s salary or more. The online presence has allowed the urban public to connect to lifestyles that differ from their own, and has allowed the rural areas to connect with faraway urbanites through a tap of a button. (Posted by Htet Wint) 

The Jerusalem Post, Jan. 23, 2018

In an op-ed, Alex Pevzner, the Director of the Chinese Media Center in Israel, expressed excitement about the prospect of further engagement between Israel and China in the coming years. As the Chinese economy transitions from heavy industry to one reliant on innovation and technology, Pevzner sees Israel playing a major role in helping supplement China’s growing need in the field of agricultural and natural resource extraction technology. The increased investment from the Chinese government along with the burgeoning Chinese tourism in Israel have played key roles in strengthening this relationship. (Posted by Htet Wint) 

USA Today, Jan. 25, 2018 

It is reported that Kroger is looking for an alliance with China’s biggest e-commerce company Alibaba in response to Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods and the unveiling of its no-cashier Amazon Go stores. Senior officials from both sides met in China last month but no further details were revealed. Alibaba has already operated several stores similar to Amazon Go in China and Alipay, its paying app, that allows customers to pay for groceries without having to wait in line for a cashier. In return, Kroger, being the biggest U.S. supermarket chain, is able to provide Alibaba a way to enter the American market as a platform. (Posted by Kejia (April) Peng) 

CNBC, Jan. 23, 2018

“Left-behind children” refer to children in rural areas of China whose parents have left for the big cities to make a living. There are about 60 million Chinese children impacted by this phenomenon and their access to education and other resources are highly limited. The founder and executive chairman of Alibaba and an English teacher in his early years, Jack Ma, drew attention to the left-behind children and suggested that building boarding schools may help alleviate this problem and help raise the education standard for the left-behind children at a charitable event. Jack Ma urged other billionaire entrepreneurs to contribute and donate more to their home provinces.  (Posted by Kejia (April) Peng) 

China Daily, Jan. 26, 2018

In order to reach the goal of having five general practitioners available for every 10,000 residents in China by 2030, China plans on training about half a million new general practitioners by allowing all students majoring in medicine to be able to participate in the general medical education and increasing incomes for GPs. Moreover, the qualification of GPs in rural areas of China is usually not guaranteed. It is not only to increase the quantity of GPs in China but also to boost the quality in order to cope with the rapid increase in China’s medical expenditure and high demand. (Posted by Kejia (April) Peng) 

CNBC, Jan.10, 2018

The Chinese government has ordered the elimination of bitcoin mining due to concerns about over-consumption on electricity and potential risks on the financial market. According to a governmental document, regional governments have been instructed to “actively guide” mining companies to exit the cryptocurrency market, indicating that cryptocurrencies would not warrant the state’s support despite China’s ongoing efforts in leading the global strategic technology sector. Chinese miners, who have been taking advantage of inexpensive electricity cost in resource abundant regions such as Xinjiang and Yunnan, are currently looking for ways to transfer their assets abroad. (Posted by Esther Chen)