I’ve just come across a speech by Yu Jianrong on 26 December 2009. Professor Yu is director of social issues research at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and advises top leaders – clearly an insider. What he said is disturbing – and surprising. It is rare for someone of Yu’s official [...]

The following interview appeared in Global Times on 15 March 2010:
Editor’s Note:
China constantly complains of being misperceived by the West, but how much of that is China’s own fault? Do Europeans still see China through an ideological lens, or does China fail to present itself in a way acceptable in the modern world? Global Times (GT) [...]

Yesterday’s post reported on the non-attendance of Premier Wen Jiabao at the small leaders’ meeting on 17 December.  Wen’s explanation of what happened was the same as previously reported in the Chinese media, except that the latter said that the meeting was held by the US.  Wen did not repeat this.  It’s hard to understand [...]

Writing in BusinessWeek on 12 March, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman said global economic growth would be about 1.5% higher if China stopped restraining the value of its currency and running trade surpluses.   “We should not be afraid of what the Chinese might do if we pressure them to stop this currency manipulation,” Krugman said.
Krugman [...]

This morning in Beijing, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao explained at his press conference what actually happened in Copenhagen on 17 December 2009 on the eve of the UN Climate Change Conference, which gave rise to criticism of Chinese behaviour and even allegations of arrogance.  It is remarkable that this is the first official version of [...]

My blog post of 12 March reported Premier Wen Jiabao, in his annual address to the National People’s Congress, stating that corruption threatened the rule of the CCP.  China’s former state auditor, Li Jinhua has, in the official ‘People’s Daily’ on-line, identified the business dealings of Party officials as the main source of public dissatisfaction.  [...]

The US Treasury, in its semi-annual report delivered every April and October, can formally label China as a “currency manipulator” on account of the yuan’s substantial undervalue.  This would allow the Department of Commerce to impose countervailing duties on a wide range of Chinese products.
US Treasury Secretary-designate Timothy Geithner told the Senate Finance Committee at [...]

Corruption has always been addressed by Premier Wen Jiabao in his annual address to the National People’s Congress, but this year he went much further than before by stating that corruption threatened the rule of the CCP. 
In his speech on 5 March 2010, the Premier affirmed  that the battle against graft would be a critical [...]

The decision of Northrop Grumman and EADS not to bid on the tender to supply the US Air Force with $50 billion worth of air refuelling tankers is very disturbing.  They won the contract in 2008 but, after Boeing’s protest, a new tender was issued, with the technical terms sufficiently changed so that the larger [...]

An objective of the Maastricht Treaty was EMU - Economic & Monetary Union. 16 countries have achieved monetary, but not economic, union. Indeed, even economic policy cooperation still leaves a lot to be desired. The original criticisms of the euro were the lack of economic coordination and the absence of any central fund. Greece has [...]