Rana Mitter proves that you don’t have to trudge through hundreds of pages to gain a nuanced view of China’s place in the current global milieu. His Modern China: A Very Short Introduction, is 140 pages (not including the index and other material) but packs more information and insight than many grander volumes. Mitter sets […]
Category: Politics & Society
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Cool heads in a crisis
The Sichuan earthquake represents a stiff test for China’s leaders
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A wail of mourning
Three minutes’ silence in Shanghai, May 19: At 2:28pm, traffic came to a stop at the usually bustling corner of Jinling Lu and Xizang Lu. The crowd fell silent as car horns, and police, fire and air raid sirens sounded out across the city. I admit that as I stood there, I wondered whether drivers […]
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Tragedy in Sichuan
At 2:28pm on May 12, an earthquake centered in Wenchuan, Sichuan province shook buildings as far away as Beijing. Measured as a magnitude 8.0 quake by Chinese sources – 7.9 by the US Geological Survey – it killed more than 40,000 people, injured more than 247,000 and left over 32,000 missing. An estimated 5.3 million […]
Since the Olympic torch came home in May, the swarms of people thronging to catch a glimpse of the “sacred flame” have borne testament to the patriotic fervor successfully drummed up by Beijing in support of this summer’s games. But the most remarkable aspect of the Olympic warm-up has not been mainlanders’ love of their […]