Editor’s Note
China Currents has always been dedicated to peeling back the layers of complexity in the quest to understand contemporary China, and this issue is, in my humble opinion, a shining example of how we do that. In our lead article,…
China Currents Journal
Is the World Ready for China Risen?
Every year since the death of Mao, it has become increasingly clear that China is on the rise and likely – though never certain – to emerge as a superpower. These four-and-a-half decades were not without setbacks, especially the economic…
China’s Nina Andreeva Moment
On March 13, 1988, at the height of Gorbachev’s glasnost’ policy, an elderly teacher from Leningrad named Nina Andreeva published a letter in a conservative (i.e. anti-perestroika) Russian newspaper, defending traditional Soviet, indeed Stalinist, values against Gorbachev’s perestroika program.[1] The…
Security and Economic Challenges for Taiwan in Cross-Strait Relations
The security and economic landscape in the Indo-Pacific is increasingly difficult to navigate. While trade agreements such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, the successor to the Trans-Pacific Partnership or TPP, and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership…
Watching the COVID World from Taiwan
I recently returned to the United States after spending 2019-2021 in Taipei, where I earned my MBA as a part of the Fulbright program. I picked a strange time to be abroad. While the United States (as well as most…
The Innovation Wars: The Competition between America and China
This article is based on a presentation given to the International Club of Atlanta on December 7, 2021. Putting aside the political noise (as much as possible), both China and the U.S. face similar threats and share similar needs for…
Book Review: Red Roulette by Desmond Shum
This is an edited version of the original book review published in the U.S. China Perception Monitor, November 15, 2021. https://uscnpm.org/2021/11/15/review-desmond-shums-red-roulette/ Book Review: Desmond Shum, Red Roulette (Scribner, 2021); 310 pp. hardback Billed as a “tell-all” about the scandals of…
Editor’s Note
It is not an understatement to say that the immediate future of the world will hinge largely on how China evolves and interacts with the rest of the world, and in particular the United States. Many questions arise. How will…
Flies into Tigers: The Dynamics of Corruption in China
Introduction In February 2012, it was revealed that Gu Kailai, the wife of Bo Xilai — a Politburo member and Party Secretary of Chongqing, a provincial-level city in southwest China — had been arrested and charged with murdering an English…
“To Deepen and Broaden Our Presence:” Taiwan’s Strategies for Participating in the International System
Describing Taiwan as an island is appropriate both literally and figuratively. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it lies about 100 miles off China’s southeastern coast. It is surrounded by the South China Sea to its southwest, the East China…