Search

A little more than a year ago, China Culture Gazette, official organ of China's Ministry of Culture, was transformed. For years CCG had been an infamous stronghold of the hard-line apparatchiks, choking with dull, harsh Communist Party propaganda. With a new issue of its "Cultural Weekend" edition, the paper changed color overnight: from red to yellow. The picture did the trick. On that day, the four-page "Cultural Weekend" displayed many nude and half-nude photographs mostly of busty Western women in languidly seductive poses; instantly it became known as the coolest paper in Beijing. It also ran a front-page interview on the subject of nudity with Liu Xiaoqing, China's brash movie queen. The issue sold like hot cakes.

Having said its piece on China, the Department of State ought now to pass to the delicate problem of inter-American relations. There is great need for a White Paper on the good-neighbor countries, one that will, reject sentimentality, face facts and speak out in an unembarrassed voice. It would be desirable, too, to hasten the release of such a policy pronouncement. Washington D.C. is unfortunately ill prepared to undertake a realistic appraisal of the present state of affairs in South America. The purgative of the China White Paper has not yet taken effect and nervous officials are reminding themselves that the full story of Marshall Plan aid will soon have to be told.

This article focuses on foreign policy of the Unites State on China. According to the author, when Secretary of State of the United States stated in the recently issued White Paper on China that it was American policy to wait for the dust to settle before making any major new decisions about China, he laid himself and the Administration open to a sustained and savage attack. Criticism concentrated on the suggestion that the Department of State, having failed in a weak policy of insufficient action, was trying to retreat to a still weaker policy of total inaction.

As a discussion historic events and a compilation of pertinent documents the U.S. State Department's monumental White Paper on China will be an invaluable source book for years to come. As an apologia for American policy in China it is unconvincing. Apparently, the attack of a cardinal on former U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, has not only succeeded in causing embarrassment to many Catholics, but has ruined the chance for any federal aid to schools by the current session of the U.S. Congress.

The author says that separate but related scraps of information, and the sotto voce complaints of middle-echelon State Department officials, suggest that the greatest barrier to substantial progress in the Warsaw talks with China is the intransigence of the U.S. military. Yet U.S. President Richard Nixon must implement this policy in the face of military obstructionism, aided by persons within the intelligence community, that comes uncomfortably close to insubordination. Preparing for resumed talks, the U.S. government drew up background papers that proposed an exchange of journalists, scholars, scientists and scientific information, and the "regularization" of postal service and telecommunications.

The outbreak of widespread fighting in China, approximating civil-war conditions, has weakened but not destroyed the remarkable myth that has grown up around the U.S. Ambassador Patrick J. Hurley. Only a few weeks ago the newspapers were hailing General Hurley, back-slapping oil man turned diplomat, for having at last achieved a settlement between the Chungking government and the Communist regime at Yenan. Some papers even hinted that he had arranged the recent pact between China and Soviet Union. Although it is now apparent that Hurleys diplomacy failed to bring unity, few Americans realize the extent of his responsibility for the present civil strife.

At Shanghai, the British, supported by Italians are defending a line, which reaches far beyond the boundaries of the International Settlement into purely Chinese territory. They have not bothered to give any excuse, not even to explain that their promises to observe China's national integrity are mere "scraps of paper"; like the Germans in Belgium thirteen years ago, they have simply taken the most convenient course. Meanwhile Sun Chuang-fong, recently lord of five provinces, is fading out of the picture.

By definition all alliances entangle. To have value to its signatories, to survive stresses and strains, an alliance must be based on mutual interests. Paper bonds alone do not tie effectively. An alliance will prove reliable only as long as all the signatories continue to fear the contingency, or party, against which it was originally directed. There must be, moreover, reasonable assurance that, acting together, the signatories are capable of meeting the contingency. Above all, an alliance should serve the interests of all parties, and not merely the interests of one to the detriment of the others.

The article discusses some socio-political issues in the United States. Over three hundred citizens of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, probably as good a representation of the intelligence, virtue, and patriotism of the city as could be produced, the venerable lawyer Horace Binney heading the list, have signed an address to the members of the U.S. Congress for the city, calling their attention to the Jenekes bill for the reform of the Civil Service, and asking for it, or something similar, their zealous support. People have been hoping for the last fortnight to see custom official Robert Hart's notes on the Chinese question, which have recently been made public, make their appearance in some of the papers in this part of the country which inflicted such awful chastisement a few weeks ago on businessman Ross Browne and the degraded American and British merchants who drew him out on the China question.

The article presents the views of the author on the Chinese students. According to the author the preeminent need of the Chinese student of this generation is encouragement. The minds of the Chinese students can be classified into three fairly distinct stages of development. First stage is a complete bewilderment with the modern trend of affairs. Second stage is of a profound depressions and pessimism. In the third stage is a bitter determination to win somehow in the end and wrest at least a sort of order out of the chaos in China.

This article discusses the book "Problems of the Pacific, 1933. Proceedings of the Fifth Conference of the Institute of Pacific Relations, Banff, 1933." There are two papers in this volume by Chinese delegates, which deserve special mention. One, by Gideon Chen, is entitled "Chinese Government [Nanking] Economic Planning and Reconstruction," the other is "The Agrarian Problem in China," by Chen Han-seng. Gideon Chen's report seems to have been one of the chief propaganda bids for foreign capitalist loans and investments in China.

This article presents information regarding the book "The Chinese: Their Education, Philosophy, and Letters," by W.A.P. Martin. This volume is appropriately dedicated to Professor William D. Whitney, and in a prefatory note its author informs him that most of the essays have been already published in China under the title of "Hanlin Papers," and are now offered to the public only as a bundle of "Beitriige," a small contribution towards the better understanding of China and the Chinese. Out of the seventeen papers four are likely to attract the most attention in the U.S., though all will be valuable to students in China itself. These are "Competitive Examinations in China," "The Ethical Philosophy of the Chinese," "The Renaissance in China," and "The Worship of Ancestors in China."

The article presents information about various publications. A contribution to the comparative legislation of the U.S. will be found in "The Rights of Property of Married Women Under the Laws of Kentucky," a paper read by the scholar H. Marshall Buford before the Lexington Bar Association, and now published by request in pamphlet form. While a certain amount of attention is being attracted towards China, the following extract from a modern native work, entitled "Shing Wu Chi," or "A History of the Wars of the Present Dynasty," to which the attention has been called by a correspondent, is of interest, and speaks volumes for the light in which recent action on the part of the great civilized powers is viewed by the literary classes of the empire.

The article discusses about a state of war that exists in Shanghai and the lower Yangtze valley. The Japanese invasion of Shanghai has gone beyond mere protection of the lives and property of Japanese nationals; it has gone beyond that form of reprisal which international law allows stronger powers to take against weaker nations whenever the spirit moves them. The U.S. went to war with Germany on the strength of a Congressional resolution which was not a formal declaration of war, but simply a declaration that a state of war with Germany existed. The Russo-Japanese war in 1904 was also begun with a surprise attack by the Japanese without a formal declaration.

This article presents information on the book "On Chinese Currency, Coin and Paper Money," by W. Vissering. The book rests upon the Chinese authority, the history of Ma-twan-lin, but Vissering has subjected the original to more thorough examination, and with far greater advantages. His book is a study in Chinese and in the history of money. Vissering proposed to give a summary of the most important facts under the latter head which his book contains. Several concurrent traditions narrate that money was first coined by the common people in times of calamity. This seems to mean that all lived ordinarily by agriculture and exchanged by barter, but when the crops failed they took to mining copper, which they cast into coins for convenience in exchanging it for goods.

The article presents some papers on political issues. One of the papers highlights the problem of Albania placed before the world's tribunal. Albania has become an object of intense covetousness on the part of its neighbors. The various Balkan states, Serbia, Greece, Montenegro, and, to a lesser extent, Bulgaria, have been eyeing the Albanian territories ever since they resolved upon a policy of expansion. Another paper discusses the future of Kiaochow, the territory which Germany leased from China in 1897 for ninety-nine years and which was captured by the Anglo-Japanese forces at the outbreak of the World War I.

The article presents information about the U.S. government's policy of proposed loan to China. The present policy of approval of a proposed loan of possibly $50,000,000 to China by an American banking group is under question. The Democratic Administration, early in 1913, declined to support the U.S. participation in the projected "Six-Power Loan" to the Chinese Republic. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's statement on that occasion, setting forth his belief that terms of the loan "touch very nearly the administrative independence of China," was one of the first state papers from which one could judge the President's attitude towards foreign nations.

This article focuses on the prerequisite of peaceful relations among Korea and Communist China for the political settlement in Korea. The United Nations cannot be at peace with China about Korea if the United Stares is not at peace with China about Formosa. On paper there are two possible ways of achieving this peace. The U.N. may make China feel that it faces military destruction if it refuses to accept the U.N. terms for Korea. It may hope that Communist China will be afraid to go on with a long war of attrition in Korea, afraid that U.N. planes will bomb bases in Manchuria; and these feats, it may hope, will help Communist China to find wisdom.

The article focuses international relation. Confidential dispatches were received at the U.S. State Department, which are said to confirm the general tone of the forecasts of the German reply to the American note cabled by correspondents from Berlin, Germany. Whether the relaxation of activity by German submarines during the past two weeks represents the normal period of respite, respite from Nepenthe, which succeeds strenuous days. It indicates an intention on the part of Germany to moderate her submarine warfare. Dispatches from China on Monday revealed the fact that in the middle of May, during the crisis between China and Japan, an identical warning had been conveyed to both countries that the United States would not recognize any agreement, which impaired American rights in China or endangered the policy of the open door.

The article presents recent developments in world politics. There has been no further development during the past week in the situation in Romania or other Balkan states. It seems significant, however, that a loan of $25,000,000 has been arranged for Romania in England, and if dispatches from Rome and Athens published in recent papers are to be accepted. Whatever Italy's ultimate decision on the question of peace or war may be, it becomes increasingly evident that decision will be taken by Italy alone, uninfluenced by threats or persuasions of other Germany and Austria. Somewhat sensational dispatches from Chinese government were published on January 27 concerning demands that Japan had made upon China following the Japanese occupation of Kiao-chau.

An essay about the Tiananmen Square massacre in China on June 4, 1989, adapted from the book" Bullets and Opium," is presented. Topics discussed include the country's communist regime, the author's interview with the survivors of the massacre, including Wu Wenjian, and the life of the author in prison and after his prison release.

Presents letters to the editor of various political issues published in the 1975 issue of March 13, 1976 issue of 'The Nation.' Reaction to an article about the way China views the rest of the world.

The article discusses the sleepy town of Hankow and Nanking in East Coast China. Nanking has come to Hankow. Old residents, used to nodding to every foreigner met along the street, glance bewildered at the flood of new faces. Evacués from Nanking, on the other hand, recognize in the crowd moving snakelike along the river front, the continuation of the evacuation parade along Chung-shan Road, chief artery of the capital-with the difference that here the crowd is on foot. In Nanking, the procession was made up of thousands of passenger cars, light trucks, and heavy Diesel buses.

The article focuses on the simmering attitude of British towards the officials of the U.S. for commenting on Chinese intervention in Korea. British attitude toward the U.S. has been so testy and jaundiced as during the past week. The implication of the words by Britishers that provocations by the U.S. bear great responsibility for the turn of events has been echoed with varying degrees of sharpness in most of the British press this past week. Weekend comments have tended to center on General Douglas MacArthur and his communiqué accusing the Communists of committing "one of the most offensive acts of international lawlessness of historic record."

Presents several letters to the editor on the article published in the earlier issues of the journal "The Nation." Reports on the heroic battle of Negba; Reports on the trade relations between China and the United States; Desire for renewal of subscription of the journal "The Nation."

This article focuses on international relations. According to the author, it is estimated that Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek, a Chinese nationalist and his immediate following controlled the nomination of at least 80 percent of the congress delegates, many of whom were about as competent to speak for the districts they were supposed to represent as would be an Eskimo for Timbuktu. This was achieved by a simple declaration empowering the party headquarters at Nanking to appoint delegates for districts which were not yet fully organized according to the party rules.

The article discusses the social and economic transformation that has taken place in China over the last three decades and how the global financial crisis has demonstrated China's emergence as a global economic power. According to the author China struggles to balance communist party philosophy and control of its citizens with the effects of industrialization, privatization and increasing affluence.

This article discusses the rising class struggle between urban and rural people and government-controlled capitalists in China. Local government officials are attempting to usurp rural lands and displace the occupants through intimidation and violence. Once rural people are displaced to urban environments, they are forced to engage in battles with employers and local governments for livable wages and basic rights. As a result, China is experiencing public demonstrations and protests.

The article focuses on the lack of momentum at the Doha Round of the World Trade Organization that will be held in Cancún, Mexico. Great complications lie in the path of trade ministers as they discuss ways to foster greater trade and growth. As governments try to defend their own producers from downdraft, the fragile condition of the global economic system remains. Both developing and poor nations would have to make significant concessions that can affect selected domestic sectors. Each governments are taking various strategies to pursue trade issues. The trade relations between the U.S. and China is discussed.

The article focuses on the book "The Chinese," by Jasper Becker. Chinese workingmen and women are dying at a higher rate than their counterparts in Victorian England or turn-of-the-century the U.S. and, until now, the world has been paying little attention. By contrast, when an explosion at a coal mine in Monongah, West Virginia, killed 361 coal miners in 1907, the single largest such accident in our history, the disaster attracted national coverage. Becker's reporting calls into deep question the tenet that increased trade will automatically improve human rights in China.

This article presents information on several socio-political issues of several nations. The influence on politics of corporate money isn't confined to donations to candidates and parties. Big Business also influences the most important event in a presidential campaign: the debates. The major-party producers of this quadrennial infomercial and their corporate underwriters have cooperated to insure no alternative or dissident voices are heard. The most recent challenge to this state of affairs is a lawsuit filed by Green Party candidate Ralph Nader in late June charging that the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, the private entity that decides who participates in the debates, is illegally supported by millions of dollars in corporate donations. One of the most alarming currents this election year is a national security panic serving several overlapping interests. It began more than a year ago with grossly inflated claims of Chinese spying contained in a Congressional committee report, that was pumped up by conservative Republicans allied with the Taiwan lobby and aided by the indictment of Los Alamos physicist Wen Ho Lee for downloading classified data onto an unclassified computer. In June, the campaign took another tack with the report of the National Commission on Terrorism, chartered by the U.S. Congress.

The article discusses matters related to social and political issues of the world. It discusses the perpetuation of racial and economic inequality in schools in the U.S. It states that the racial achievement gap in education is a national civil rights scandal of many dimensions. There is persistent imbalance of resources between urban and suburban schools despite a decade of slow-moving lawsuits, racism embedded in educators' diminished expectations for students of color and exploitation of parents' frustration by cynical politicians. The article also reports that the debate related to China signing an agreement with the World Trade Organization was intended to frustrate popular critics and avoid the kind of frill-throated, fundamental debate about globalization.

This editorial highlights some international issues. The fierce debate over China's entry into the World Trade Organization needs a field guide. The birds of a feather flocking to it are bizarre. To end annual Congressional review of China's trade status, a key part of the deal, the Fortune 500 companies have joined the Democratic President to the Republican Congressional leaders who tried to impeach him. The $6.45 billion deal, if approved by the U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), will create a media behemoth comprising eleven daily newspapers, twenty-two television stations, four radio stations and a baseball team. In terms of social policy the merger could be the final blow to the FCC's already battered cross-ownership rule, which bars a newspaper from possessing a TV station in the same city.

The World Trade Organization's (WTO's) failure at settle commercial disputes in Seattle, Washington, has inspired a new organizing slogan: "Fix it or nix it?" WTO is the visible symbol of globalization and the network of forty country-based campaigns that produced Seattle is working now on when to stage another international day of action. The U.S. coalition is, meanwhile, gearing up for another crucial fight, blocking the U.S. Congressional action that would give China a permanent "good housekeeping seal," instead of annual approval of most-favored-nation status, as it joins WTO.

The article presents some political updates as of June 21, 1999. One of the updates discusses the indictment of Yugoslavia's dictator Slobodan Milosevic. The indictment gives human rights the highest priority and makes it clear that they must not be subject to diplomatic concerns. Another update focuses on recent report on Chinese nuclear espionage. It says that Beijing has two-dozen nuclear missiles. In comparison, the U.S. has more than 5,000 missiles that can reach China or Russia, and Russia has about 6,000 it can hurl toward China or the U.S.

This article focuses on the U.S. President Bill Clinton's trip to China, which will help ease the Asian nuclear weapons crisis. There's no doubt that China's role as arms merchant helped fuel the India-Pakistan conflict-as did Beijing's years of bluster toward and confrontation with New Delhi. But ever since its 1997 Party Congress, China has played a more responsible regional role. Beijing has put aside its confrontational stance toward Taiwan and toward its Southwest Asian neighbors over disputed China Sea claims.

The article presents some political updates as of July 14, 1997. One of the updates discusses the independent labor unions in Hong Kong, China. On May 12, Chinese President Jiang Zemin promised a visiting Japanese trade union delegation that Beijing would respect Hong Kong's independent unions. Yet the Chinese government has already moved to undermine the independent unions, stripping the free union federation of two legislative seats held by its leaders. Another update says that in the Amsterdam conference, the European Union looked too disunited to produce any pattern, though it may also be suggested that the unexpected Socialist victory in France has introduced a potentially creative period of disarray.

The article throws light on the U.S.-China relations. It criticizes the American government for ignoring the human rights violation by China against the pro-democracy supporters. The current bonhomie between the two countries is owing to the compulsions of trade lobby. The Gang of Fortune 400 doesn't care if China is a repressive mercantilist state or a global polluter or an agent of deadly technology transfers. It cautions against the meek surrender of the nation's interests for a few hundred multinational corporations.

This article presents several socio-political developments in the U.S. and at international level, as of March 17, 1997. It is by now a commonplace to point out that the centrifugal forces in publishing that created the juggernauts depicted, also created opportunities for publishers not in the mainstream. Of course, "independent" publishing is no more independent of the economic and political climate than anything else. Literary houses have frequently become nonprofit and supplicant to outside funding. Another development focuses on the effects of economic transition of China from Maoism to free market. In the countryside, land and water shortages brought on by rapid urbanization have created 100 million "surplus farm workers," an economically desperate army of displaced transient laborers whose numbers are sure to grow as China follows its plan to build 600 new cities in the next fourteen years.

The editorial highlights some economic and other international issues. The Dow Jones Industrial Average retreated 171. points in fright. Prosperity is tastiest when it's reserved for the few. By coincidence, Wall Street's alarm at excessive employment growth came just as "The New York Times" was bringing its long series on the downsizing of America to a close. The day China began to let loose with its latest round of missile tests, one of Taiwan's loneliest roads suddenly saw an unprecedented traffic jam. The twisty track up to San Tiao Chiao lighthouse backed up bumper to bumper with motorcycles, taxis, V.I.P motorcades and TV mobile crew vans.

The article focuses on the trade status of China. China is the most favored nation (M.F.N.) whose vast market and dirt-cheap labor force. China has had M.F.N. since 1980 but because it doesn't allow freedom of emigration it must have its trade privileges reauthorized by the President every year. Bilateral trade between China and the U.S. hit $57 billion in 1995 and U.S. investment in China has climbed from $358 million in 1990 to $25 billion in 1996.

The article presents information about the congress to be held on globalizing gender justice. The right-wing cabal in Congress is attempting to prevent the U.S. delegation from taking part in the United Nation's Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, in professed horror at human rights violations in China. But what they're really scared about is the empowerment of women--that's the overall goal of the Platform for Action, with its subtheme of Action for Equality, Peace and Development, to be adopted by some 185 nations this September.

The article presents information on the conditions prevailing in China. In fact, winging toward China these days, one has the feeling of approaching a nuclear reactor that is operating over capacity and approaching meltdown. Indeed, flying over Beijing or Shanghai, all that one can usually see is an ominous penumbra of smog emanating from the industrial boom that has gripped this mutant People's Republic since 1992. For anyone who knew time-warped China before its bizarre post-Mao metamorphosis began, the country today is an endless series of jolting surprises. Streets are clogged with traffic. There is construction everywhere, indoor malls with glittering new department stores surge with customers for whom shopping is rapidly becoming the recreational pastime of choice.

This article presents information related to political, social and economic issues. In the latest folly of China policy, the U.S. government seeks to apply a noble but narrow-and inherently hypocritical-standard of democratic behavior on Beijing before normal trade rights are renewed in June. One of the positive aspects of the Whitewater scandal is that it forces the U.S. press to talk about a subject it has failed to cover; the savings and loan scandal and the agency charged with cleaning up the mess, the Resolution Trust Co.

On December 19, 1990, the waning fortunes of the Pujiang Hotel on Shanghai, China's waterfront took a sudden turn for the better when a caravan of limousines arrived at the main entrance and disgorged a procession of luminaries, the likes of which the hotel had not seen for almost half a century. Included in the retinue of 500 high-ranking dignitaries were Zhu Rongji, Shanghai's Mayor at the time; Huang Ju, the Vice Mayor; Liu Hongru, Vice Minister of China's State Commission for Restructuring the Economy; and an assortment of foreign investment specialists. To enthusiastic applause, the distinguished visitors ceremonially unveiled a brass plaque marking the hotel's rebirth as the home of the Shanghai Securities Exchange, China's first national computerized stock exchange.

Presents an article about actions being taken by the Soviet Union. Changes seen in the Soviet Union; Size of the Soviet military; Thoughts on U.S.-Soviet interests; Relations between the Soviet Union and China.

Discusses the economic and political situation in China. Struggle between the two 'lines' of revolution and pragmatism; Chinese Premier Chou En-Lai's vision of the construction of an independent and comprehensive industrial and economic system by 1980; Death and legacy of Chou.

The article presents some lines and materials send by readers of the political periodical The Nation. It says that Old China hands, Hurley-era vintage, will be interested in an excerpt from the mimeographed newssheet published aboard a transport carrying occupation troops to Korea last fall. The item says major general officers en route were briefed for their forthcoming job with the statement asserting that one of the principal missions of military government in Korea will be to form a bulwark against communism.

The Chinese have always been a curious people and they are possessed of some very queer old customs. The managers of the Greatest Show on Earth seem to have chosen the present Soviet Union government to act as their Invisible Property Man. Officially they refuse to believe that there is such a thing as a Union of Socialist Soviet Republics. As far as Washington is concerned, official Soviet Union simply does not exist. There is some trouble, so it appears, about the exact status of a certain country called Manchuria. Japan wants that country and China wants it or has it and the two nations threaten to go to war with each other on account of this distant and mysterious territory.

It will not yet be forgotten that for eight weeks and two days was the voice of the American press raised to mingle with the American official voice in crying hosannas for diplomatic victory. Each day was proclaimed yet a new and more unparalleled success to be added to the other new and unparalleled successes of the Genoa Conference on disarmament in Genoa, Italy. Each day was China liberated anew and the peace of the Far East yet again made secure. Thus again the British delegation forestalls American action before America has even spoken its intention; it again declares itself and again publicly arrays itself, if not with Japan then at least as neutral, that being adequate notification to Japan that it need not recede by a step.