China Archive

Chinese authorities have launched a new voluntary system for organ donation in a bid to end the country’s much-criticized dependence on body parts from executed prisoners. Human rights advocates had long called for reform of the previous system, challenging it as ripe for abuses. Authorities are launching the new public donation system with massive public awareness campaigns in 10 cities and provinces before taking it nationwide. Authorities will reportedly pair up donors with recipients and operate a publicly available waiting list to promote fairness and transparency. Under the old system, China — which routinely executes more prisoners on a yearly […]

Smartest thing I’ve read on NATO’s future strategic mission, not surprisingly by Zbigniew Brzezinski (via Thomas P.M. Barnett). A longer version of the essay also appears in the new issue of Foreign Affairs. Essentially, NATO uses partnerships with other regional security organizations (CSTO, SCO) to participate in out-of-region security challenges, thereby avoiding gathering mothballs in Europe. The added advantage is that it reduces Russian and Chinese anxiety over NATO encroaching into their neighborhoods when the need — or desire, in the case of Georgia and/or Ukraine — arises. It also allows for NATO involvement in regional security solutions in the […]

In his address during the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue late last month in Washington, President Barack Obama personally appealed to the visiting senior Chinese officials for assistance in achieving his nuclear nonproliferation agenda. Based on the speech Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi made on Aug. 12 at the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament, it appears that his message was only partly received. Yang made clear that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) would provide only limited assistance with respect to several of the most important U.S. goals. President Obama stressed the need for concerted action with respect to curbing the […]

We hear a lot of talk nowadays about the structural imbalance in global trade: namely, the West needs to spend less and export more (Germany excluded) and the East needs to export less and spend more (China especially). What we don’t talk about much are the structural deficits that currently stand in the way of rising Asia’s collective ascension to the role of established third pillar of global order. Instead, we place too much hope on China’s unique abilities to scale that mountain on its own, while simultaneously fearing that Beijing’s resulting ambitions will ultimately prove globally destabilizing. Ever since […]

Globalization, this piece from 2point6billion reminds us, has regional escape valves when the rules get tougher to negotiate at the global level. I think the attractiveness of regional common markets will also be reinforced as shipping costs rise due to energy scarcity. And even if buying useless bric-a-brac from countries with cheap labor costs halfway across the world continues to make for a cheaper bottom line, eventually rationing in terms of national security priorities will kick in. Interestingly, while the EU and China-ASEAN free markets seem like win-win situations for all the economies involved, the U.S. attempt to extend NAFTA-CAFTA […]