Don't get me wrong. I'm very much of a Western pro-democracy type of mentality. But I really think Taiwan's president is using his version of "democracy" to create chaos and to agitate the mainland.

Continue »

China learns from the outside world fast. There have been Chinese versions of the American Idol show, The Apprentice, etc. But if you ask what shows have been most popular, I'd say they have always been series and soap operas set in imperial China. At the moment, for example, it's the 80-episode TV series about the second emperor in the Tang Dynasty.

Continue »

I remember when I worked for the U.S. State Department to receive visitors from China, there was always confusion on the Chinese side. They don't understand why the U.S. government includes legislative and judicial branches. For them, the word government (or Zhengfu in Chinese) is equal to the word "administration." And in their view, naturally a mayor holds the higher position and supervises a judge. The Chinese were shocked to see that in some American cities, the city hall is modest and small, with few steps and columns. Americans, for their part, were often equally shocked to see a twenty-something Chinese woman with no college degree being a municipal judge.

Continue »

People often mention Tibet and Xinjiang when talking about ethnic and religious conflict. But if you ask most people within China how view this issue, you might get the response that there is not much ethnic conflict in our country at all.

Continue »

Can a developing country colonize other developing countries? The Chinese would definitely call its presence in Africa friendship and cooperation rather than colonization, a word they are very sensitive about. Having been half-colonized by Western powers for a long time, the Chinese know very well not to impose their values on Africans and not to hurt African nations’ pride when they come to their countries. So we see this approach: “Buddies, let’s help each other and do business!”

Continue »