April 25,
2014

ISSUE
No. 6

AMS Weekly Newsletter
Supporting the development of the future stewards of U.S.-China relations
大家好!
Welcome to this week's issue! As always, please forward to your friends/students/哥们 and click the link at the end of this newsletter to support us with a tax-deductible contribution (we are working hard to reduce your tax burden!). 

Weekly Readings
 
The Congressional fights in the 1990s over granting China Most Favored Nation status, Permanent Normal Trade Relations, and WTO ascension were some of the biggest fights in U.S.-China relations. Economic relations continue to be an important and, at times, controversial part of U.S.-China relations. The WTO's recent ruling on Chinese manipulation of rare earth metals should put to rest whether China did, in fact, toy with the markets (possibly to spite Japan) from 2010. Watching how the WTO ruling and appeal process unfolds--and how Beijing draws lessons--will play out alongside a U.S. effort to reinvigorate Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations and the economic aspects of "rebalancing toward Asia." 

"China to Appeal WTO Rare Earth Ruling," Reuters, April 17, 2014

"稀土案给我们哪些启示?" China Environment Online, April 14, 2014

"WTO判中国限制稀土出口政策违规 美国'乘胜'上诉," Observer, April 16, 2014

"WTO Backs China," Beijing Review, April 24, 2014

Kurt Campbell and Ely Ratner, "Far Eastern Promises: Why Washington Should Focus on Asia," Foreign Affairs, April 19, 2014 
Language-learning Resources
 
One of our favorite language-learning resources is
tunein radio. They have live radio from all over China and apps for mobile devices as well. Worth a listen while commuting on your 飞鸽 or over your lunch of 盒饭. 
Weibo Watch
 
Our Chief Weibo Watcher is still on vacation, so we focus again this week on news affecting Weibo instead of what is trending (though they are actually one and the same this week). 

 

20 articles, 2 videos...that was the total of inappropriate content count found on Weibo's parent company Sina's website. This resulted in the following note being posted to Sina's site (and their NASDAQ shares drop from $57 to $48):

用户你好,近日新浪读书频道出现涉嫌不良内容作品,为维护洁净网络环境,频道决定暂时关闭作品内容,开始进行自查自纠行动,将针对个人作者和第三方团签的不良作品筛查清理,结束后恢复上线,敬请谅解!  

 

俗语 in Xi Jinping's speeches

三思而后行 
sān sī �r h�u x�ng

Translation: Think twice before you act (actually "think thrice")

讲话情景:席习近平2013年10月7日在印度尼西亚巴厘岛出席亚太经合组织工商领导人峰会并发表题为《深化改革开放 共创美好亚太》

Explanation: With President Obama in Asia, we thought we would return to Xi in Asia for this week's post. Xi Jinping gave a speech last fall at the APEC meeting in Indonesia that focused on China's prospects for reform. Xi stressed that reform was going to happen in all areas, but that this would not be haphazard; rather it would be well planned and well thought out. 三思而后行 is a useful phrase, originally from 论语, that you should be able to incorporate into your vocab.

Original quotation: 中国是一个大国,决不能在根本性问题上出现颠覆性错误,一旦出现就无法挽回、无法弥补。我们的立场是胆子要大、步子要稳,既要大胆探索、勇于开拓,也要稳妥审慎、三思而后行。我们要坚持改革开放正确方向,敢于啃硬骨头,敢于涉险滩,敢于向积存多年的顽瘴痼疾开刀,切实做到改革不停顿、开放不止步。
 
Documentary of the Week
 
This week's documentary covers the early history of U.S.-China relations from Ambassador John Leighton Stuart to the Nixon-Kissinger opening and normalization. In addition to academic experts, former officials instrumental to the process, like Huang Hua, are interviewed. It is a well-told story of change, and one can only hope to see a similar documentary to cover the 1980s and 1990s. 

《中美外交档案解密》 Complete Series

Episode by Episode:
http://tv.sohu.com/20120518/n343548421.shtml
 
 
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