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Weekly Readings Monday
The ambitious reform agenda put forward by Xi Jinping for reforming the Chinese political-economic system while achieving the "Chinese Dream" raises the question of whether Xi actually can pull it off. Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao seemed to have similar grand designs that crashed in the face of entrenched interests inside and outside the party. This week's readings include perspectives on reform from Western analysts, a senior officer from the People's Liberation Army, and a leading Chinese commentator. They address different aspects of reform, raising the question of whether Chinese leaders appreciate the problems they face.
"Inside Xi Jinping's Reform Strategy," The National Interest, March 20, 2014
刘亚洲, "改革需要坚强的领导核心," People's Daily, March 19, 2014
胡舒立, "年度GDP目标还重要吗," Caixin, March 14, 2014
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Language Learning Resources
FluentU is a great language tool for learners of all levels. The website collects short videos, organizes them by topic and proficiency level, and then provides detailed annotations for
each video. You can then use the built-in video player to mark words that you don't know, or repeat sentences that you don't understand. They also have a great publication on 成语. And basic accounts are 免费!
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Weibo Wednesday
The missing Malaysian jetliner situation has gone from being a widely followed news story in China to being a serious challenge to Sino-Malaysian relations. The hash tag#马航飞机失事# has been used over 13 million times in just 18 days. Chinese netizens are deeply upset by the lack of information or evidence about what happened to the flight. Netizens are highly skeptical of the Malaysian government's announcement that flight MH370 went down in the southern Indian Ocean with all lives lost. Many netizens believe that the flight was hijacked and the Malaysian government does not want to admit that it refused to pay the ransom. Watch what netizens are saying here.
Netizens' anger is now being directed against anyone linked to Malaysia, not just the government. For example, Malaysian pop star Jasmine Leong wrote a post on weibo in honor of the victims. The post was immediately bombarded with hundreds of angry comments from netizens accusing Leong of being Kuala Lumpur's puppet. There is even a hash tag dedicated to calling Leong out, which can be seen here. Warning: some of the comments are extremely vulgar.
Travel to Malaysia may also be affected. Weibo BigV and television host Meng Fei (孟非) recently posted that he now refuses to travel to Malaysia. He encouraged people to share his post if they also refuse to travel to Malaysia. The post has been shared almost 160,000 times since it was posted at 7PM last night. Admittedly, many of those sharing the post likely would not have visited Malaysia anyways, but if the post continues to spread it could become a damaging general boycott. The post and comments can be followed here.
Censors have not been deleting or interfering with this public outpouring of frustration and anger, thus it is likely that it will continue to grow. If the situation continues on its present course it is likely that Sino-Malaysian relations will cool significantly and large-scale protests like the ones following Japan's nationalization of the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands may occur.
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俗语 in Xi Jinping's speeches
We break with tradition and bring you a German proverb that Xi used yesterday.
yī
一
g�r�n
个人
nǔl�
努力
sh�
是
jiāfǎ
加法
，
g�ngt�ng
共同
nǔl�
努力
sh�
是
ch�ngfǎ
乘法
Translation: One person's effort is addition, cooperative effort is multiplication.
Explanation: On March 28 Xi Jinping gave a speech in Germany where he quoted this German proverb to stress the importance of Sino-German cooperation.
Original quotation: 习近平28日在同德国总理默克尔共同会见记者时，引用德国谚语说："一个人努力是加法，共同努力是乘法。"他说，中德关系发展到今天，两国务实合作的效应不再是简单的一加一等于二，而是远远大于二。深化中德合作，利在两国，惠及欧洲和世界。
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 Documentary Friday
A number of AMS members had the honor of meeting with Yao Ming today (his public appearance at the Brookings Institution today can be found on CSPAN), so we thought it would be an appropriate time to suggest watching a documentary on someone who continues to serve as an extraordinary ambassador between the U.S. and China.
记忆�姚明 |
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