Due to the difficulty some people had signing up on our website over the last couple days we are extending the Fellows Program deadline one more day to Saturday Oct. 22. For those that have yet to apply, get on it!
Weekly Readings
The cracks appearing in China's economic facade over the last 18 months have invited analysts to pile on. Pei Minxin's latest book describes China's corruption problem as "rapacious crony capitalism" driving the decay of the Chinese Communist Party and the country's eventual political collapse. In a larger sense, what does it matter until the day if and when the party breaks down completely? How does the corruption affect the United State
s or U.S.-China relations? Interactions between the two countries seem to proceed apace in both the public and private sectors even with the friction caused by corruption. How does domestic Chinese corruption impact international behavior? These are some of the questions Pei leaves unanswered but he provides a lot of data from which one begin to think more about the "so what?" of Chinese corruption.
For a series of other essays by David Shambaugh, Mike Lampton, Jeffrey Wasserstrom, and Orville Schell, see: https://twq.elliott.gwu.edu/
俗语 in Xi Jinping's Speeches
树大根深
shù dà gēn shēn
Meaning: a big tree with deep roots (an influential person or organization)
On October 16 Xi Jinping gave a speech in Goa at the BRICS Summit. In the speech he recognized that the global economy presented a challenging environment and headwinds for the BRICS countries, and warned of growing protectionist attitudes and anti-globalization.
There are a few other chengyus in the original sentence below as well.
When he's not at his day job as editor of the bilingual environmental website China Dialogue, Ma Tianjie blogs about Chinese social media at Chublic Opinion. Ma is one of the most astute analysts of Weibo and WeChat phenomena right now, earning him a second appearance this week on the Sinica podcast. Listen to him talk about three major social media events from the summer at
This month 80 years ago, the Red Army arrived in Yan'an, marking the end of the Long March. This week's video interviews several Long Marchers about their early experiences in what would become the People's Liberation Army. Many, like one of those interviewed, joined as young teenagers. Although the program is filled with over-the-top slogans, their experiences hardly could be called part of a normal childhood.
If you appreciate the effort we put into organizing Chinese-language policy events, providing robust language and policy resources on our website, and the kind of content you see in this newsletter, please consider
supporting us with a tax-deductible contribution--every bit helps!
The American Mandarin Society is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.