APDS Blogger: David Mandel

BEIJING. So the first thing is that it is big, bigger than you thought, though you imagined it to be very big. Big in an almost surprising way, such that you are taken aback but not so much that you cannot rationalize it, because, after all, you knew it would be.

A little more than a week after journalists at Southern Weekly, one of China’s most daring newspapers, clashed with propaganda authorities in southern China’s Guangdong province over alleged censorship of a New Year’s editorial, China watchers are still trying to suss out what the conflict — which inspired anti-censorship protests both online and in the streets — means for the future of media in China.

Over the past two years, the Obama administration has focused greater diplomatic attention and military resources on East Asia as part of a policy described as a "pivot" or "rebalancing." While American leaders are loath to admit it publicly, this is a response to China's growing influence, particularly Beijing's territorial claims around its borders.

As part of their growing competition for influence in Asia, China and India are using the Buddha as weapon: sponsoring conferences, financing religious sites, and displaying relics in countries where the religion is widely adhered to.

Although China's public diplomacy efforts have run into obstacles over the years, great progress has still been made, international students and Chinese experts said at a recent roundtable in Beijing. Nine University of Southern California (USC) students majoring in public diplomacy also participated in this meeting.

The NIC foresees a transformed world, in which “no country — whether the US, China, or any other large country — will be a hegemonic power.” This reflects four “megatrends”: individual empowerment and the growth of a global middle class; diffusion of power from states to informal networks and coalitions; demographic changes, owing to urbanisation, migration, and aging; and increased demand for food, water and energy.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Tuesday said that promoting relations with Russia is a priority for Chinese diplomacy as he met with a Russian delegation in Beijing.
Xi, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, told Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev that China will continue to push forward a bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination.

In 2006, a 5-year-old captive-bred giant panda named Xiang Xiang ("Lucky") was released into the wild — the first of his kind to make that transition. Ten months later, he was dead. Chinese wildlife officials reported at the time that it appeared Xiang Xiang had suffered fatal internal injuries after being attacked by other wild-born male pandas in a battle for food and territory.