The 2011 U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) annual report to Congress has been released. Read the report here (PDF).
China
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Delegation Visit to the United States, May 2011: A Summary of Key Actors and Issues
A U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) backgrounder I authored on Chen Bingde’s PLA delegation visit in May 2011 has been released. Read the article here (PDF).
Beijing, Washington, and the Shifting Balance of Prestige
Remarks to the China Maritime Studies Institute Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr. (USFS, Ret.) 10 May 2011, Newport, Rhode Island The organizers of this conference recruited me to address it because I am a sort of living fossil. As a certified antique, exhumed from the diplomatic strata of the past, they thought I could not avoid having an historical perspective on things. While you were pondering naval matters today, they were sure that I would be contemplating my navel and reminiscing about ancient events. I don’t want to disappoint them, so bear with me as I speak of things as they were forty years ago today – on Monday, the tenth of May 1971. I had then just returned from training in Mandarin and Taiwanese. In the inscrutable wisdom of government personnel systems, this was thought somehow to qualify me to become, among other things, the officer-in-charge of the United States’ virtually non-existent economic interaction with the China mainland. (In all of 1971, bilateral trade came to less than $5 million. We do more trade with China in a single hour now.) Instead of focusing on that not very demanding aspect of my job, on that Monday, forty years ago, I was busy at other things. Like a few other colleagues
The Rise of China’s Eco-cities: A Harbinger of a Sustainable Future?
Originally posted at The Project 2049 Institute. The post assesses the prospects and challenges of China’s eco-city initiative to create sustainable high-density urban living environments. China is harnessing renewable energy resources in an effort to bolster economic growth, accommodate rural-to-urban migration, and promote environmental sustainability. Among bold initiatives is the State Council’s encouragement for the “energetic establishment of eco-provinces, eco-cities, eco-counties and eco-townships.” Eco-cities are new urban development models that aim to balance environmental sustainability and urban life. As of 2009, China had 40 eco-city projects proposed or under development and by 2010, there were as many as 168 projects at various stages of development. Among these is the joint Sino-Singapore Tianjin eco-city project, launched in late-2007, which allows China to capitalize on the expertise of Asia’s greenest city. The Sino-Singapore Tianjin eco-city, located 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Tianjin city center, covers about 30 square kilometers (11.6 square miles), and will consist of 100,000 homes for a population of 350,000 upon its projected completion in 2020. The city would utilize solar and geothermal energy, water desalination and recycling, and several modes of public transportation. Project designers have outlined 26 key performance indicators to measure progress and development on the eco-city. The ambitious project
On Histories and Family
I recently stumbled upon this video of my grandparents’ 80th birthday celebration from May 2009. At the time, I was based in Beijing on my Fulbright, and my parents were visiting China from the U.S. to visit my mother’s side of the family in Nanjing. We had an elaborate dinner at a nice hotel by 玄武湖，Xuanwu Lake, several blocks from my grandparent’s home on 中央路, Zhongyang Lu, one of the main thoroughfares of the (now rapidly expanding and increasingly unfamiliar) city. It was the second time in my lifetime my entire mom’s side of the family had congregated under one roof. The atmosphere was festive: it was loud; there was storytelling and laughter; there was an overabundance of food, drink, and cake (most of which had to be taken home, as pictured below). The dinner also featured the typical birthday customs for celebrating longevity and honoring elders: long life noodles, peaches, and a gold thread hand-embroidered character for “longevity,” 寿 (shòu). It was the classic Chinese dinner party. While the birthday celebration brought everyone physically together, and despite having visited Nanjing numerous times over the years, I had never felt close to my China-based family. Tried as I might, I
The Search for General Tso and Colonel MSG
While I was living in China and visiting the States, my only prerequisite for dining out was absolutely no Chinese food. Part of it because I was missing baked goods, cheeses, and avocados so much that I didn’t have time for Chinese food, which could be acquired cheaply and made deliciously in China upon my return. Now that I have moved back to the U.S., I am often overcome with cravings for hand-pulled noodles or spicy dongpo pork knee (trust me, it’s delicious) or bitter melon. Sichuan pulled noodles (拉面), the perfect way to start your morning (Meishan, Sichuan) A true Sichuanese feast (Meishan, Sichuan) The best mapo tofu I’ve ever had (Chengdu, Sichuan) Despite having a Chinatown, Washington D.C. is not a hub for quality Chinese food. Nevertheless, I scoured the interwebs for anything to tingle my tongue. A friend and I visited Sichuan Pavilion, and we ordered Mapo tofu (麻婆豆腐), garlic paste chicken, and dandan mian (担担面). We ordered in Chinese, and the waiter followed up, “Chinese style or American style?” We answered in sync, “Chinese please.” Followed by the clichéd phrase, “不怕辣怕不辣 (bú pà là, pà bù là, not scared of spicy, scared not spicy enough).” Mapo
Cypermethr–what?
When I was living in China, I knew I had to wash and peel, cut, shave all removable skins from my fruits and vegetables due to the likelihood of pesticides and other carcinogens on them. Upon returning to the States, I foolishly thought I was free from the time-consuming burden of peeling apples, re-washing “pre-washed” spinach. That is, until I stumbled upon whatsonmyfood.org. The realization that it’s not necessarily greener on the other side is slowly setting in.
A Rocky Departure
Yes, that’s right, after saying so time and time again, I have finally left Beijing. My last day in China, Saturday, September 4, was fraught with goodbyes-that-aren’t-really-goodbyes (we all hate finality), frustrations and sadness. In the morning, my friends came over and cleared out my electronics, blankets, sheets, cookware, silverware, dishes, spices, bicycles—anything that wasn’t going in my suitcase. In the afternoon, I cleaned out my Chinese bank account, exchanged everything to USD, and closed the account. Then came the challenges. Challenge #1: Getting my rent deposit back from the landlady Ah, the landlady, someone who is defined by her difficulty to understand and communicate with her tenants. Originally I was going to get my deposit back on Friday, but then she took it back. “What if I give you the money back, and by the time you leave Sunday, the apartment will be broken in half?” I reassured her that if I had lived in the apartment for 9 months without burning the place down, she could trust that I wouldn’t do it in the next 48 hours. Despite my efforts, she refused, citing that upon returning the deposit, I must return the keys and find somewhere else to
Chinese Lessons
If there’s anything I’ve learned in my time here, it’s to get everything down in writing. Whenever I retell the rather inane details of my day to a Chinese friend, followed with “So he promised he would…” The Chinese friend immediately fires back, “You got that down on paper, right?” Usually, I would respond with something about how I could trust the person, that their word is good enough, et cetera. And usually, it was true. However, this last event has changed the way I look at promises made by Chinese people forever. While searching for a new apartment, I stumbled upon a little 50sqm gem right between 东四十条 Dongsishitiao and 东直门 Dongzhimen. I asked the agent whether there was a couch and other furniture included, and he replied, “Yes, of course.” The next day I went in to sign the contract, and asked the landlady when she could move a couch in. She responded, aghast, “I never said there would be a couch!” “But the agent told me that you would provide one? Where am I going to sit?” The bickering continues for several minutes. To which the agent interjects and says, “I will buy you a couch, okay?”
Snow Collectors
Beijing has an incredible response rate to snow. Immediately after the snow lets up, plows make their way down major roads and avenues to prevent traffic catastrophe (as we all know how bad traffic already is in Beijing); people are out on the streets with 13-foot-long sticks and shaking them in trees; and, most interestingly, teams of people are shoveling snow into trucks and carts. Those who usually collect garbage on the streets are instead collecting snow. Now my biggest question is–where do they take the snow?