The Londoner

BEIJING — Richer and more assertive since the last American presidential campaign , China is looking at the harsh anti-Chinese sentiment being expressed by both candidates with a mixture of aloofness and unease. The Chinese say they are accustomed to China-bashing during the American election season , but there is growing concern among government officials, business executives and academics here that this time the attitude toward China among the American public and politicians is so hot it may not cool after Election Day. From accusations of unfair trade practices to a discussion of whether it is proper for the candidates to have investments in Chinese companies, the word “China” came up 22 times, and always negatively, in the debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney last week. In the final presidential debate Monday night, when foreign policy will be the main subject, China is likely to be a center of attention again.

LIANGJIAHE, China — If every modern president needs a creation myth, then Xi Jinping's begins on the dusty loess plateau of northwest China. It was here that Xi spent seven formative years, working among the peasants and living in a lice-infested cave dug into the silty clay that extends around the Yellow River. Gradually, the selfless peasants and the unforgiving "Yellow Earth" -- a term for China's land that symbolizes relentless toil and noble sacrifice -- transformed this pale, skinny, and nervous-looking teenager into the man who in November will take control of the world's second-most powerful country. "When I arrived at the Yellow Earth, at 15, I was anxious and confused," wrote Xi in 1998, by which time he was working his way to the top of the CommunistParty hierarchy in the prosperous coastal province of Fujian.  "When I left the Yellow Earth, at 22, my life goals were firm and I was filled with confidence." When Xi desc

China is on course to becoming a superpower - but not in the way many expect, writes economist Martin Jacques. Beijing these days is positively throbbing with debate. It may not have the trappings of a western-style democracy, but it is now home to the most important and interesting discussions in the world. When I addressed an audience of young Chinese diplomats at their foreign ministry a year ago, it was abundantly clear that a fascinating debate is under way about what kind of foreign policy might be appropriate for the global power China is in the process of becoming. What will China be like as a superpower? You might think it is already - it is not. Its military power is puny compared with that of the US. While America has 11 aircraft carriers, China only commissioned its first last month - based on, of all things, a Ukrainian hull. And its global political influence is still extremely limited. The only sense in which China is a superpower is economic

While China’s rather gentle slowdown is coming to an end, there remains the problem of finding a sustainable growth model. By David Turner Thursday saw a palpable sense of relief in global markets that China’s rather gentle slowdown is coming to an end.  Gross domestic product (GDP) growth fell 0.2 percentage points to 7.4 percent year on year in the third-quarter — the slowest pace in three years. However, Zhiwei Zhang, China economist at Nomura in Hong Kong, said, “The September data indicates economic momentum has picked up strongly compared with July and August.” He added that the September numbers “reinforce our view that growth will rebound sharply in Q4.” Industrial production growth accelerated by 0.3 percentage points to 9.2 percent in September. Growth in fixed-asse

With Beijing only 14 hours by air from New York, it's hard to imagine today just how far away China was in the age of sail. A round-trip voyage could easily take 18 months, and many ships simply vanished, lost at sea. But China was the world's foremost industrial power in the 17th and 18th centuries, the source of porcelain and silk as well as increasingly popular tea. There were huge profits to be made in the China trade. As Eric Jay Dolin points out in his entertaining, informative and highly readable book "When America First Met China: An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs, and Money in the Age of Sail," the 13 colonies took no part in this business. The British East India Co. had a monopoly on trade with China, and only in February 1784, the year after a peace treaty with Britain established American independence, did direct links between the United States and China begin. When America First Met China By Eric Jay Dolin

By Robert Bickers As China reclaims its central role in the world, Robert Bickers appeals to Britons and others in the West to take account of the legacy left by the country’s difficult 19th century. A Troublesome Egg to Hatch by J.S. Pughe, a satire from 1901 on the European powers’attempts to exploit China as the US and Japan look on. One recent late November, I took a stroll through the grounds of the Yuanmingyuan, the ‘Old Summer Palace’, just north of the Peking University campus in the north-west corner of that sprawling city. This one is a big site, forested and landscaped, and generally lacks the crowds of tourists that converge on the new Summer Palace, the Yiheyuan complex, located a mile to the west, which surrounds the vast Kunming Lake. The Yuanmingyuan is a complex of gardens, lakes and islands built during the 18th century as a private resort for the Manchu emperors of the Qing dynasty. It is a beautiful spot, perfect for escape on a chilly mo

By ARIEL COHEN AS members of the Russian punk-rock band Pussy Riot appeal their two-year prison sentence for a political protest in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, a pale of repression is settling over their country. This crackdown is wrapped in legislative garb, but the iron grip of authoritarianism is unmistakable. Vladimir Putin’s tightening of the screws is a part of a broader pattern, which includes a return to confrontation with the United States and NATO. The United States must specifically recognize that its “reset” policy of see no evil, hear no evil has contributed to the trampling of human rights in Russia. Moscow is cozying up to China, supporting the Assad regime in Syria and ignoring the Iranian nuclear race. The Kremlin is hard at work to create a sphere of influence along its periphery and a “pole” in the multipolar world that would stand up to Washington. Recent developments have an unmistakably fla

In keeping with their post-Soviet realpolitik, Russian officials consistently voice support for NATO’s Afghanistan mission. After all, they  do n’t want  NATO forces to withdraw from Afghanistan too soon for fear that the Afghan War burden will be dumped on them.  But should the alliance’s stabilization effort succeed, Russians will be the first to demand the departure of Western troops. And in the meantime, Russian officials are determined to constrain NATO’s military presence in Eurasia by making it dependent on Moscow’s goodwill. Until recently, most NATO non-lethal supplies bound for Afghanistan were routed through Karachi. But with  the  closure  of the Pakistani route since late November 2011, almost all NATO supplies now enter Afghanistan via the so-called Northern Distribution Network (NDN).  Read the full story here. 

Not only did the now-disgraced Bo Xilai revive Cultural Revolution songs in Chongqing, where he was the Communist Party committee chair, his dramatic political downfall seemed to have ignited a renewed interest in the cultural revolution, that ignominious decade in modern Chinese history. Much of this new interest came from Premier Wen Jiabao's surprising comments at the conclusion of China's National People's Congress, in which he  warned about  history repeating itself if reforms are not carried out. But it is more than just Wen's words. The new cohort of leaders -- Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, and Bo Xilai too -- are all children of that revolution, having watched their families and communities torn apart by brutish and senseless politics. Despite their pedigrees and "royal" backgrounds, both Xi and Bo's fathers were publicly humiliated in "struggle sessions" that sought to instill ideological purity, whatever that meant. Families and friends

The thaw in cross-Strait relations during Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou’s first term was unprecedented – but the honeymoon period may soon be over. The rapid expansion of ties between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) governments were established through seven rounds of bilateral talks, 16 agreements, and one “consensus” on cross-Strait investments. Concomitantly, people-to-people exchanges have increased exponentially as the two sides negotiate terms of engagement. But while the KMT and CCP agree upon the need to institutionalize cross-Strait ties on the basis of the so-called “ 1992 Consensus ,” other sensitive political issues were shelved in the interim. Now, despite the bilateral public displays of camaraderie by political leaders, who tout the positive-positive gains of engagement, the deeply rooted political distrust that Presidents Ma and Hu Jintao brushed aside during the past four years is quickly coming to the fore. Read the full