The geopolitical determinist would argue that the stage for the 1962 border dispute was set from the start; because the north-east and north-west extremities of India’s Himalayan border with China lacked buffer states, the two would eventually come into conflict. However, this oversimplifies the events that led to war. Domestic politics and national pride played a key role in China’s decision to go to war in 1962. The border conflict was far from inevitable.

The strong correlation between imports and exports of sophisticated products demonstrates that China imports unfinished sophisticated parts from other East Asian countries, and then it simply assembles the parts without adding much value in this portion of the production chain.

K’ang hsi is considered one of the greatest emperors in Chinese history because he paved the road for the Qing Dynasty’s most stable and prosperous time for the next 100 years. In The Sacred Edict, K’ang hsi does a good job of portraying his ideal hierarchical and collective society, which reflects Confucian values. The Sacred Edict hints us clues how the informal institution in China has been implemented.

This article is an excerpt from The China Brief, reprinted here with the permission of the Forum for Chinese American Exchange at Stanford (FACES). FACES is an international organization dedicated to promoting constructive, bilateral US-China relations in the global community by fostering personal relationships and mutual understanding among future leaders in the US and China. Please find the original article at: http://faces.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/

Though the emerging superpower contender was relatively late to embrace the Internet phenomenon, a tremendous amount of web development has occurred in recent years. Despite the potential benefit of the Internet to its billion-plus denizens, the Chinese Communist Party has created one of the world’s foremost web sentry systems – the Golden Shield Project.

As the city gains diversity but loses its own national identity, its individuals lose their own sense of identity. As the market economy influences the city to adopt the impersonal exchange model, the individuals become increasingly alienated from their fellow citizens.

[Ending US arm sales to Taiwan] sacrifices none of the major U.S. goals in the Taiwan Strait and eliminates all the unpleasant consequences. The U.S. would avoid escalating the arms race with China and at the same time protect itself from Taiwanese entrapment and shirking.

I’m going to be frank—I don’t have any elaborate theories lined up, and I’m hesitant to offer any kind of bold predictions. Instead, I hope to offer a perspective or two from my own experiences.

As the People’s Republic of China pursues its quest for economic success and influence, its policy of focusing on the economy while adopting a non-threatening appearance should last well into the 21st century. However, despite Beijing’s attempts at ensuring a peaceful rise to power, the future of China will not be as unobstructed as the leadership would like.

How did American newspapers portray the Beijing Olympics before and after the IOC’s decision? More specifically, did they cover the Olympics in a positive, negative, mixed, or neutral light, and why?