McG Comparative Government

On Christmas day, Qian Yunhui was rolled over by a truck in the middle of a busy street in Yuequing, China. Although the Chinese police and state media reported that the incident was a traffic accident, their strong front has not been able to silence suspicions. The internet has allowed Chinese citizens to voice their [...]

Dependence on China: The indispensable economy? Forbes.Com Powerful People 2010: This week when Forbes recognized the President of the People’s Republic of China as the most powerful person in the world, they recognized China’s development as an economic powerhouse. Hu Jintao met all four of Forbes’ defining criteria of power: 1.       Whether the person has [...]

Nobel Peace Laureate’s Wife Remains Under House Arrest Steven Jiang This year the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded with a stronger message than just a prestigious acknowledgment. When sitting in jail last Friday, Liu Xiaobo’ wife informed him that he won the Nobel Peace Prize. Lui Xiaobo is a pro-democracy Chinese political activist, who was [...]

Chinese Advocate of Quake Victims Sentenced Over E-Mails REUTERS Tanm Zueron, a political activist in China, was sentenced to 5 years in prison for “inciting suberversion of state power”. The evidence: Zueron’s emails from 1989 remarking on the Tianamen Square Massacre. This is not a case that just popped up spontaneously after 11 years. The [...]

Thomas Friedman’s editorial in the New York Times caught my attention for several reasons. First, it uses much of the vocabulary that we’ve been using in recent weeks. Second, and much more important, it compares China and the United States and raises a question that near and dear to the comparative course: which state is best prepared [...]

China Fortifies State Businesses to Fuel Growth Michael Wines The Chinese government’s role in their economy can be summed up in four words: “guo jin, min tui”. This simple phrase has become a saying in China, meaning “the state advances, the private sector retreats”. Similar to the US, China has suffered from an economic recession. [...]

So which form of government produces the best economy? That’s debatable when you consider China and India. As David Kestenbaum writes, “Democracy moves slowly. People debate things. Infrastructure — roads, water, power — remains underdeveloped. The Chinese government doesn’t have endless parliamentary debates and legal battles. It doesn’t ask a lot of questions. It does [...]

Things are getting interesting. Get the lowdown here: CNN Science Blog

This is a really interesting article in the New York Times about freedom of the press in China. In recent months, China has reined in the press but they are finding the task complicated by the Internet. According to a Chinese media commentator, ““When the government tries to contain something, it could achieve the opposite [...]

By Helen In July of 2009, riots were started between Uyghurs (Muslim minority) and Han Chinese (majority) in Xinjian, western China. Though China’s constitution guarantees ethnic minorities equal rights, ethnic tensions are still present as there is discrimination from the majority to the minority.  About 200 people were killed in these riots. Uyghurs were even [...]