With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

HNN Hot Topics: China


Left to right: Mao Zedong, Bo Xilai, Xi Jinping, and Hu Jintao. Credit: HNN Staff/Wikipedia.

Table of Contents

  • Related Links
  • News
  • Commentary: Historians
  • Commentary: Media
  • Bo Xilai
  • Related Links

  • HNN Hot Topics: Liu Xiaobo's Nobel Prize
  • HNN Hot Topics: The Olympics
  • News

  • Anti-Japan Sentiment Gains Strength in China (9-23-10)
  • 'Mao's Last Dancer' tiptoes through forgotten history (8-20-10)
  • China Seizes on a Dark Chapter for Tibet (8-10-10)
  • Chairman Mao's grandson proclaims nepotism was key to promotion (8-5-10)
  • Chairman Mao Zedong's grandson, Mao Xinyu, becomes youngest general in China's history (8-3-10)
  • Mongolian neo-Nazis: Anti-Chinese sentiment fuels rise of ultra-nationalism (8-2-10)
  • Chinese archaeologists' African quest for sunken ship of Ming admiral (7-27-10)
  • Taiwan president urges China to use historic free-trade deal to improve relations (7-11-10)
  • China and Taiwan sign a landmark trade deal (6-29-10)
  • Cross-strait relations improving between Taipei and Beijing (6-29-10)
  • China rewrites history of Korean War (6-25-10)
  • Plastic Mao statues outlawed in China (6-22-10)
  • Frank Views from Chinese Historian About Korean War (6-18-10)
  • Shanghai rediscovering its pre-revolutionary heritage, just in time (6-7-10)
  • Tiananmen Square memoir claims China decided to 'spill some blood' (6-5-10)
  • Mothers of Tiananmen Square victims still searching for answers (6-2-10)
  • Professor warnings over conservatism in China (5-18-10)
  • In Search of a Modern Humanism in China (5-13-10)
  • Celebrity Chinese historian severely criticizes Mao on state TV (5-11-10)
  • Chinese president calls for correct view of history (5-9-10)
  • Expo Offers Shanghai a Turn in the Spotlight (4-30-10)
  • A Primer on China from Jeffrey Wasserstrom (4-22-10)
  • Highs and Lows in U.S.-China Relations (4-13-10)
  • China Bars Noted Scholar From Planned Trip to U.S. (4-5-10)
  • Communist Party Needs to Loosen Its Grip in China(3-2-10)
  • Poll shows concern about American influence waning as China's grows (2-25-10)
  • Commentary: Historians

  • Jeffrey Wasserstrom: What Should Obama and Romney Read on China? (9-3-12)
  • Stephen Platt and Jeffrey Wasserstrom: China's Long History of Defying the Doomsayers (8-30-12)
  • Ira Chernus's MythicAmerica: Pentagon Planning for War With China (8-2-12)
  • Thomas Fleming: Channelling George Washington: The End of China's New Class (7-16-12)
  • Jeffrey Wasserstrom: How an American Became a 'Revolutionary' in Mao's China (7-9-12)
  • Ira Chernus's MythicAmerica: U.S.-China Policy: Hiding the Military-Economic Link (7-8-12)
  • James Holmes: China’s Monroe Doctrine (6-20-12)
  • Roderick MacFarquhar: In China, Fear at the Top (5-20-12)
  • Murray Polner: Review of John Paton Davies, Jr.’s “China Hand: An Autobiography” (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012) (4-10-12)
  • Jeffrey Wasserstrom: The Long and the Short of It: Writings on Contemporary China (A Top Ten List for 2011) (12-21-11)
  • Lawrence S. Wittner: Is a Nuclear War with China Possible? (11-28-11)
  • James A. Millward: Being Blacklisted by China, And What Can Be Learned from It (8-24-11)
  • Niall Ferguson: Gloating China, Hidden Problems (8-14-11)
  • Megan Shank and Jeffrey Wasserstrom: China’s High-Speed Crash Leads to Legitimacy Crisis (7-29-11)
  • Timothy Garton Ash: Europe's Crisis is China's Opportunity. No Wonder Nice Mr Wen is on His Way (6-22-11)
  • R. Bin Wong: Why Did China Fall Behind Europe? (5-15-11)
  • Niall Ferguson: Dr. K’s Rx for China (5-15-11)
  • Tom Engelhardt: China as Number One? Don’t Bet Your Bottom Dollar (5-1-11)
  • Diana Lary: China and Japan at War: A Primer (12-19-10)
  • Wada Haruki: Resolving the China-Japan Conflict Over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands (10-31-10)
  • Piers Brendon: Will China Seek Revenge For Its Century of Humiliation at the Hands of the West? (10-20-10)
  • Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom: China’s Attempt at Gaining Soft Power is Tripped Up by Clash Over Human Rights (10-13-10)
  • Willy Lam: Is China Afraid of Its Own People? (9-28-10)
  • Michael Lind: America is Losing the Trade War (9-28-10)
  • Caroline Reeves: Bill and Warren’s Excellent (Chinese) Adventure (9-27-10)
  • Walter Russell Mead: China in the Kaiser's Footsteps (9-26-10)
  • Jeffrey Wasserstrom: Is China Strong or Weak? (9-22-10)
  • Jeffrey Wasserstrom: Three Ways of Looking at the PRC’s Latest Campaigns (9-16-10)
  • Jeffrey Wasserstrom: Foxes, Hedgehogs, and the Latest Crop of Books on Contemporary China (8-22-10)
  • Maura Elizabeth Cunningham and Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom: China Discovers World Expo is No Olympics (8-17-10)
  • Daniel K. Gardner: China's Fight Against Disposable Chopsticks (8-15-10)
  • Jeffrey Wasserstrom: Fear of China is Overblown (7-5-10)
  • Priscilla Hart: The Cuban Embargo, South American Security, and Teaching America's"Officers-In-Training": An Interview with Naval Academy Professor Daniel Masterson (7-5-10)
  • Jeffrey Wasserstrom: What the Foreign Media Misses in Covering China's Labor Unrest (6-18-10)
  • Willy Lam: Shaking Up China's Labor Movement (6-14-10)
  • James W. Loewen: Not Aesopian Enough: A Chinese Publishing Fable (6-9-10)
  • Harold James: China’s Renminbi Seen as a Major Reserve Currency (6-7-10)
  • Jeffrey Wasserstrom: The Anniversary of Tiananmen Square (6-3-10)
  • Jeffrey Wasserstrom: China's Season of Protests (6-1-10)
  • Jeffrey Wasserstrom: Shanghai Illuminations: 1890-2010 (5-1-10)
  • Jeffrey Wasserstrom: Shanghai’s Expo: What Everyone Needs to Know (4-24-10)
  • Jeffrey Wasserstrom: What's the Real Story in China? (4-7-10)
  • Jeffrey Wasserstrom: Going to Philadelphia...With Shanghai on My Mind (3-18-10)
  • Robert Brent Toplin: Decline of a Great Power? (3-7-10)
  • Willy Lam: China's Congressional Concerns (3-2-10)
  • Warren I. Cohen: The China We're Stuck With (2-28-10)
  • Jeffrey Wasserstrom: The Dalai Lama's Visit to D.C.: A Short Interview With Historian A. Tom Grunfeld (2-24-10)
  • Kate Merkel-Hess: As China Beat Heads Into Its Third Year… (2-23-10)
  • Maura Elizabeth Cunningham and Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom: A Tale of Two Presidents in China (2-21-10)
  • Kate Merkel-Hess and Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom: A New Consensus on the Rape of Nanking (2-9-10)
  • Jeffrey Wasserstrom: Big China Books: Enough of the Big Picture (2-8-10)
  • Jeffrey Wasserstrom: “Confucius” and “Avatar” at the Chinese Multiplex (2-7-10)
  • Judith Stein: 'Green' Jobs Go to China, Too (2-4-10)
  • Jeffrey Wasserstrom: China and the U.S.: Too Big to Fail (2-4-10)
  • Geremie R. Barmé: China's Year of Anniversaries (1-20-10)
  • Jeffrey A. Engel: The First Bush Presidency: Made in China (7-27-08)
  • Judith Apter Klinghoffer: Why China Has to Steal Technology (4-25-05)
  • Commentary: Media

  • David Pilling: Japan, China and Their ‘History Problem’ (8-22-12)
  • Martin Jacques: China and Japan ... Two Nations Locked in Mutual Loathing (8-20-12)
  • Melinda Liu: China’s Trials of the Century (8-9-12)
  • Gideon Rachman: China’s Past Needs To Be Rewritten (3-12-12)
  • Winston Lord and Leslie H. Gelb: Nixon’s China Opening, 40 Years Later (2-20-12)
  • Ezra F. Vogel: China Under Deng Xiaoping’s Leadership (9-27-11)
  • Li Datong: Wen Jiabao: The Verdict of History (10-20-10)
  • Robert J. Samuelson: The Makings of a Trade War with China (9-27-10)
  • Robert D. Kaplan: While U.S. is Distracted, China Develops Sea Power (9-26-10)
  • Michael Klare: China, Energy, and Global Power (9-19-10)
  • Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: China’s Young Officers and the 1930s Syndrome (9-7-10)
  • Chrystia Freeland: China's Economic Model Isn't the Answer for the U.S. (8-19-10)
  • The Economist: India and China: A Himalayan Rivalry (8-19-10)
  • Joseph A. Massey and Lee M. Sands: The Yen’s Lesson for the Yuan (8-23-10)
  • Joseph A. Bosco: Straight Talk on Taiwan (8-20-10)
  • David Pilling: China at Number Two ... and Counting (8-18-10)
  • Ross Terrill: Mao Zedong and All That (8-16-10)
  • Terry Lautz: China's Deficit in American Studies (8-12-10)
  • Andy Yee: China Rising ... What Would Mackinder Do? (8-6-10)
  • The Economist: Life of the Party (8-6-10)
  • Xujun Eberlein: The Return of Politically-Charged Chinese Sci-Fi(7-30-10)
  • E. Wayne Merry: Are We Overestimating China’s Superpower Strength? (7-21-10)
  • Temtsel Hao: Mao Zedong in Video-History's Gaze (7-12-10)
  • Jay Mathews: The Myth of Tiananmen (6-4-10)
  • Joseph Nye: China's Century is Not Yet Upon Us (5-18-10)
  • Brett Edkins: China's Undocumented Migrant Problem (5-14-10)
  • Richard Lourie: The Next Round of the Great Game (5-11-10)
  • Adam Minter: China Rules the World at Expo 2010 (4-29-10)
  • Wen Liao: Bismarck’s Lessons for Beijing (4-13-10)
  • James Mann: Behold China: Repressive at Home, Aggressive Abroad, Driving Obama Nuts (3-17-10)
  • Michael Klare: Is the World’s Future Resource Map Tilting East? (4-1-10)
  • Nicolas Berggruen and Nathan Gardels: China May Be More Open to Fundamental Political Reform than the U.S. (3-31-10)
  • Harold Meyerson: A Flawed American Political Model Aids China (3-31-10)
  • Sebastian Mallaby: For Rising China, An Identity Crisis (3-26-10)
  • Martha Cooper: Lusting for Old Shanghai (3-17-10)
  • Ross Terrill: How Not to Gain China's Respect (3-15-10)
  • James Fallows: The Danger of Romanticizing China's Past (3-10-10)
  • Daniel A. Bell: China’s Confucian Alternative to Communism and Democracy (2-24-10)
  • Richard Samuelson: Why China Views Google as a Tool of the U.S. Government (2-22-10)
  • Paul Mozur: China's Self-Defeating Censorship (2-15-10)
  • Robert Samuelson: The Danger Behind China's 'Me First' Worldview (2-15-10)
  • Fareed Zakaria: U.S.-China Growing Pains (2-8-10)
  • Yang Yao: The End of the Beijing Consensus (2-2-10)
  • Ian Buruma: Battling the Information Barbarians (1-29-10)
  • Robert Kaplan: Don't Panic About China (1-28-10)
  • Feng Chongyi: Charter 08: A New Beginning for Chinese Liberalism (1-25-10)
  • Koji Taira: Why China and Japan Can't Agree Who Owns the Diaoyu/ Senkaku Islands (9-04)
  • Bo Xilai

  • Jeffrey Wasserstrom: Motives and Motifs in the Curious Case of Bo Xilai (5-2-12)
  • Jeffrey Wasserstrom: Fact, Fiction and the News Out of China (4-6-12)
  • Damien Ma: Children of the Revolution: The History China's New Leaders Won't Confront (3-27-12)
  • Jamil Anderlini: Wen Lays Ground for Tiananmen Healing 3-20-12
  • Jeffrey Wasserstrom: Red Songs, Black Boxes and the Tale of Bo Xilai (3-19-12)
  • Chris Bray: Strike the Battle Drum of the Great Leap Forward Ever Louder! (12-01-11)
  • Pankaj Mishra: Today Maoism Speaks to the World's Poor More Fluently than Ever (7-19-11)
  • Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom: Hu's Chicago Stop-Over and the Future of US-China Summits (1-20-11)
  • Ross Terrill: Mao Zedong and All That (8-16-10)