Tea Leaf Nation

It has been billed as the answer to rampant property speculation, local government reliance on revenue raising through land sales, and even income inequality. But a recent announcement from Finance Minister Xie Xuren, giving further details on China’s property tax reform, has been greeted with contempt by some observers in China’s blogosphere. The reforms would [...]

[Please enjoy this Tea Leaf Nation bilingual brew. The article is first shown in English, and then in the original Chinese. 亲爱的读者，欢迎享受我们的 “双语茗茶”。英文翻译在上，中文原文在下。] Li Qinghong was a real estate businessman who had his start in the mining industry. On March 25, 2010, he was sentenced by the City Court in Guiyang, the capital of southwestern [...]

First it was the prodigal melon; now it’s the airborne pepper. On Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter, a discussion recently erupted about potential high-leader-in-waiting Wang Yang after a university student in Guangdong (@思想聚焦) recalled a 2006 story in which Mr. Yang threw a farm-fresh pepper at a subordinate. As the story goes, while party chief of Chongqing [...]

Shhhh…don’t type that name! “Chongqing” (重庆, which literally means “double celebration”), is currently not searchable on either the Sina or Tencent versions of China’s Twitter-like Weibo platforms. It is searchable on Sohu Weibo, which perhaps merely proves China’s government no longer much cares about Sohu Weibo. For the uninitiated, Chongqing is the city whose Party [...]

Is the treatment of Bo Xilai–China’s former contender for high office, now in detention as he and his wife are investigated respectively for corruption and murder–a victory for the rule of law? Or selective enforcement? Netizens are making their opinions clear: It’s the latter. On April 19, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported (in both [...]

Hear that sound? That’s the other shoe, crashing to the floor. After hours of speculation about “major news” concerning Bo Xilai, the charismatic and ambitious former Communist Party chief of Chongqing ultimately laid low by his own right-hand man, the news came. At 11:00 p.m. sharp on April 10, an official Xinhua account on Sina [...]

Did Bo Guagua, the 24-year old son of Bo Xilai, inadvertently destroy his father’s career? Major international outlets have reported that the suspicious death of Neil Heywood, a Brit who had been described as Guagua’s English teacher, mentor, or “male nanny,” is a key element that contributed to Bo Xilai’s political downfall. As early as [...]

Coverage of state visits in Chinese media is usually as exciting as watching ice melt. But sometimes such coverage, or the lack thereof, can offer a tantalizing glimpse into the fortunes of the political elite. One recent news item in the Chongqing media has been much discussed in the Chinese blogosphere as a possible indicator [...]

Can one man outwit a Kafkaesque system? Attorney Li Zhuang was prosecuted for instigating false testimony and obstruction of justice as a defense attorney of a gangster in 2009. The case was widely seen as a way to intimidate all criminal defense attorneys in China. Mr. Li was convicted in the first trial after engaging in a [...]