Coming in the wake of an increasingly petulant North Korea threatening to rain fire and brimstone over East Asia and beyond, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s first official visit to China was only ever going to be about one issue: getting North Korea’s closest thing to an ally to take a tougher stance against [...]
This article also appeared in The Atlantic, a Tea Leaf Nation partner site. On December 9, world anti-corruption day, the government of Guangdong province in Southern China took a step toward something potentially huge. According to China Business Journal, the government selected three counties–Hengqin County of Zhuhai City, Nansha County of Guangzhou City and Shixing [...]
This article also appeared in The Atlantic, a Tea Leaf Nation partner site. What a year it has been on the Chinese Internet. In Chinese politics, 2012 brought a long-anticipated leadership transition at the highest levels, but incoming president Xi Jinping hasn’t dominated the headlines all by himself. A post on Weibo, China’s Twitter, by [...]
Coverage of China in Western media tilts toward the political and economic, so it might surprise some to learn that the top trending terms this summer on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter, have mostly related to the season’s top television hit: The Voice of China. The show has topped charts nationwide every Friday that it has [...]
He’s back! The outspoken and social media-savvy economist Han Zhiguo (@韩志国) left Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter, on February 21, 2012. At that time, he penned a parting shot (translated here) that made clear his departure was anything but voluntary. But on June 17, Han returned to his 3.8-million-plus followers with these words: “How has Sina Weibo [...]
Another one bites the dust. Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter, has lost major voices due to censorship before, including lawyer He Weifang, historian Zhang Ming, activist Yu Jianrong, and economist Han Zhiguo. Yesterday, followers of @作业本 (or Zuoye Ben), a famous microblogger with a handle that literally means “homework book,” awoke to find that their beloved [...]
“Weibo = Freedom of Speech” is a powerful equation. It shows what microblog platforms mean for China today. So what happens after March 16, the day of Weibocalypse, when netizens are required to register with their real identities in order to tweet or comment on all microblog platforms in China? Tea Leaf Nation was interviewed [...]
Han Zhiguo (@韩志国), a social-media savvy economist profiled in these pages, has tweeted his (somewhat depressing) “Five Secrets of the Chinese Economy” on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter: 1. The driving force behind development is the over-issuance of currency. In September the ratio of M2 to GDP was 2.46:1, [while] Europe and the U.S. don’t exceed [...]
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