Every week, The Diplomat’s editorial team scours the web to find the best material on all things China. From Beijing’s relations with its neighbors and growing military might, to a rapidly evolving economy and amazing arts and culture, we present a diverse grouping of articles for your reading pleasure.
Here are our top picks for this week. What did we miss? Want to share an important article with other readers? Please submit your links in the comment box below!
Just when Hollywood’s luck in China seemed to be improving, the Global Times warns Hollywood and foreign film makers to expect another chilling summer in China as the “domestic movie protection month” that was established last year is set to have a repeat performance. On the other hand, Deadline reports that Superman: Man of Steel will hit theaters in China on June 20, about a week after its release in the U.S. and many other markets around the world.
Michael Pettis has a new article in McKinsey Quarterly examining who will be the winners and losers of China’s transition from an investment to a consumption driven economy. Meanwhile, Dealbook recounts some of the vexing challenges foreign investors face in China under the current system. The European Union is also going forward with sanctions against China’s solar panels, albeit, significantly watered down ones initially. The New York Times has the story.
The U.S. and China plan to step up their cooperation on climate change, with Xie Zhenhua, vice-minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, telling reporters last Friday that “Climate change will become a new highlight of the Sino-U.S. bilateral relationship.”
Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Chen Guangcheng pen a joint op-ed arguing that Xi Jinping’s Chinese Dream “cannot become a reality without social and political reform.” Veteran American China watcher, Robert Lawrence Kuhn, is the latest voice to weigh in on what Xi's Dream actual is.
Over at Tea Leaf Nation, Ashley Sun gives a history of the constitutionalism debate in the People’s Republic of China.
Venezuela state-owned oil producer, Petroleos de Venezuela SA, signed a US$4.02 billion loan agreement this week with China’s Development Bank Corp to increase production at a heavy oil joint venture in Venezuela’s Orinoco belt, Bloomberg News reports. During President Xi Jinping’s visit to Costa Rica, China also announced it would be floating that country US$1.5 billion to upgrade an oil refinery in the major shipping port of Limón. The loan, which is mostly financed by credit from the CDB, will allow the refinery to increase its production from 18,000 barrels of crude a day to 65,000 barrels of crude oil a day. Costa Rica itself doesn’t produce oil but is a shipping hub for countries that do.