Chen Gang a Dark Horse to Lead China’s Strategic Technoindustrial Policy

Advertisement In the 1990s and early 2000s, China’s economic trajectory centered on catch-up industrial policy focused on construction, heavy industry, and manufacturing-led GDP growth. China’s technoindustrial policy for the 2020s maintains that reliance on manufacturing but focuses on high-technology production and consumer markets constructed from a hybrid of domestic and Belt and Road markets. This science and technology-driven technoindustrial policy is focused on innovation, soft platforms, hard networks, and advanced manufacturing. But it is essentially the same industrial policy model, albeit with fiber-optics as the new cement, social media platforms…

North Korea and China vow to strengthen cooperation on their border

According to Chinese customs data, Chinese shipments to North Korea rose to US$16.8 million in July from US$12.3 million in June. That was still less than 10 per cent of the total shipments made in July 2019, months before the pandemic. Advertisement However, there have been signs that the two sides are seeking closer ties amid pressure from the US. Ri, a former deputy premier in charge of trade who was named North Korea’s ambassador in February, said in an interview with Global Times earlier in August that the US…

Why is China’s celebrity-obsessed fan culture so out-of-control?

Calls for authorities to crack down on obsessive celebrity stalkers, who are often referred to as “sasaeng” in China, a word borrowed from Korean, for fans who take their adulation too far, have grown ever louder. Advertisement Last month police in China arrested two obsessed fans by placing an illegal tracking device on a rented car he was using. The pair used the device to follow 23-year-old Wang around Beijing and monitor his daily movements which they then sold to other obsessed fans seeking his location. It was only after…