- Analysis & Opinion
China’s rise: Why worry?
Brian Hennessy. Chongqing, China. October 3, 2009 Will China become a great power? Why the West should not worry. It’s not time to hit the panic button yet. It is time however, to pause and reflect on the values which have made the West strong, and to ask ourselves whether or not these values have [...]
Culture, Philosophy, and Government.
Brian Hennessy. Chongqing, China. October 13, 2009 Chinese Culture, Western Philosophies, and Government. No matter how much westerners may dislike the communist system and its tentacles which infiltrate almost every aspect of daily life in the Middle Kingdom, China’s rise confronts us with an inconvenient truth: maybe this is the best system for governing China [...]
Chinese Peoples Political Consult Conf.
Brian Hennessy. Chongqing, China. October, 2009. The Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) 2009 The Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) was formed on 21 September 1949, and was meant to be composed of people who represented the various sectors of Chinese society. Its original aim was for it to be an instrument of cooperation [...]
Chongqing: the big cleanup.
Brian Hennessy. Chongqing, China. September 2009 Chongqing: the big cleanup. Chongqing has the potential to become a hub for tourism in the greater southwest region of China. However, this potential is not being realised. Tourists don’t stay in Chongqing for long. They just regard Chongqing as a place to board a vessel for their trip [...]
We live in interesting times.
Brian Hennessy. Chongqing, China. January 1, 2009 What will 2009 bring to China? How will the economic crisis affect China and her relations with the rest of the world? Although I don't pretend to have all the answers, as an expatriate who has lived and worked in China for five years now, I figure that [...]
China: Credit where it is due.
Brian Hennessy. Chongqing, China. June 3, 2009 Give credit where it is due. Whether the West likes it or not, and whether the Chinese people like it or not, the reality is that China is a one-party state that we (and they) must live with for the forseeable future. So let’s separate politics from government [...]
Prediction: a risky business.
Brian Hennessy. Chongqing, China. June 2009. Prediction: a risky business. Economics is often called the dismal science. Now I understand why. The proposition that economics is a science is on very shaky ground indeed. Those economists who analyse data and make predictions are too often wrong. Reason enough for this pejoritive moniker. So let me release a little [...]
Misty-eyed westerners need a Tibetan history lesson (2008)
Recent commentary in the international media on the pre-Olympics riots in Tibet is typical of most western reporting in this part of the world: surface-level observations which do not do justice to a complex historico-political situation. In the long run, such facile commentary will do nothing to help Tibetan people achieve their goal of cultural [...]
Watching CCTV and reading between the lines.
Brian Hennessy. Chongqing, China. July 27, 2009 Watching CCTV and reading between the lines. A couple of days ago on CCTV9, China’s only English language TV station that is beamed to the West, there was a short story on China’s diplomats who had returned to Beijing for a conference. No doubt, the bad press that [...]
China, iron-0re, and Australia: killing a chicken to frighten the monkeys.
Brian Hennessy. Chongqing, China. July 16, 2009 China, iron-ore, and Australia: killing a chicken to frighten the monkeys. Corruption in China. A controversial topic. A reality that should be acknowledged and discussed in the open, regardless of what damage it might do to China’s sensitive face. The arrest of Rio Tinto’s man in China, Mr Stern [...]