‘May You Live in Interesting Times’
December 30, 2016
School of Contemporary China Studies Assistant Professor David O’Brien looks ahead to what the Year of the Rooster might hold for China. There is a well-known supposed Chinese blessing that is in fact a curse – ‘may you live in interesting times’. Whether it will turn out to be a blessing or a curse it …
Donald Trump and China
November 18, 2016
By Emmanuelle Lazzara, PhD Candidate. From the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Nottingham UK. “It’s not like I’m anti-China. I just think it’s ridiculous that we allow them to do what they’re doing to this country, with the manipulation of the currency, that you write about and understand, and all …
No Escaping from the Thucydides Trap
October 9, 2015
By Flair Donglai Shi, World Literatures in English (MSt) at University of Oxford. The whole the-rise-of-china-and-power-shift discussion has been heated up again since Xi Jinping’s first visit to the US as the president of PRC, despite its presence in the American media having been largely hijacked by the visit of the Pope. At the end …
Fighting Extremism in Iraq or Political ‘Free-Riding’?
August 18, 2014
By Dr David O’Brien, Assistant Professor, School of Contemporary Chinese Studies, The University of Nottingham Ningbo China. As America seems once again pulled into the mire in Iraq, President Barack Obama has hit out at what he describes as China’s ‘free-riding’ in that beleaguered land. Not surprisingly this had provoked an angry reaction in China, …
Another economic milestone but does it actually mean anything?
January 25, 2014
By Dr. David O’Brien, Assistant Professor, School of Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. In a matter of weeks China is very likely to surpass the United States and officially become the world’s leading trading nation. According to official figures the value of China’s imports and exports in 2013 reached $4.16 …