Journal of International Studies

On October 27, Usmen Hesen, his wife, and his mother crashed their sports-utility vehicle into the Golden Water Bridge by Tiananmen Square. They killed themselves and two bystanders, and injured dozens of others. Chinese officials immediately called it  an act of terrorism . State media  reported that the car contained 400 liters of gasoline, iron rods, two Tibetan knives, and a black flag with extremist messages. Meng Jianzhu, Chief of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), stated that it was an   organized and premeditated plot  instigated by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM). In an op-ed featured in China’s  Xinjiang Daily , Murat Hinayet, the Director of the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences Institute of Philosophy, reflected the official party line. He stated that “ peace-loving people  around the world disdain the ‘East Turkestan Islamic Movement,’ which carried out a well-planned, organiz...

China is rapidly getting older. Three decades ago, only 5 percent of the population was over 65; today, 123 million people, or 9 percent of the population, are over this age. A report released by a government think tank forecasts that  China will become the world’s most aged society in 2030 . Further, by 2050 China’s older population will likely swell to 330 million, or a quarter of its total population. Rapid aging in China has been driven by three distinctive developments. First, robust economic growth over the past decades has been associated with increased average life expectancy in China—from 68 in 1981 to 74 today. Second, the generation of baby boomers (those Chinese born in the 1950s and 1960s) has started to join the older population. Third, the draconian population control policy, introduced in the early 1980s, resulted in an extremely low fertility rate, further increasing the proportion of the older population. Beyond social impacts, population aging affects e...

BEIJING - It was as if a bomb exploded in Saint Peter's Square before a conclave or there was detonation in front of the White House before the presidential inauguration. This is the situation now in China, where a car crashed in Tiananmen Square on Monday at noon, before a Party Plenum that is expected to announce extraordinary reforms.  A vehicle caught fire, killing three occupants of the car and two bystanders and wounding dozens of policemen and passing tourists. Several hours after the event, it was still unknown if it was an accident or an attack. Some witnesses said they heard a blast, but it could have just been the noise of the car slamming against a heavy metal guard-rail at the edge of the square. Others reported that the vehicle rode close to the curb for many yards. The popular Global Daily newspaper wrote it was a suicide car-bomb of Uyghur terrorists, but why three passengers in a suicide car-bomb rather than just one?  In any case, the even...

Some Friday China links: In  the new issue  of  The National Interest , Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer  argues that China  is not headed towards a hard landing in the near term. Bremmer notes that the CCP has built up a lot of political capital with the Chinese people as a result of the stunning growth it has presided over since the reform and opening up period began. At the same time, Bremmer has doubts about the People Republic of China’s long-term viability. The  New York Times  is out with a stunning  new multimedia report  on how the Second Thomas Shoal (Ayungin) has become one of Asia’s most dangerous flashpoints. Jeff Himmelman, the reporter, travels with a Philippine mayor to the small military unit stationed on the Sierra Madre, the ship the Philippines deliberating ran aground in the reef in 1999 in order to maintain a permanent presence there to prevent its takeover by China, which also claims the area. The ...