Jerome A. Cohen pioneered the study of Chinese law in the United States. He met with Zhou Enlai, trained Chinese officials and helped American firms set up in China. Now, even at 90, he presses Beijing on its human rights record.
To call it a daring escape is an understatement. After four years in prison, Chen Guangcheng had spent another three years under house arrest with his family. The local government in Shandong province had covered his windows with metal sheeting, cut him off from all contact with the outside world, and sent guards to patrol his home around the clock.
Blind since infancy, Chen would have to not only evade the guards, but also somehow navigate his way through the village, undetected, to meet his get-away car. While drying laundry on their roof, his wife counted the steps he would need to take and the number of walls he’d have to climb along his route. The village was too quiet at night, so the escape would have to take place during the day.
On April 20, 2012, the blind, 40-year-old man embarked on his journey and, amazingly, a few days later he arrived at the U.S. embassy in Beijing, more than 300 miles away, having suffered nothing worse than a broken foot.
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Agribusiness giant Syngenta is unique on the world stage: it is a state-owned Chinese firm with an American CEO. After ChemChina's historic purchase of the company in 2017 — the largest ever purchase by a Chinese company overseas — Syngenta is now ready for its big China debut with a planned blockbuster IPO in Shanghai this fall. But while "modernizing" farming in China has been good for Syngenta's business, helping Beijing achieve its long-sought after goal of food self sufficiency will be more complicated feat.
The journalists and authors talk about what sets China's use of surveillance tech apart from other countries; how the building blocks of that tech came from the West; and how the surveillance state can be...
