THE JUNE 2008 ISSUE

ESSAYS
 

Agriculture:
More Pain Ahead for China’s Food Prices
Huang Jikun, Qiu Huanguan and Scott Rozelle, agricultural economists, show that expensive oil is driving China’s high food prices, and there is no relief in sight.
[ read this article ]

Indonesia:
Indonesia’s Oil Subsidy Opportunity

Tim Bulman, Wolfgang Fengler and Mohamad Ikhsan, economists based in Indonesia, explain why Jakarta is missing an important chance to use its windfall from oil and gas revenue for the greater public good.
[ read this article ]

Inequality:
The Scorned and the Forlorn
Dorothy Solinger, a professor of political science at the University of California, Irvine looks at how Beijing seems to concentrate its efforts to build its “harmonious society” in part through a new alliance with the upper strata of the population, and at the same time using its growing coffers to placate the poor.
[ read this article ]

Inequality:
All Inequality Is Not Equal
Arthur Brooks, of Syracuse University and a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institite, and Charles Wolf, Jr., holder of the distinguished coporate chair in international economics at the RAND Corporation, and senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution, challenge the widely held belief that less income inequality in a society is better than more.
[ read this article ]

China:
Earthquake Rocks China’s Civil Society
Amy Gadsden, a former country director in China for the International Republican Institute, considers how Chinese civil society could be transformed by the Sichuan quake.
[ read this article ]

China:
China’s Reforms Buried Under Rubble
Willy Lam, a Hong Kong-based scholar and author, says the Sichuan earthquake and other extraordinary events in China this year have put economic and political reform on ice.
[ read this article ]

Japan:
Easing Japan’s Alliance Fears
Sheila Smith, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, analyzes why a vulnerable Japan is increasingly concerned about its security ties with the United States.
[ read this article ]

Interview:
The Conscience of a Forgetful Nation
Salil Tripathi, a free-lance writer based in London, interviews Chinese dissident Ma Jian, author of Beijing Coma, and discovers a man determined to give voice to the Tiananmen protesters forgotten by his compatriots.
[ read this article ]

Development:
ADB Jumps to Corporate Welfare
Greg Rushford, editor of The Rushford Report, an online trade and diplomacy journal, questions the Asian Development Bank’s plans to become a lender to the private sector.
[ read this article ]

Trade:
Back to Basics on Asian Trade
Hal Hill, professor of economics at Australian National University, and Jayant Menon, principal economist with the Asian Development Bank, criticize the proliferation of free trade agreements in Asia and propose alternatives.
[ read this article ]
 

Burma:
Beyond Burma Versus the World
Ian Holliday, dean of social sciences at the University of Hong Kong, assesses the impact of Cyclone Nargis on Burma’s political development and prescribes greater engagement.
[ read this article ]

Law:
China’s Troubled Legal Profession
Eva Pils, assistant professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong’s School of Law, on how some Chinese lawyers are being ostracized by their peers for offering to work on behalf of Tibetans accused of rioting.
[ read this article ]

Equities:
The Wild Side Of Hong Kong Stocks
Cathy Holcombe, chief editor with independent brokerage firm GaveKal, takes a peek into the shadier side of Hong Kong’s supposedly world-standard stock market.
[ read this article ]

REVIEWS
Olympic Dreams: China and Sports, 1895-2008
by Xu Guoqi
Reviewed by Emily Parker, an assistant editorial features editor at The Wall Street Journal.
[ read this review ]

Foreign Correspondent: Fifty Years of Reporting South Asia
by John Elliott, Bernard Imhasly and Simon Denyer
Reviewed by Ben Frumin, a free-lance journalist based in New Delhi.

[ read this review ]

Managing the Dragon: How I’m Building a Billion-Dollar Business in China
by Jack Perkowski
Reviewed by Alexandra Harney, author of The China Price: The True Cost of Chinese Competitive Advantage (Penguin Press, March 2008).

[ read this review ]

The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom
by Simon Winchester
Reviewed by Jonathan Mirsky, a free-lance writer based in London.

[ read this review ]

Creating Laos: The Making of a Lao Space between Indochina and Siam, 1860-1945
by Søren Ivarsson
Reviewed by Bertil Lintner, a journalist based in Thailand.

[ read this review ]

Visible Cities: Canton, Nagasaki, and Batavia and the Coming of the Americans
by Leonard Blussé
Reviewed by Paul Mozur, a Princeton-in-Asia fellow at the REVIEW.

[ read this review ]

China Rising: Peace, Power, and Order in East Asia
by David C. Kang
Reviewed by John Frankenstein, a former U.S. foreign-service officer who teaches international relations and East Asian politics.

[ read this review ]

Clearing the Air: The Health and Economic Damages of Air Pollution in China
by Mun S. Ho and Chris P. Nielsen
Reviewed by Sam Geall, the London-based deputy editor of chinadialogue.net.

[ read this review ]

Paradise by Design
by Bill Bensley
Reviewed by Ron Gluckman, a free-lance writer based in Bangkok and Phnom Penh.

[ read this review ]

Return to Dragon Mountain: Memories of a Late Ming Man
by Jonathan Spence
Reviewed by Ilaria Maria Sala, a free-lance journalist based in Hong Kong.

[ read this review ]

Jaunt Through Asia
Daniel Kane, a Korea specialist librarian and free-lance writer based in Hawaii, tells the tale of Seoul’s Gyeongbok Palace and efforts to restore it to its former glory.
[ read this article ]
 

To be removed from the E-Newsletter mailing list, please click here.

Copyright © 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. Far Eastern Economic Review is a trademark of Dow Jones & Company, Inc.  Privacy Policy