Author: Peter M. Friedman, New York

The recent awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to imprisoned political activist and intellectual Liu Xiaobo, combined with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s speeches over the past few months calling for political reform have set off a renewed interest in where China may be headed politically. From the harsh denunciations of Liu’s prize and the mainland Chinese media’s ignoring of Wen’s words; to the cautious optimism of commentary outside of China, the impact of the prize and Wen’s use of zhengzhi tizhi gaige, or political system reform, remains open to speculation. But completely lacking from much of the commentary is an analysis of what the ordinary Chinese person, or laobaixing, wants from its government in terms of political reform.

For many China-watchers and Western governments, it would be ideal if China were to become a liberal democracy. Read more…

Author: Peter Friedman, Akin Gump LLP

Much has been made about whether China is a rising power that can go the distance. The numbers posted by the world’s soon to be second largest economy indicate that China has already gone this distance and is positioned for more growth, but what happens behind the numbers is not always as clear-cut. China’s economic miracle, built largely on major capital investments and inexpensive labour, is now attempting to shift to the next level of economic development, built upon innovation and design or the value-add components of economic growth. China’s universities will be the source of much of the brainpower propelling China to this next level. But problems endemic to China’s higher education system, specifically plagiarism and the lack of academic integrity, will render this journey quite difficult.

When given English-language writing assignments, it is common for Chinese students to rely upon translating Chinese sources into English and passing it off as their own work, or simply copying and pasting directly from Wikipedia.^[1] Read more…