News roundup: Will trade, investment and economic success ever change China’s government?

IN THE NEWS

Opinion: Next U.S. president needs to drop the ‘fantasy’ that trade and investment will change China’s government

Since the 1990s, American business and political leaders have suggested that China’s economic integration with the world and financial success would make the Chinese government more liberal, but the last few years have seen it become “ever less tolerant of political dissent,” writes James Mann. “The ‘China fantasy’ amounted to both a conceptual failure and a strategic blunder.” / The New York Times

MORE HEADLINES:

• The $1.4 billion initial public offering of ZTO Express in the U.S. is the largest by a Chinese company in the country since Alibaba’s in 2014 / Bloomberg
• ‘Keep the rules always in mind’: A regulatory official’s poems aim to inspire better behavior from banks / WSJ
• A Chinese billionaire’s factory in Ohio, an emblem of China’s shifting role in the global economy, faces challenges with hiring and pay / Washington Post
• A survey says nearly half of China’s millennials want to avoid traditional jobs, with one citing fear of dullness as his inspiration / Bloomberg
• President Xi gains the official title of ‘core’ leader, a marker of ‘almost absolute authority’ in China last held by Deng Xiaoping and Mao Zedong / Reuters
• After the finale of a state-sponsored TV show featuring confessions of allegedly corrupt officials, over 10,000 on social media vote for the most sincere display / Quartz
• Communist Party numbers reveal the underrepresentation of women and a sweeping anti-corruption campaign / Washington Post
• The Philippines rejects China’s proposed deal on fishing access in the South China Sea over the words ‘allow’ and ‘permit’ / Quartz
• Concerns arise over Chinese students with overseas passports getting into China’s elite universities more easily than others / Times Higher Education
• A study says the sex ratio imbalance at birth remains higher in China than in any other country, despite improvement since the 2004 peak / South China Morning Post
• Book review: Peter Ho Davies’s ‘The Fortunes’ tracks the frustrations of Chinese assimilation in the U.S., from the mid-1800s to today / The New Yorker
• Brad Pitt is expected to promote the upcoming film ‘Allied’ in China, breaking an unspoken 20-year ban since he starred in ‘Seven Years in Tibet’ / China Film Insider