Frank Ching - The Japan Times

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Frank Ching

Frank Ching is a Hong Kong-based writer who has covered developments in China for several decades. He opened The Wall Street Journal’s Bureau in Beijing after the U.S. and China established diplomatic relations in 1979, becoming one of the first American reporters to be based in China since 1949.

For Frank Ching's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

COMMENTARY

Apr 4, 2002

U.S. provocations leave China guessing

HONG KONG -- Little more than a month after U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to Beijing seemed to have laid the groundwork for a more stable and cooperative relationship between the United States and China, ties between the two countries are again in danger of unraveling as Washington openly moves to build a closer defense relationship with Taiwan.

COMMENTARY

Mar 19, 2002

Class struggle joins Marx in the dustbin

HONG KONG -- Last Wednesday, a top official declared that, as a result of the market economy, "people's jobs and status keep changing" in China today, and there are "differences and contradictions between communities, between industries and between regions." These remarks by Li Ruihuan, China's fourth-ranking leader, seem innocuous enough. And yet they reflect the distance that the Chinese Communist Party has traveled in the last quarter century.

COMMENTARY

Mar 5, 2002

Bush, Jiang draw closer to their divide

HONG KONG -- It is ironic that both Washington and Beijing consider the 30-hour visit to China by U.S. President George W. Bush a great success. After all, neither party got what it wanted most from the other. The United States did not get the antiproliferation agreement it wanted from China and the Chinese did not get the sympathy they wanted regarding their position on Taiwan.

COMMENTARY

Feb 14, 2002

Forget Marx -- Beijing now looks to U.S.

HONG KONG -- If imitation is the highest form of flattery, Washington should feel highly complimented by Beijing. Over and over, China has shown that America is its role model and that its goal is to be more like the United States.

COMMENTARY

Jan 30, 2002

Chinese, when convenient

HONG KONG -- In an unusual move, China in recent weeks twice denied visa applications by a group of South Korean lawmakers. Relations between China and South Korea have been good in recent years, so it is strange that Korean legislators who wish to visit China should be denied the chance to do so.

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 14, 2002

Jiang proves to be a masterful statesman

HONG KONG -- Jiang Zemin was widely regarded as a lightweight and a transitional figure when he became general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in 1989, succeeding Zhao Ziyang, who was purged in the wake of the Tiananmen Square uprising. However, he confounded his critics and, four years later, was given the additional titles of head of state and chairman of the party's Central Military Commission, a position he took over from former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping.

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 30, 2001

2001 a banner year for Beijing

The year 2001 has been a good one for China. It won the right to host the 2008 Olympics, which should raise the country's status in the world. After 15 arduous years of negotiations, it finally joined the World Trade Organization, which will provide momentum for additional economic reforms. And despite the plane-collision incident in April, China-U.S. relations have returned to an even keel, with the Bush administration no longer terming China a strategic competitor but a partner in the war against terrorism. Indeed, the negative publicity arising from China's handling of the Falun Gong movement was one of the few discordant notes during the year.

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