Ivanka Trump’s brand was bruised when China detained several worker activists investigating her shoe brand. The specter of an independent labor movement both drives and constrains every facet of China's labor policy, both its reforms and its use of repression. Can China’s leaders get past the current period of rising – yet localized and non-political – labor unrest without going down the time-tested road of collective bargaining through independent trade unions?

The Chinese government’s recent decision to issue “Foreign Permanent Residence Identity Cards” to foreign nationals working in China is a great step forward in facilitating the introduction of overseas talents. The change is not just in name, from the previous “residence permit” to the present “residence ID”.

Cities in China and across Asia are growing outwards and upwards at breakneck speed. Livable, dynamic and vibrant cities are greater testament to a country’s prosperity and policy successes than any number of skyscrapers, no matter how big or how tall. As cities in America and China build higher, it is what is sustained below that will matter most.

Western press has negatively portrayed China’s Draft Foreign NGO Management Law, framing it as a drive to purge Western values from China. This misses China’s broadening citizen participation and NGOs established by the 2011 NPC.

While conversations about China’s environmental challenges are often dominated by coal, the culprit for the endless smoggy days in cities across the country, progress in cleaning the air cannot be achieved without greater attention to resource interdependencies from an integrated water-energy-food lens. Susuan Chan Shifflett outlines sustainable policy development that is particularly promising for Sino-U.S. collaboration.

Crowded cities, interrupted Internet, pollution and lower job prospects are among the reasons for an apparent exodus of foreigners from China. The Chinese government is attracting a new generation of adaptable, entrepreneurial expats with innovations like the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, which circumscribes red-tape business registration, and free work spaces for start-ups.

As China’s new leadership prepares to undertake economic reforms, Dan Redford lays out how income inequality has gone from being an economic issue to a social issue as the presence of migrants and low-educated citizens becomes more prominent in economic hubs.

In the past year, with a slowing Chinese economy coming under increased scrutiny, local government financing vehicles have become a source of concern. However, Joe Zhang dismisses these alarmist predictions and forecasts an “inevitable wave of privatization” for local Chinese government projects.