Caixin Media, a Chinese company that produces several print and online news publications, will receive the 2011 Shorenstein Journalism Award from the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center. Caixin was selected for its leadership in establishing an independent media in China and its commitment to journalistic integrity.

Caixin is the first Asian recipient of the $10,000 award since it was first given in 2002. For the past nine years, the award has recognized contributions of Western journalists who deepened Americans’ understanding of Asia. The pool of contestants has expanded to include Asian journalists who are at the forefront of the battle for press freedom and are using social media and Internet-based journalism to build new roles for the media. The award also honors Asian journalists who have aided the growth of mutual understanding between Asia and the United States.

Hailed by the Economist as “one of China’s more outspoken media organizations,” Caixin is internationally recognized for its tough-minded investigative reporting on China’s economic and social issues.

In recent months, Caixin has probed the errors that led to the crash of a high-speed train in China, and investigated the seizure and sale of children by family planning officials in Hunan province.

In 2011, Caixin editor-in-chief Hu Shuli, a former Knight Journalism fellow at Stanford, was named one of Time Magazine’s Top 100 Influential People, and managing editor Wang Shuo was ranked among China’s top 10 young editors. 

Caixin publishes several leading print and online publications, including the weekly business and finance magazine Caixin Century, the monthly periodical China Reform, the bimonthly journal Comparative Studies, and the English-language Caixin Weekly: China Economics and Finance. Caixin’s other offerings include a Chinese- and English-language news portal Caixin.cn, a publication series, video programming, an international journalism fellowship program, and extensive use of social media.

Hu and Wang will accept the Shorenstein Journalism Award at Stanford on Dec. 7. They will participate in a public panel discussion on the future of China’s independent media, joining acclaimed China historian and former Pulitzer Prize jury member Orville Schell, Shorenstein APARC associate director for research Daniel C. Sneider, and other noted Asia specialists.

The award was named after Walter H. Shorenstein, the philanthropist, activist, and businessman who endowed two institutions that are focused respectively on Asia and on the press: Shorenstein APARC in the Freeman Spogli Institute at Stanford University, and the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy in the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

As the new academic year gets underway, the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center’s (Shorenstein APARC) Corporate Affiliates Program is excited to welcome its new class of fellows to Stanford University:

• Minoru Aosaki, Ministry of Finance, Japan
• Kazuma Fukai, Kansai Electric Power Company, Japan
• Katsunori Hirano, Shizuoka Prefectural Government, Japan
• Young Muk Jeon, Samsung Life Insurance, Republic of Korea
• Yasunori Kakemizu, Sumitomo Corporation, Japan
• Yuji Kamimai, Sumitomo Corporation, Japan
• Hideaki Koda, Mitsubishi Electric, Japan
• Jong Jin Lee, Samsung Electronics, Republic of Korea
• Masami Miyashita, Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, Japan
• Prashant Pandya, Reliance Life Sciences, India
• Ramnath Ramanathan, Reliance Life Sciences, India
• Yoshimasa Waseda, Japan Patent Office, Japan

Corporate Affiliates Fellows are already busy auditing classes, strengthening their English skills, and beginning to conduct individual research projects. In consultation with a noted Shorenstein APARC scholar or subject expert, each fellow will refine and present their research at a public seminar in May.

Fellows will take part in other special Corporate Affiliates Program seminars and Shorenstein APARC conferences and events, affording them the opportunity to interact with faculty and students from across the Stanford community. Throughout the year, they will also gain firsthand insight into American business, everyday life, and culture by visiting numerous companies and public institutions in the San Francisco Bay Area, including: Facebook, the Palo Alto Police Department, San Francisco City Hall, and many others.

Visit the Corporate Affiliates website during the coming year for interviews with current and alumni Fellows and descriptions of various site visits.

As if the alleged Iranian plan to kill Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the U.S. wasn’t strange and sinister enough, it offered an outlandish twist: American officials say the Iranian plotters wanted to hire a Mexican drug cartel to carry out the murder.

The charges laid out earlier this week are raising questions about how the United States should respond to Iran, skepticism about the Mexican underworld’s possible involvement and concerns about the growing, borderless network of global terrorism.

Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, a law professor and co-director of the Center for International Security and Cooperation at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and Beatriz Magaloni, an associate professor of political science and affiliated faculty of FSI’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, discuss the developing events.

President Obama is vowing to impose tougher sanctions on Iran. What good will they do?

Cuéllar: Countries use sanctions to achieve multiple goals. Sanctions often put pressure on the regime and disrupt the regime’s capacity to move money, pay for resources, and offer goods and services on the international market. Even if they are imperfectly enforced, sanctions can affect particular individuals or organizations within states. Separately, sanctions signal the resolve of the nation imposing them, and thus the United States can force discussion among governments and diplomats regarding how the international community will respond to a state violating international norms.

Do Mexican drug cartels have the ability and willingness to be the hired guns in global terrorist operations?

Magaloni: Drug cartels are increasingly diversifying their portfolios of crime. They’re not exclusively engaging in the trading of drugs. They’re also engaged in many other criminal activities, including kidnapping, and extortion. And some have engaged in human trafficking.

Can this extend to acts of terror beyond Mexico? At this moment – with the evidence I see – I find it difficult to believe.

Mexican drug gangs do not seem to have that much capacity to operate in the U.S. There is an implicit agreement between government officials in some states and the cartels, and that’s what allows them to operate, often with impunity. But right now, I don’t think they can orchestrate the same type of terror once they cross the border because they do not have the same networks in the US.

How do you expect the criminal case to play out?

Cuéllar:  The criminal complaint alleges that accused individuals sought the assistance of a Mexican drug cartel. Instead of negotiating with that organization, however, the accused ended up interacting with a confidential informant working for American law enforcement agencies. Prosecutors will nonetheless focus on the motivation of the accused and the possibility that individuals with such goals might succeed in forging alliances with transnational criminal organizations in the future.  

How is the criminal activity in Mexico affecting security in the region?

Cuéllar: Although Mexico is a country that faces considerable challenges involving security and state capacity, it is certainly not Somalia or Afghanistan. And the Attorney General indicated that the Mexican government worked closely with U.S. authorities investigating the alleged criminal conspiracy. Nonetheless, Mexico has become a focal point for the activity of certain large criminal organizations with the ability to operate across large territories and to harness different forms of expertise. 

While these criminal networks certainly affect the security environment in both Mexico and the United States, there is often something of a paradox in the nature of the threat they pose. The organizations with the greatest capacity to engage in complicated operations across borders tend to be the ones with the tightest hold on lucrative pieces of the drug trade. And they are probably the most skeptical of getting involved in something that will draw a massive response from the United States.

What may complicate the situation is that some of the criminal organizations are beginning to fragment in response to changing dynamics in illicit markets and conflict with Mexican authorities. Fragmentation tends to weaken hierarchies, disrupting the ability of leaders to discipline the subordinates capable of engaging in violent activity. Continuing fragmentation may further affect the security context, as individuals and smaller organizations compete for resources and seek new markets for illicit activity.

Indonesia is strategically positioning itself to play an even greater role in global economics and politics, particularly by promoting its stable political system and the opportunities for foreign investment there. Southeast Asia Forum director Donald K. Emmerson spoke recently with the Straits Times about the Indonesian government's strategy and about the global conditions favoring the country's growth.

As lifestyles in China are changing, so too is the ability for people to care for their elderly family members at home. American healthcare companies are beginning to eye China as a potential market for senior residential facilities. Asia Health Policy Program director Karen Eggleston spoke with NPR about possible models for providing affordable, quality care for China's elderly.