The closing of the Chinese mind
I was born in Nanjing five years after the Tiananmen Square protests. By then, records of the demonstrations and the…
Even the WHO has turned on China's zero-Covid strategy
Covid infections are finally falling in Shanghai. The city reported just over 2,000 cases on Tuesday, down from over 27,000…
The Shanghai lockdown is testing the limits of the CCP’s control
China’s lockdown protestors cannot be silenced
China's zero Covid crack-up
‘We’re being driven mad. Nobody is listening to us. They’ve politicised this disease.’ This week, the candid remarks of Zhu…
Is China's zero Covid game up?
Omicron has broken through China’s Covid wall. On Tuesday, the country saw a record-high of more than 5,000 cases, the…
Is an anti-Xi resistance emerging?
From the 1980s to 2017, at least every five years, China’s National Party Congress would be a moment of intriguing…
The fading legacy of Deng Xiaoping
After Mao Zedong’s death in 1976, it was clear to pragmatists in the Chinese Communist Party, led by Deng Xiaoping,…
Frozen: can China escape its zero-Covid trap?
How China got stuck in a zero-Covid trap
The great Chinese puzzle: how to adapt the language to modern communication technologies
Any student of Chinese will sympathise with the 17th-century Jesuit priest Fr Emeric Langlois de Chavagnac when he wrote: ‘One…
What happened to China's missing tennis star?
Did a senior Chinese politician rape one of the country’s leading tennis stars? That certainly seemed to be the allegation…
Peng Shuai and China’s mistress problem
Mistresses remain a potent status symbol in China
Peng Shuai appears in sinister ‘proof of life’ video
The Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai sits in a crowded restaurant surrounded by friends and her coach, who is going…
China’s great log forward
Every year, China plants trees over an area the size of Ireland. The country may be the biggest polluter on…
The rise and fall of Jack Ma
Jack Ma used to give rock star performances for his employees at Alibaba, Asia’s biggest online commerce company. He once…
How China’s economic revolution created billionaires overnight
In the winter of 1992, the retired octogenarian Deng Xiaoping toured China’s southern coasts. From there he gave a spirited…
China is finding out the price of zero Covid’
China’s Covid policy can’t last
Why China’s vaccine diplomacy is running into difficulties
Tear gas and rubber bullets hold off the protestors marching to Government House in Bangkok. They’re looking for Prime Minister…
One Britain One Nation: How to write a proper propaganda song
How do you make an emotional appeal for a united United Kingdom? So far, unionists have tried flag flying, resolutely refusing another…
Why Chinese women don’t want more children
Chinese women can’t afford a large family
Why Beijing doesn't think the EU investment deal is dead
Is the EU-China investment deal dead? It was last week sunk down by 599 votes to 30 in the European…
The West’s vaccine complacency
Today, in their first bilateral summit, Joe Biden will meet (virtually) Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Among other things…
Power jab: the rise of vaccine diplomacy
An international power tussle over vaccines is under way
Beijing revels in Washington’s chaos
The events on Capitol Hill were always going to be met with schadenfreude — perhaps even glee — among autocracies in…
Beijing revels in Washington’s chaos
The events on Capitol Hill were always going to be met with schadenfreude — perhaps even glee — amongst autocracies…
Why is China keeping quiet about its vaccine programme?
While Britain is the first country in the world to approve a vaccine, it is not the first to start…
