Empire of Engineers
China has been a nation of engineers, from imperial to communist rule. America’s lawyerly society could learn something from that — but civil and social...
What Xi Jinping Learnt from His Father
Xi Zhongxun was once a reformist voice within the Communist Party — and was purged multiple times for it. So how did his son Xi...
How China’s Adoption Market Led to Child Trafficking
In 1991 China allowed foreigners to adopt its children, supposedly abandoned by parents because of the one-child policy. But some had been taken or trafficked...
An American Marine In China’s Red Army
In 1937, a U.S. military officer set off with Mao Zedong’s troops to raid Japanese-occupied territory in the north of China. The Communist guerillas, he...
The Thief Who Became a Celebrity
When Zhou Liqi went viral for stealing scooters to protest lack of opportunity, he sparked a debate between the popular movement of “lying flat” and...
Huawei Goes to Iraq
How the Chinese telecom giant built a global business by chasing contracts in the Middle East — and attracted U.S. regulation in the process.
How Little We Knew
Nicholas Kristof and his wife Sheryl WuDunn were the sole New York Times correspondents in Beijing in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In his...
How a Chinese Student Turned Marxist
Intellectual young Chinese — once the socialist vanguard, now struggling to get by in a capitalist economy — are turning left once more. But when...
How to Avoid Conflict in Taiwan
Xi Jinping has made clear his desire to "reunify" Taiwan. The U.S. and its allies should take him at his word, argues a former deputy...
China’s Lexicon of Digital Resistance
Netizens on the Chinese internet have been using buzzwords and memes for decades, to express obliquely what they cannot directly. From the “river crab” to...
The Reverse Migrants
After decades of urbanization and economic development, a cohort of China's population is seeking rural refuge and personal development instead — moving back to the...
A Game of Cat and Mouse
In a graphic novel rendition of his life, the acclaimed artist reflects on the Chinese zodiac, its connection to his own family story, and the...