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...
Expulsion!
In early 2020, at the height of China’s early Covid epidemic, over a dozen American journalists were expelled from the nation. Where does that leave...
A Spark Extinguished
At the height of the Great Famine in 1960, a group of students exiled to the countryside launched a magazine that dared to tell the...
Radical Changes
A Chinese novelist moves to New York. Uprooted in a new country, how can she make sense of her past? And why are they called...