How to Hide a Chinese Empire
After millennia of imperial history, China today has distanced itself from the concept of empire. But the new forms of Chinese imperium are more subtle...
Joseph Torigian on Xi Zhongxun
The author and academic discusses his new biography of Xi Zhongxun, father of Xi Jinping, and the hidden history of the Chinese Communist Party.
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...
Why “All Under Heaven” is Wrong
Tianxia, Beijing’s favorite theory of global power, is held up by Chinese scholars as an alternative to West-centrism. The latest work of its loudest cheerleader...
The Life of Saint Xi
China’s official Party press has published a series of oral histories about Xi Jinping’s career, from sent-down youth in Shaanxi to Party Secretary of Shanghai....
Bob Davis on Broken Engagement
In a new e-book from The Wire China, Bob Davis interviews over two dozen Americans who have shaped U.S.-China policy, from Nancy Pelosi to Mike...
Hal Brands on the Axis of Autocracies
The foreign policy expert discusses his new book, why he thinks that China is the most formidable player in an emerging “axis of autocracies” and...
Can Germany Find a Better China Strategy?
Under Merkel and Scholz, Germany was criticized as being soft on China. Three new books explain the backstory to Berlin’s relationship with Beijing, and how...
What If Hu Yaobang Had Lived?
The former Chinese Communist Party leader’s ousting and death led to the Tiananmen protests, but his life reveals a deeper push and pull between reformist...
Ep. 16: Oriana Skylar Mastro on China’s Challenge to the U.S.
An expert on China’s military and security policy looks ahead in 2025 to uncertain U.S.-China relations under Trump, and the risk of a war over...
Liao Yiwu: The Storyteller
Since the 1990s, Liao Yiwu has been gathering oral histories of Chinese experience, from the everyday to the extraordinary. Then in 2011, harangued by the...
Can Cultural Exchange Save U.S.-China Relations?
Sino-American ties are reaching new lows. A new book looks back to the 1970s, when the relationship began, to question whether “people’s diplomacy” at sub-governmental...