Chinese politics

Standing Up to Zero COVID

Standing Up to Zero COVID

This special episode of Barbarians at the Gate recorded last night provides a “time stamp" and an initial reaction to the protests in several major Chinese cities on November 26 and 27, including the situation in Beijing.

China’s Struggles to Reconcile Church and State are Rooted in History

China’s Struggles to Reconcile Church and State are Rooted in History

It’s not an easy time to be Christian, Muslim, or Jewish in China. Universalist religions are under attack in the PRC.

The Party Goes Retro for National Day

The Party Goes Retro for National Day

It’s the National Day Golden Week holiday in China, and Jeremiah muses on competing retro trends with the Party reaching back to the 1980s and reviving “Anti-Bourgeois Liberalization.” Were they inspired by the needless decision to remake Magnum, PI?

My Beijing Insecurity (on National Security Education Day)

My Beijing Insecurity (on National Security Education Day)

April 15th, National Security Education and Awareness Day in China, has become an annual day of whimsy for those of us living in Beijing.

Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in 2018: Evan Osnos, American Decline, and the Country of Cats

Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in 2018: Evan Osnos, American Decline, and the Country of Cats

China advances, America retreats. What's really happening in the dance between Xi Jinping and Donald Trump?

Dangerous Benevolence

Dangerous Benevolence

The Beijing municipal government threatening organizations that assist displaced migrants is bad policy, but official ambivalence toward private charity dates back at least to the imperial era

Changing the Guard

Changing the Guard

Coverage of China has always been a reflection of our own expectations and hopes, cast onto the tabula rasa of the high walls which surround the palace.

Xi Writes Himself into the Narrative of China’s Modern Rejuvenation

Xi Writes Himself into the Narrative of China’s Modern Rejuvenation

The Developed West ignores the message emerging from the 19th Party Congress at its own peril

Ambassadors Caught on Tape, China Edition

Ambassadors Caught on Tape, China Edition

The presence of US Ambassador Jon Huntsman at a protest site in downtown Beijing was enough for conspiracy theorists to start weaving stories of US collusion in the “Jasmine Revolution.”

China: Not Quite a Revolution

China: Not Quite a Revolution

The CCP knows that they could never hope to suppress every single act of defiance in a country as large and diverse as China, so they have instead chosen to invest time, money, and energy in preventing these acts from linking together, either vertically across class lines or horizontally across geographic space.