January
China’s smokers light up global tobacco sales despite bans
Unlike in much of the world, where strict controls have led to a sharp decline in smoking, research suggests cigarette sales in China have risen in recent years.
December 2024
China to crack down on violent lone-wolf attacks over economic woes
A spate of deadly attacks has put pressure on officials to expand surveillance to prevent violent forces from destabilising an anxious society.
November 2024
America’s search for a new role continues
Despite the mediocrity of the candidates, America is not down for the count. But it is wasting precious time to redefine its world role
October 2024
Xi Jinping tightens stranglehold on China’s academia
Scholars have been fired or ‘disappeared’ as Beijing clamps down on discussion of sensitive topics, including the economy.
August 2023
Xi faces tough choices as economic pain spreads
China’s president is so far resisting growing pressure to introduce a major stimulus to revive the world’s second-largest economy.
July 2023
China’s tough ‘wolf warrior’ returns as foreign minister
President Xi Jinping has turned to trusted old hand Wang Yi who had a memorable frosty exchange with Australia’s then foreign minister Julie Bishop.
Missing ministers and policy backflips: Xi Jinping’s challenges mount
A missing foreign minister shines an unwelcome spotlight on a secretive and autocratic regime as questions grow about management of the world’s second-largest economy.
June 2023
Russia’s warlordism is an ugly historic reminder for China
Xi Jinping purged China’s generals early his rule. The fragmentation of Russia’s armies will make him glad that he did.
January 2023
She witnessed Mao’s excesses. Now she has a warning for the world
At 93, the memoirist Yuan-tsung Chen hopes that her recollections of China’s tumultuous past will help the country confront its historical wrongs — and avoid repeating them.
Why China’s one-child policy is now backfiring
After three decades of being limited to having one child, Chinese families no longer see the need to have bigger ones as the costs mount up.
The Xi nobody saw coming
China’s strongman president has reversed his decisions on a wide range of policies, wrong footing the rest of the world. But his impulse to control may reassert itself when the economy starts to recover.
Chinese celebrities’ COVID-19 deaths subvert propaganda push
The country is mourning prominent academics, opera stars and business figures as the real virus toll mounts.
October 2022
Why the era of ‘get rich first’ is officially over in China
With zero-COVID around to stay and equity markets in freefall, China’s wealthy capitalists are leaving in droves.
Room for loyalists only in Xi’s Game of Thrones
Xi Jinping’s absolute authority will be on full display on Sunday when a new line-up for China’s top political bodies is revealed.
Party congress assembles in Beijing for Xi’s opening speech
Little change is foreseen in Xi Jinping’s formula of strict one-party rule, intolerance of criticism and a hard-line approach towards COVID-19.
Rare display of defiance against Xi ahead of party congress
Video footage and photographs posted widely on social media showed two banners displaying anti-Xi slogans unfurled from a bridge at a busy intersection.
Missile selfies: a snapshot of China’s future under Xi
This weekend’s Party Congress is widely expected to result in Mr Xi being given an unprecedented third term in office, making him the first leader to serve more than 10 years.
Xi Jinping’s third term is a tragic error
China’s macroeconomic, microeconomic and environmental difficulties remain largely unaddressed.
August 2022
Taiwan tensions rise as Xi Jinping prepares to rule for life
Beijing has set the date for an historic Communist Party Congress that is expected to appoint Xi Jinping leader for a third term.
In Xi’s China, dogma trumps everything
The country’s economic slowdown is not just a natural plateau, or the unwinding of massive debt. It’s a deliberate choice to put ideology ahead of even economic growth.