2020-12-30
The Communist Party moved dramatically in 2020 to rein in Jack Ma, founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group and China's second-richest man, launching an antitrust investigation into the outspoken tycoon's company and squelching a planned IPO by his Ant Group fintech firm.
2020-12-28
After an annus horribilis of death, suffering, fear, and poverty, the world sees a glimmer of light on the horizon with the roll-out of vaccines for the coronavirus.
2020-12-15
Almost a year after the first cases were identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan, China is mounting a bold campaign to revise the history of the origins of the global COVID-19 pandemic and promote research into theories that the coronavirus came from outside the country's borders.
2020-10-30
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo used a tour of Asia to upbraid China over its persecution of Uyghur Muslims and military expansionism in the South China Sea, the latest salvo in a titanic fight between Washington and Beijing -- over trade and technology, the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the autonomy of Hong Kong and Taiwan, and human rights -- that has seen bilateral relations reach their lowest point in four decades. For his part, Chinese President Xi Jinping called out “unilateralism, protectionism, and extreme egoism” in a thinly veiled jab at the U.S. in a recent speech.
2020-10-16
Faced with falling demand for Chinese exports amid trade friction with the United States and other partners, President Xi Jinping has unveiled a "dual circulation" policy that calls for boosting domestic consumption to create demand for products that are now sold abroad. A new name for the rebalancing toward consumption that China tried and failed to do a decade ago, "dual circulation" faces hurdles as the share of private consumption in China's GDP remains low, household debt as a share of disposable income is rising, and policies that would raise wages for workers would make Chinese-made goods more expensive and reduce export competitiveness.
2020-10-01
From Uyghurs and Tibetans in China's far west to Mongolians and Koreans in the north and east, a heavy-handed Communist Party policy to expand Chinese language education at the expense of native languages is meeting resistance from ethnic minorities who see a concerted drive to wipe out local tongues and identities. Inner Mongolia has seen weeks of class boycotts and street protests, while the Korean region in Jilin province has been blanketed with police to deter activism.
2020-09-18
Strongman Hun Sen -- who said in June that he is grooming his eldest son, Hun Manet, 42, to take over leadership of Cambodia -- has had a wide range of young political, labor and environmental activists detained in recent weeks after protests over dire economic prospects, corrupt land deals, and a border dispute with Vietnam.
2020-09-09
Disney's live-action remake of the popular 1998 animation "Mulan" was partly filmed in China's repressive Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Credits for the film thank Chinese Communist Party security and propaganda entities in the XUAR that run or promote mass internment camps believed to have held as many as 1.8 million Uyghurs and others. Beyond angering the Uyghurs, the tale of a young female Chinese warrior also prompted boycotts in Hong Kong after actors in the film backed a police crackdown on pro-democracy protests.
2020-09-04
Chinese Communist Party chief Xi Jinping outlined "Five Never Allows" in a speech on Sept. 4, telling the world that "the Chinese people will never allow any individual or any force" to impose their will on China through bullying, change China's direction of progress or system of government, obstruct the Chinese people's efforts to create a better life, as well as distort the official line on China's history -- a total of 12 actions Beijing rejects.
2020-09-01
Thousands of students have boycotted classes and taken to the streets of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in northern China to protest over plans by the ruling Chinese Communist Party to end Mongolian-medium education in the region's schools, a policy many local people resent as an effort at forced assimilation.
