The presidential race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris comes at a time of rising geopolitical tensions on multiple fronts. In the 17th part of an in-depth series, Yuanyue Dang and William Zheng report on Beijing’s fear of a “colour revolution”. As its coverage of the United States presidential election gets into full swing, Chinese … Read more
A historical drama about Chinese President Xi Jinping’s late father, Xi Zhongxun, will be shown on state television from Tuesday – the first time his story has been dramatised for TV. The first episode of Time in the Northwest will make its debut during prime time on CCTV’s main channel, according to a trailer aired … Read more
A Chinese publisher best known for discovering The Three-Body Problem, the award-winning sci-fi novel recently adapted into a hit Netflix series, is under investigation for corruption. Yao Haijun, deputy editor-in-chief of the influential magazine Science Fiction World, is accused of “severe violations of Communist Party discipline and law”, authorities in Sichuan province said, using the … Read more
Reading publications with “serious political problems” has become an increasingly common accusation levelled at disgraced officials by China’s anti-corruption agencies, who cite it as proof of disloyalty. Among them is Li Bin, a former vice-director of the municipal legislature of Mudanjiang in northeastern Heilongjiang province. He was expelled from the Communist Party on suspicions of … Read more
China is reviving aspects of a Mao Zedong-era plan to relocate critical facilities away from the country’s most densely populated areas to its western hinterlands. Mao’s 1964 “Third Front Construction” initiative was motivated by Cold War fears of nuclear attack, fuelled by the deepening American involvement in Vietnam and increased hostility between China and the … Read more
Gao Zhen, a Chinese artist who is known for his critical depictions of Mao Zedong, has been detained under a law banning the defamation of “heroes and martyrs”. In a post published on Facebook on Saturday, the artist’s brother Gao Qiang said the 58-year-old had been detained on Monday when police came to the pair’s … Read more
Some 25 years before Deng Xiaoping first proposed “one country, two systems” as a creative political solution to facilitate Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau’s return to China, Mao Zedong tasked him with finding an answer to the Tibet issue. It was 1957, six years after Beijing and Lhasa signed the Seventeen-Point Agreement that confirmed Tibet … Read more
The Communist Party’s top theoretical journal has highlighted the threat from “subversive” “foreign forces” trying to influence China’s youth, by releasing excerpts of a speech Chinese President Xi Jinping made six years ago. In the speech to the National Education Conference in 2018, Xi accused those forces of trying to “Westernise” China’s youth and plot … Read more
Now that China is at a crossroads again, amid widespread concerns over the direction of the country and the state of its economy, remembering Deng has taken on a special significance. Deng, who died in 1997 at the age of 92, would have been heartened but unsurprised to see that China’s economy has become the … Read more
As China celebrates the 120th anniversary of the birth of the late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, the seemingly contradictory duality of the man and his legacy continue to resonate. In Chinese culture, 60 years is known as jiazi, representing the full alignment cycle between heaven and earth. The commemoration of Deng’s 120th birthday on August … Read more
