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☆ Xi Meets Blinken With Tough Issues on the Agenda
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-26 | by ( Ana Swanson | Vivian Wang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Both China and the United States have said they were hoping for progress on a few smaller, pragmatic fronts, including improving communications between their militaries and easing travel between the countries. But they remain at a standstill on fundamental strategic issues, including trade policies and territorial conflicts in the South China Sea and over Taiwan. And with other disputes looming, both sides acknowledged the danger of the relationship sliding into further conflict. The Biden administration is deeply concerned that cheap Chinese exports are threatening U.S. jobs, and is worried about China’s support of Russia in the Ukrainian war. And China has accused the United States of working to encircle Chinese interests in the Pacific.

Persons: Antony J, Blinken, Xi Jinping, Biden Locations: Beijing, East Asia, East, Ukraine, China, United States, South, Taiwan, Russia, Pacific

☆ Blinken Goes to China With Potential Trouble on Horizon
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-24 | by ( Vivian Wang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken will arrive in China on Wednesday to try to preserve the recent and delicate stabilization of ties between the United States and China, as tensions over trade, territorial disputes and national security threaten to derail relations again. Even as Mr. Blinken’s plane approached Shanghai, the challenges ahead were apparent. The political season in the United States also looms as a complication. With the presidential election nearing, Democrats and Republicans are vying to appear tougher on China. And if former President Donald Trump is re-elected, he could reverse Beijing’s and Washington’s efforts to steady the relationship.

Persons: Antony J, Blinken, Blinken’s, Biden, Donald Trump Organizations: U.S . Senate, Republicans, State Department Locations: China, United States, Shanghai, Taiwan, Beijing, Russia, South China

☆ Why Are China’s Nationalists Attacking the Country’s Heroes?
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-26 | by ( Joy Dong | Vivian Wang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

To get the economy back on track, China is trying to champion its domestic companies and reassure entrepreneurs that it’s ready for business. Its efforts are running into a problem: an online army of Chinese nationalists who have taken it upon themselves to punish perceived insults to the country — including from some of China’s leading business figures. When fellow tycoons defended him, they were attacked as well, by users whose profiles featured photos of the Chinese flag. As the fervor spread, social media users also hounded Huawei, the crown jewel of China’s tech industry, accusing it of secretly admiring Japan. Others accused a prestigious university of being too cozy with the United States, and demanded the works of a Nobel-winning Chinese author be removed from circulation for purportedly smearing national heroes.

Persons: unpatriotic, tycoons Organizations: Huawei Locations: China, United States, Japan

☆ China Scraps Premier’s Annual News Conference in Surprise Move
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-04 | by ( Vivian Wang | Chris Buckley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

China’s premier will no longer hold a news conference after the country’s annual legislative meeting, Beijing announced on Monday, ending a three-decades-long practice that had been an exceedingly rare opportunity for journalists to interact with top Chinese leaders. It also reinforced how China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, has consolidated power, relegating all other officials, including the premier — the country’s No. 2, who oversees government ministries — to much less visible roles. China’s current premier, Li Qiang, was widely considered to have been elevated to the role last year because of his loyalty to Mr. Xi. “Barring any special circumstances, there will not be a premier’s news conference in the next few years after this year’s legislative session either,” Lou Qinjian, a spokesman for the legislature, said at a news briefing about this year’s session.

Persons: Xi Jinping, Li Qiang, Mr, Xi, ” Lou Qinjian Locations: Beijing

☆ Murder and Magic Realism: A Rising Literary Star Mines China’s Rust Belt
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-01 | by ( Vivian Wang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

For a long time during Shuang Xuetao’s early teenage years, he wondered what hidden disaster had befallen his family. His parents, proud workers at a tractor factory in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang, stopped going to work, and the family moved into an empty factory storage room to save money on rent. But they rarely talked about what had happened, and Mr. Shuang worried that some special shame had struck his family alone. The region had been China’s industrial heartland, but suddenly millions of laborers were left unemployed. Even today, the region, sometimes called China’s Rust Belt, has not fully recovered.

Persons: Shuang Xuetao’s Locations: Shenyang, China

☆ ‘Shawshank’ in China, as You’ve Never Seen It Before
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-16 | by ( Vivian Wang | Claire Fu | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

When a stage production of “The Shawshank Redemption” opened recently in China, it was cast entirely with Western actors speaking fluent Mandarin Chinese. But that may have been the least surprising part of the show. Chinese audiences’ interest in Hollywood films is fading, with moviegoers turning to homegrown productions. China’s authoritarian government has stoked nationalism and cast Western influence as a political pollutant. Censorship of the arts has tightened.

Persons: ”, Stephen King, — Locations: China

☆ Welcome to ‘Dalifornia,’ an Oasis for China’s Drifters and Dreamers
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-04 | by ( Gilles Sabrié | Vivian Wang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

To find the dance circle in the bed-and-breakfast’s courtyard, drive north from the bedsheet factory converted into a crafts market, toward the vegan canteen urging diners to “walk barefoot in the soil and bathe in the sunshine.” If you see the unmanned craft beer bar where customers pay on the honor system, you’ve gone too far. Welcome to the Chinese mountain city of Dali, also sometimes known as Dalifornia, an oasis for China’s disaffected, drifting or just plain curious. The city’s nickname is a homage to California, and the easy-living, tree-hugging, sun-soaked stereotypes it evokes. It is also a nod to the influx of tech employees who have flocked there since the rise of remote work during the pandemic, to code amid the picturesque surroundings, nestled between snow-capped, 10,000-foot peaks in southwest China, on the shores of glistening Erhai Lake.

Persons: you’ve Locations: Dali, California, China, glistening

What It Took Young People in China to Get Their Jobs Not long ago, China’s economy was the envy of the world. We spoke to five young Chinese about what it took to find their jobs amid such uncertainty. Now, those boom years are fading, as are many young people’s hopes — with unpredictable consequences for China and the world. Ethan Yi, Class of 2022Qilai Shen for The New York TimesLooking back, Ethan Yi thinks he had been a little entitled, or at least naive. “I think it’s not good for young people to be too comfortable,” she said.

Persons: ”, hesitating, —, people’s, Nadia Yang, Fiona Qin, Qilai Shen, Ethan Yi, Yi, “, Phoebe Liu, Gilles Sabrié, Liu, ” Tsuki Jin, The New York Times Tsuki Jin, Jin, Ms Organizations: The New York Times Locations: China, Beijing, Shanghai

A British businessman who disappeared from public view in China in 2018 was sentenced to five years in prison in 2022, China’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday, in its first public acknowledgment of the case. The businessman, Ian J. Stones, had lived in China since the 1970s, working for companies like General Motors and Pfizer. For years after he vanished, there was no public information about his whereabouts, though some in the business community privately discussed his secret detention. A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said that Mr. Stones had been convicted in 2022 of “buying and unlawfully supplying intelligence for an organization or individual outside China.” Mr. Stones’s appeal of the verdict was rejected in September 2023, said the spokesman, Wang Wenbin. Mr. Wang was responding to reporters’ questions at a regularly scheduled news conference, after The Wall Street Journal reported Mr. Stones’s case on Thursday.

Persons: Ian J, Stones, Mr, Wang Wenbin, Wang Organizations: General Motors, Pfizer, Foreign Ministry, Street Locations: British, China

☆ Building Fire in China Kills at Least 39, With Others Trapped
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-24 | by ( Vivian Wang | More About Vivian Wang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

A fire in a commercial building in southeastern China killed at least 39 people on Wednesday, as emergency workers raced to rescue people still trapped inside. The fire broke out around 3:30 p.m. local time in Xinyu, a city in Jiangxi Province, in the basement of a building that housed an internet cafe on the ground floor and an educational center upstairs, according to Chinese state media and a local government announcement. A video posted on social media by the Communist Party-affiliated outlet Beijing News showed thick black smoke billowing out of windows. Other videos posted by social media users on Wednesday, of what appeared to be the same building, showed people jumping from upper floors to a mattress on the ground outside, and a boy climbing down a ladder, wearing a backpack.

Organizations: Communist Party -, Beijing Locations: China, Xinyu, Jiangxi Province

☆ China Appears to Backpedal From Video Game Crackdown
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-23 | by ( Vivian Wang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Chinese regulators on Tuesday appeared to backpedal from a plan to reduce how much money people spend on online video games, after the proposal had tanked video gaming companies’ stocks and raised doubts about the government’s commitment to reviving China’s slowing economy. The draft rules disappeared from the website of the National Press and Publication Administration, the agency overseeing the proposal, after previously being posted there for public comment. The agency, which issues licenses to game publishers and regulates the industry, did not issue any notice of retraction. An employee who answered the phone said she was not clear on the circumstances surrounding the move. Even absent confirmation that the proposal had been killed, the stock prices of China’s two largest video game companies jumped on Tuesday, with Tencent rising 3.7 percent and Netease rising 6 percent, more than the overall market.

Organizations: National Press, Administration

☆ Can U.S.-China Student Exchanges Survive Geopolitics?
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-28 | by ( Vivian Wang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On a cool Saturday morning, in a hotel basement in Beijing, throngs of young Chinese gathered to do what millions had done before them: dream of an American education. At a college fair organized by the United States Embassy, the students and their parents hovered over rows of booths advertising American universities. Did America still want Chinese students? And were Chinese students sure they wanted to go to America? He had read the frequent headlines about gun violence, anti-Asian discrimination and, of course, tensions between the United States and China, at one of their highest levels in decades.

Persons: ”, Zhuang Tao Organizations: United States Embassy Locations: Beijing, America, United States, Australia, Britain, China

☆ W.H.O. Says China Has Shared Data Indicating No Novel Pathogen
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-23 | by ( Vivian Wang | More About Vivian Wang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The World Health Organization said that China had shared data about a recent surge in respiratory illnesses in children, one day after the agency said it was seeking information about the possibility of undiagnosed pneumonia cases there. The Chinese data indicated “no detection of any unusual or novel pathogens,” according to a W.H.O. statement on Thursday. The data, which included laboratory results from infected children, indicated that the rise in cases was a result of known viruses and bacteria, such as influenza and mycoplasma pneumoniae, a bacterium that causes usually mild illness. Hospital admissions of children had increased since May, as had outpatient visits, but hospitals were able to handle the increase, China told the global health agency.

Organizations: World Health Organization Locations: China

☆ W.H.O. Asks China for Details on Surge of Respiratory Illness in Children
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-23 | by ( Vivian Wang | Siyi Zhao | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The World Health Organization has formally requested that China share detailed information about a recent increase in respiratory illnesses, citing unconfirmed media reports of undiagnosed pneumonia in children. China has been reporting a jump in respiratory illnesses for months. Chinese media reports have described long lines at pediatric hospitals, and doctors have said that this year’s wave appeared to be more severe than those of previous years. But some news and social media reports have described crowds of children at hospitals with pneumonia, without specifying the exact cause of illness. requested more information from China.

Organizations: World Health Organization Locations: China

Meeting with President Biden for the first time in a year, China’s leader, Xi Jinping, reiterated his determination to unify with Taiwan, but stopped short of mentioning the potential use of force. He denounced what he called futile American efforts at containing China, but also acknowledged that U.S. tech restrictions had taken a toll. And he broadcast that China had global ambitions for its influence — while also trying to reassure the world that those ambitions did not have to lead to conflict with the United States. Mr. Xi wants to convince Washington, and the world, that he is willing to engage with the United States, in part to lure back foreign investment to bolster China’s ailing economy. But he also wants to demonstrate to the Chinese people that he strongly defended Beijing’s interests, and burnished its image as a world power on a par with the United States, not a secondary one making concessions.

Persons: Biden, Xi Jinping, Xi Locations: Taiwan, China, United States, San Francisco, Washington

Not long ago, Chinese propaganda was warning that American attempts at easing tensions were mere performance. The country’s leader, Xi Jinping, declared that the United States was engaged in a campaign of “all-around containment, encirclement and suppression,” in remarks broadcast across state media. Now, the tone used to discuss the United States has suddenly shifted. game,” the article continued, describing a visit by Mr. Xi to the United States in 2012. “Veterans visit Chinese cities, anticipating everlasting China-U.S. friendship,” one headline declared.

Persons: Xi Jinping, Xi, “, ” Organizations: Xinhua, American Ballet Theater, Philadelphia Orchestra, Veterans Locations: United States, “, States, Iowa, China, Japan

☆ For China’s Jobless Young People, Hostels Are the Place to Be
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-01 | by ( Vivian Wang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“Why can’t I, a college graduate, find a job?” Mr. Yi lamented as he sat in the hostel’s common room after a day of unsuccessful interviews. “Why is it only jobs that pay just $400 or $500 a month that want me? Sometimes I wonder, how can it be this hard?”That is the question being asked in hostels across China. As joblessness among young Chinese has reached record highs, hostels have become refuges for young people trying their fortunes in major cities, who need a place to crash between back-to-back interviews, to strategize on their next networking meeting or to fire off yet another résumé. They have become concentrated hubs for people’s anxiety, hopes, despair and ambitions, all packed into bunk beds that go for a few dollars a night.

Persons: Ethan Yi, Mr, Yi Locations: Shanghai, China, strategize

☆ What’s in Our Queue? Chinese Cinema and More
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-21 | by ( Vivian Wang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

What’s in Our Queue? Chinese Cinema and MoreI’m a China correspondent for The Times. I often find my next book or movie through online rabbit holes. Here are five things I’ve been reading, watching and listening to →

Organizations: The Times Locations: China

☆ China to Its People: Spies Are Everywhere, Help Us Catch Them
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-02 | by ( Vivian Wang | More About Vivian Wang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Beijing sees forces bent on weakening it everywhere: embedded in multinational companies, infiltrating social media, circling naïve students. Chinese universities require faculty to take courses on protecting state secrets, even in departments like veterinary medicine. A kindergarten in the eastern city of Tianjin organized a meeting to teach staffers how to “understand and use” China’s anti-espionage law. Its first post: a call for a “whole of society mobilization” against espionage. The country’s economy is facing its worst slowdown in years, but China’s authoritarian leader, Xi Jinping, appears more fixated on national security and preventing threats to the party’s control.

Persons: China’s, Xi Jinping Organizations: China’s Ministry of State Security, Communist Party Locations: Beijing, Tianjin

Over the past decade, China has placed more and more restrictions on the lives of its citizens — tightening its hold over what people can do, read and say. When Bei Zhenying’s husband was arrested and sentenced to seven years in prison for “smearing” the country’s political system, she was left to pick up the pieces of his life. She now believes that her husband was the writer behind one of the most mysterious blogs on the Chinese internet, which for 12 years had ridiculed the ruling Communist Party from within the country. Vivian Wang, a China correspondent for The Times, tells the story of the couple.

Persons: Bei, Vivian Wang Organizations: Communist Party, The Times Locations: China

☆ China’s Economic Outlook: Pep Talks Up Top, Gloom on the Ground
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-29 | by ( Vivian Wang | More About Vivian Wang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

To the residents and business owners of Chedun, a working-class neighborhood in the southwestern outskirts of Shanghai, the signs of an anemic economy are all around. The factories that once drew workers from around the country have moved away. Around the affordable eateries and motley shops where workers once crowded, employees eagerly latch onto anyone passing by. A gulf has emerged between the Chinese economy as many Chinese are experiencing it, and Beijing’s narrative of it — and that gulf is only widening. For many ordinary Chinese, one of the worst economic slowdowns the country has faced in decades has translated into widespread pessimism and resignation.

Persons: “, ” Cherry Qian Locations: Shanghai

Not long after Shen Peng’s grandfather died, his grandmother visited the site of the house where she and her husband once lived. The government had demolished the house, in northern China, nearly 15 years before as part of a redevelopment project. Mr. Shen wondered: Could he help her relive her memories another way? Finally, Mr. Shen, now 31, presented his grandmother with a surprise — a handcrafted 1:20 scale replica of her old home. Mr. Shen had even traveled to the site of the old house to better recreate the fragment of brick wall that still remained.

Persons: Shen Peng’s, Shen Locations: China

☆ Rock ’n’ Roll According to the Chinese Communist Party
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-13 | by ( Vivian Wang | Weiyi Cai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +7 min

Rock ’n’ Roll According to the Chinese Communist PartyA man spends decades working a monotonous factory job. Then a local Communist Party group decided to rewrite it. Changed lyrics ORIGINAL REWRITE TITLE VERSE 1 VERSE 2 VERSE 3 CHORUS ORIGINAL TITLE VERSE 1 Changed lyrics VERSE 2 VERSE 3 CHORUS REWRITE TITLE VERSE 1 VERSE 2 VERSE 3 CHORUSChina’s government has long used censorship to control expression. As the Communist Party embraced market reforms in the 1990s, workers at state-run companies in Shijiazhuang, in northern China, faced mass layoffs. 日新月异二十年初心指向航向 Original aspiration: A common phrase in Chinese Communist Party propaganda about the party sticking to its founding principlesIt’s little surprise, then, that the two versions end in completely different places.

Persons: Ji Geng, ”, 用, 锈, 河北, worldviews, 如此, 翻天覆地, 日新月异, It’s, 迎风 Organizations: Communist Party, Chinese Communist Party, Society, Communist Youth League, Pharmaceutical, Hebei Normal University Locations: Shijiazhuang, Beijing, Shijiazhuang 杀死, Shijiazhuang 杀, China, Hebei Province, Hebei

There were plenty of reasons to think the “Barbie” movie might have a hard time finding an audience in China. It’s an American film, when Chinese moviegoers’ interest in, and government approval of, Hollywood movies is falling. It’s been widely described as feminist, when women’s rights and political representation in China are backsliding. But not only did the film screen in China — it has been something of a sleeper hit, precisely because of its unusual nature in the Chinese movie landscape. It has an 8.3 rating on the movie rating site Douban, higher than any other currently showing live-action feature.

Persons: Barbie, It’s, ”, Mina Li, Greta Gerwig, “ Barbie ” Locations: China, Beijing, Weibo

And it involved a meeting with the Chinese defense minister, who has rebuffed multiple requests to engage with his American counterpart. Beijing has turned to those it deems more aligned with its position as it has become more skeptical toward, and at times openly frustrated with, the Biden administration. With the visit by Mr. Kissinger, whom Mr. Xi and other officials called an “old friend,” Beijing has sought to emphasize cooperation and mutual respect between the powers. With visits by business leaders like Bill Gates — also dubbed an old friend by Mr. Xi — and Elon Musk, China has tried to highlight the longstanding economic relationship and the perils of untangling global supply chains. Such efforts may become increasingly significant as Beijing pushes back against what it sees as the Biden administration’s efforts to contain China geopolitically, militarily and technologically.

Persons: Henry A . Kissinger, Xi Jinping, Kissinger, Biden, Xi, ”, Bill Gates —, Mr, Xi —, Elon Musk Organizations: Democrats, U.S Locations: Beijing, ” Beijing, China

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