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☆ This ‘Russian’ Woman Loves China. Too Bad She’s a Deepfake.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-20 | by ( Vivian Wang | Siyi Zhao | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

But her lip movements don’t quite match the audio of the videos, which were posted recently to an account using the name “Ladina.” That is because it is footage of Shadé Zahrai, an Australian career strategist with more than 1.7 million TikTok followers, that has been modified using artificial intelligence. Someone dubbed Ms. Zahrai’s video clips with a voice speaking Mandarin Chinese to make it seem that she was peddling Russian products. Welcome to a flourishing genre on Chinese social media: A.I.-manipulated videos that use young, purportedly Russian, women to rally support for China-Russia ties, stoke patriotic fervor or make money — and sometimes all three at once.

Persons: Shadé Organizations: stoke Locations: Australian, China, Russia

☆ Chinese Woman Jailed for Reporting on Covid Set to be Freed
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-13 | by ( Vivian Wang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But in a sign of how eager the Chinese government remains to suppress public discussion of the outbreak, it was unclear on Monday evening whether Ms. Zhang, 40, had actually been set free. The lawyer who represented Ms. Zhang during her trial, Zhang Keke (the two are not related), said he could not reach her mother all day. The group, which gave Ms. Zhang a press freedom award in 2021, noted that journalists released from imprisonment in China are often kept under surveillance. Ms. Zhang was an early symbol of the mistrust that many Chinese harbored toward the government’s handling of the outset of the pandemic, and the hunger they had for unfiltered information. A former lawyer from Shanghai, she traveled in early 2020 to Wuhan, the city where the virus was first detected, as a self-styled citizen journalist.

Persons: Zhang Zhan, Zhang, Zhang Keke Locations: China, Shanghai, Wuhan

☆ 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

☆ Diet and sugary drinks boost risk of atrial fibrillation by up to 20%, study says
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-05 | by ( Sandee Lamotte | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Atrial fibrillation is dangerous and on the riseAtrial fibrillation is the leading cause of stroke in the United States. Atrial fibrillation can also lead to blood clots, heart failure and “can increase the risk for heart attack, for dementia, for kidney disease. Replacing both diet and added sugar sodas with water is best to reduce chances of atrial fibrillation, experts say. The rate of atrial fibrillation in the US population is growing: The CDC estimates some 12 million Americans will have A-fib by 2030. “Do not take it for granted that drinking low-sugar and low-calorie artificially sweetened beverages is healthy, it may pose potential health risks.”

Persons: ”, Penny Kris, Etherton, Kris, “, Dr, Gregory Marcus, ” Marcus, Naveed Sattar, ” Sattar, Ningjian Wang, ” Wang Organizations: CNN, Pennsylvania State University, American Heart Association, US Centers for Disease Control, University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, UCSF Health, Rhythm Society, University of Glasgow, Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine Locations: United States, Scotland, Shanghai, China

☆ 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

☆ In ‘The Future,’ Earth Barrels Toward Fiery Destruction
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-07 | by ( Ian Wang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

THE FUTURE, by Naomi AldermanThere are few figures in the Bible more cruelly evocative than Lot’s wife, who is transfigured into a pillar of salt for looking back at Sodom. Early in her novel, a woman is frozen to death with a chemical refrigerant made of paramagnetic salts: a Lot’s wife for the Information Age. Alderman’s Sodom is our own polarized, plutocratic world. Whether by divine will or not, “The Future” finds the earth barreling toward fiery destruction. But no such fever pitch is reached in Alderman’s new novel, whose outlook is decidedly more reformist than revolutionary.

Persons: Naomi Alderman, Anna Akhmatova, “, Kurt Vonnegut, ” Naomi Alderman’s “, Zimri Nommik, Ellen Bywater, ”, Alderman, Harvey Weinstein, — Locations: United States

In the wake of Matthew Perry's death at 54, fans in China are mourning the loss of the star who felt less like a distant celebrity and more like an old friend. “People shared their own memories about Chandler and ‘Friends’ and many teared up.”A large poster displayed on the bar featured pictures of Perry over the years. Once Chinese fans added Mandarin subtitles to the show, which ran in the U.S. from 1994 to 2004, it quickly gained a following. “This TV show actually offered a way to imagine this kind of so-called metropolitan utopian imagination.”Many Chinese fans learned English through watching the show and got a peek into American life and culture. “It feels like I just got to know this long-lost friend, but he’s just gone.”___Fu Ting reported from Washington.

Persons: Long, ”, Matthew Perry's, Chandler Bing, Nie Yanxia, Chandler, Perry, Xian Wang, ” wasn't, China —, Wang, ” Wang, Nilufar Arkin, Monica, “, ” Arkin, ” Fu Xueying, ” Fu, Zhang Fengguang, Sun Tiantian, Zhang, Sun, ” Zhang, he’s, Fu Ting, Han Guan Ng Organizations: University of Notre Dame, Associated Press Locations: China, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Sohu, U.S, Shanghai, Tianjin, Xinjiang, Guangzhou, Washington

☆ 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

☆ 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

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