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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

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

☆ iPhone Photography Awards 2023: Winners unveiled
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-03 | by ( Christy Choi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Organizers announced the winners of the 2023 iPhone Photography Awards on Monday. Scott Galloway/iPhone Photography Awards"Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana,"Rome, Italy, by Leon Wang (United States) won 3rd place in Architecture. Sofia Ershova/iPhone Photography Awards"Duet," Zhejiang, China, by Zhang Xiaojun (China) won 3rd place in Children. Zhang Xiaojun/iPhone Photography Awards"Kapkungkap Tadau" Phuket, Thailand by Juan Castaneda (United States) won 2nd place in Series. Juan Castaneda/iPhone Photography Awards"Bi Mo," Zhaojue County, China, by Jian Wang (China) won 2nd place in People.

Persons: Ivan Silva, Heroe, Lionel Messi, Thea Mihu, Ba Jia Jiang, Surong Zhu, Scott Galloway, Leon Wang, Sofia Ershova, Zhang Xiaojun, Juan Castaneda, Jian Wang, Sasa Borozan, Beata Krowicka, Barry Mayes Organizations: CNN — Organizers, Italiana, Diesel Locations: Mexico, Sweden, Hanoi, Vietnam, Germany, Fujian, China, Ohio, USA, United States, Rome, Italy, Architecture, California, Zhejiang, Phuket, Thailand, Zhaojue County, People, Nature, Croatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Grande, Argentina, Poland, Travel, Sierra Leone, United Kingdom

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

☆ Kissinger Makes Unannounced Visit to China, Meets Defense Minister
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Vivian Wang | More About Vivian Wang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Henry A. Kissinger, the 100-year-old former secretary of state who has pushed the United States to take a more conciliatory approach to China, has made a surprise visit to Beijing, meeting with China’s defense minister. The previously unannounced trip by Mr. Kissinger, who more than 50 years ago helped pave the way for diplomatic ties between the United States and China during President Richard M. Nixon’s administration, coincided with a string of visits by currently serving American officials to China. On Tuesday, the day that Mr. Kissinger met with Li Shangfu, the defense minister, President Biden’s climate change envoy, John Kerry, met with the Chinese premier and top foreign policy official. But while those officials met with varying levels of chilliness or scolding from Chinese officials or state media, reflecting the geopolitical tensions, the defense ministry’s description of the meeting with Mr. Kissinger was warmer. The fact that Mr. Kissinger met with Mr. Li at all was notable: China last month rebuffed a request for Mr. Li to meet the U.S. defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, at a summit in Singapore.

Persons: Henry A . Kissinger, Kissinger, Richard M, Li Shangfu, John Kerry, Antony J, Blinken, Janet Yellen, Li, Lloyd Austin Locations: United States, China, Beijing, Singapore

In the sandstone desert of China’s far west, a local meteorological station recorded an all-time high temperature of 126 degrees. In central China, heat-induced mechanical problems trapped tourists riding on a cable car in midair. The heat wave choking China is so intense that it even became a repeated talking point for John Kerry, President Biden’s special envoy for climate change, as he met with China’s premier on Tuesday in Beijing to discuss cooperation on slowing global warming. “You and I know things are changing,” Mr. Kerry told the premier, Li Qiang, while sitting in the Great Hall of the People, on the edge of Tiananmen Square. “In the last weeks, scientists have expressed greater concern than ever about what is happening on the planet,” said Mr. Kerry, who also met separately with Wang Yi, China’s top foreign policy official.

Persons: John Kerry, Biden’s, Mr, Kerry, Li Qiang, ”, Wang Yi Organizations: China’s, of Locations: China, Beijing, Xinjiang

☆ China Took Her Husband. She Was Left to Uncover His Secret Cause.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-05 | by ( Vivian Wang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Then, the blog went silent in May 2021 — the same month Mr. Ruan, now 46, was arrested. Whether Mr. Ruan was Program Think is virtually impossible to confirm. China treats national security cases with absolute secrecy, and Ms. Bei has not been allowed to speak to Mr. Ruan. She didn’t even bother circumventing China’s internet censorship. But as she was forced to search for answers, she found herself on a journey of awakening — much like the kind Program Think had set out to inspire.

Persons: Bei, Mr, Ruan, Xi Organizations: Communist Party Locations: China

☆ As Blinken Heads to China, a Wall of Suspicion Awaits Him
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-16 | by ( Vivian Wang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Rising nationalist sentiment in China — often stoked by the authorities — cheers on Beijing’s hawkish foreign policy. President Biden, even as he has declared his desire for dialogue, has described China as America’s greatest geopolitical challenge. The United States has issued a barrage of sanctions on Chinese officials and companies, and tried to cut off Chinese access to critical technology globally. At the heart of Beijing’s chilly posture toward Mr. Blinken’s visit is its claim that American overtures are insincere, and its treatment of China unjust. When Mr. Blinken postponed his previously scheduled visit in February, over a Chinese spy balloon, Beijing called it an overreaction.

Persons: Xi, Beijing’s, Biden, Blinken’s, Blinken Organizations: Communist, United, Mr Locations: China, Washington, United States, Cuba, American, Beijing, Ukraine

☆ Hosting Palestinian Leader, Xi Pushes China as a Peacemaker for Israel
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Vivian Wang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Chinese state media had also fiercely criticized the United States for failing to broker a settlement between the two. And on Wednesday, Mr. Xi put forward a three-part proposal for a two-state solution to the conflict, according to the state media. The plan appeared largely similar to a proposition that Mr. Xi had put forward in 2013, which failed to achieve any breakthroughs. “Justice must be returned to Palestine as soon as possible,” Xinhua, the state news agency, reported Mr. Xi as saying. “China is willing to play a positive role in helping Palestine achieve internal reconciliation and promote peace talks.”

Persons: Xi Jinping, Mahmoud Abbas, Abbas’s, Xi, ” Organizations: Palestinian, Palestinian Authority, Xinhua Locations: Beijing, United States, China, Israel, Palestine

☆ Behind a Rare Clash, a Fight Over Faith in China
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Vivian Wang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Walking through Nagu, a small town in the mountains of southwestern China, the signs of a vibrant Muslim community are ubiquitous. Loudspeakers broadcast passages from a Chinese translation of the Quran. Towering over it all is the Najiaying Mosque, a white building topped with an emerald dome and four minarets that reach 230 feet into the air. For decades, the mosque has been the pride of the Muslim Hui ethnic minority that lives here. As the officers blocked the mosque and used pepper spray, residents threw water bottles and bricks.

Organizations: Hui, Communist Locations: Nagu, China

☆ China Announces Plan to Land Astronauts on Moon by 2030
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Vivian Wang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

China plans to complete a mission to land a person on the moon by 2030, a government official announced on Monday, in the highest-level confirmation of China’s ambitions for a crewed lunar landing. Chinese scientists have previously nodded at a 2030 goal in a less formal capacity; for example, the chief designer of China’s lunar exploration program said last month that a 2030 landing would be “no problem.”“We can clasp the moon in the ninth heaven,” Lin Xiqiang, the deputy director of China’s Manned Space Agency, said at a news conference on Monday, quoting a Mao Zedong poem. Mr. Lin said the moon landing project, part of the country’s broader Lunar Exploration Project — also known as the Chang’e Project, for the Chinese moon goddess — had “recently” been kick-started, though he did not offer specifics. The project would also seek to enable short-term stays on the lunar surface, as well as collect samples and conduct research, he said.

☆ Inside the Barbecue City That Is China’s Hottest Tourist Destination
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( Vivian Wang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The flame-shaped neon archway was visible from miles away, which was good since there was little other reason for anyone to be in that part of town, an expanse of fields outside an industrial city in eastern China. The lights flickered between icy blue and red-hot, leaping toward the night sky beside a jumbo sign: “Zibo Barbecue Experiential Ground.”And what an experience awaited. Inside this Coachella for barbecue, visitors could pose with a mascot dressed like a meat skewer. They could watch a concert against an LED backdrop of radiating flames. Zibo, a once-obscure chemical manufacturing city in Shandong Province, has suddenly strangely — thanks to, of all things, barbecue — turned into China’s hottest tourist destination.

☆ Deaths of Seniors in Hospital Fire Point to China’s Elder Care Shortfall
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Vivian Wang | Joy Dong | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

BEIJING — The hospital in southern Beijing advertised itself as specializing in vascular tumors, especially benign birthmarks that often appear in infants. The tragedy at Changfeng Hospital — the deadliest fire in China’s capital in more than two decades — has renewed scrutiny of a long-running problem. China’s population is rapidly aging, with 400 million people, nearly 30 percent of the population, expected to be over 60 by 2040. But medical resources have not kept up; there were only about eight million nursing home or elder care beds at the end of 2020, according to official statistics. The authorities have recognized the urgency of addressing the shortage, with Beijing’s latest five-year plan pledging to raise that number to nine million beds by 2025.

☆ The Shining Promise and Dashed Dreams of China’s Live Shopping Craze
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Vivian Wang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Now nearly half of China’s one billion internet users have tried it, even as it remains largely unfamiliar in the West. To Americans, it may be reminiscent of television shopping — but interactive and, as a result, far more compelling. For viewers, the appeal is not only convenience, but also the feeling of being catered to. Global brands from Ikea to Louis Vuitton have paid China’s influencers to stream their products. But much of the appeal of this line of business is that anyone can do it: Farmers, factory workers and retirees have joined the frenzy.

Two months after issuing a vague plan for ending the war in Ukraine, China’s leader, a close ally of Vladimir V. Putin, on Wednesday acceded to repeated requests from the Ukrainian president to talk. The one-hour telephone discussion between China’s Xi Jinping and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine was the first known contact between the two leaders since Russia invaded Ukraine last year. China’s official account of the discussion was notable for its omission of two words: “Russia” and “war.” It referred instead to the need for a “political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis,” and warned of the danger of nuclear escalation. For his part, Mr. Zelensky said the two leaders “had a long and meaningful phone call.”In recent months, Mr. Xi has been trying to burnish his image as a global statesman by helping restore diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran and by rolling out the red carpet in Beijing for visiting world leaders like President Emmanuel Macron of France.

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