Gail Collins: Bret, I feel obligated to start out by asking you — TikTok? Potential foreign agent? Bret Stephens: I think of TikTok in two ways. First, as a gigantic vacuum cleaner of personal data — possibly including your location — that goes directly from the unsuspecting eyes, thumbs and minds of its 170 million […]
Read MoreTag: Communist Party of China
Khanna Explains Opposition to TikTok Bill While Senators Signal Openness
Representative Ro Khanna, the California Democrat representing Silicon Valley, laid out his case against a sweeping ban of the social media platform TikTok on Sunday after opposing legislation that overwhelmingly passed the House last week, saying the bill would be ineffective. The legislation passed the House, 352 to 65, on Wednesday, with Mr. Khanna among […]
Read MoreChina’s Growth Slows but Xi Jinping Keeps to His Vision
Even with growth faltering in China, Xi Jinping appears imperiously assured that he possesses the right road map to surpass Western rivals. China’s economy has lurched into a slower gear. Its population is shrinking and aging. Its rival, the United States, has built up a lead in artificial intelligence. Mr. Xi’s pronouncement several years ago […]
Read MoreChina Cancels a News Conference, Shutting a Window for Its People
For more than 30 years, the Chinese premier’s annual news conference was the only time that a top leader took questions from journalists about the state of the country. It was the only occasion for members of the public to size up for themselves China’s No. 2 official. It was the only moment when some […]
Read MoreChina’s New Economic Agenda, a Lot Like the Old One: Takeaways
Beijing was abuzz with politics on Tuesday. China’s annual legislative meeting — the National People’s Congress, when Communist Party leaders promote their solutions for national ills — opened for business. The event is a chance for the leaders to signal the direction of the economy and outline how and where the government will spend money […]
Read MoreMurder and Magic Realism: A Rising Literary Star Mines China’s Rust Belt
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 […]
Read MoreAs China Tries to Present a Friendlier Image, a New Face Emerges
Faced with declining foreign investment at home, China has sought to soften its image in the United States and Europe and make nice with some of its neighbors. One Communist Party official has played an unusually prominent role in the shift in tone. In New York, he told an audience of scholars and businesspeople that […]
Read MoreChina Meets the U.S. to Discuss Fentanyl, But the Détente Has Limits
China and the United States are back at the negotiating table. Whether they can agree on much is another matter. In Bangkok, China’s top diplomat last week discussed North Korea and Iran with President Biden’s national security adviser. Days later, in Beijing, officials restarted long-stalled talks on curbing the flow of fentanyl to the United […]
Read MoreF.B.I. Director Warns of China Hacking Threat
Christopher A. Wray, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, warned on Wednesday that China was ramping up an extensive hacking operation geared at taking down the United States’ power grid, oil pipelines and water systems in the event of a conflict over Taiwan. Mr. Wray, appearing before a House subcommittee on China, offered an […]
Read MoreHow China Censors Critics of the Economy
China’s top intelligence agency issued an ominous warning last month about an emerging threat to the country’s national security: Chinese people who criticize the economy. In a series of posts on its official WeChat account, the Ministry of State Security implored citizens to grasp President Xi Jinping’s economic vision and not be swayed by those […]
Read MoreTaiwan’s Democracy Draws Envy and Tears for Visiting Chinese
At the Taipei train station, a Chinese human rights activist named Cuicui watched with envy as six young Taiwanese politicians campaigned for the city’s legislative seats. A decade ago, they had been involved in parallel democratic protest movements — she in China, and the politicians on the opposite side of the Taiwan Strait. “We came […]
Read MoreChina Failed to Sway Taiwan’s Election. What Happens Now?
China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has tied his country’s great power status to a singular promise: unifying the motherland with Taiwan, which the Chinese Communist Party sees as sacred, lost territory. A few weeks ago, Mr. Xi called this a “historical inevitability.” But Taiwan’s election on Saturday, handing the presidency to a party that promotes the […]
Read MoreTaiwan Election: Why It Matters, and What It Could Mean for U.S. and China
Taiwan will choose a new president on Saturday, bringing new leadership to volatile relations with an increasingly belligerent Beijing. The outcome could raise or lower the risks of a crisis, giving China a potential transition point to revive engagement, or to increase the military threats that could ultimately draw the United States into a war. […]
Read MoreThe Next Front in the U.S.-China Battle Over Chips
NASA has chosen the technology to help it land future spacecraft on unmapped planets. Meta uses the technology for artificial intelligence. Chinese engineers have turned to it to encrypt data. And it could represent the next front in the semiconductor trade war between the United States and China. The technology is RISC-V, pronounced “risk five.” […]
Read MoreFlorida Law Chills Chinese Student Recruitment
The panic among faculty at the University of Florida began this month once word started to spread: Do not make offers yet to graduate students from seven “countries of concern.” Among the seven was China, the largest source of international students at Florida, a major research university, particularly in the fields of science, technology, engineering […]
Read MoreFlorida Law Chills Chinese Student Recruitment
The panic among faculty at the University of Florida began this month once word started to spread: Do not make offers yet to graduate students from seven “countries of concern.” Among the seven was China, the largest source of international students at Florida, a major research university, particularly in the fields of science, technology, engineering […]
Read MoreXi Jinping is Asserting Tighter Control of Finance in China
In his decade as China’s top leader, Xi Jinping has asserted greater control for himself and the Communist Party over the country’s economy. Now, Mr. Xi has moved to extend that power more forcefully than ever over China’s financial system. The Communist Party issued a detailed ideological statement on Friday in Qiushi, the party’s main […]
Read MoreCan U.S.-China Student Exchanges Survive Geopolitics?
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. As a mascot […]
Read MoreChina Wants to Bulldoze ‘Urban Villages’ to Revive the Economy
In Shenzhen, a metropolis born of China’s economic prosperity, Paibang Village is a reminder of the city’s modest past and the challenges ahead for reviving the country’s property sector. Paibang is what China calls an urban village, a labyrinth of low-slung apartment buildings and mom-and-pop storefronts connected by a maze of alleyways and narrow roads. […]
Read MoreAs Xi Heads to San Francisco, Chinese Propaganda Embraces America
Not long ago, Chinese propaganda was warning that American attempts at easing tensions were mere performance. Its state security agency was urging people to be on guard against American spies. 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 […]
Read MoreAs Pandas Leave National Zoo, Is Panda Diplomacy Over?
The two adult pandas, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, and their 3-year-old cub, Xiao Qi Ji, are scheduled to be loaded into crates that day and driven in trucks to a FedEx Boeing 777 called the Panda Express. They will then be flown 19 hours from Dulles International Airport to China, where they will join […]
Read MoreChina’s Male Leaders Push to Get Women to Stay Home for Family
At China’s top political gathering for women, it was mostly a man who was seen and heard. Xi Jinping, the country’s leader, sat center stage at the opening of the National Women’s Congress. A close-up of him at the Congress was splashed on the front page of the Chinese Communist Party’s newspaper the next day. […]
Read MoreAntisemitism Surges in China Online and in State Media
Hu Xijin, an influential commentator and a former editor in chief of Global Times, a Communist Party newspaper, responded to hawkish statements from an Israeli minister directed at Hezbollah, the powerful militia in Lebanon, writing on Chinese social media: “Oh, calm down, Israel. I’m worried you’ll wipe the Earth out of the solar system.” At […]
Read MoreBiden Hosts China’s Top Diplomat Ahead of Expected Xi Meeting
President Biden met with China’s top diplomat on Friday to prepare for Mr. Biden’s planned meeting with President Xi Jinping next month as relations remain strained between Washington and Beijing. Amid cordial talk of cooperation between the United States and China, the official, Wang Yi, wrapped up a visit to Washington. During the three-day trip, […]
Read MoreLi Keqiang, Former Chinese Premier, Dies of Heart Attack at 68
China’s former premier Li Keqiang died of a heart attack early on Friday, China announced, an abrupt end to the life of a leader who had served alongside Xi Jinping for a decade and set a milder tone while never appearing to directly challenge Mr. Xi’s hard-line policies. Mr. Li, 68, was visiting Shanghai when […]
Read MoreGavin Newsom, on Climate Mission to China, Meets With Xi Jinping
Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, met with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, in Beijing on Wednesday, according to the Chinese state media, as part of an ambitious weeklong mission to negotiate climate partnerships. The two-term Democratic governor wants California to set an aggressive pace for the United States — and the world — to cut […]
Read MoreChina Dismisses Defense Minister Amid Swirl of Speculation
Just four months ago, China’s defense minister, Gen. Li Shangfu, was at a forum for regional officials in Singapore, serving as the face of his country’s bold vision for reshaping Asia’s balance of power. He cast China as a force for stability and accused the United States of stirring trouble in the region, suggesting that […]
Read MoreTo Avoid War, the U.S. Must Both Deter and Reassure China
For a half-century, America has avoided war with China over Taiwan largely through a delicate balance of deterrence and reassurance. That equilibrium has been upset. China is building up and flexing its military power; hostile rhetoric emanates from both Beijing and Washington. War seems likelier each day. It’s not too late to restore the kind […]
Read MoreAcross U.S., Chinese Bitcoin Mines Draw National Security Scrutiny
When a company with Chinese origins broke ground last year on a crypto-mining operation in Cheyenne, Wyo., a team at Microsoft that assesses national security threats sounded the alarm. Not only was the site next door to a Microsoft data center that supported the Pentagon — it was about a mile away from an Air […]
Read MoreXi-Schumer Meeting Raises Hopes of Smoother U.S.-China Relations
China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, met with Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, in Beijing on Monday and expressed hopes of “peaceful coexistence” between China and the United States, even as escalating violence in the Middle East threatens to deepen a wedge between the two powers. “We have 1,000 reasons to make China-U.S. relations work […]
Read MoreAn 8-Year-Old Is at the Heart of a Fight Over Tibetan Buddhism
The boy had seemed destined for a life of affluence and earthly pursuits. Born into the family behind a major mining conglomerate in Mongolia, he might have been picked to someday lead the company from its steel-and-glass headquarters in the country’s capital. Instead, the 8-year-old is now at the heart of a struggle between the […]
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