Some leading intellectuals tell me that they resent Chinese online influencers and social-media nationalists for the same reason that I dislike Fox News: They’re opportunists, weakening their country with lies. Chinese nationalists, leftists, economic liberals — it’s hard to find a Chinese thinker alive today who hasn’t been profoundly influenced by American society and culture. […]
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TAIPEI, Taiwan — As President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan heads to the United States, she is laying out a diplomatic agenda calibrated to strengthen ties with the West and assert her island’s autonomy, while trying to avoid moves that might ignite a crisis with China. Ms. Tsai is stopping in the United States before continuing […]
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The 30 women sat in wooden chairs, facing each other in a rectangular formation. At the front of the room was the ruling Communist Party’s hammer and sickle logo, with a sign declaring the meeting’s purpose: “Symposium of unmarried young women of the right age.” Officials in Daijiapu, a town in southeast China, had gathered […]
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The tiny island of Tinian was the launch point for American planes carrying atomic bombs to Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Now a new runway is being carved from the jungle, just south of World War II ruins inked with mildew. And on a blustery February morning a few hundred yards away at Tinian’s civilian airport, American airmen refueled Japanese […]
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In late 1978, China’s paramount leader Deng Xiaoping set in motion two major policy shifts that would change China and the world order in the decades to come. At a Communist Party meeting in December of that year, the leadership declared that China would turn its focus from political struggle to economic development. Within days, […]
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Of TikTok’s 150 million American users, there may be none more valuable to the embattled platform right now than Representative Jamaal Bowman of New York. A backbench Democrat, Mr. Bowman commands neither TikTok’s largest following (he has about 159,000 fans) nor exceptional legislative clout. But in recent days, he has gone where almost no one else […]
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Banning TikTok won’t keep us safe. As you may have heard, the United States government is in the midst of a full-on panic about TikTok, the Chinese-owned video app best known for its ability to inspire teens to try out new dance moves. Last week, the White House reportedly demanded that TikTok’s owners sell or […]
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To a man with a hammer, a renowned psychologist once posited, everything looks like a nail. For most of his decade in power, Xi Jinping, China’s leader, has usually arrived at the same conclusion for how best to deal with the country’s issues: get the Communist Party more involved. And now, as China is confronting […]
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Before Li Qiang was appointed China’s No. 2 leader this past week, he oversaw Shanghai, a city that, for a time early last year, was celebrated for trying to contain Covid with relative restraint. City officials wanted to avoid the economic devastation of a full-scale lockdown and instead opted for limited restrictions that applied to, […]
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BEIJING — China’s new premier, the country’s No. 2 leader after Xi Jinping, sought on Monday to reinvigorate confidence in the faltering economy, promising that private-sector companies would be treated equally with state-owned ones and that the property rights and other interests of entrepreneurs would be strictly respected. Premier Li Qiang, who took office on […]
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The K.M.T. has a long history of arguing for economic integration with China. The party’s roots date back to the nationalist army that lost a civil war against Chinese Communists in 1949 and escaped to Taiwan to regroup. K.M.T. officials, who initially ruled as a military dictatorship, were so committed to the dream of returning […]
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When Beijing stepped into the role of mediator this week in the surprise rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, it signaled a new level of ambition for Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, who has sought to burnish his image as a global statesman in an escalating rivalry with the United States. China’s top diplomat quickly […]
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China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, was confirmed to a norm-breaking third term as state president on Friday, further formalizing his position as China’s most dominant leader in decades. The announcement was no surprise: Mr. Xi oversaw the abolition of presidential term limits in 2018, and in October he secured a third term as head of […]
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“In the coming period, the risks and challenges that we’re facing will only become more and more numerous and grim,” Mr. Xi said, while urging officials to remain “calm and focused” while also braced for “struggle.” To tackle these challenges, Mr. Xi has emphasized the need for China to wean itself off its reliance on […]
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WASHINGTON — China’s government is increasingly convinced it can only make itself the pre-eminent power in Asia, and a major power globally, by diminishing American influence, the top U.S. intelligence official said Wednesday. The goal of weakening U.S. power and influence is one reason China has continued to pursue a deepening partnership with Russia, according […]
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China’s leaders are set to use a gathering of the top legislature starting Sunday to outline plans to restore public confidence and bolster economic growth after a year of uncertainty, disruption and discontent around the government’s Covid restrictions. The annual session of the largely ceremonial National People’s Congress in Beijing is aimed at conveying the […]
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This is how China’s ruling Communist Party wants people to remember how it handled the Covid-19 pandemic: It was a “miracle in human history.” Every measure the government imposed was rooted in science, supported by the masses — and, ultimately, “completely correct.” The party is waging an ambitious propaganda campaign to rewrite the public’s memory […]
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These operations would most likely be accompanied by cyber offensives to disrupt electricity, gas, water, transport, health care and other public services. China has demonstrated its capabilities already, including in Taiwan, where it has waged disinformation campaigns, and in serious hacking incidents in the United States. Mr. Xi himself has championed such subterfuge as a […]
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The 2019 flight was not a one-off for Professor Wu and his team. The Eagles Men Aviation Science and Technology Group, or EMAST, a Beijing-based company that Professor Wu co-founded in 2004, has claimed a series of other successes for them. Advances in high-altitude balloons held out the potential for “high resolution, long-lasting, stable communications, […]
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BEIJING — Since the spy balloon saga started, China has tried to play down the incident and prevent it from further inflaming relations with the United States. But as American alarm and accusations have mounted, that strategy is increasingly coming under strain — forcing China into an awkward, at times self-contradictory position. Beijing has continued […]
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WASHINGTON — The House on Thursday issued a bipartisan condemnation of the Chinese Communist Party for flying a spy balloon over the United States last week, unanimously approving the move after Republican leaders rebuffed a right-wing faction that had pressed to rebuke President Biden personally for how the incident was handled. The Chinese surveillance balloon, […]
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After an American fighter jet shot down the Chinese balloon that had floated across the United States, the reaction from Beijing — defensive, angered, yet hedging its options — illustrated the challenges facing China’s leader, Xi Jinping, as he tries to stabilize relations while giving little, if any, ground. Hours after the balloon was struck […]
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A balloon suspected to have come from China and seen floating over Montana has suddenly upstaged a long-anticipated visit to Beijing by the American secretary of state and threatens to undercut efforts to reduce the simmering antagonism between Beijing and Washington. Pentagon officials disclosed on Thursday that they had detected the “intelligence-gathering balloon, most certainly […]
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