ChinaFile
@ChinaFile
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Online magazine from @asiasociety Reporting, Analysis, Photography, Video and Conversation on China
Joined October 2009
Vigil, @jwassers' new book on Hong Kong, is in part about city on watch, trying to keep alert as to pieces of itself begin to disappear. WATCH MORE about the book: .
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He could have left Ukraine, but instead this Chinese vlogger stays in Odessa, his dispatches a daily rebuke to Beijing's position on the war and how Chinese people are supposed understand it.-
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"The doctor in Shiyan messaged me. ‘I want to tell you the official numbers are fake. They are being pruned,’ she wrote.
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"Where do you really think you are taking China?" Legal scholar and activist Xu Zhiyong's open letter calling on Xi Jinping to step down, appeared on online earlier this month. Here is Geremie Barmé's translation-
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JUST PUBLISHED! “State of Surveillance” ChinaFile’s analysis of a new database of some 76,000 publicly available Chinese procurement documents related to purchases of surveillance tech and services from 2004 through the spring 2020. -
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Between 1977 and 2013 Jonathan Spence wrote 39 essays for the New York Review of Books. Thanks to @nybooks's generosity you can read them all here.
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Nurlan Pioner’s sentencing document, smuggled out of China and translated from Kazakh for @chinafile provides one of the most detailed official accounts available of the way routine Islamic practice has been criminalized across Xinjiang. @dtbyler reports-
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In his videos, which not only report his observations of the war but also overtly and implicitly critique China's position, Wang Jixian, is speaking not only from Urkraine, but from a place Geremie Barmé calls "The Other China.".
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Thanks to @nytimes for quick work turning drone footage of Wuhan shot for us by a local photographer into this haunting video
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Chinese citizens sent to occupy Uighur homes talk about it like they're in the Peace Corps.-
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Here's a thread of scenes from today in Wuhan we'll be updating. After 10am this morning in the Hankou section of Wuhan, shoppers in line up outside the Yongwang supermarket.
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China's officials view Uyghur food as backward, bland, unhealthy and politically dangerous--except when it's served to Han tourists. @GroseTimothy on Beijing's project to change what Uyghurs eat. -
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Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of ChinaFile’s launch. We will be celebrating in a variety of ways over the coming months & using the occasion to reflect on how much has changed about China since 2013 and about trying to cover it.
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.@ChinaFile has taken down our interview with Roseann Lake. We invite authors to promote books on our site on the assumption their work respects basic scholarly and journalistic principles. At present, we don't feel confident of that assumption in the case of Leftover in China.
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On October 13, ChinaFile will host the virtual launch of "In the Camps: China's High Tech Penal Colony" distinguished Xinjiang scholar and ChinaFile contributor @dtbyler's forthcoming book. Here are the details.
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A 2018 speech by China's Minister of Public Security, the transcript of which is included in the newly released #xinjiangpolicefiles offers evidence of Xi Jinping’s informed and active role in directing mass detentions in Xinjiang-
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How old were you when you first heard about what happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989? How did you learn about it? How did you feel? How did you tell your kids about it? Or why didn't you? We want to hear your story-
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On February 4th, Tsinghua University law professor and prominent Xi Jinping critic, Xu Zhangrun, posted this essay on the coronavirus outbreak. Here is Geremie Barmé's annotated translation-
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Caixin reports multiple local doctors in #Wuhan estimate number of cases of new #coronavirus may be as high as 6000.
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Ha Jin’s new novel is about Sun Weishi, the adopted daughter of Zhou Enlai, a playwright and director, whom, during the Cultural Revolution, Zhou sent into detention, where she died. @perrylink reviews:
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This new video from the Visual Investigations team @nytimes outlines the current capabilities and future ambitions of China's surveillance systems.
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"Criticisms of decisions to ban Huawei often point out that there is no smoking gun. But this is not a legal issue but a question of risk calculus informed by Xi Jinping’s declaring quite explicitly: “The Party leads everything.”'-
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Our Visuals Editor @muyixiao is working to pull facts out of the flood of social media video footage coming out Wuhan, which is also her home town.
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On the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Protests and their deadly suppression by China's government, a selection of ChinaFile's work on the subject over the years.
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Thoughts on the implications of Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan from people who have been thinking about the subject for more than five minutes. w/ (so far) @brianhioe.@lnachman32 @MargaretKLewis @YuHuaNealChen & Robert Daly.
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"I have become a former person" Chinese law professor Xu Zhangrun's letter to his editors and his censors, translated by Geremie Barmé.-
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Here's how @shawnwzhang, a Chinese law student is uncovering visual and documentary evidence of massive detentions of Muslims in Western China-.
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Shawan is a small, Han-majority town in Xinjiang. So why does it need such an extensive, cutting-edge surveillance system? @dtbyler uses Chinese government documents to find out.
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"The coming academic year presents unique challenges for university instructors teaching content related to China," write 5 China-focused political scientists, here are their recommendations for how educators should respond.-
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Inside the Yongwang supermarket in the Hankou section of Wuhan this morning, a run on groceries.
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你还记得第一次听说“六四”时是什么年纪么？你是如何知道的？当时感受如何？如果你为人父母，你是如何告诉孩子的呢？或者，为什么决定不告诉呢？我们想知道你的故事-
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Suspending criticism of China's government isn't the right approach to combatting anti-Asian racism in the U.S. argues @hofunghung-
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New on ChinaFile: Throughout China, groups of "vigilantes" are cropping up to patrol the streets, mediate disputes, and even initiate drug busts. 1/10.
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In Kashgar these days a thirsty traveller can knock back a cold beer in a local mosque. The former place of worship is now a bar for tourists.
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Earlier this year, we emailed ChinaFile's contributors past and present and asked them about their plans to return to China once COVID travel restrictions ease.
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We mourn the loss of Rod MacFarquhar who taught so many of us so much, with generosity and charm and wit. Here is a collection of his writing on China, for @nybooks and for ChinaFile. We will miss him.
One of the most respected scholars of Chinese politics, Rod MacFarquhar, has died. In his 88 years he served in the British Army, worked as a journalist, was a member of Parliament and was a much-beloved Harvard professor. His course on the Cultural Revolution was legendary.
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“Taiwan meets all the requirements for recognition as a ‘state,’ and no U.N. resolution or other international law stands in the way.”. @jeromeacohen on Taiwan’s standing at the United Nations. READ this week’s Conversation on US-Taiwan-PRC relations:
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ChinaFile @ChinaFile.8s.For those of you following the historic sexual harassment case against a CCTV anchor that began yesterday in Beijing, some background:. 1. Our photo essay on Zhu's former intern and accuser, Xianzi.
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Just under a year ago, Liu Xia, widow of 2010 Nobel Prize winner Liu Xiaobo moved to Germany and began life in exile. On May 4, she spoke to artist Ai Weiwei and scholar Perry Link
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NEW @ChinaFile investigation: How a For-Profit Industry Helps China’s Leaders ‘Manage Public Opinion’ by Jessica Batke & @MareikeOhlberg based on analysis of some 3000 Chinese government procurement documents-
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Australia is debating Chinese influence. Should the U.S. do the same? A ChinaFIle Conversation
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NEW: According to previously unreported government records, in 2015, a Public Security bureau in Xinjiang announced plans to purchase equipment from the US company Promega to help build a national DNA database via Jessica Batke + @MareikeOhlberg-
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New: @peterhessler reflects on attacks on his reporting during his time in Chengdu from 2019 to 2021 and on the importance of being on the ground in China despite them-
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Zha Jianying on whether Germany's reckoning w/ its own past can be a template for China: "Let's imagine a scenario where Germany was not defeated, the Nazi party stayed in power, and you have the portrait of Hitler still hanging in the center of [a] Berlin square. "@AsiaSociety
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It might look like mainlanders are united in their hostility to the Hong Kong protests. Look again writes @kikizhao.
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China's 'New Silk Road' Is Derailed In Sri Lanka By Political Chaos And Violent Protests.
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A cache of declassified documents sheds light on the Bush administration's response to the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre. David Shambaugh, Evan Madeiros, @suea_thornton, @byjamesmann, James Green, & @orvilleschell discuss in this week’s ChinaFile Conversation.
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Here's an ongoing thread of Chinese voices "sympathetic toward Ukraine." via @dong_mengyu-
Many sympathetic voices toward Ukraine are being censored on the Chinese internet. I'm starting a thread to document them. Some translations are shortened for brevity. Errors remain mine. 1. 5 profs issued a joint statement today urging Russia to back off. (deleted on WeChat)
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Our latest: Hong Kong Watch's @anoukwear describes her first-hand experiences in UN meetings as Hong Kong delegates have morphed from restrained professionals to wolf warrior-style delegates. 1/6.
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9 million children in the Chinese countryside live without their parents. This is the story of three of them-
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Here is @JimMillward's exceptionally clear and chilling overview of the situation in Xinjiang. Now up on @ChinaFile thanks to our partnership with @nybooks-
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Work begins on the new hospital Wuhan is building to treat patients with #2019nCoV. Construction of the 1000 bed facility is supposed to be completed in 6 days.
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“But the paradox of propaganda, exposed by Pew research, is that the more Europeans are exposed to China the less they like it.”. @TheresaAFallon in this week’s ChinaFile Conversation on how COVID-19 is impacting Europe-China relations:
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@cjwerleman Thanks so much for posting this. Hope folks watching will want to see the video of of our full discussion on Xinjiang.
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Popular Chinese Muslim Website Down After Posting Letter Critical of Xi — by Christian Shepherd — via @reuters .
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"Having lived 19 years in China, I had no illusions about its authoritarian government. But that night, a dam broke inside me." @yangyang_cheng-
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Catching Tigers & Flies: Visualizing China’s Anti-Corruption Campaign
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Here's another view of today's progress on the 1000 bed hospital Wuhan is building to treat patients with #2019nCoV.
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On October 29th in NYC we'll host a public discussion of the (newly codified) campaign of repression and incarceration of Muslim ethnic minorities in Xinjiang with @RianThum, Gulchehra Hoja, Jessica Batke and @BeijingPalmer.
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New Conversation: Rui Zhong, @judeblanchette, Andrew Nathan, @daicing, Chenjian Li, @mattinglee @isabelhilton and @orvilleschell on the political ramifications of the coronavirus outbreak and the death of Dr. Li Wenliang-
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Chinese officials often view Uighurs through the prism of mental illness and speak of their incarceration as a form of "treatment." @GroseTimothy explains why. With thanks to @badiucao.for the illustration-
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Read our Latest Investigation:. A vast network of "New Era Civilization Practice Centers" is the CCP's latest bid to wins hearts and minds across China.
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"With Beijing clearly calling the shots now, it would seem their first step will be breaking the weekly cycle of protests. Beijing will have a clear deadline in mind: the 70th anniversary of the founding of the PRC in October." @antd on Hong Kong protests
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These young Uyghurs have become prominent lifestyle vloggers on Chinese video-sharing platforms. A new analysis by anthropologists who collected thousands of examples, shows the videos are likely part of a state propaganda campaign-
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Authors Jessica Batke and @MareikeOhlberg call it “the most comprehensive accounting of China’s surveillance build-up to date.”.
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A Chinese artist started putting up homemade street signs around Beijing. Here's what happened-
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"This is how we now find ourselves in a state of frustrated disbelief" a Chinese professor barred from teaching, writes to his former students-
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Will China Take the Lead on Climate Change?—@samgeall @bfinamore @alvinnrdc @LiShuo_GP @isabelhilton —
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In 'Patriot Number One' Lauren Hilgers introduces many Chinese in NYC's biggest Chinatown, including Karen, a college grad whose mother imagined a bold American life for her, who now works part-time in a nail salon and attends vocational school
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Join us @AsiaSocietyNY on July 17th for an evening with @peterhessler. He'll be in conversation with @NPR's @nivincent on his forthcoming memoir Other Rivers: A Chinese Education, out July 9 from @penguinrandom- .
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"Looking at local governance in China right now, compared to, let’s say, 2011, I think no one can deny that the difference is really dramatic. The feeling of how close the state is to you has just fundamentally changed"-
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China's tightening grip on social media offers potent tool of repression for 'President-for-Life' Xi Jinping, warns @PENamerican
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Don't miss the second part of the @nytimes project on government surveillance in China: this highly detailed account of the present and future of Chinese policing, based in part off of procurement documents collected by @ChinaFile.
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"Going to China now" writes @AmyGadsden of @Penn "is just as important—if not more important—than it was when China’s booming economy generated interest on our campuses.".
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It's not just for the sex. 20 years after his death at 44, Wang Xiaobo is now considered one of modern China's most important writers—
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"It has become increasingly important that the rest of the world understand what the doctors and nurses in Wuhan—several of whom I now call friends—experienced and are still experiencing.".
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In @joshchin @lizalinwsj's Surveillance State this account of Qian Xuesen, whose ordeals in McCarthy-era America led him to return to China, to become an intellectual progenitor of the theories of social control that ungird surveillance in China today.-
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China's United Front Work Department is not a household name outside of China. If you have heard of it at all, it's probably because of what the it does, or is purported to do, outside of China. But it also has a wide ranging agenda at home.
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This fall, Tibet pursued "Zero-COVID" by tens of thousands to poorly equipped, mass "isolation" facilities, raising alarm across China that other regions might follow suit. Incredible detail and insight on this from @RobbieBarnett & colleagues-
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Authorities in at least 998 counties—one third of all counties in China—in nearly every corner of the country purchased surveillance equipment of some type in 2019 alone. Surveillance isn't just happening in Xinjiang.
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There's been a lot of talk lately (inside and outside of China) about the prospect of Beijing's instigating a military conflict with Taiwan. How likely is it?-
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The Chinese Communist Party is readying for a big meeting in October. Here’s what you should know—
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LGBTQ advocates in China have been blocked from campaigning the way they used to, but, as @DariusLongarino writes, they are far from in retreat.-
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How to read the WeChat and TikTok bans--Latest Conversation from @julianku @fryan @Yaqiu @gwbstr @He_Shumei-
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In their aggregate and in the richness of their individual details, the tens of thousands of procurement documents the authors analyzed sharpen what has been a blurry picture of this highly consequential aspect of Chinese governance.
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Since 2017, approximately a tenth of all adult Uyghurs and Kazakhs in Xinjiang have been sent to various forms of detention. This began with internment camps and pre-trial detention, but since 2018 has increasingly shifted toward mass imprisonment.
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Tomorrow night join us online for a discussion with Uyghur lawyer and activist @nuryturkel on his memoir, No Escape. @ChinaFile's Jessica Batke will moderate.-
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A key major takeaways: The number of procurement notices for surveillance-related equipment and services grew by nearly 1,900 percent from 2010 to 2019.
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A look at the 9th Party Congress in 1969 to understand the 1st leader since Mao to claim omniscience & omnipotence
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U.S. Should Make More Public Statements About China’s Human Rights — @SophieHRW
http://t.co/WbyMJFlf7a
http://t.co/hDMrskl0sX.
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