Two Chinas inhabit the American imagination: One is a technology and manufacturing superpower poised to lead the world. The other is an economy that’s on the verge of collapse. Each reflect a real aspect of China. One China — let’s call it hopeful China — is defined by companies like …
As the United States and China barreled headfirst into full-fledged trade war this week, one of Beijing’s most fashionable shopping districts was still bustling. People browsed a high-end perfumery, lounged outside coffee shops and waited in a wraparound line for a trendy bakery. That is just the type of scene …
A whopping increase in tariffs, followed by a whopping retaliation. Nationalist Chinese bloggers comparing President Trump’s levies to a declaration of war. China’s Foreign Ministry vowing that Beijing will “fight to the end.” For years, the world’s two biggest powers have flirted with the idea of an economic decoupling as …
In December 1967, when he arrived at a snowy farm on China’s northeastern border with the Soviet Union, Xu Chenggang carried with him an electron tube to help him assemble a radio. Mr. Xu, a 17-year-old Beijing native, would spend the next 10 years there, living in a horse stable …
When China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, met with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts in Tokyo last weekend, he said China saw “great potential” for trade and stability if the three neighbors worked together. Citing what he called their shared “Oriental wisdom,” he quoted a proverb, seemingly alluding to the …
After Taiwan’s president, Lai Ching-te, launched a broad drive this month against what he warned was expanding Chinese subversion and spying, the backlash was swift. Across the Taiwan Strait, Beijing hit back, sending a surge of military planes and ships near the island and warning that he was “playing with …
Bit by bit, the traces of Shanghai’s coronavirus lockdown in 2022 have disappeared from around Fu Aiying’s stir-fry restaurant. The smell of rotten eggs, from when officials carted her off to quarantine without letting her refrigerate her groceries, is long gone. The testing booths manned by workers in hazmat suits …
A little over a year ago, a group of researchers at Sheffield Hallam University in England published a report documenting a Chinese clothing company’s potential ties to forced labor. Members of the British Parliament cited the report ahead of a November debate that criticized China for “slavery and forced labor …
President Biden and his aides came into office with deep experience in trans-Atlantic affairs. But over four years, they focused too on the Pacific, where China strains to be the dominant player. Their main effort: building up alliances to counter China. President-elect Donald J. Trump has already signaled a different …