Why China’s Crimes in Xinjiang Cannot Go Unpunished

Horrifying allegations poured out: children separated from parents, Uyghurs punished when relatives spoke out overseas, women forcibly sterilized or sexually abused and what the U.N. report called an “unusual and stark” decline in Uyghur birthrates. In leaked documents on the Xinjiang crackdown, President Xi Jinping called in 2014 for “absolutely no mercy.” Denying abuses, China sought to prevent global action. The U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet repeatedly postponed publishing the investigation and during a visit to Xinjiang in May recited Chinese talking points. Her office released its report just…

Forging the ‘New Era’: The Temporal Politics of Xi Jinping

Advertisement On Monday, Xi Jinping and other senior Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leaders attended a 30,000 square meter exhibition titled “Forging Ahead in the New Era.” For the past five years, the term “new era” (新时代) has appeared with increasing frequency in China’s white papers, propaganda, official speeches, and public diplomacy. Further declarations pertaining to the “new era” are certain to feature in the CCP’s public messaging during the 20th Party Congress, to be held in mid-October, heralding both achievements of the “new era” so far and promises of what…

Can the Chinese Communist Party Congress Surprise Us?

Advertisement Who says Chinese Communist Party Congresses are scripted and boring? On the surface, of course, they appear to be. These mega-meetings feature the top 2,200 or so party officials in China, all dressed in identical suits lest any hint of individuality be permitted to slip out (except, ironically, for ethnic minority delegates, who are in full ethnic dress to emphasize the CCP’s diversity). The gathering seem to be nothing but one-dimensional stage shows reflecting years of opaque processes by which the men who will lead China for the next…

China Gets Its First mRNA Covid Vaccine Approval — in Indonesia

A Chinese Covid-19 vaccine based on mRNA technology has received government approval for the first time — but not in China. The shot, developed by Walvax Biotechnology, Suzhou Abogen Biosciences and the Chinese military, was cleared this week by Indonesia for emergency use, handing China a long-sought victory in the development of a homegrown vaccine using mRNA at a politically sensitive moment for the ruling Communist Party. First developed and approved in the West, mRNA vaccines have been embraced by countries all over the world, including Indonesia, and are considered…

Even as Iranians Rise Up, Protests Worldwide Are Failing at Record Rates

Iran’s widening protests, though challenging that country’s government forcefully and in rising numbers, may also embody a global trend that does not augur well for the Iranian movement. Mass protests like the ones in Iran, whose participants have cited economic hardships, political repression and corruption, were once considered such a powerful force that even the strongest autocrat might not survive their rise. But their odds of success have plummeted worldwide, research finds. Such movements are today more likely to fail than they were at any other point since at least…

‘My life is wonderful on the road’: the Chinese woman who broke the mould

In late 2020 Su Min left her unhappy marriage behind and hit the road. The 58-year-old retiree had raised her family and done her duties, and her husband, she says, was treating her badly. So she studied online videos about road trips and set off across China alone in a VW hatchback with her pension and a rooftop tent. As she travelled, Su filmed and posted videos and diaries of her journey, speaking candidly of her dissatisfying life of housework. She also marvelled at the beauty of the country she…