Month: December 2024

SOON AFTER he took power in 2012, Xi Jinping urged caution about China’s prospects. “The further our cause advances,” he told fellow leaders, “the more new situations and problems will arise, the more risks and challenges we will face and the more unforeseen events we will encounter.” As China’s economy flounders and social tensions increase—and with Donald Trump about to enter the White House—the coming year will be full of the kind of difficulties Mr Xi feared. The Economist

AMONG EXILED Chinese dissidents, Tang Yuanjun was well known. He had taken part in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 and landed in prison as a result. He later defected to Taiwan, swimming to one of its outlying islands from a fishing boat. America granted him asylum and he settled in New York, becoming the leader of Chinese pro-democracy groups. But in 2024 he was arrested by the FBI. He admits to having used his position to collect information for China and to report on his fellow activists. He did…

Listen to this story Your browser does not support the <audio> element. CHINESE PANCAKES, pepper-beef stir-fry, fish with pickled mustard greens: to the average diner in China, these must sound like normal food orders. But to the staff at some restaurants they represent something else. These are code words that customers can use to signal that they would like a free meal. Such charitable schemes are becoming more common, as the Chinese economy sags. And restaurant owners report that an increasing number of people are using the code words. Huang…

EACH DECEMBER China’s rulers gather for their Central Economic Work Conference, where they review the past 12 months and preview the tasks they face in the year ahead. It is a useful exercise, even if you are not a member of the Communist Party’s ruling Politburo. The Economist

“HOW DID this cleaning lady steal everything from me? I’ll kill her!” yells the villainous Miss Wang in “Cleaning Mom, the Return of the Infinite”, a soap opera released in October. In the finale, the titular heroine knocks Miss Wang out with a karate chop and then (spoiler alert) marries a millionaire who is young enough to be her son. So ends a storyline featuring multiple betrayals and knife attacks. It unfolds at a frenzied pace over 36 two-minute episodes. The Economist

NEWS OF THE hack began trickling out in September, but the American government waited weeks to confirm the reports. Only this month did it begin briefing members of Congress and the media. Officials say a Chinese hacking group dubbed Salt Typhoon compromised at least eight of America’s telecoms networks. The intruders stole the call-record metadata of a “large number” of Americans. They gained access to the wiretap requests of security agencies—meaning they could work out if any Chinese spies or agents were under American surveillance. And they targeted phones used…

IN PREPARATION FOR the summer Olympics in 2008, the authorities in Beijing, the host city and China’s capital, launched a campaign to teach English to residents likely to come in contact with foreign visitors. Police, transit workers and hotel staff were among those targeted. One aim was to have 80% of taxi drivers achieve a basic level of competency. The Economist

THE INTERNET in China is not a friendly place for admirers of anything American. Fire-breathing nationalists, helped by censors who are quick to stamp out liberal views, rule the roost. Yet as China digests the implications of Donald Trump’s re-election as president, including his threat of huge tariffs on Chinese goods, many netizens see in him something to like. In their own world of economic anxiety and yawning social divides, strands of the MAGA movement seem familiar. China’s nationalists can be surprisingly Trumpian. Some of them are even pro-Trump. The…

In ancient times the shifting sands of the Taklamakan, a desert in China’s north-western Xinjiang region, swallowed up entire cities. Today they still cause trouble. On the edges of the desert, sand can smother crops, bury houses and block roads. Strong winds can also carry it thousands of miles away to choke the inhabitants of Beijing and other cites in the east. The Economist

THE HIGHEST-GROSSING Chinese film in the last week of November was not an action flick or sci-fi thriller, two genres that often top the country’s box office. It was “Her Story”, a comedy-drama that follows a single mother, called Tiemei, and her eccentric new neighbour, Xiaoye, in Shanghai. Together the two women face various challenges, such as raising nine-year-old Molly, navigating old and new romances, and handling online harassment. The low-budget film, by turns hilarious and heart-rending, has far exceeded expectations, taking in more than 440m yuan ($61m). The Economist