Year: 2024

SINCE TAKING power in 2012, Xi Jinping has worked to purge corruption from the ranks of China’s armed forces. The country’s ability to fight and win wars depends on this effort, he has said. But even Mr Xi’s protégés, appointed to restore order, seem to be part of the rot. The latest sign came on November 28th, when the defence ministry announced that Admiral Miao Hua, one of China’s most senior officers (pictured, in white), had been suspended pending investigation for “serious violations of discipline”, often a euphemism for corruption.…

Listen to this story Your browser does not support the <audio> element. MS MAO WAS making lunch one day at her home in the eastern city of Wuxi when she got the phone call. Rather than the courier’s delivery update she was expecting, she found herself subject to an intimate interrogation by a neighbourhood official: When was your last period? Are you pregnant? Do you plan to have a baby? “It doesn’t seem like the kind of thing that could happen in the 21st century,” says the 28-year-old. Such intrusive…

Aseries of violent attacks has shaken China in recent weeks. On November 11th, 35 people were killed and 43 injured when a man drove through a crowd in Zhuhai, a southern city. The police said he was angry at how assets had been divided after his divorce. Five days later in the eastern city of Wuxi, eight were stabbed to death at a vocational school by a former student, said to be unhappy about his pay after graduation. Three days after that, several people were injured when a car rammed…

IT IS KNOWN in China as “Musk’s miracle medicine”. In 2022 the boss of Tesla and new owner of Twitter, now X, gave credit for his slimmer figure to Wegovy, a drug manufactured by Novo Nordisk, a Danish firm. News about the drug quickly went viral on Chinese social media, where Mr Musk is wildly popular. The hype was, unusually, justified. Wegovy’s active ingredient, semaglutide, belongs to a class of drugs known as GLP-1 receptor agonists. GLP-1s help control blood sugar and promise to bring many other benefits as well.…

AS DONALD TRUMP assembles his foreign-policy team, many of his picks display a common characteristic: they are strident China hawks. Those seeking a tougher approach towards America’s rival range from Mike Waltz, Mr Trump’s proposed national security adviser, to Marco Rubio, his nominee for secretary of state. Part of their job will be to grasp how relations have changed in the four years since the last Trump administration, a period in which the Chinese economy has sagged, tensions around Taiwan and in the South China Sea have grown, and the…

ONE OF THE many legacies of Donald Trump’s first trade war with China is that pigs in the country now have a more varied diet. In response to Mr Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods in 2018, China imposed a 25% levy on American farm products. That included soyabeans, which China uses for protein in animal feed. Much of the levy was waived in 2019, but the damage was done. When Mr Trump’s first term began, some 40% of China’s soyabean imports came from America. As he prepares for his second,…

Listen to this story Your browser does not support the <audio> element. WHETHER A CRIME was even committed is debatable. Nevertheless, on November 19th judges in Hong Kong’s biggest-ever national-security trial sentenced 45 activists to between four and ten years in prison. Those jailed are among 47 pro-democracy figures, known as the “Hong Kong 47”, who were rounded up in 2021 for having organised a primary to choose candidates for the local legislature. Fourteen of the defendants were found guilty in May of conspiracy to commit subversion. Thirty-one had already…

THE DETAILS provided by the police are horrific. Thirty-five people were killed and dozens injured when a man drove his vehicle into a crowd in the city of Zhuhai on November 11th. A suspect was arrested, though not before he tried to kill himself with a knife, causing wounds that left him in a coma. The man, 62, was reportedly angry with how assets had been divided in his divorce. The Economist

It all started in June when four university friends in the city of Zhengzhou decided to cycle 50km to Kaifeng in order to eat that city’s famous soup dumplings. Their social-media posts about the journey garnered attention. Soon a trend had developed. Hordes of students began making the night-time ride between Zhengzhou and Kaifeng. At first the government encouraged the activity. “A symbol of youthful energy and the joy of shared experiences”, the official People’s Daily called it. By earlier this month, though, the number of cyclists had grown into…