Category: The Diplomat

On June 3, Burmese-American scholar U Min Zin disappeared in China’s southwestern province of Yunnan, where he was set to attend an academic conference. On June 12, shortly before Myanmar’s ruler, Min Aung Hlaing, arrived in China for a state visit, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian confirmed that Zin had been arrested and accused of endangering Chinese national security. No further details were provided.  On August 20, the U.S. State Department officially classified Zin as “wrongfully detained.” Assistant Secretary of State for Global Public Affairs Dylan Johnson pledged that…

The U.S. State Department yesterday designated Myanmar scholar and U.S. citizen Min Zin as “wrongfully detained,” two months after his arrest in China on espionage charges. The move was announced by Dylan Johnson, assistant secretary of state for global public affairs, who said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had made the designation after “an extensive review of the circumstances” surrounding Min Zin’s arrest on June 3. “The safety and security of U.S. citizens is the State Department’s top priority,” Johnson said. “We will continue to advocate for Mr. Zin…

In November 2026, the European Union will prohibit exports of potentially recyclable plastic to non-OECD countries. The EU labeled these exports “waste” and described the cross-border flows as “environmental exploitation.”  At the same time that the EU is shutting down the trade, China has reversed course and committed to expanding the movement of recyclable plastic across its border. For most of the past decade, China was closed to imports of plastic waste entirely. The EU and China seem to be moving in different directions. Europe’s efforts concentrate on boosting demand…

On August 17, Xi Jinping delivered a speech commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary and Chinese President Jiang Zemin, who passed away in 2022. The speech unsurprisingly was laudatory. Jiang, Xi stated, was “a great Marxist,” “a great proletarian revolutionary, politician, military strategist, diplomat,” and “the core of the party’s third generation central leadership collective.”  Yet the speech was more than a mere commemoration. Rather, it exhibited a long-noted tendency of the CCP to “make the past serve the present” through…

In early 2024, a grandmotherly figure known as “Wang Po”（王婆）became a national sensation in China for her folksy matchmaking performances in Kaifeng. Less than two years later, the country’s online matchmaking scene has undergone an unexpected gender reversal. A new generation of male matchmaking influencers, including Aoye（鳌烨）, Wukong（悟空）, Dachao（大超）, and Tianshu（天书）, has taken over the spotlight. These men have little in common with the traditional image of the matchmaker. Often dressed in business attire and speaking in the language of markets, they assess participants’ appearance, education, family background, income, and…

The 17th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies (IATS) Conference, scheduled to be held at Kathmandu University, Nepal, from August 23-29, was cancelled on August 5 and later shifted online. The cancellation was done by the organizers, at the formal request of the Nepali government.  The IATS conference is one of the premier academic forums for Tibetan culture, history, language and religion. The conference was set to bring together scholars from 40 countries, including India, China, and the United States – many of whom had already arranged and…

Mahjong is having a global moment. From designer tile sets and “mahjong parties” to growing numbers of clubs and classes, the centuries-old Chinese tile game is becoming trendy once again. But its resurgence raises questions about cultural exchange, commercialization, and what happens when a tradition rooted in Chinese history becomes a “lifestyle trend.” Mahjong emerged in eastern coastal China in the mid 1800s, towards the end of the Qing Dynasty. Although its exact origins are debated, historians agree the game developed from earlier Chinese tile-based games. In the early 1900s,…

“When evil-doing comes like falling rain, nobody calls out ‘stop!’ When crimes begin to pile up they become invisible.” German playwright Bertolt Brecht’s observation on the political apathy that engulfed Germany in the 1930s resonates with 21st century survivors of the Chinese state’s war against Uyghurs in its northwestern heartland, known by exiles as East Turkestan.  Germany’s slide into fascism brought book burnings and arrests of “undesirables.” It lead step by step to antisemitism, concentration camps, torture, and death. That brutal history echoes today in Beijing’s campaign against the Turkic…

Amid leadership disruption caused by the purges, the reconstruction of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) high command is underway. Recent reports by the South China Morning Post and Channel News Asia indicate that officers from the PLA Air Force (PLAAF) have recently risen to senior leadership positions, prompting renewed discussions on the significance of this development.  At present, PLAAF officers are in charge of five Central Military Commission (CMC) departments, compared with seven headed by Army officers, making the PLAAF the second-best-represented service at the CMC level. Moreover, of the…

On July 21, President Khurelsukh Ukhnaa awarded Shen Minjuan, China’s ambassador to the country since 2023, Mongolia’s Order of the Polar Star (Altan Gerege), the country’s highest state honor for foreign nationals. Barely a week later, on July 29, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) updated its official organizational roster: Shen had taken office as director-general of the Department of Asian Affairs, succeeding Liu Jinsong.  The speed of the promotion was striking. So was its symbolism. For Mongolian policymakers and analysts who observed Shen’s nearly three-year tenure up close, her…