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
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
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…
“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
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…
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
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
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.…
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.…
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…