“I can’t even do the maths any more! It’s so incredible!” With those words, uttered on September 30th, a retail trader summed up the state of China’s stockmarkets during a surge that lasted from mid-September to early October. Posting on social media, the man marvelled at the boom in share prices. Others told triumphant tales of enormous returns. The Economist
LAST MONTH, as tensions escalated between Iran and Israel, China helped organise a Chinese film festival in the Iranian capital, Tehran. It opened with a blockbuster: “The Battle at Lake Changjin”. The drama portrays the heroism of Chinese soldiers who fought against American troops in the Korean war of 1950-53. “Strike one punch to avoid a hundred,” Mao Zedong is shown exhorting his colleagues. Nationalist bloggers in China crowed about the film’s showing. “Iran cannot sit idly by, even if the United States is behind Israel!” wrote a widely read…
Your browser does not support this video. How to escape from China to America We travel with Chinese migrants on the deadly journey to America’s border Illustration: Hokyoung Kim Oct 8th 2024 They come for different reasons. Some are seeking economic opportunity. Others are disillusioned with Xi Jinping’s rule. Many have seen videos online of other Chinese migrants trekking across the lawless strip of jungle between Colombia and Panama on their way to a better life. Tens of thousands of Chinese citizens have travelled to South America, the first step…
THE GOGGLES were bothersome. They fogged up when worn with glasses, rendering the world fuzzy when Michael Kovrig wanted to send his accusers the clearest possible message. It was late March 2021. After more than two years locked up in the Beijing State Security Detention Centre the Canadian former diplomat had been placed in handcuffs and leg irons and driven to a windowless courtroom for a one-day trial, charged with procuring state secrets. The Economist
Milk is “indispensable for a healthy China and a strong nation”. So said officials in 2018 when they launched a campaign to supercharge the country’s dairy industry. They wanted to boost China’s food security by cutting its reliance on imported milk. At the same time, they hoped that the Chinese would become fitter by consuming more dairy products, which are rich in protein and calcium. Officials gave farmers subsidies to increase their herds of cows. They urged state propagandists to “nurture the habit of consuming dairy products”. The Economist
IN LATE SEPTEMBER workers erected a new structure in Tiananmen Square. It is 18 metres tall, resembling a basket of fruit and flowers. Similar floral-themed displays have sprung up across Beijing in celebration of the 75th anniversary on October 1st of the founding of Communist China. This one bulges with giant peaches and gourds—symbols of long life. But China’s leader, Xi Jinping, worries about how long-lived his party’s rule will be. The Economist
THE LAST time China fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) out over the Pacific, Xi Jinping was 27 years old, China’s GDP per head was less than $200 and America had just lifted an arms embargo on the country. So the missile that rose from Hainan island on September 25th—carrying a dummy warhead and plunging into the waters around French Polynesia, some 12,000km to the east—was a mark of China’s soaring nuclear ambitions. The Economist
A tragedy like this “could have happened in any country”, said China’s foreign-ministry spokesman on September 19th. A day earlier, in the southern city of Shenzhen, a Chinese man had stabbed a ten-year-old Japanese boy while he was on his way to school. The boy later died from his injuries. The assailant was arrested at the scene. The authorities have released no information about his motives. The Economist
The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) is no ordinary collection of policy wonks. In China’s political hierarchy it has the status of a government ministry. It has thousands of staff, some of whom give briefings to the ruling Politburo. Among “think-tanks with Chinese characteristics” that China’s leader, Xi Jinping, says he wants to foster, it stands at the apex. But proximity to power offers no protection to its researchers. Mr Xi’s henchmen are turning up the heat on those who dare to think independently. The Economist
THE TERM “three generations in tobacco” has become a common shorthand in China. On social media it means a privileged elite whose members hand out coveted jobs (such as managerial roles in the state’s tobacco monopoly) to their own types. Earlier this year a microblogger with more than 850,000 followers invoked the meme. “The result of this hereditary system is a closed circle of power that completely cuts off opportunities for people at the bottom to rise up!” he wrote. Hundreds expressed agreement. “The ruling class is solidifying,” one replied.…