Category: The Economist

EYES WIDE and arms flailing, a skier slowly makes her way down the slope at Mission Hills. Outside the weather is balmy, but at this snow-dome in the southern city of Shenzhen, skiing is a year-round pursuit. Mission Hills, which opened last year, is one of nearly 700 indoor and outdoor ski centres in China. Visits to such places are increasing, according to state media. When Beijing won the right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, Xi Jinping, China’s leader, called on people to show their passion for winter sports.…

EVERY YEAR  on December 31st a glimpse is revealed of an impenetrable world. On Chinese state television, Xi Jinping delivers his new-year address to the nation. China’s netizens pore over the footage: on no other occasion do they get to see their leader sitting at what purports to be his desk. They swap analysis of Mr Xi’s collection of photographs, displayed on bookshelves behind him. And they parse his ponderously delivered words. “Along the way, we are bound to encounter headwinds,” he said this year. Many will see that as…

ALICE OU DOES not mince words when criticising education officials in Taiwan. She has accused them of turning young people into “moral dwarves and historical idiots”. She says the government’s actions amount to “self-castration”. Ms Ou, a Chinese-literature teacher at the prestigious Taipei First Girls’ High School, is angry that the state has reduced the number of recommended classical Chinese texts in the high-school curriculum. She believes this is an effort to “de-sinicise” students. Ms Ou’s opinion, first aired at a press conference in early December, went viral. It quickly…

CHINA’S FIRST attempt at building a humanoid robot did not hit the mark. The machine produced in 2000 by a team at the National University of Defence Technology looked like a walking toaster. It had googly eyes and cannon-like protuberances near its crotch. Called Xianxingzhe, or Forerunner, it was mocked in neighbouring Japan, which at the time boasted far sleeker robots. Japanese netizens described it as China’s secret weapon—designed to make its enemies die of laughter. China has stuck with it, though. In November the government published a plan calling…

HARSHNESS IS A crude metric for judging an unelected regime. To keep power, lots of rulers will crush dissent with an iron fist. A more subtle measure involves thoroughness. Dedicated autocrats use cold, patient repression to bring even the meek and unthreatening into line. Their aim is to snuff out any belief—no matter how harmless—that might divide subjects’ loyalties. This grim trend may be seen in the Communist Party’s handling of China’s ethnic minorities, a diverse bunch who between them make up around 9% of the overall population. Since Xi…

IT HAS BEEN more than three years since the police in Hong Kong arrested Jimmy Lai and stuck him in Stanley Prison. But as Mr Lai stood in court on December 18th, facing charges of sedition and colluding with foreign forces, it felt like the culmination of a much longer saga. The pro-democracy media tycoon has spent decades challenging the administration in Hong Kong and the national government in Beijing. They, in turn, consider Mr Lai a traitor and have been relishing the chance for some public payback. Mr Lai…

ON A BALMY morning in southern China tourists are back walking the canals of Venice and admiring the architecture of St Mark’s Square. The crowds have returned to the Venetian Macao, a resort with gondoliers and gaming tables. It and other casinos in Macau, the world’s largest gambling centre by revenue, were hit hard by the pandemic as China closed its borders. Tax receipts from the city’s gaming sector fell by 85% from 2019 to 2022. But now they are surging again. More people visited Macau in the first nine…

IT HAS BEEN 11 years since Xi Jinping took charge in China, becoming one of the most powerful people in the world. But for many outsiders, this has not been enough time to learn how to pronounce his name. Foreign politicians and pundits often stumble over it. The letters “x” and “j” cause the most problems. In the English-speaking world, many insert a misguided series of “z” sounds into their pronunciation. This was on display last month when Mr Xi met President Joe Biden in America. Airwaves around the world…

AS A RULE, China’s central planners do not say much about love. But look closely at recent plans from some reform-minded provinces—notably schemes that try to address a shrinking population—and appeals to hearts as well as minds leap from the page. Take, for instance, a five-year plan to help rural migrants settle down in the cities of Zhejiang, a prosperous coastal province, and ideally to bring their young children with them. At first sight, Zhejiang’s proposal, issued in July and covering 2023 to 2027, is dry stuff. One section explains…