Tag: Communist Party of China

A Dissident Escapes China by Rubber Boat and Lands in South Korea

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A Chinese critic of his country’s ruling Communist Party had already escaped to Thailand and Vietnam and tried swimming to Taiwan — only to be sent back to mainland China each time. He was jailed, prohibited from working and barred from leaving, despite international calls to let him seek asylum elsewhere. Now the dissident, Dong Guangping, 68, is in custody in South Korea after escaping China by sea, two of his friends and his lawyer told The New York Times. They said he arrived in a rubber boat late Monday.…

An Emboldened New China Spells Trouble for Trump

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One of the most widely shared viral memes on Chinese social media today is “the American kill line.” Borrowed from video game slang for the threshold at which a weakened character can be easily finished off, it refers to the widely held notion in China that millions of American families are teetering on a precipice — one lost job, illness or unexpected expense away from ruin. It has become the prevailing Chinese metaphor for an America seen as mired in economic decay, violent crime and irreversible decline. This is, of…

How China May Have Sought to Recruit a House Aide to Spy on the U.S.

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When a man identifying himself as Chris Chen reached out this winter to an aide on a House committee focused on threats from China, he came armed with a lucrative offer. The staff member, Mr. Chen proposed, could earn $10,000 or more by barely lifting a finger. All he would need to do is agree to phone calls every other week to share information about the committee’s work and U.S. foreign policy about China. Insights into U.S. trade or national-security issues, including the Trump administration’s plans for Venezuela in the…

Fireworks Factory Explosion in China Kills at Least 26

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An explosion on Monday in a fireworks factory in southern China killed at least 26 people and injured dozens more, prompting the nation’s leader, Xi Jinping, to demand a rapid investigation and punishment for those responsible. The explosion erupted in a factory in Liuyang, Hunan Province, on Monday afternoon, but the scale of destruction only started to become clear a day later. Video from the aftermath showed rescuers with searchlights looking through smoldering rubble, as well as shattered windows of homes some 300 yards from the explosion. The Chinese government…

Trump Shouldn’t Expect Much From His China Trip

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When I first moved to Shanghai from Virginia in 2008, China still looked up to America. Much of what China did, how it saw itself, what it strove for and its place in the world was measured against “Meiguo” — the “beautiful country” — as America is known in Chinese. Fresh out of college, I had no work experience. But just being American was enough. I landed jobs at top high schools and universities where I taught classes such as Western culture. But there wasn’t really a curriculum. All the…

Uyghur Workers Are Moved to Factories Across China to Supply Global Brands

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By David Pierson, Vivian Wang and Daniel MurphyGraphics by Pablo Robles. Produced by Nico Chilla and Rumsey Taylor May 29, 2025 China’s mass detention and surveillance of ethnic Uyghurs turned its far western region of Xinjiang into a global symbol of forced labor and human rights abuses, prompting Congress to ban imports from the area in 2021. But the Chinese government has found a way around the ban — by moving more Uyghurs to jobs in factories outside Xinjiang. A joint investigation by The New York Times, the Bureau of…

Tesla’s Pivot to China Saved Musk. It Also Binds Him to Beijing.

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When Elon Musk unveiled the first Chinese-made Teslas in Shanghai in 2020, he went off script and started dancing. Peeling off his jacket, he flung it across the stage in a partial striptease. Mr. Musk had reason to celebrate. A few years earlier, with Tesla on the brink of failure, he had bet on China, which offered cheap parts and capable workers — and which needed Tesla as an anchor to jump-start its fledgling electric vehicle industry. For Chinese leaders, the prize was a Tesla factory on domestic soil. Mr.…

China’s Dispute With Taiwan Is Playing Out Near This Tiny Island

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A small island controlled by Taiwan a few miles off China’s coast lived for decades in constant readiness for war. At one point in 1958, troops there hunkered in bunkers as Communist forces rained hundreds of thousands of shells on them. These days, the island, Kinmen, has become a hub of Taiwan’s commerce with China and its abandoned, weatherworn fortifications are tourist sites. Eight ferries a day take Taiwanese businesspeople and visitors from Kinmen to mainland China. But the sea around Kinmen has again turned tense after two Chinese men…

Where Are Hong Kong’s Leading Pro-Democracy Figures Now?

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In 2019, Hong Kong erupted into the most stunning expression of public anger with Beijing in decades. Protesters broke into the legislature and vandalized it. They bought full-page advertisements in international newspapers, criticizing the government. Lawmakers hurled unsavory objects in meetings to protest unpopular bills. In the years since then, China has waged an expansive crackdown on Hong Kong to crush the opposition. Beijing directly imposed a national security law on the city in 2020 that gave the authorities a powerful tool to round up critics, including a prominent pro-democracy…