The Locknet: How China Controls Its Internet and Why It Matters

Jessica Batke & Laura Edelson

Most people know that China censors its internet. They’ve probably even heard of the “Great Firewall,” the clever moniker popularly used to describe that censorship. But despite its increasing impact on our online lives, most people outside China don’t understand how this information control system really works. What does it consist of? How effective is it? What is its ultimate purpose? And how much does it alter the internet in the rest of the world? Read full story>>

The Dalai Lama’s Succession

A ChinaFile Conversation

Ian Johnson, Isabel Hilton & more via ChinaFile Conversation

How might the battle over succession play out over the coming months? If the Dalai Lama announces a successor, how will Beijing respond? How robust is the institutional framework for maintaining legitimacy without the Chinese government’s recognition, and what are its potential vulnerabilities? What are the ramifications for China’s relationship with India, which hosts the Tibetan government-in-exile? How might other countries respond to Beijing? Read full story>>

How the Internet Works, and How China Censors It

Laura Edelson & Jessica Batke

Computer scientist Laura Edelson and China researcher Jessica Batke discuss some of what they learned over the course of their 18-month investigation into China's online censorship system. They break down some of the basic functions of the internet, how China has constructed a censorship system that connects to, but is separate from, the rest of the internet, and how that censorship system impacts the rest of the world. Read full story>>

Balancing What Can Be Said with What Can Only Be Implied

The films of Ikram Nurmehmet

Shelly Kraicer

The young Uyghur filmmaker Ikram Nurmehmet is now in a Chinese prison for “actively participating in terrorist activities.” He was likely targeted because he had studied in Turkey between 2010 and 2016. It is always difficult for what China calls “ethnic minority” (i.e. non-Han Chinese) filmmakers to make the films they want to make inside China, where review by the state Film Administration is mandatory for all. What may be surprising is that filmmakers from Tibet, Inner Mongolia, and Xinjiang... Read full story>>

ChinaFile Presents: ‘How to Have an American Baby’

With Filmmaker Leslie Tai

Leslie Tai & Susan Jakes

Following a screening of How to Have an American Baby at Asia Society on June 25, filmmaker Leslie Tai joined ChinaFile Editor-in-Chief Susan Jakes to talk about the film and her process of making of it. The film reveals the hidden world of Chinese birth tourism through intimate, interwoven stories of the people shaped by it. Read full story>>

The Making of an American Baby

A Q&A with Documentary Filmmaker Leslie Tai

Leslie Tai & Susan Jakes

On June 25, ChinaFile will screen Leslie Tai’s documentary film How to Have an American Baby, which explores the industry built to promote Chinese women traveling to the U.S. to give birth to children so that they can be American citizens. ChinaFile’s editor-in-chief, Susan Jakes, spoke to Tai about the film last year. The following is an edited excerpt of their conversation.Susan Jakes: How did you come to make a film on the subject of Chinese birth tourism in California?Leslie Tai: After... Read full story>>

Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics

A Review of Eva Dou’s “House of Huawei”

Yangyang Cheng

More than the chronology of one company, House of Huawei is partly a family biography of Ren and his eldest daughter Meng Wanzhou, and partly a geopolitical thriller about two superpowers and the people and places caught in between. Read full story>>

Is China About to Produce the Next ‘Sputnik Moment’?

A ChinaFile Conversation

Rui Ma, Lizzi C. Lee & more

Both private sector players and the Chinese government are investing huge amounts of money and throwing top-tier engineering talent at areas such as quantum computing, biotech and health sciences, AI, cryptography, materials science, flying cars, aerospace, nuclear fusion, and other new forms of energy. What is the most probable future Sputnik moment? What technologies or sectors should we watch to keep track of Chinese innovation? And where is there more hype than substance? Read full story>>