Sideline Sinology

Peter Hessler

In August, when I visited Wuhan, I met with a young building-company manager who had worked on the construction sites of various emergency clinics and quarantine facilities during the city’s outbreak. “The pandemic is like a mirror,” the manager told me. “A person can see himself more clearly, both his good qualities and his bad qualities.” This pandemic mirror applied to China as a whole. The first phase of the outbreak revealed many terrible qualities of the system: the lack of a free press,... Read full story>>

ChinaFile Presents: Peter Hessler’s ‘Other Rivers: A Chinese Education’

Peter Hessler & Vincent Ni

On July 17, ChinaFile hosted the launch of Peter Hessler’s Other Rivers: A Chinese Education, a memoir of his two years teaching at Sichuan University in Chengdu from 2019 to 2021. The book explores elementary and college education, China’s handling of the outbreak of COVID-19, the lives of a previous generation of Hessler’s students, and U.S.-China relations, among may other topics. Hessler was in conversation with National Public Radio’s Asia Editor, Vincent Ni. Read full story>>

China’s Typing Triumph

An Excerpt from ‘The Chinese Computer: A Global History of the Information Age’

Thomas S. Mullaney

A standard QWERTY keyboard has a few dozen keys. How can Chinese—a language with tens of thousands of characters and no alphabet—be input on such a device? To answer this question, one needs to return to the beginnings of electronic Chinese technology in the wake of World War II, and follow up through to its many iterations in the present day. In particular, we need to examine the development of Chinese “input methods”—software programs that enable Chinese characters to be produced using... Read full story>>

“The Police’s Strength Is Limited, but the People’s Strength Is Boundless”

To Supplement Law Enforcement, Local Governments across China Are Recruiting Citizen “Vigilantes”

Jessica Batke

In some ways, “vigilantes” are the opposite of what their name suggests: rather than rogue agents meting out street justice, they are individuals deemed trustworthy by authorities, working under the guidance of local police forces, deputized to surveil their fellow citizens. In recent years, as Beijing has encouraged the “masses” to take a greater role in public safety, vigilante groups—and their close cousins, “safety promotion associations”—have sprung up across the country, working with the... Read full story>>

The Committee that Ended the Age of Engagement?

Charles Hutzler

The U.S. Congress’ special China committee has a packed agenda for the few months left this term. But its most consequential work may be done: a more confrontational U.S. policy towards China. The Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party has racked up notable successes in its brief existence. Its scrutiny put Wall Street and Silicon Valley on notice to police their investments into China. Its investigations showed that Chinese tax... Read full story>>

The Future According to Xi and Putin

A ChinaFile Conversation

Maria Repnikova, Evan Medeiros & more via ChinaFile Conversation

On May 16 and 17, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a state visit to China, where he met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Xi has stood closely by Putin’s side since their announcement of the “no limits” partnership, and this does not look likely to change. But what has been the outcome of Putin’s trip? Did the two leaders make a serious attempt to negotiate on Ukraine, or were the optics of bilateral friendship the main aim? How should we expect the two countries’ trade relationship to... Read full story>>