Viewpoint
07.23.24![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/55446_sm.jpg?itok=c1XY1EqV)
Sideline Sinology
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...
Media
07.23.24![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/006_peter_hessler_vincent_ni.jpg?itok=bevB073y)
ChinaFile Presents: Peter Hessler’s ‘Other Rivers: A Chinese Education’
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...
Media
11.01.23![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/panel_on_stage_1.jpg?itok=JK9SCpd3)
ChinaFile Presents: China Reporting in Exile
ChinaFile and The New York Review of Books co-hosted a panel discussion with Chinese journalists working from abroad. Participants included reporter, editor, and digital media entrepreneur Annie Jieping Zhang, New York Times columnist Li Yuan,...
Notes from ChinaFile
06.02.23![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/the_aps_john_pomfret_with_tiananmen_studentleaders_wang_dan_and_wuer_kaixi_.jpg?itok=tuz3u2Ik)
Covering Tiananmen
The Tiananmen Square crisis in 1989 was a turning point for China. Weeks of student-led demonstrations turned into the largest protest for political reform in the history of the People’s Republic. The bloody military crackdown that crushed the...
Notes from ChinaFile
05.15.23![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/beijings_global_media_offensive_cover_tile2.jpg?itok=e9aWyOQ0)
‘Beijing’s Global Media Offensive’
Over the past several years, there has been an active debate about Chinese influence overseas. Amidst allegations that Beijing has influenced foreign elections and politicians, state newswire Xinhua has expanded into one of the largest news agencies...
Notes from ChinaFile
01.06.23![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/the_class_of_77_jaime_florcruz_book_cover_cropped.jpg?itok=TRP_nnVS)
The Class of ’77
In August 1971, Jaime FlorCruz arrived in Beijing for a short trip to learn about Maoist China. Just days later, the Filipino college student learned he had been put on a blacklist by then President Ferdinand Marcos. Facing certain arrest and likely...
Conversation
10.16.20![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/52656_sm.jpg?itok=8A8po3yM)
A New Normal for U.S. China Policy?
After four years of Trump’s trade wars, withdrawal from international bodies, and xenophobic immigration policies, the United States has hit an apex of isolationism. Even if a new government steps in, however, it’s not altogether clear the U.S...
Viewpoint
08.27.20![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/gettyimages-458662204_1.jpg?itok=zfwKDVAS)
When China Reporters Can’t Report from China
Shortly after midnight on March 18, a phone call awoke Steven Lee Myers in his Beijing apartment. The call was followed by a flurry of messages: WhatsApp, text, email. Friends and colleagues were asking him questions: What is going on? What does...
Viewpoint
06.10.20![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/52336_sm_0.jpg?itok=aTxfrCJq)
For Me, the Breakdown in U.S.-China Relations Is Personal
In my childhood, they were the Red Chinese. In my husband’s upbringing, we were the American imperialists. U.S.-China reconciliation after ping-pong diplomacy enabled us to meet and marry 40 years ago. Those of us with a foot in each world find the...
Postcard
06.05.20![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/shenlueats_final_1200.jpg?itok=OiGW1goU)
Scallion Dutch Baby
The dishes I make myself flavor my moods, and season my experience of the news. As my birth country and my host country cast blame on one another, I eat four-cheese pizza with a side dish of blanched cauliflower seasoned with soy sauce, vinegar, and...
Books
10.08.19![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/books/system/taxi-sys.jpg?itok=I43kdksd)
![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/assets/images/books/covers/shanghaifreetaxi_1.jpg)
The Shanghai Free Taxi
Public Affairs: China—America’s most important competitor—is at a turning point. With economic growth slowing, Chinese people face inequality and uncertainty as their leaders tighten control at home and project power abroad.NPR correspondent Frank Langfitt describes how he created a free taxi service—offering rides in exchange for illuminating conversation—to go beyond the headlines and get to know a wide range of colorful, compelling characters representative of the new China. They include folks like “Beer,” a slippery salesman who tries to sell Langfitt a used car; Rocky, a farm boy turned Shanghai lawyer; and Chen, who runs an underground Christian church and moves his family to America in search of a better, freer life.
The NYRB China Archive
05.09.19![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/zhiwuzhi-sys.jpg?itok=JBIOY0JJ)
China: A Small Bit of Shelter
from New York Review of Books
At night, a spotlight illuminates four huge characters on the front of the Great Temple of Promoting Goodness in Xi’an, the capital of Shaanxi province in northwestern China: mi zang zong feng, “The Esoteric Repository of the Faith’s Traditions.”...
The NYRB China Archive
02.19.19![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/jiangxue-sys.jpg?itok=0LfriPlh)
‘It’s Hopeless But You Persist’: An Interview with Jiang Xue
from New York Review of Books
The forty-five-year-old investigative journalist Jiang Xue is one of the most influential members of a group of journalists who came of age in the early 2000s, taking advantage of new—if temporary—freedoms created by the Internet to investigate...
11.15.18
German NGO Registers Third Office in China Despite Student’s Expulsion from the Country
The German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, DAAD) registered its third office in China on November 9, according to Ministry of Public Security information, even though Chinese authorities forced a student studying...
Media
09.21.18![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/video/system/megha.jpg?itok=bV2hJScN)
Reporting from Xinjiang
On September 20, 2018, ChinaFile and the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) co-hosted a discussion with BuzzFeed reporter Megha Rajagopalan on her reporting on state-sponsored ethnic and religious repression in Xinjiang and, in particular, on...
09.10.18
Barred Tsinghua Student Studying Under Registered Foreign NGO’s Scholarship Program
As reported by Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP), David Missal, a German citizen and journalism student at Tsinghua University in Beijing, was forced to leave China last month after authorities refused to renew his visa. Missal was studying at Tsinghua...
ChinaFile Recommends
05.01.18The Demise of Watchdog Journalism in China
New York Times
As unfettered capitalism reached a fever pitch in China in the early 2000s, a boom in investigative journalism was hailed as the most salient example of growing citizen power.
Viewpoint
04.06.18![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/46621_sm.jpg?itok=WymPSWYi)
I Thought Studying Journalism outside of China Would Open Doors. Now I’m Not So Sure.
Six years ago as I was about to begin my undergraduate career at The University of Iowa majoring in journalism, a fellow Chinese student who’d switched her major from communications studies to business ruthlessly doubted my choice. “How on earth...
Sinica Podcast
03.01.18![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/reporter-congress-sys.jpg?itok=Yp4k-dP1)
Can Chinese Journalists Criticize the Party-State?
from Sinica Podcast
Outside observers typically view China’s media as utterly shackled by the bonds of censorship, unable to critique the government or speak truth to power in any meaningful sense. In part, this is true. Censorship and other pressures do create “no-go...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.14.17At South Korea-China Summit, South Korean Journalist Beaten Bloody
CNN
The summit was intended to cement improved relations after a frosty period of tension between China and South Korea.
ChinaFile Recommends
11.15.17U.S. Congress Urged to Require Chinese Journalists to Register as Agents
Reuters
A report to the U.S. Congress released on Wednesday accused Chinese state media entities of involvement in spying and propaganda and said their staff in the United States should be required to register as foreign agents.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.26.17Life Is about to Get Even Harder for Foreign Media in China
Diplomat
It is widely known that foreign journalists encounter various strict restrictions when reporting on China — particularly since Chinese President Xi Jinping came into office five years ago. But China just sent another strong message to the “trouble-...
Sinica Podcast
09.30.17![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/dargqueen-sm.jpg?itok=VoAh8352)
‘China in Drag: Travels with a Cross-Dresser’
from Sinica Podcast
Michael Bristow, the Asia Pacific editor for the BBC World Service, has written a book called China in Drag: Travels with a Cross-Dresser, in which he recounts his time in China—his travels, his reporting, and his myriad experiences—through the...
Sinica Podcast
06.12.17![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/camera_tiananmen-sm_1.jpg?itok=5z2srx2B)
How Does Investigative Reporting Happen in China?
from Sinica Podcast
Li Xin is the Managing Director of Caixin Global, the English-language arm of China’s most authoritative financial news source, Caixin. For over 10 years, she has worked closely with the Editor-in-Chief of Caixin, Hu Shuli, whose famously fearless...
Sinica Podcast
05.12.17![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/bjskyline.jpg?itok=qIgwBECR)
What It Takes to Be a Good China-Watcher
from Sinica Podcast
China-watching isn’t what it used to be. Not too long ago, the field of international China studies was dominated by a few male Westerners with an encyclopedic knowledge of China, but with surprisingly little experience living in the country or...
Sinica Podcast
04.24.17![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/gettyimages-509337874.jpg?itok=_A_dfa34)
Chris Buckley: The China Journalist’s China Journalist
from Sinica Podcast
Chris Buckley is a highly regarded and very resourceful correspondent based in Beijing for The New York Times. He has worked as a researcher and journalist in China since 1998, including a stint at Reuters, and is one of the few working China...
Conversation
03.22.17![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/robert_b_silvers_2011.jpg?itok=DOJ_x4FF)
China Writers Remember Robert Silvers
Robert Silvers died on Monday, March 20, after serving as The New York Review of Books Editor since 1963. Over almost six decades, Silvers cultivated one of the most interesting, reflective, and lustrous stables of China writers in the world, some...
ChinaFile Recommends
03.15.17From ‘Fake News’ to No News: Tillerson Leaving Press behind on Asia Trip Could Send Message to China
Washington Post
Tillerson’s aversion to dealing with U.S. journalists have added to growing questions about the Trump administration’s commitment to a free press and transparent government.
ChinaFile Recommends
03.15.17China Is Playing Nice to the Very Media Outlets Trump Has Antagonized
Quartz
U.S. president Donald J. Trump’s antagonism toward major media outlets has created an opportunity for China’s leaders to offer up a contrasting, seemingly more open style—however misleading that is.
Conversation
02.05.17![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/trumpinnercircle.jpg?itok=eWF95rJc)
Is The White House Beginning to Resemble Zhongnanhai?
Since Donald Trump was sworn into office on January 20, he has lied repeatedly about the size of the crowd at his inauguration, embraced xenophobic policies, and declareda “running war with the media.” The White House has frozen out the...
Sinica Podcast
01.19.17![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/edward_wong.jpeg?itok=RYZzjrx2)
The State of Journalism in China—Ed Wong’s Exit Interview
from Sinica Podcast
Edward Wong became a reporter for The New York Times in 1999. He covered the Iraq war from Baghdad from 2003 to 2007, and then moved to Beijing in 2008. He has written about a wide range of subjects in China for the Times, and became its Beijing...
Books
12.15.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/books/system/scott_savitt_crashing_the_party_hirez.jpg?itok=zKwoyh_g)
![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/assets/images/books/covers/crashing-the-party-cover.jpg)
Crashing the Party
It’s 1983. Scott Savitt, one of the first American exchange students in Beijing, picks up his guitar and begins strumming “Blackbird.” He’s soon surrounded by Chinese students who know every word to every Beatles song he plays. Savitt stays on in Beijing, working as a reporter for Asiaweek Magazine. The city’s first nightclubs open; rock ‘n’ roll promises democracy. Promoted to foreign correspondent for The Los Angeles Times and then United Press International, Savitt finds himself drawn into China’s political heart. His girlfriend is the assistant to Bette Bao Lord, the wife of the U.S. ambassador. He interviews people who will become leaders of the democracy movement.Later, at 25 years old, Savitt is the youngest accredited foreign correspondent in China, with an intimate knowledge of Beijing’s backstreets. But as the seven-week occupation of Tiananmen Square ends in bloodshed on June 4, 1989, his greatest asset is his flame-red 500cc Honda motorcycle—giving Savitt the freedom to witness first-hand what the Chinese government still denies ever took place. After Tiananmen, Savitt founds the first independent English-language newspaper in China, Beijing Scene. He knows that it’s only a matter of time before the authorities move in, and sure enough, in 2000 he’s arrested, flung into solitary confinement and, after a month in jail, deported.Savitt’s extraordinary memoir of his two decades in China manages to take an extremely complex political-historical subject and turn it into an adventure story. —Soft Skull{chop}
ChinaFile Recommends
11.09.16Chinese Journalists Get an Exhilarating Look at the U.S. Election
New York Times
Chinese journalists observing the election expressed surprise at how seriously Americans took their votes
ChinaFile Recommends
10.28.16An Exiled Editor Traces the Roots of Democratic Thought in China
New York Times
An interview with Hu Ping, editor of the pro-democracy journal "Beijing Spring," based in New York
The China Africa Project
10.05.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/29916_med.jpg?itok=_5ci0JeZ)
China’s Media Challenges Western Narratives of Africa
The Chinese media presence across Africa has expanded dramatically over the past ten years, as Beijing has built a vast distribution network for its newspaper, radio, and TV content. China’s flagship TV network, China Central Television (CCTV),...
Conversation
09.13.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/gettyimages-501044506.jpg?itok=-iHbsgjA)
Can China’s Best Newspaper Survive?
On September 9, the South China Morning Post’s Chinese-language website went dark with little explanation, leading to concerns that censorship might next spread to the newspaper’s English-language coverage. Can Alibaba’s founder, Jack Ma, who has...
ChinaFile Recommends
09.12.16The South China Morning Post Has Suddenly Shut Down Its Chinese-language Website
Quartz
In one fell swoop, years of reporting from SCMP is gone.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.25.16China Bans Internet News Reporting as Media Crackdown Widens
Bloomberg
Internet portals must shut all original reporting operations.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.17.16Find-a-Journalist App Highlights Murky Media Practices in China
Wall Street Journal
The app connects companies seeking publicity and journalists interested in pocketing some extra cash.
Caixin Media
06.03.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/18-fritzhoffmann.jpg?itok=WCU-3dEM)
Bearing Witness to the China Story
In 1993, Fritz Hoffmann was a young American photojournalist ready for a new adventure. He had honed his picture-making skills while hitchhiking across the Pacific Northwest, harvesting crabs in Alaska, and working at newspapers in West Virginia and...
Media
05.12.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/gettyimages-485339200.jpg?itok=_VESxfuu)
The End of China’s Economic Miracle? A Discussion with ‘Financial Times’ Writers
On April 20, 2016, a panel of Financial Times correspondents and editors with China experience, joined by financier and occasional FT columnist George Soros, discussed rural-to-urban migration, wage growth, real estate ups and downs, the increasing...
The China Africa Project
04.07.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/chinesenurseafrica.jpg?itok=xy07Qcaa)
A Chinese Journalist Reflects on Reporting the China-Africa Story
How foreign journalists report on the China-Africa story is often determined by the national origin of their news organization. While there are no doubt exceptions, the U.S. news media frequently frame China as the neo-colonial aggressor and Africa...
ChinaFile Recommends
04.05.16Foreign Press in China Face Fewer Visa Delays but Obstacles Remain, FCCC Finds
Committee to Protect Journalists
Authorities have attempted to discourage correspondents from reporting on sensitive stories.
Media
03.29.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/rivertownthemovie.jpg?itok=MKH3zmfL)
‘River Town’ the Movie
from China Film Insider
Not since Iron and Silk premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1991 has a movie based on a memoir about teachers on the front lines of U.S.-China relations come to the big screen. Director Shirley Sun’s mostly-English-language film adaptation of...
ChinaFile Recommends
03.03.16Hidden Message Suspected on Chinese Front Page, and Speculation Swirls
New York Times
The last two characters of each line in the headlines together read a possible lament for the fate of journalists under the party’s restraints.
ChinaFile Recommends
02.24.16China’s Increasingly Muffled Press
New York Times
The Chinese media have never had much freedom to pursue muckraking stories. Now, President Xi is going extraordinary lengths to rein the press in further.
ChinaFile Recommends
02.16.16China's Young Reporters Give Up on Journalism: 'You Can't Write What You Want'
Guardian
The constraints placed on news reporting by Xi Jinping mean many Chinese journalists see no point in pursuing a media career.
ChinaFile Recommends
02.03.16‘Eyes on China’: Illuminating Life Across a Changing Country
New York Times
Two photographers living in China set up a collective Instagram account.
Media
01.29.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/screen_shot_2016-01-29_at_3.04.54_pm.png?itok=vCLIvvPF)
‘The New Yorker’ on China
Following is an edited transcript of a live event hosted at Asia Society New York on December 17, 2015, “ChinaFile Presents: The New Yorker On China.” (The full video appears above.) The evening, introduced by Asia Society President Josette Sheeran...
Media
01.29.16![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/barboza.jpg?itok=zv87kTgb)
‘I Don't Want to Think About Activating Change’
from Asia Blog
In 2012, The New York Times published a groundbreaking investigative report showing that the family of Wen Jiabao, China’s then-prime minister, possessed wealth in excess of $2.7 billion. In response, the Chinese government blocked the Times’...
Media
12.22.15![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/_dsc1141.jpg?itok=0FOrIeNM)
‘New Yorker’ Writers Reflect on ‘Extreme’ Reporting About China
from Asia Blog
While international reporting on China has improved by leaps and bounds since foreign journalists first started trickling into the country in the 1970s, major challenges remain in giving readers back home a balanced image. That was the message from...
Media
12.17.15![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/gettyimages-467748382.jpg?itok=NmU6Rn6I)
Smarter, Sexier State Media: There’s an App for That
Before the Internet age, it used to be relatively straightforward for authoritarian regimes to dictate popular news consumption: just control all the major newspapers, as China’s ruling Communist Party has done since the founding of the People’s...
Conversation
12.15.15![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/scmp.jpg?itok=v12G0oWQ)
Can an Alibaba ‘Morning Post’ Aid China’s Image Overseas?
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is buying the Hong Kong media group of the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the leading independent English-language newspaper in the former British colony where freedom of the press has resisted control by the...
Media
12.14.15![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/22426_sm.jpg?itok=rueoX3nd)
R.I.P. SCMP?
On December 11, Chinese Internet behemoth Alibaba announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire Hong Kong’s flagship English-language newspaper, the South China Morning Post (SCMP). The announcement came as no surprise, as the ailing paper...
ChinaFile Recommends
12.10.15Mission Improbable—Jack Ma, China’s Biggest E-Commerce Tycoon, Wants To Be a Media Mogul Too
Economist
Jack Ma, Alibaba’s billionaire boss, wants to be a global media mogul.
ChinaFile Recommends
12.07.15Xi Jinping 'Resigns', According To Typo In Chinese State Media Report
Guardian
Four Chinese journalists have been suspended after inadvertently – and incorrectly – announcing the resignation of president.
Media
11.20.15![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/21746_sm.jpg?itok=xSyAWOZR)
Pulitzer’s ‘Lookout on the Bridge’ vs. China’s ‘News Ethics Committees’
In a recent harangue on the imperative of better journalism, a website run by the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Propaganda Department tore a jagged page from the wisdom of American newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer: “A journalist is the...
The China Africa Project
11.17.15![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/20090905_zaf_x10_033.jpg?itok=ingIei0I)
A Journalist’s View on Reporting the China-Africa Story
The U.S.-based online news site Quartz is among a growing number of international media companies that is investing resources to better cover Africa. The company launched Quartz Africa in June 2015 with the opening of a new bureau in Nairobi and the...
ChinaFile Recommends
11.16.15‘Exiled’ Chinese Journalist Leaks Huge List of Censored Terms
Hong Kong Free Press
A Chinese journalist who is now living in exile in India has handed a large list of what he says are sensitive terms censored in China to Radio Free Asia, a US-backed broadcaster.
Media
11.12.15![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/gettyimages-163713190.jpg?itok=8zjex6qm)
Good Journalist, Bad Journalist
As China marked its annual Journalists’ Day over the weekend, proclaiming the importance of “correct news ideals,” even jaded New Yorkers stopped in their tracks and took notice. How could they not? The message beamed over 7th Avenue on Times Square...