Drum Tower

In 2013, in an effort to bind China’s neighbouring countries more closely to Beijing, Xi Jinping ordered his officials “to warm people’s hearts and enhance our affinity, charisma and influence”. But his plan has not gone smoothly. 

The Economist’s Beijing bureau chief, David Rennie, and our Asia diplomatic editor, Jeremy Page, discuss why President Xi is finding it hard to win over China’s neighbours...

More than a decade ago, Japan saw that China was becoming a threat to regional security. It sounded the alarm, but it took the West years to catch up.

In the second episode of a two-part series, The Economist’s senior China correspondent, Alice Su, and our Tokyo bureau chief, Noah Sneider, discuss how Japan is changing its approach to Xi Jinping’s China, and they ask if the West can learn anything from Japan’s policy...

The conundrum of how to de-risk and deter conflict with China is puzzling the West. But one country is ahead in figuring out how to deal with a changing China: Japan.

In the first episode of a two-part series, The Economist’s senior China correspondent, Alice Su, and our Tokyo bureau chief, Noah Sneider, discuss how Japan sees China, and ask whether—after a tangled history of trade ties and territorial disputes—the Sino-Japanese relationship is at a turning-point...

Taiwan is transfixed by Mazu. The tenth-century maiden lived in Fujian province–and according to legend, used her mystical powers to save relatives in a shipwreck. After she died she was venerated as a sea goddess. Despite her mainland roots, Mazu is worshipped widely in Taiwan. The Chinese government views Mazu as a tool to win Taiwanese hearts and minds...

Last year, China’s population began to decline for the first time since 1962 and its reign as the most populous country in the world is over.

The Economist’s Beijing bureau chief, David Rennie, and senior China correspondent, Alice Su, discuss what China’s shrinking population means for its future and what scars the one-child policy has left behind...

In this second episode of a special two-part series, The Economist’s senior China correspondent, Alice Su, investigates China’s repressions of Uyghurs at home and abroad.

From 2017 to 2019 China locked up more than a million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in  "re-education camps" in Xinjiang. During that time most Uyghurs living overseas were cut off from everyone they knew in China. Recently the Chinese Communist Party has closed many of the camps...

Uyghurs inside China have long been persecuted. From 2017 to 2019, more than a million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities were locked up in "re-education camps" in Xinjiang. Many of the camps have now been closed but Uyghurs are threatened if they speak out. And the Chinese Communist Party is also trying to silence and control Uyghurs outside China...

China’s gay communities are facing a campaign of repression. LGBT support groups are being closed down and pride events are being cancelled. 

The Economist’s Beijing bureau chief, David Rennie, and senior China correspondent, Alice Su, examine what the crackdown reveals about President Xi Jinping’s China. Darius Longarino of Yale Law School recalls the first time a marriage equality case came up in Chinese courts...

 Unicorns are becoming a common sight in China. In 2022 there were more than 300 private firms valued at more than $1bn—more than double the number from just five years ago. Alice Su, The Economist’s senior China correspondent, and Don Weinland, our China business and finance editor, discuss what these valuable startups say about the country’s shifting industrial priorities and how they fit into President Xi Jinping’s plans for “self-reliance”.

We would love to hear from you...

Xi Jinping wants to centralise power in China. Recently he’s created new law-enforcement agencies that are answerable to central-government ministries, as well as a new brigade of rural officials nicknamed nongguan. The public reaction has been loud and hostile. 

The Economist’s Beijing bureau chief, David Rennie, and senior China correspondent, Alice Su, discuss the online backlash to the reforms and assess the driving force behind Xi’s focus on law and order...