Rana Siu Inboden, May 12, 2025 Scholar Perry Link famously referred to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as the “anaconda in the chandelier” whose omnipresent monitoring meant that the Chinese people often engaged in self-censorship or preemptive obedience, avoiding saying or doing things that might get them on the wrong side of the Chinese gov [...] Keep reading »

Xu Zhiyong, translated by Andréa Worden, December 4, 2024 Note From the Editor Born in 1973, Dr. Xu Zhiyong (许志永) is a legal scholar, pioneer of China’s rights defense movement, and a founder of the New Citizens Movement. On April 10, 2023, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison on charges of “subverting state power.” Before this, he h [...] Keep reading »

Xu Zhiyong, translated by Leo Timm, April 2, 2024 Note From the Editor Born in 1973, Dr. Xu Zhiyong (许志永) is a legal scholar, pioneer of China’s rights defense movement, and a founder of the New Citizens Movement. On April 10, 2023, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison on charges of “subverting state power.” Before this, he had served [...] Keep reading »

Hermann Aubié, March 12, 2024 One year ago today, on March 11, 2023, the world lost a remarkable figure: Dr Jiang Yanyong (蒋彦永), a Chinese surgeon who first became known to the world for exposing a government cover-up during the SARS crisis of 2003. He thus played a crucial role in ensuring that both his compatriots and people worldwide were [...] Keep reading »

November 11, 2023 This year, a phenomenal Halloween party occurred in the streets of Shanghai, of all places. It interests us because it offers a unique window to observe the young people in China. The themes are eclectic, some political and social. The fact that such a crowd was able to amass is extraordinary, given the Chinese authorities’ [...] Keep reading »

Yao Bo, August 18, 2023 Yao Bo (姚博), better known as Wuyuesanren (五岳散人), was a well-known Chinese journalist, a Weibo “Big V” with a large number of followers until he was banned, and one of the 303 signers of Charter 08. In recent years he has been residing in Kyoto, Japan. He runs the popular @wuyuesanren YouTube channel commentin [...] Keep reading »

China Change, June 30, 2023 (Continued from Part One: The Year 2008) Ruins. Rebars. Water Lilies. YC: Many details have left a deep impression on me from reading your autobiography. I want to bring up two ruins in front of which you stood. One is the ruins of schools that collapsed in the Wenchuan earthquake in May 2008, where you and your assistan [...] Keep reading »

China Change, June 29, 2023 I interviewed Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei in May in Portugal. It was my first meeting with him, and as many Chinese activists do, I called him by his nickname “Aunt Ai” (“艾婶儿”). Out of the hundreds of interviews with Ai Weiwei, I hope readers find this one worthwhile. The interview will be posted [...] Keep reading »

Yaxue Cao, May 28, 2023 Following the Blank Paper protests last November, I realized that I had been caught off-guard by contemporary Chinese youth, especially those born after 1990 and 2000. I didn’t know what kind of people they were, and I had subconsciously written them off from the realm of dissent, assuming that they belonged to a gener [...] Keep reading »