China Change » Government

A Beautiful China – Twelve – China’s Path

Xu Zhiyong, translated by Joshua Rosenzweig, July 29, 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 »

A Beautiful China – Eleven – Goodbye, Communism

Xu Zhiyong, translated by Leo Timm, July 25, 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 »

How the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre Shaped China’s Approach to International Human Rights

Geoffrey Roberts, June 11, 2024 The Chinese government’s brutal massacre of protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on 3-4 June 1989 marked a major turning point in China’s relationship with human rights and international human rights advocates. Tiananmen resulted in widespread international condemnation, the imposition of economic and diplo [...] Keep reading »

A Beautiful China – Four – Working to Abolish the Custody and Repatriation System in the Wake of Sun Zhigang’s Death

Xu Zhiyong, translated by Leo Timm, February 26, 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 se [...] Keep reading »

A Beautiful China – Three – An Era of Change Is Upon Us

Xu Zhiyong, translated by Yaxue Cao, February 20, 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 s [...] Keep reading »

A Beautiful China – One – China’s Twentieth Century

Xu Zhiyong, translated by Joshua Rosenzweig, February 12, 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, [...] Keep reading »

China Issues 129 New Rules to Revive Private Sector, But Entrepreneurs Point to the Fundamentals: Amend the Constitution and Toss Out Marxist Theory

Yaxue Cao, December 7, 2023 (Open in browser for audio.) Desperate times call for desperate measures. On the heels of worrying economic numbers of the first two quarters that defied bullish expectations at the beginning of the year, in mid-July, the CCP Central Committee and the State Council issued “Opinions on Boosting the Development and [...] Keep reading »

The Education of Li Keqiang

Wang Tiancheng, November 2, 2023 The following essay by Wang Tiancheng was posted on Twitter titled “A Side View of Li Keqiang” (《李克强的一个侧面》), and I take the liberty to give it the somewhat inflated title you see so as to bring the essay into focus. The 1980s was a highly interesting and exciting time in China, a time marked [...] Keep reading »

‘Not a Single Penny’: Why One Overseas Chinese Won’t Donate to ‘Disaster Relief’ Efforts in China

Wuyuesanren, August 5, 2023 Wuyuesanren (五岳散人), or Yao Bo (姚博), 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 commenting on curr [...] Keep reading »