March 19, 2020 Ding Jiaxi (丁家喜) was reluctant when I asked for an interview. It was in the fall of 2017, a year after he was released from prison as a leader of the New Citizens Movement. He was visiting his wife and two daughters in Alfred, a village of 5,000 souls in Upstate New York, and would go back to China in a few days. He didn’t wa [...] Keep reading »

Chang Ping, March 6, 2020 A friend asked me: “I wouldn’t dare to believe the official figures. Are things really under control outside of Hubei?” I said, “From now on, they’ll have nothing but good news for you. Whether you believe it or not is up to you.” Needless to say, the subject was China’s novel coronavirus epidemic [...] Keep reading »

By Li Xiangyu (李想俣), Li Mingzi (李明子), Peng Danni (彭丹妮), and Du Wei (杜玮), in the February 10 issue of China News Weekly Out of mountains of reports about the coronavirus epidemic, we at China Change have taken a keen interest in two areas: the origins of the virus, and the decision making process. The cover story of China News [...] Keep reading »

Xu Zhiyong, January 1, 2020 This is the New Year’s message from a civil society leader who is, at this very moment, on the run to elude arrest by the Chinese authorities. A report on this new and ongoing wave of crackdown is forthcoming. — The Editors Enter 2020 in the march of history: another wave of crackdown against civil society is sweepin [...] Keep reading »

Yasuhiro Matsuda, December 13, 2019 China Change transcribed and translated parts of Yasuhiro Matsuda’s recent Chinese language interview with Radio Free Asia (here and here)for his sharp insights on Hong Kong and the structural political problems in Xi Jinping’s decision making. Subheadings added by China Change for easy reading.  — The [...] Keep reading »

Chang Ping, November 15, 2019 Everyone knows that if the Hong Kong government and Beijing cannot offer an affirmative response to the protesters’ demands, and if the abuse of power by the police does not end, the conflicts will only escalate and result in more violence. However, the authorities are with full knowledge allowing Hong Kong to turn i [...] Keep reading »

Wang Dan, November 4, 2019 In 1989, during the Chinese pro-democracy movement, 20-year-old Peking University student Wang Dan (王丹) became one of the most influential student leaders. Following the outbreak of the Tiananmen Massacre, he found himself at the top of the lists of 21 wanted criminals. He was arrested and sentenced to four years in p [...] Keep reading »

Zhang Lifan, November 2, 2019 This is a translation of Beijing-based historian Zhang Lifan’s interview by Deutsche Welle’s Chinese Service. In the interview, Zhang Lifan (章立凡) gives his views on the recently concluded Fourth Plenum of the Chinese Communist Party’s 19th Central Committee, as well as the overall direction of the Chinese r [...] Keep reading »

Xiang Songzuo, October 23, 2019 Xiang Songzuo (向松祚) is an economist, and a professor of the School of Finance and Finance of Renmin University of China. His speech in December 2018, A Great Shift Unseen Over the Last Forty Years, translated by China Change, was widely disseminated. This short, recent commentary below was immediately censored [...] Keep reading »