Yaxue Cao, April 2, 2021 (Continued from Part One) Arrest; from ‘Grain Banks’ to community financing In April 2003, about a month after Sun Dawu’s speeches at Peking University and China Agricultural University, he was called to Zhongnanhai once more. This time it was to South Zhongnanhai, housing the Central Committee of the Chin [...] Keep reading »

Yaxue Cao, March 30, 2021 About the sources  The main sources for this profile are Mr. Sun Dawu (孙大午)’s speeches, articles and interviews over the years, especially during 2003-2012. They are embedded throughout the text and a fuller list will be appended at the end of Part Two.  — Yaxue Cao Part One One day in March 2003, as Su [...] Keep reading »

Chang Ping, Yaxue Cao, February 28, 2021 (continued from Part One, Part Two, Part Three, and Part Four) Under attack in 2008 for a FT column on Tibet In 2005 I returned to Guangzhou and founded Southern Metropolis Weekly (《南都周刊》). In those years China saw the emergence of civil rights activities and NGOs, and new ideas thrived. Several [...] Keep reading »

Chang Ping, Yaxue Cao, February 26, 2021 (continued from Part One, Part Two, and Part Three) An incubator for public intellectuals Yaxue Cao: I left China in the early 1990s, and for years, I knew little about what was going on in China and its societal changes. Working on China Change over the last few years has been a steep learning curve. I’ve [...] Keep reading »

Chang Ping, Yaxue Cao, February 24, 2021 (continued from Part One and Part Two) The 20th anniversary of Reform and Opening up I encountered a big event soon after I arrived at Southern Weekend, that is, the 20th anniversary of China’s reform and opening up, December 18, 1998. Twenty years ago, on December 18, 1978, the Communist Party opened [...] Keep reading »

Chang Ping, Yaxue Cao, February 23, 2021 Continued from Part One Joining Southern Weekend That was July 1998. When I arrived in Guangzhou, the weather was very hot. My friend helped me rent a house in the so-called urban village in Guangzhou. It was very dilapidated and could not compare with the housing conditions in Chengdu. But I was young and d [...] Keep reading »

Chang Ping, Yaxue Cao, February 23, 2021 Interviewer’s Note I first interviewed Chang Ping in Toronto when he received the CJFE 2016 International Press Freedom Award. We spoke for about two hours before I had to catch a flight back to Washington, DC. In the next few years, as I continued to interview and profile more people for China Change and [...] Keep reading »

December 28, 2020 Per request of the filmmaker, who wishes to remain anonymous, China Change posts this short film about Zhang Zhan. Zhang Zhan (张展), a lawyer who practiced in Shanghai, went to Wuhan in early February, determined to document the coronavirus outbreak in the city that was the epicenter of what would soon become a pandemic around [...] Keep reading »

Yaxue Cao, October 31, 2020 1. The Arrest The ancient city of Dali (大理), a small town in China’s southwest, boasts a history of more than 600 years. For visitors from China proper, the most eye-catching features of the Yunnan plateau may be the sapphire-blue sky and the grey tiles and elaborately carved beams of the white-walled houses. Becau [...] Keep reading »