Despite desperate efforts by the government to push the events of June 4, 1989, at Tiananmen Square into collective amnesia, new documents have shed light on the events. Journalist Ian Johnson reviews the latest publication, The Last Secret: The Final Documents from the June Fourth Crackdown, for the NY Review of Books, and summarize what we have been learning over the past 30 years.Read More →

Tradition and an unequal political system hamper women in their development in China, says author Zhang Lijia at the Addison Gazette. “Women are being left behind in terms of political participation and the salary gap between men and women is becoming wider.”Read More →

Organizing public debate in China is challenging, but former Xi’an professor Chen Hongguo does. Journalist Ian Johnson visited the book club Zhiwuzhi Chen established after he decided to leave university, and discusses how he manages to survive, for the NY Review of Books.Read More →

Chinese surveillance technology, especially social credit systems and facial recognition, is seen by Western media as a final end to privacy. But Tencent watcher Matthew Brennan sees this innovation works differently on the ground, in China, he explains in Metro.Read More →

China might have most internet users of the world, but getting an email to them is often hard, as most communicate through domestic social networks like Tencent’s WeChat. Email, unlike WeChat, did not offer tools to make money, explains China veteran Kaiser Kuo as one of the reasons for thatRead More →

A short video clip of Tencent watcher Matthew Brennan went viral, as he noted facial recognition tools at China’s airports. Most reactions from outside China were rather negative, he notes at CGTN, but in China itself, facial recognition is becoming the new normal. More debate is certainly needed, he adds.Read More →

Chinese apps like Tiktok and WeChat make inroads into the US, and American companies start to copy their features. Fintech analyst Sara Hsu says fierce domestic competition makes those apps better than what we know outside China, as younger generations like their lives through apps. So, if they do well, they can cater for much more than only chitchat, se tells at CGTN.Read More →

Journalist Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao, is working on his next book documenting how writers, thinkers, and artists are dealing with the new, more repressive policies in China. He visited citizen journalist Zhang Shihe near Xi’an for an extensive interview. First, he describes Zhang’s position for the New York Review of Books.Read More →

China´s media industry might be one of the toughest to grasp for the outside world. All media are state-owned, very much restricted, and got recently into trouble because they have been extorting companies. Nothing is what you might expert. Some guidance is needed, and fortunately we have a range of media experts at the China Speakers Bureau.Read More →

State TV has been pulling a set of historical dramas from their channels because they were having a negative influence on their audiences, according to state media. Journalist Zhang Lijia, the author of Lotus, a novel, a bestseller on prostitution in China, understands the ratio behind this action, she tells in the South China Morning Post.Read More →