Will Xi invade Taiwan?
Last week, the US and Canada each sent a warship through the Taiwan Strait and Taiwan has appealed to the US for faster delivery of fighter aircraft. It's been a tense month in the Strait, kicked off ...
18 Okt 202131min
The Chinese love of drinking
Throughout Chinese history, as seen by poems and novels, drinking has been seen as a source for literary inspiration; or a form of manly competition; or, as ever, a status symbol. After a century of p...
4 Okt 202131min
Has China got over the Japanese invasion?
For China, WWII started in 1937 with the Japanese invasion, two years before Hitler invaded Poland. Japan would occupy China until its surrender in 1945, in the process committing atrocities like the ...
20 Sep 202139min
Ancestors and demons: a brief history of Chinese religion
Are the Chinese religious? The government’s treatment of Christians and particularly Muslims have been under scrutiny in recent years. But these religious groups only form around 4 per cent of the Chi...
6 Sep 202137min
Will China become Afghanistan's new sponsor?
Last month, the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi welcomed senior Taliban leaders to Beijing, standing shoulder to shoulder for the photographers. China is carefully watching events unfold in Afghanist...
20 Aug 202136min
Ketamine in China: has the country got over the opium wars?
It might be an understatement to say that China has a difficult relationship with drugs. Most infamously, the Opium Wars of the 1800s saw British soldiers fight against the Qing dynasty to protect the...
9 Aug 202123min
Black cat or white cat? Reconciling the two Deng Xiaopings
For most people, Mao Zedong and Xi Jinping stand out as the two Communist leaders of the People’s Republic of China. But growing up, it was actually a third man, by the name of Deng Xiaoping, whose le...
26 Jul 202141min
China's 'snowflake generation'
Tangping, or 'lying flat', is a new lifestyle tempting China's millennials. Describing a minimalist stress-free life where one opts out of a career and raising family, lying flat is the young person's...
12 Jul 202128min
