Lucas Niewenhuis is the Newsletter Editor at The China Project. Previously, he has researched China-Africa relations at the Social Science Research Council, interned at the Council on Foreign Relations, and studied Chinese language and culture in Shanghai and Beijing.
The Chinese developer Modern Land said today that it had missed all payments on a $250 million bond, highlighting continuing strain in Chinaโs property sector. At the same time, Evergrande appears to have averted multiple crises and the IMF says that risks are โcontained,โ for now.
For the fourth time this year, Chinese health authorities are taking swift measures to contain a small Delta-driven spike of COVID-19. With just over 100 days until the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, the capital announced especially strict requirements for visitors to enter.
After NBA player Enes Kanter posted a โFree Tibetโ message to social media, his team, the Boston Celtics, was removed from online streaming in China. The Chinese Foreign Ministry dismissed his activism as โclout-chasing.โ
A new report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute uncovers new details of Chinaโs extraordinary effort to exert control over the Xinjiang region since 2014, including more insight into the use of predictive policing systems.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry denied a Financial Times report that China had tested a nuclear-capable, hypersonic missile in August. Hypersonic weapons technology, which is under development in the U.S., Russia, and China, could have major implications for strategic positions.
LinkedIn, which since 2014 has represented the largest social media portal through Beijingโs Great Firewall, has decided to close down its localized China version. Increased censorship pressure, compliance costs for new laws, local competition, and bad PR outside of China may have all contributed to the move.
Another deadly deluge has hit a Chinese province, three months after the Henan floods. At least 29 have died and hundreds of โimmovable cultural relicsโ have been damaged in the flooding in Shanxi.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and Chinese leader Xi Jinping both gave speeches over the weekend that addressed the future of Taiwan. Xi described โTaiwan independenceโ as a โgrave hidden dangerโ to his future plans, while Tsai insisted, โnobody can force Taiwan to take the path China has laid out for us.โ
A contingent of about two dozen U.S. troops have been conducting training in Taiwan in secret for over a year, the Biden administration revealed publicly for the first time via a Wall Street Journal report.