The “civilizational state” is the idea that China is unlike any other ordinary country, but a civilization forced into the restrictive nation-state framework developed in the West. While the notion is generally not found in the official discourse of the Chinese Communist Party, it has been championed by a number of prominent Chinese scholars as …

First introduced by Xi Jinping in 2021 but becoming more central to Chinese foreign policy since the second half of 2023, the “Five Major Homes” (五大家园) concept is part of China’s diplomatic framework for its relations with Southeast Asia. The term is a more folksy label for Xi’s notion of a “community with a shared future for mankind” as it appl…

This term refers to five Chinese women activists detained without charges in March 2015 for planning anti-sexual harassment activities on International Women’s Day. Their arrest marked a turning point in China’s feminist movement, signaling the government’s hardening stance against peaceful gender equality activism.