January 9 — Chinese commercial media voiced various opinions on the execution of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The coverage came as national television media in China were told to tread carefully around news of the execution, making reports only according to Foreign Ministry statements and without expressing sympathies for any particular party. January 9 […]
There has been a great deal of speculation over the last several days about possible fallout for bolder southern Chinese newspapers following up on the case of Gao Qinrong (高勤荣), the reporter who was released from prison on December 7 after eight years in jail [read about the case at ESWN]. There has been, according […]
November 20 [not included in previous almanac] — China’s primary broadcast overseer, the State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT), announced it would tighten controls on so-called “legal programming” (法制节目) in China, a category that deals generally with programs showing law-enforcement activities such as police raids. Programs of this kind (resembling the “COPS” series […]
After news late last week that a reporter brought an information non-disclosure lawsuit against a government office in China’s financial center of Shanghai, some media in China asked whether this might push China toward a more open society. The reporter was using “Shanghai Municipal Government Ordinance on Openness of Information”, a local ordinance on government […]
First proposed by Xi Jinping in 2017 and formalized in China’s 2018 Arctic Policy white paper, the “Polar Silk Road” (冰上丝绸之路) is China’s framework for Arctic engagement, extending Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road Initiative concept into polar waters. Centered on the Northeast Passage shipping route along Russia’s northern coast, it positions China as a “near-Arctic state” with legitimate interests in Arctic shipping, resource development, and governance. The term has become a focal point of geopolitical tension as melting ice opens economic possibilities while raising Western security concerns.
The closure of dozens more newspapers signals the final fizzling of China’s once-vibrant metropolitan print media sector at the outset in 2026.
A poll from a government-run tabloid in China claims broad international embrace of Xi Jinping Thought. Something smells fishy.
Guangxi represents the most concerted government effort so far to push the nation’s AI products abroad. A chatbot created for the Malaysian government is evidence of how AI can help reshape the region as a Chinese sphere of influence.
As international communication centers proliferate across China down to the county level, Xi Jinping’s grand vision for global “discourse power” meets absurd local reality.
Emblazoned as the motto of the Central Party School and the namesake of China’s top theoretical journal, “seeking truth from facts” (实事求是) is one of the party’s most important guiding theoretical principles and has been referred to within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as the “magic weapon” （法宝）behind China’s successful revolution, construction, and reform. In a nutshell, it is the combination of theory and practice as a pragmatic method of decision-making.