Conversation
12.02.22

Jiang Zemin, 1926-2022

Julia Lovell, Ian Johnson & more

Former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin died on Wednesday at the age of 96, shortly after anger about the zero-COVID policy had boiled over into a wave of protest last weekend. Jiang took the country through the boom years of the 1990s, a time now...

Postcard
05.30.19

Four Is Forbidden

Yangyang Cheng

Liusi. Six-four. The two-syllable word, spoken nonchalantly by our teacher, was a stone cast into the tranquil pond of a classroom. From each ripple rose a gasp, a murmur, or a perplexed face, with only one or two enunciating the question on many...

Viewpoint
07.13.18

‘Liu Knew His Responsibility in History’

Ian Johnson

He was risking not the immediate arrival of soldiers, but the inevitable and life-threatening imprisonment that befalls all people who challenge state power in China today. This was not an active decision to die, but a willingness...

Wan Li Obituary

Former leader Wan Li, who died at age 98, was a reform-minded communist. In the post-Mao Zedong era, Wan achieved one great success only to fail dismally in another crucial enterprise.