Xi’an | fish store, by Tauno Tõhk (CC BY-SA 2.0 ..read more

Surveillance in Chinese cities is ubiquitous, with highly visible security cameras trained on most every intersection, public space, and building, but over the past decade, it has been seeping into the countryside as well. In an interview with China Digital Times in September of 2022 about his and Liza Lin’s book, “Surveillance State: Inside China’s Quest to Launch a New Era of Social Control,” WSJ deputy bureau chief Josh Chin noted that “China is already home to more than 400 million surveillance cameras—roughly half of all the cameras in the world.” In 2015, the Chinese government unveiled ..read more

This week, a long-expected national security trial of 47 Hong Kong pro-democracy figures began. The group was arrested en masse in January 2021 and charged with subversion a month later for holding an unofficial primary in July 2020 (shortly after a draconian National Security Law was forced through the city’s legislature.) Only 13 of those arrested have been granted bail, while the other 34 have languished in pre-trial detention for over two years. At the West Kowloon Law Courts on Monday, 16 defendants were present to plead not guilty. All of them face sentences of up to life imprisonment.&n ..read more

Surrounders, by Gauthier DELECROIX (CC BY 2.0 ..read more

A Xi Jinping-themed twist on a Chinese Lunar New Year tradition drew incredulous reactions from Twitter users after it was shared by famed dissident Twitter account @whyyoutouzhele. “Lantern riddles” are a staple of the Lantern Festival, which marks the end of the Lunar New Year. One street in Turpan, Xinjiang used fill-in-the-blank quotes from Xi Jinping’s report to the 20th Party Congress this past October to test passersby on their knowledge of the Party’s ideological work, political development, and COVID policies, among other topics: [Editor’s note: The correct answers are written at the ..read more

Shanghai – December 2011, by MojoBaron (CC BY-ND 2.0 ..read more

A stray balloon has precipitated a full-blown diplomatic crisis in U.S.-China relations. Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled a planned trip to Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping after NBC News reported that American military officials are monitoring a Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon tens of thousands of feet above the continental United States. Chinese officials have expressed regret for the “unintended entry” of the balloon into U.S. airspace and insisted that it was a civilian research vessel used for “mainly meteorological” purposes. The Pentagon has repeate ..read more

Balloon Seller, Chaoyang Park, by Ryan Taylor (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 ..read more

The wife of a prominent former Chinese bookseller is being prevented from leaving China until her husband returns to the country to answer questions about his alleged political writings. Yu Miao ran Shanghai’s famed liberal Jifeng Bookstore until authorities forced it to close in 2018. He emigrated to the United States with his wife and three children, and now lives in Orlando, Florida. His wife, Xie Fang, returned to China in early 2022 to take care of her ailing mother and has since allegedly been barred from returning to the United States under an “exit ban” until Yu returns to Shanghai for ..read more

Huang Shan pines and rhododendron, by Nicholas Turland (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 ..read more