Chinese Whispers

Arrested in Shanghai

Ed Lawrence on the perils and pleasures of reporting from China

3 hrs ago • Cindy Yu

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July 2026

There's more than one way to win the AI arms race

A deep dive on China's AI strategy and why it's working

Jul 27 • Cindy Yu

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A good week for Beijing

Xi's AI speech, the release of Kimi K3 and a new Pew survey

Jul 20 • Cindy Yu

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Reflections on the hit film, Love Letters to Grandma

And the dire lives of migrant workers – then and now

Jul 13 • Cindy Yu

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Is there a Sun Yat-sen in the room?

The malaise in the Chinese dissident movement

Jul 6 • Cindy Yu

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June 2026

Chinese Whispers 2.0 – Beijing bikinis and Shanghai Snobbery

Listen now | The return of Chinese Whispers: the podcast

Jun 29 • Cindy Yu

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38:37

The Chongqing protests: how puppies became political

Like environmentalism, animal welfare has risen in importance as a middle class cause

Jun 15 • Cindy Yu

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Labour's muddle over China and the green transition

A new legal mandate will force the government to buy more Chinese

Jun 8 • Cindy Yu

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Reflections from the Hague: Europe's future in the age of great power rivalry

Last week I attended a defence and geopolitics conference at the Hague, held on the first day in the Peace Palace and on the second in Leiden…

Jun 1 • Cindy Yu

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May 2026

Beijing's culture war over masculinity

Why has the government not been able to tackle the 'sissy men'?

May 25 • Cindy Yu

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Has Trump sold out Taiwan?

Concern is rising in Taipei and Washington, but the real test is the $14 billion arms deal

May 18 • Cindy Yu

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April 2026

The decline of the West's soft power in China

And how that feeds into collapsed Chinese student numbers

Apr 28 • Cindy Yu

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