Two years ago, I heard that Taiwan's govt had unearthed surveillance files from the secret police of its authoritarian era. They were finally becoming open to the public, nearly four decades after Taiwan's democratisation. I wanted to see what was inside:
economist.com/1843/2025/05/0… The files are kept in an earthquake-proof, temperature-controlled vault on the outskirts of Taipei. They're part of Taiwan's "political files", all the records relating to rights abuses from its one-party era. Stacked together, they would create a tower nearly 6x higher than 101

Xi Jinping has revived references to the "Fengqiao Model", a Mao-era reference to a small town that was praised for mobilising people to denounce one another. Xi eschews the chaos of that period, but still believes in using people to police one another
economist.com/china/2022/11/… He speaks often of "群防群治" (mass prevention & mass governance), a tricky term that sounds empowering but actually means devolving security work from the police to the masses. The proliferation of neighborhood patrols & increasingly granular grid governance are examples of that

“不要核酸要吃饭
不要文革要改革
不要封控要自由
不要领袖要选票
不要谎言要尊严
不做奴才做公民”

https://twitter.com/JingzhouTao/status/1580433572749402113

"We want food, not covid tests
We want reform, not Cultural Revolution
We want freedom, not lockdown
We want votes, not a leader
We want dignity, not lies
We are citizens, not slaves"

Simple words that take such courage to say - or even to see and share in China today

This is @mare_porter and me in the streets of Zhengzhou yesterday. We were surrounded by an angry crowd shouting things like this is China, get out of China! I tried to de-escalate by “translating” the crowd’s message (Mathias is actually fluent in Chinese)

https://twitter.com/liu_xiaoyuan/status/1419121103327223808

At one point an angry man pulled out a phone w a blurry screenshot of another white man and yelled “this is him! It’s him!” I told him no, that’s just another white guy, please calm down

On a train passing through Hebi, in badly flooded #Henan If it seems slow for high-speed rail, that’s bc it is.. our usual 2.5 hr train from Beijing to Zhengzhou has been inching along for 12 hours now w stops and starts. But at least we are moving (for now)

In Gansu's "Little Mecca," minarets have been toppled, the call to prayer banned. Minorities shuttled into factory jobs have begun to forget their languages. Cadres enter conservative villages preaching a new faith: Love the Party first.

Our dispatch: latimes.com/world-nation/s… I first visited Linxia 4 years ago for this story about the relative flourishing of Hui Islam bc of its ability to blend Islamic and Chinese identities. That seems to have changed, w authorities' new, "preemptive" restrictions on Hui Islam chinafile.com/features/separ…

Beijing has 6 new COVID cases, big deal bc they are local transmissions not imported. All have connections w Xinfadi mass produce meat & seafood market, which has been shut down. As of this morning 45 more ppl w close connections to Xinfadi have tested positive (no symptoms) Authorities have sealed 11 communities around the market and closed nearby schools and kindergartens. ALSO! They found traces of covid on salmon cutting boards in the market. Major supermarkets citywide have disposed of their salmon overnight news.ynet.com/2020/06/13/265…

Fascinating 6-part Chinese strategy to win the global public opinion war, from this CASS article (h/t @judeblanchette): 1. Prepare for "attacks" from U.S. and other media by understanding how foreign media works cssn.cn/zk/wjyya/20200… 2. Establish a coordination mechanism for 24-hr monitoring & responding to US media and foreign public opinion. Involve govt media, private media, diplomats, enterprises & think tanks to coordinate quick and effective counter-attacks

We found so many fascinating contradictions and shocking nuggets in our deep dive into China's wildlife industry and why its new ban is not enough to stop future virus outbreaks. THREAD:
latimes.com/world-nation/s… In 2003, Chinese authorities banned wildlife consumption. Tens of thousands of civets, suspected intermediate carrier of SARS virus, were killed. But 3 months later, the ban was lifted. By 2019, govt subsidies were helping thousands of farmers pivot into civet breeding (!)

Read our latest #Wuhan #coronavirus stories: 1) China’s strong centralized control enables mass mobilization - 50m ppl on lockdown! - that would be unthinkable anywhere else. But that top-down grip is also what enabled this crisis in the first place latimes.com/world-nation/s… 2) On the ground, medical workers' loved ones weep as they send them into an epidemic that's killed more than 130 so far & infected ~6,000, more than doubling in just the last two days
latimes.com/world-nation/s…

Afraid of arrest at hospitals, injured #HongKong protesters have turned to underground medical networks for help - including traditional Chinese medicine practitioners who treat them w acupuncture, moxibustion, and herbal tonics latimes.com/world-nation/s… Here are some of the herbal tonics + an anti-burn ointment made specifically for tear gas + blue water cannon exposure (coughing, breathing problems, indigestion, skin burning). Note the creative names 😅 + the top right one is just essential oils for soothing anxiety & insomnia

“I’m a local Hong Konger, just with a different skin color." Months before this summer's unrest, we reported this @latimes story on HK's ethnic minorities & asylum seekers, the city's refugee history and many HKers' embrace of a non-Chinese identity latimes.com/world/asia/la-… @latimes Hong Kong is 92% Han Chinese, but ppl like Jeffrey Andrews, descended from Tamil Christians who came to HK in 1960s, feel closer to HK than their "home" countries. As HK's 1st ethnic minority social worker, Andrews fights stereotypes against minorities as criminals & outsiders.

Here's my @latimes story on generation gap in #Taiwan: I profiled 3 generations of 1 family, asking how their lives led them to totally different identities and senses of connection (or lack thereof) to #China
latimes.com/world/asia/la-… The grandfather, age 87, was a KMT soldier who fled his Anhui village at age 17 to join the army and ended up in Taiwan. 42 years passed before he returned to his village, only to find that his parents and siblings had starved to death in the 1960s famine.