In December 2022, Xi Jinping declared victory over the virus and ended the restrictive policy overnight, fearful of unprecedented protests. It caused a disaster.
Featured China
How Chinese Propaganda Erased Mongolian Identity—and Much More
Soyonbo Borjgin’s PropagandaScope provides an effective new lens on the CCP’s machinery of erasure.
Plato Goes to Beijing: Why Xi Jinping Wants China to Become a World Leader in Greek and Latin Studies
How the CCP weaponizes classic “non-democratic” Western culture to criticize modern Western ideas of human rights and democracy.
When the Esoteric West Sought the Dao—and Discovered Its Own Reflection
A volume edited by Lukas Pokorny and Franz Winter classifies and analyzes references by Western esotericists to China.
A Blueprint for “Harmony”: Reading Between the Lines of Tibet’s New Governance Gospel
The Chinese Communist Party spells out its program of total control: “Sinicize,” manage, guide, and punish.
China Hails Japan’s Dissolution of the Unification Church
The Chinese Communist Party celebrates Japan’s court ruling as a welcome boost to its global campaign against an unwelcome church.
Kang Youwei: A Confucian Monarchist in the New World
A monumental book focuses on the American years and mystical utopianism of a reformer who has been curiously rediscovered in Xi Jinping’s China
Echoes of the Sacred: Jao Tsung-I’s Chinese Religion Across Five Millennia
An erudite journey through China’s spiritual imagination, where oracle bones, Daoist talismans, and Chan enlightenment form a single, continuous conversation.
The Mystical Resistance of the Surrealists in Communist China
A fascinating book shows how Surrealism, “from Mao to now,” served as a survival strategy for dissident artists—and sometimes a gateway to spirituality.
The Luminous Nestorians: When Christianity Was Already Chinese
Political Sinicization is not the only possible or desirable form of Sinicization. A new book on Jingjiao offers an alternative.