A passenger wearing a facemask exiting the arrival hall at the Hong Kong International Airport terminal, Hong Kong, Oct. 24, 2020 (Sipa photo by Miguel Candela via AP Images).

Editor’s Note: This is the web version of our subscriber-only weekly newsletter, China Note, which includes a look at the week’s top stories and best reads from and about China. Subscribe to receive it by email every Wednesday. If you’re already a subscriber, adjust your newsletter settings to receive it directly to your email inbox.  A quarantine waiver granted by authorities in Hong Kong to Hollywood star Nicole Kidman has drawn outrage and charges of double standards by local residents. But a bigger problem underlies the saga: The city is caught between two different COVID-19 strategies, with no way out.  Kidman, who arrived in […]

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi with a delegation of the Taliban leadership in Tianjin, China, July 28, 2021 (photo by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs).

Editor’s Note: This is the web version of our subscriber-only weekly newsletter, China Note, which includes a look at the week’s top stories and best reads from and about China. Subscribe to receive it by email every Wednesday. If you’re already a subscriber, adjust your newsletter settings  to receive it directly to your email inbox. While the rest of the world continues to be shocked at the harrowing scenes and images accompanying the U.S. military evacuation from Afghanistan, Chinese nationalist media pundits like Hu Xijin, the editor-in-chief of the hawkish, state-owned tabloid Global Times, have made little effort to hide their glee […]

Supporters hold banners as they wait for of Zhou Xiaoxuan outside at a courthouse where Zhou is appearing in a sexual harassment case in Beijing, China, Dec. 2, 2020 (AP photo by Andy Wong).

Editor’s Note: This is the web version of our subscriber-only weekly newsletter, China Note, which includes a look at the week’s top stories and best reads from and about China. Subscribe to receive it by email every Wednesday. If you’re already a subscriber, adjust your newsletter settings to receive it directly to your email inbox.  The Alibaba Group has once again come under scrutiny this week, after a female employee of the online shopping behemoth accused her supervisor of rape during a business trip, sparking furor on the internet and across China. The allegation is far from an isolated incident, as the problems of […]

A vendor sits in front of a screen showing an AI program playing the game Starcraft 2 at the China Beijing International High Tech Expo in Beijing, Sept. 19, 2020 (AP photo by Mark Schiefelbein).

Editor’s Note: This is the web version of our subscriber-only weekly newsletter, China Note, which includes a look at the week’s top stories and best reads from and about China. Subscribe to receive it by email every Wednesday. If you’re already a subscriber, adjust your newsletter settings to receive it directly to your email inbox. Years of a laissez-faire approach on the part of Chinese authorities has enabled homegrown tech companies like the Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings to grow into the successful conglomerates they are today. But as the poster children of China’s innovation economy become too big for Beijing’s comfort, the Communist […]