When I write and talk about how many Chinese are struggling, people often ask me why when China’s economy is doing so well. As a famous British author once wrote, “it is the best of times, it is the worst of times, we have everything before us, we have nothing before us, it is the spring of hope, it is the winter of despair.” A bit of hyperbole, but China is a Tale of Two Economies, with both the strong and weak sharing an uneasy co-existence. The Strong. Not surprisingly, we

Belief has long been foundational in China. Folk spirits, the teachings of Confucius and Mencius, Daoism, Buddhism, and often a combination thereof were worshiped and venerated. The Chinese people believed. They practiced. They lived closely with a connection to something beyond themselves. Many hundreds of millions still do. Prominent within this belief ecosystem is Buddhism and, more particularly, Manjusri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom. Throughout much of Buddhism’s almost 2,0

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, arrived in Washington, D.C. this evening. He is here for a whirlwind, two-night state visit before leaving Friday. He will not even be attending the United Nations General Assembly which is in session in New York this week. A number of people have asked me why he has chosen to come at this time, questioning whether anything of substance will take place. The bar for this visit is admittedly low. There was apparently little advanced planning to set p

Propaganda: ideas, information, facts or allegations spread deliberately to further one’s cause or to damage an opposing cause (Merriam-Webster). In response to my last article presenting the Chinese government’s position and arguments on Taiwan {“The Island That Got Away (and Why It Needs to Come Home)”}, I received the following critique from an American friend who has spent most of his adult life living in Asia: “Sad to see you writing such CCP propaganda on Taiwan….Chines

The island that got away drives deep passions. Lying tantalizingly close, less than 100 miles from the mainland, this isolated landmass has long been perched within the mainland’s sphere of influence. And yet, it remains separate, a mocking presence over the decades. Governed by a regime anathema to the mainland government, the island is labeled an existential, foreign threat. Seeking control is visceral. The mainland government enforces broad economic sanctions. Its military

The Politburo of the Communist Party of China Central Committee met last week. After reading several posts by respected China hands reporting on this high-level meeting, I was struck once again by a significant deficit America suffers from in dealing with China. Most of us do not understand the language official China uses to express itself and therefore too often miss the real story. Zhongnanhai Leadership Compound, Beijing The Politburo meeting set priorities for China’s ec

“The past is what happened, history is what is written about it.” This favorite quote from James Carter, Professor of modern Chinese history, has weighty implications for society and governance broadly. It also arises in less flashy, if not less important, venues. The questions raised are the same no matter the context. What is the past? Who gets to document this past in our histories for today and tomorrow? Spring Dawn over the Elixir Terrace, Lu Guang, 1369, Metropolitan Mu

Labels will be the death of us. They strip away humanity. They cloud judgment. They are weaponized in a zero-sum quest for dominance. They are devilishly effective and dangerous. Because of this, label warfare must be vanquished. America epitomizes this truth. The United States of America is fast becoming an oxymoron. We just celebrated a tense, politicized 250th anniversary. Society has suffered a collapse in civics. In this environment, Liberal, Conservative, Capitalist, So

I recently had the opportunity to explore the Great, Vast Walls of China with a breadth and intensity that blew me away, and almost broke me. How best to share the spirit of this journey? As with the hiking itself in Northern and Western China, I today once again step outside my comfort zone and present my experience by Ode. Photographs of the untamed and ruined beauty in this remote part of the world and additional narrative connected with several stanzas touching on history

David Hockney passed away last week one month shy of 89 years old. In 2023 a friend of mine wrote an article about Mr. Hockney, inspiration, and what he meant to her. What raced through my mind was “I know Hockney. He went to China a long time ago.” His book on visiting China in 1981 was on my bookshelf a few years before I first went there in 1986. Inspiration here takes on a new possibility in hindsight. In memory of this renowned artist, below is the article I wrote at the

Are China ‘s recently-released “Regulations of the State Council on Outward Investment” a manifesto calling for Chinese divesture from America? Though some of the frothier online headlines (particularly on YouTube and Facebook) scream yes and even more tried-and-true media (Bloomberg and NikkeiAsia) lean that way, I do not believe the answer is that simple. There are two explicit targets inside the new regulations and one under the surface. As for the first two, the Chinese g

I was in China the past month. My last day coincided with the Presidents of China and America holding a summit in Beijing on Thursday. Did this summit, potentially the first of several this year, matter? And if so, to whom and why? I see a disconnect between the macro of the political theater on the national and global stages and the micro of the day-to-day concerns of the Chinese middle class. U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of

As I am off the grid hiking in China, today's issue is a reprint of a recent article written by award winning journalist and author Pallavi Aiyar on her Substack, The Global Jigsaw . Pallavi is back in Beijing almost twenty years after her first, multi-year stint living there as a foreign correspondent. In How has China managed to make people mind their manners? Or has It? , she writes about changes in people's behavior, the software of China, that have accompanied the upgrad

Turning the corner and coming face-to-face with a jade burial suit for the first time, even one behind glass, with the hum of the museum crowd in the air, stopped me cold. Its solemnity was almost overwhelming. 2,000+ years old from China’s Han Dynasty. An Imperial extravagance from shortly after the end of the 100 Schools of Thought Period when the foundations of the Chinese society we know today were coalescing. As I get ready to return to China next week, today’s issue sp

According to Dr. Benjamin Wang (Stanford University), the debate in China today is not about China catching up with the world, but rather about China “ bringing its own sense of the world [to the world], not slotting into the western sense of the world. ” Global academics and intellectuals recently presented and debated social and political theory in China at the 2026 Telos-Paul Piccone Institute China Initiative Conference, “The Chinese New Leviathan: Cultural Subjectivity

“ I will faithfully fulfill my responsibilities bestowed by the Constitution, with the nation’s needs as my mission and the people’s interests my yardstick. ” 1 China today is a reinvigorated successor to its “ Hundred Schools of Thought ” ancestors. Though China defies easy labeling, the melded legacy of the early Confucians and Legalists courses through Chinese society. We see this in statements such as that of Chinese leader Xi Jinping above and his overseeing of strict ru

“‘ The tendency of human nature to do good is like that of water to flow downward .’” 1 This 2,300-year-old statement by Mencius, second only to Confucius in the Confucian pantheon, would have been relatable, yet not, to Daoists Laozi and Zhuangzi who believed that the Way of nature is balanced. This distinction is representative of the freewheeling philosophical “Hundred Schools of Thought” discourse for hearts and minds that blossomed in the Chinese heartland during the hal

(photo by Glenn Carstons Peters, www.unsplash.com ) My mentor often asks me if I have an outline of topics mapped out for future Substack posts. My answer is the same every time. No. There are many good reasons to do so, but it does not come easy for me. So, where do my writing ideas come from? What is my inspiration? I read a lot and something always hits me and sends me down a new path. This past weekend (before a blizzard knocked me back to the stone ages for several days)

The Fire Horse Year arrives today with celestial company. Today is the first new moon of the 2026 Lunar New Year, as well as a solar eclipse and the beginning of Ramadan. This is a time of family and community reunion and renewal, fresh starts, and the promise of tomorrow. In China, the Spring Festival is a joyous spectacle. The Chunyun travel rush during the extended holiday period in China is gravitational. To the tune of 9.5 billion trips being made across and around the

“Promote Civility and Cultivate New Social Norms” (Zhengzhou, China) “A successful society is one that is supported by a majority of the people.” This comment during a recent conversation led us down a new path. I would add that a successful society is also one in which the people are proud, confident, and satisfied with their place in the world. By this metric, the People’s Republic of China is currently more successful as a society than the United States of America. In othe