Good evening. Russia has long been the regional power in Central Asia, but as Xi Jinping noted at the inaugural China-Central Asia Summit in May, “The international and regional situation is undergoing complex and profound changes.” What does China want in Central Asia? Our cover story this week examines the history of the New Silk Road as well as its potential future tensions. Elsewhere, we have infographics on home appliance brand Midea Group and its growing global reach; an interview with John Delury on the CIA’s history in China; a reported piece about a mobility experiment in Zhejiang province; and an op-ed on the Qin Gang episode. If you’re not already a paid subscriber to The Wire, please sign up here.
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The Central Asia Squeeze
As Russian power and influence wanes, will China fill the void in Central Asia? In the name of the New Silk Road, Chinese companies have already made considerable inroads into Central Asia — but they often do so in the name of Beijing’s repressive policies in Xinjiang. Isaiah Schrader reports.
The Big Picture: A Chinese Electronics Empire
This week’s infographics trace the history of Midea Group from its humble beginnings in southern China to its global reach today, and Aaron Mc Nicholas talks to the head of its U.S. operations about its American expansion.
A Q&A with John Delury
John Delury is a historian of modern China, professor at Yonsei University in Seoul, and starting this fall will be Tsao Family Rome Prize fellow at the American Academy in Rome. Along with Orville Schell, he is the author of Wealth and Power: China’s Long March to the Twenty-First Century (2013), which provides biographical sketches of the most important historical Chinese leaders and thinkers. In this week’s Q&A with Katrina Northrop, he talks about his most recent book — Agents of Subversion: The Fate of John T. Downey and the CIA’s Covert War in China — and the broader history of the intelligence community’s interactions with China.
John Delury
Illustration by Lauren Crow
China’s Moving Moment
Could an experiment in Zhejiang province herald long-awaited reforms to allow Chinese people to become more mobile? Grady McGregor reports.
What the Qin Gang Episode Tells Us
The disappearance of China’s foreign minister sends a worrying message to investors at home and abroad, argues Victor Shih in this week’s op-ed.
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