The onetime online education giant has reinvented itself as an e-commerce site — and has become profitable again.
In July 2021, China’s government nearly wiped out the country’s entire online tutoring industry after it banned almost all private, after-school educational services. Six months later, Yu Minhong, founder of online education giant New Oriental, was seen in public for the first time in a surprising new role: selling cherries and other fruits and vegetables via a livestream.
Yu’s move was part of New Oriental’s pivot to e-commerce after its previous business of selling after-school tuto
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Bob Fu's relationship with China has gone through phases. First, he thought money would solve his problems there; then he joined protesters at Tiananmen Square, thinking the politics could change. In the end, he determined, only God could save China, and he's been fighting for religious freedom in China ever since he resettled in Texas. With his nonprofit, ChinaAid, prospering like never before, he says the U.S. is finally catching on.
A podcast about how the two nations, once friends, are now foes.
Hear why things are so complicated now. Host Jane Perlez, former New York Times Beijing bureau chief, talks with diplomats, spies, cultural superstars like Yo Yo Ma, and more to understand why the dangers are so high, and why relations went awry.