Rachel Cheung - The Wire China

Articles

Broken Promises

In 2021, after four decades of exponential growth in China’s economy, Xi Jinping revived the party slogan “common prosperity” in order to address the country’s glaring inequality. The policy priority was suddenly everywhere: in speeches, in newspapers and in schools. But now, three years later,...

Shein and Temu Face Up to a Frostier Future

The fast-growing Chinese e-commerce companies are changing tack as challenges to their cheap import models multiply.

Oriana Skylar Mastro on How China Gained Power

The political scientist explains how China has risen not just by following in the U.S.’s footsteps, but also by exploiting U.S. vulnerabilities and its own competitive advantages.

Gaining Currency

Can a central bank digital currency work? China was the first major economy to launch one and, despite several setbacks, is starting to see the digital yuan take off.

The Roadblock Facing China’s Self-Driving Vehicles

How China’s autonomous driving companies fare in foreign markets will depend on whether they can soothe concerns over how they handle data.

Yuan Yang on China’s Gender and Rural-Urban Divides

The journalist-turned-lawmaker talks about her book on four women coming of age in modern China, the end of optimism for the younger generations, and being the first Chinese-born British MP.

China’s Chip Consolidation

Beijing is weeding out bad actors in the semiconductor industry and concentrating its resources on well-established firms.

China’s Ozempic Test

Novo Nordisk, the maker of Ozempic, has enjoyed a China boom in recent years, commanding 77 percent of the market. But that kind of dominance isn’t likely to last, and Novo Nordisk’s challengers in China — both domestic and foreign — represent significant shifts in...

China’s Robot Fever

Chinese humanoid robots are working better and getting cheaper. But what are they good for?

Andreas Fulda on Germany’s Failure to Tackle the China Challenge

The German political scientist talks about the need for a paradigm shift in Germany’s foreign policy and the difficulty of countering hybrid threats.

Chinese Battery Makers Get Solid Support

Braving the frigid cold of the Chinese winter last December, William Li, chief executive of Chinese automaker NIO, drove for 14 hours from Shanghai to the southern eastern city of Xiamen, allowing viewers to watch him via a livestream on the company’s app. His aim?...

The Clash of Constellations

In 2021, Beijing announced Guowang, its answer to SpaceX’s Starlink. But with very few updates about the project — apart from disciplinary inspections — it seems Guowang could be stalling. China’s space industry, however, is still racing ahead thanks to the surprising flood of private...