"The baseline pension for retirees who lacked formal employment—a category that includes almost all farmers—is 163 yuan ($24) per month." Endless billions for AI and robotics while the generation that built the miracle is forced to toil until their last breath

I periodically receive trolling emails, most of them are virulent misogyny (you realize CCP-paid trolls hate me more because I am a woman than I am a CCP critic). But this one really looks like AI hallucination. Hello, CCP, I think you need to "drink tea" with your AI.

Of course, Falun Gong media gossip is no comparison to CCP propaganda. But principled CCP critics should speak out against Falun Gong media's rumor-mongering, because it makes the broader anti-CCP camp look less credible.

The China discourse on social media: on the one hand, you have the "useful idiots" on the left denying mass atrocities in Xinjiang; one the other hand, you have Falun Gong media on the right peddling rumors about political infighting in Zhongnanhai every other day. SIGH.

Yes, democracy sometimes fails to deliver, but autocrats always fail to deliver. Now one is thrown out of power by THE PEOPLE. On to the next. When will that man in Beijing face his turn? www.nytimes.com/2026/04/12/w...

On Lawfare Daily, @michael-feinberg.bsky.social and human rights advocate @yaqiu.bsky.social discussed the role of AI in China’s surveillance and censorship apparatus, both online and offline. youtu.be/fT_albJp40A

It's good that governments are recognizing that the United Front is a trojan horse, but the challenge is how to respond without turning the broader Chinese diaspora into a collateral damage. The simple answer: real expertise. www.economist.com/china/2026/0...

As we hear more and more about China, we are actually understanding less and less about the country.

Your periodic reminder that Trump and his cronies are the biggest threat to U.S. national security. The politically connected have always tried to profit from their access, but Trump's buddies do it with total shamelessness -- and high success. www.reuters.com/world/asia-p...

I was quite happy to sit down with @yaqiu.bsky.social for @lawfaremedia.org and discuss an otherwise dour topic: the past, present, and future of the PRC's surveillance state.

On Lawfare Daily, @michael-feinberg.bsky.social sat down with human rights advocate @yaqiu.bsky.social to discuss the role of emerging technologies, like AI, in China’s surveillance and censorship apparatus. youtu.be/fT_albJp40A

Nothing irks me more than people living with freedom and privilege telling me that I no longer understand "submissive" Chinese/Asian values because I’ve somehow morphed into a “Westerner.”

The fact that the unhinged U.S. president is getting more unhinged is depressing. But Americans should still be grateful for the fact that you can say so without fear, and you need to fight to preserve that freedom, as I told @jaynordlinger.bsky.social www.jaynordlinger.com/p/freedom-on...

My trust in the US government’s competence has gone dramatic down. Now every time there is an announcement of a prosecution in a Chinese espionage case, I can’t help but wonder, “did they identify the right guy? Or is this another nothingburger while the real spies continue to run amok?”

The Falun Gong media's anti-CCP rumormongering is having a very damaging effect on the overall credibility of critics of the CCP. It is in the interest of all of us who care about truth to unequivocally condemn it.

It strains credulity that an international police conference is being held in Hong Kong, where the police have madly gone after its citizens for peaceful protest. It is yet another sign of how the international order has gradually been captured by the CCP. www.newsweek.com/interpol-how...

Friday afternoon musing: I entered the human rights field 15 years ago hoping to make China more like America. Increasingly, though, I feel America is becoming more like China. Still, I have faith in our fundamental longing for human dignity. We just need to hang in there. TGIF.

Grateful to @jaynordlinger.bsky.social for the opportunity to talk about my favorite topic -- freedom & democracy: why people in China still want them (despite superficial polls show otherwise) and how Americans need to defend them before it is too late. www.jaynordlinger.com/p/freedom-on...

The marginalization of human rights in global discourse, particularly the lack of attention to human rights in China, is having an worrying effect: more and more people around the world are coming to see the CCP's authoritarianism as a model to be respected and emulated.

When she came to America from China, she noticed something about Americans: they had "freedom on their face." They carried themselves differently, unafraid. Yaqiu Wang (@yaqiu.bsky.social) is a human-rights defender. Inspiring woman, with whom I have podcasted. www.jaynordlinger.com/p/freedom-on...

This is really thoughtful and excellent conversation from @yaqiu.bsky.social and @goldkorn.bsky.social.

Thanks to @chinafile.bsky.social for doing the interview with me. One dilemma many of us CCP critics are grappling with these days is how to keep our criticism of the CCP from being weaponized by the wrong people for their own agenda.

It's disappointing to see how discussions of Chinese AI are so centered on national security, rather than how it affects the lives of people living in the country.

This is encouraging news. When united, the E.U. is a powerful force. We need good values, but we also need the power to defend them. At this critical moment, the E.U. should assume that mantle.

Great news! The separation of powers has prevailed. As a beneficiary of VOA News for more than two decades—beginning as a teenager in China behind the Great Firewall—I am with the three courageous journalists that, going forward, VOA must produce news, not propaganda. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/17/u...

No one is talking about human rights in the lead-up to the Trump-Xi summit. That is sad, but talking about it would almost feel absurd.

In response to my @chinafile.bsky.social piece on the need of the China human rights community to move away from US government funding 👇 (The article: www.chinafile.com/reporting-op...)

It saddens me that a surprising number of people in the West do not seem to care about the political censorship built into Chinese AI models, considering that is irrelevant to their usage. www.chinafile.com/reporting-op...

“Some human rights advocates have gone along with the ‘great power competition’ or ‘China threat’ narrative, aligning with critics of the CCP who disregard the same human rights in domestic or other regional contexts” 🎯 via @Yaqiu www.chinafile.com/reporting-op...

Lots of tough but important questions in @yaqiu.bsky.social exploration of the way dependence on USG funding shapes China human rights advocacy. Haven't seen anything before that attempts this kind of blunt cost/benefit analysis. www.chinafile.com/reporting-op...

Seeing China-linked influencers who never said a word about Iran suddenly making sensible points about the legality of the US strike, uncertainty around outcomes, risk of regional instability. It's working: such comments are rapidly buying them legitimacy in left-leaning circles.

Yes, it's exhilarating to see another CCP's junior partner potentially brought down. But pro-democracy folks, I ask you to think hard about this: how does an authoritarian America and a rule-of-the-jungle international order help people in China be free from the CCP?

Seeing quite some Chinese people cheering Trump's attack on Iran's murderous regime. It's more a reflection of their loathing of the equally murderous - but far more capable CCP - and a yearning for an external savior to help them topple it, a hope that is, frankly, pure fantasy.

Our submission aims to confront an inconvenient truth in governments' efforts - particularly those of the US - to counter CCP transnational repression: You cannot be instilling fear in immigrants while simultaneously expecting them to report CCP harassment or publicly speak out against the regime.

Nobody shows less regard for the people in China than these American leftists. They think that ordinary Chinese people don't deserve freedom and democracy, and should simply remain obedient subjects of the CCP.

My trolls are still hard at work over the Lunar New Year holiday, recycling the same tired lines: Why don't you criticize the US? You incite anti-Asian hate. Sexual harassment language. BUT one new thing lately: why don't you criticize Epstein?

When I was a child, CCTV's Lunar New Year Gala was fun to watch. As China grew more powerful in every way, humility, humor and humanity got lost in the way. Now it is just robots...

The CCP: "Sure, people in China have no human rights. Everyone lives in fear of the government, and ethnic minorities are imprisoned en masse. BUT, look at our technologies. Impressive, right? Don't you all envy us?"

This is a sweet US-China story (sounds oxymoronic, I know). What is somewhat ominous is that Tencent and Microsoft, two tech giants, possess the transcript of their entire relationship. It's a story emblematic of our time. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/14/t...

Every day, I find something new in the Trump administration that makes me say to myself, "gosh, this is so CCP."

Instead of calling it quits just because the US under Trump no longer supports a rules-based order, European leaders should step up and shoulder the responsibility. Also, witnessing strong resistance to Trump on the ground, I think it's a mistake for Europe to give up on the US.

So the U.S. under Trump no longer supports the international rules-based order, Europe just simply calls it quits? How about you endeavor to uphold it? Where is the conviction among these world leaders? Have any of these elites actually believed in anything? Ugh.

The CCP's global authoritarian influence/interference is a huge problem, but we need good research and good policy to address it. Otherwise it is just going to provoke xenophobia, erode institutional trust, and ultimately backfire.

The CCP is facing a dilemma: it wants Chinese women to get married (to Chinese men of course) and have babies to reverse population decline. It also wants AI supremacy. But now the AI is getting so good that many Chinese women are choosing AI boyfriends over real men.

Kari Lake has not only severely damaged America’s international reputation as a champion of freedom of information, but she has also wasted hundreds of millions of dollars in the process. The silver lining is that her incompetence seems to be preventing her from completely destroying things.

A thoughtful study, confirming what we all suspected: Chinese government narratives (both about China and other countries) are embedded in Chinese AI models, even in the English-language. The implications of that are huge. chinamediaproject.org/2026/02/09/t...

All I want to say is this: the Chinese Communist Party and its henchmen in Hong Kong, we will pursue you to the end, and we will win. Justice will prevail, and accountability will come to you.

This is a remarkable story. I wonder how many cadres in China right now are also feeling that all the privileges and status that come with being a CCP official are not worth the daily grinding down of their soul. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/01/b...

Six years ago today, Dr. Li Wenliang died from Covid. Imagine if he hadn’t been silenced by the Chinese government for speaking out—what a different world we might be living in now.

More than ever, we need investigative reporting on China—work that takes time and resources to produce—not commentaries from YouTubers speculating about imminent economic collapse or elite political infighting in China.