Finding Freedom in Chains

For the nimble, the strong of spirit, even China's 24-7 surveilled internet provides the marginalized with paths to community and expression; the…

Mar 9 • Chris Taylor

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January 2026

The Future Then And Now

Anne Stevenson-Yang's been a participant and observer of the China enigma long enough to know that regime survival trumps all—forget the satisfaction of…

Jan 27 • Chris Taylor

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What's so funny about peace, love and engineering?

Dan Wang's bestseller celebrates a miracle run by engineers—but what if a century of borderline-mythological ideology is running the show?

Jan 3 • Chris Taylor

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July 2025

Ghost Nations

Three books, three eras. Is it about time we called Taiwan what it is. China won't like it. But perhaps it's time we stopped trying to please China.

Jul 16, 2025 • Chris Taylor

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Making Revolution

A new biography may yield few secrets about Xi Jinping, but it speaks volumes about the party that forged father and son

Jul 5, 2025 • Chris Taylor

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June 2025

The Gift of Fire

China's giddy ascent to superpower rival of the US is one of five-year plans, wholesale IP theft and vast spy rings—in the pursuit of profits, Apple…

Jun 10, 2025 • Chris Taylor

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May 2025

Rebel Island, Boiling Moat

As geopolitical puzzles go, Taiwan's a winner, resulting in some convoluted journalese: Welcome to, say, 'pawn between two giants.' or would you prefer…

May 28, 2025 • Chris Taylor

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April 2025

Go East Young Lawyer

An esteemed figure in advancing rule of law in East Asia, Jerome Cohen goes about his life story more in the form of an extraordinarily long dinner…

Apr 9, 2025 • Chris Taylor

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March 2025

Kafka at the Gates of Dawn

A collection of essays by sinologist Perry Link is a could-be autobiography, but thankfully it tells us far more about the bizarre cultural evolution of…

Mar 9, 2025 • Chris Taylor

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February 2025

Saint Jim: case closed

In the end, there was no clemency—clemency for running a newspaper that provoked and took something more than chances.

Feb 27, 2025 • Chris Taylor

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January 2025

Tangled up in red

Huawei, telecoms, the Party, and Mao-nostalgia 'cat tax'

Jan 27, 2025 • Chris Taylor

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Does Xi dream of communist sheep?

In the Orwellian world of 'Xi Jinping Thought,' the new Great Helmsman and the Party are one; can the Party ever replace him?

Jan 16, 2025 • Chris Taylor

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