On a snowy winter day in 1991, Lu Gang, a slightly built Chinese scholar who had recently received his Ph.D. in plasma physics, walked into a seminar room at the University of Iowa’s Van Allen Hall, raised a snub-nose .38-caliber…
Category: Articles
China: Pride, Protest and the Olympic Games Newsweek
The Olympics are an irresistible stage for athletes—but also for those who wish to act out their grievances before the world. The Beijing Games, which kick off on Aug. 8, are hardly an exception. While Chinese leaders furiously insist they’re…
Clearing the Air With China The Washington Post
As bitterly cold air pours down from Siberia each winter, one of the charms of this ancient capital has been the sight of bundled-up people heading to Beijing’s picturesque frozen canals and lakes for ice skating. Read more…
Nixon’s Balancing Act The Washington Post
What did President Richard M. Nixon, National Security Adviser Henry A. Kissinger and Chinese leader Mao Zedong really discuss during their unprecedented February 1972 meeting in Beijing? With surprising frequency, Mao turned the conversation to the subject of women. Read…
When China’s Unfinished Business is History The New York Times
It is commonplace these days for visitors to be swept away by the breathtaking energy and dazzling high- rise vistas of Shanghai and Beijing. Even for Sinophiles like myself, who have been watching China for decades, the amazing development of…
Baghdad: The Besieged Press The New York Review of Books
The small Royal Jordanian Fokker F-28-4000, which makes daily trips to Baghdad, sits out on the tarmac away from the jetways as if some airport official feared it might prove to be an airborne IED (improvised explosive device, a US…
In the Twilight Zone Salon
In recent history, there have been few wars more difficult to report on than the war in Iraq today. When I was covering the war in Indochina, journalists went out into the field, even into combat, knowing that we would…
Smothered in a Security Blanket Asia Times
"Ladies and Gents," the South African pilot matter-of-factly announced over the intercom. "We’ll be starting our spiral descent into Baghdad, where the temperature is 19 degrees Celsius." The vast and mesmerizing expanse of sandpapery desert that has been stretching out…
Why the Media Failed Americans Asia Times
When on May 26 the editors of the New York Times published a mea culpa for the paper’s one-sided reporting on weapons of mass destruction and the Iraq war, they admitted to "a number of instances of coverage that was…
Unification Can Only Follow Democratization Yale Global
Why is Taiwan’s relationship with China so intractable an issue? Why, when they share common economic interests – 1 million Taiwanese live in China, working in some 50,000 firms in which Taiwanese have invested over US$400 billion – does China…