China
Infinite Scroll
The Dada Era of Internet Memes
How the viral TikToks of a Chinese glycine factory elucidate our increasingly chaotic digital environment.
Dispatch
The Aftermath of China’s Comedy Crackdown
Standup flourished during the pandemic. Now performers fear the state—and audience members.
Dispatch
Crossing the Taiwan Strait with the U.S. Navy
In disputed waters, Chinese and American vessels vie for dominance.
Daily Comment
What Comes After Panda Diplomacy?
Biden meets with President Xi as U.S.-China relations get less warm and fuzzy.
Culture Desk
“Death of a Salesman” Reborn, This Time in Mandarin
A new play turns Arthur Miller’s experience of directing the play in Beijing into a bilingual meditation on cross-cultural encounters.
The New Yorker Documentary
“Squid Fleet” Takes You Into the Opaque World of Chinese Fishing
A film by Ed Ou and Will N. Miller uses a fictional narrative based on investigative reporting, and real footage, to capture gritty work at sea.
News Desk
The Uyghurs Forced to Process the World’s Fish
China forces minorities from Xinjiang to work in industries around the country. As it turns out, this includes handling much of the seafood sent to America and Europe.
This Week in Fiction
Shuang Xuetao on Labor and the Heart
The author discusses “Heart,” his story from the latest issue of the magazine.
Q. & A.
Did Authoritarianism Cause China’s Economic Crisis?
An erosion of trust between the government and its people now threatens the country’s decades-long boom.
Our Columnists
China’s Economic Miracle Is Turning Into a Long Slog
As consumer prices fall and other signs of weakness emerge, fears are growing that the world’s second-largest economy could be heading toward an extended slump.
Rabbit Holes
Li Ziqi’s Online Pastoral Poetics
Millions of people subscribed to her vision of an idyllic rural existence. Who was she, and why did she disappear?
Screening Room
A Family’s Journey to Acting and Acceptance in “Foreign Uncle”
After Sining Xiang came out to his parents, he decided to dramatize the experience in a short film—and cast his loved ones as themselves.
The Political Scene Podcast
How Did the TikTok Ban Become a Bipartisan Issue?
A hundred and fifty million Americans are on the Chinese-owned app. Evan Osnos and Chris Stokel-Walker discuss why politicians who agree on little else are keen to ban it.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
What’s Behind the Bipartisan Attack on TikTok?
A hundred and fifty million Americans are on TikTok. Evan Osnos and Chris Stokel-Walker discuss why politicians are so keen to ban the app. Plus, Broadway’s new comedy of white wokeness.
The Political Scene Podcast
The Hypocrisies of the TikTok Hearings
Why has Congress focussed so much concern about social media and surveillance on one platform when the problems are so much broader?
Infinite Scroll
The TikTok Hearings Inspired Little Faith in Social Media or in Congress
During five hours of questioning, lawmakers seemed to cast the company as a scapegoat for the sins of all algorithmic platforms.
Daily Comment
What Secrets Does the “Donald Trump of Beijing” Know?
The case against Guo Wengui could expose more about America’s politics than China’s.
Elements
The Threat and the Allure of the Chinese Balloons
Even balloons launched for scientific reasons have always carried political ballast.
Daily Comment
Lab Leaks and COVID-19 Politics
The latest report on the origin of the virus behind the pandemic is still inconclusive, but there are lessons to be learned from it.
Comment
Sliding Toward a New Cold War
Not since the Berlin Wall fell has the world been cleaved so deeply by the kind of conflict that John F. Kennedy called a “long, twilight struggle.”