John Ruwitch
John Ruwitch is a correspondent with NPR's international desk. He covers Chinese affairs.
Ruwitch joined NPR in early 2020, and has since chronicled the tectonic shift in America's relations with China, from hopeful engagement to suspicion-fueled competition. He's also reported on a range of other issues, including Beijing's pressure campaign on Taiwan, Hong Kong's National Security Law, Asian-Americans considering guns for self-defense in the face of rising violence and a herd of elephants roaming in the Chinese countryside in search of a home.
Ruwitch joined NPR after more than 19 years with Reuters in Asia, the last eight of which were in Shanghai. There, he first covered a broad beat that took him as far afield as the China-North Korea border and the edge of the South China Sea. Later, he led a team that covered business and financial markets in the world's second biggest economy. Ruwitch has also had postings in Hanoi, Hong Kong and Beijing, reporting on anti-corruption campaigns, elite Communist politics, labor disputes, human rights, currency devaluations, earthquakes, snowstorms, Olympic badminton and everything in between.
Ruwitch studied history at U.C. Santa Cruz and got a master's in Regional Studies East Asia from Harvard. He speaks Mandarin and Vietnamese.
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U.S. government-funded Radio Free Asia is closing its Hong Kong operation after the city enacted a tough new national security law known locally as Article 23. -
Lawmakers in Hong Kong passed a new national security law. The government casts it as a bid to make the territory safer but some think it may erode Hong Kong's standing as a global financial hub.
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A leaked document offers a window into the motivations and concerns of party leaders as they seek to deepen ties with the U.S. -
Chinese Premier Li Qiang spoke this week at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, saying the Chinese economy was doing just fine. Signals out of Beijing have been conveying a different message.
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Taiwan's vice president and candidate of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, Lai Ching-te, will be the island's next leader. Tensions with Beijing seem poised to rise. -
A year ago, China lifted its draconian COVID restrictions. Many expected the country to bounce back quickly. That hasn't happened. -
Mao Zedong built China's Communist revolution on the back of the country's impoverished peasants, and now Chinese leader Xi Jinping wants a new economic revolution to take root in the countryside.
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The state news agency Xinhua said the quake had a magnitude of 6.2. It reportedly damaged water, electricity, transport, communications and other infrastructure in the mountainous region. -
Hong Kong's highest-profile national security trial got under way amid tight security on Monday. It's against Jimmy Lai, a media mogul and democracy campaigner. He is all but certain to be convicted.
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After hours of talks, the two leaders emerged with agreements to cooperate. Biden even said he and Xi agreed that they should be able to pick up the phone and talk with one another whenever they want.
