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Li Yuan
For Li Yuan's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Chinese influencer Li Ying used social media to help tell the world about last year’s protests in China. Now in exile, he has been threatened and lost his livelihood for his defiance.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 12, 2023
‘I have no future’: China’s rebel influencer is still paying a price
To some Chinese, painter and art school graduate Li Ying is a superhero who stood up to their authoritarian government and leader.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
May 31, 2023
China’s young people can’t find jobs. Xi Jinping says to ‘eat bitterness.’
A record 11.6 million college graduates in China are entering the workforce this year, and 1 in 5 young people are unemployed.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 30, 2022
Proud, scared and conflicted. What the China protesters told me.
After nearly three long years of COVID zero, which has turned into a political campaign for Chinese President Xi Jinping, China's future looks increasingly bleak.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 8, 2022
China’s business elite sees the country that let them thrive slipping away
China's leader, Xi Jinping, used an important Communist Party congress last month to establish near-absolute power and make it clear that security would trump the economy.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
May 9, 2022
Has Shanghai been Xinjianged?
Shanghai and Xinjiang used to be two sides of the China coin; the former glamorous and thriving, the latter dark and repressed. Now both are subject to social control and surveillance.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 2, 2022
COVID, Russia and economy put the ‘China model’ to the test
On social media, a growing number of citizens are accusing the Communist Party of breaching its social contract with the people as China faces down numerous challenges.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 5, 2022
How China embraces Russian propaganda and its version of the war
In much of the world, Russia is losing the information war over Ukraine. In China, though, it's winning big.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 10, 2022
China’s anti-graft show is educational, with unintended lessons
The state-produced documentary was meant to celebrate the success of Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign, but the series may have done the opposite.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 9, 2022
As Beijing takes control, Chinese tech companies lose jobs and hope
The crackdown is killing the entrepreneurial drive that made China a tech power and destroying jobs that used to attract the country's brightest.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 20, 2021
With its human rights record in question, China turns to an old friend
Perhaps no international organization has a more symbiotic relationship with Beijing than the IOC.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 10, 2021
China’s youth are embracing Mao's message
The chairman's call for struggle and violence against capitalists is winning over a new audience of young people frustrated with long work hours and dwindling opportunities.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 27, 2021
China punishes those who question ‘martyrs.’ A sleuth keeps track.
An online spreadsheet with an anonymous minder tabulates Xi Jinping's crackdown on speech.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 10, 2021
The Great Firewall cracked, briefly. A people shined through.
For years, the Chinese government has prevented its 1.4 billion people from speaking freely online. Then, for a precious few days, that wall was breached.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 16, 2021
As Trump clashes with Big Tech, China’s censored internet takes his side
Blurring the distinction between companies and government, official propaganda outlets use Trump's ouster from Twitter and Facebook to argue that nobody in the world enjoys free speech.

Longform

Historically, kabuki was considered the entertainment of the merchant and peasant classes, a far cry from how it is regarded today.
For Japan's oldest kabuki theater, the show must go on