Minority

People make their way around Times Square amid smoke from Canada wildfires on 7 June 2023 in New York City. (Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images/AFP)

Shedding the passive image: Ethnic Chinese need to step up in US society

Asians are generally known to be humble, tend to keep a low profile, and not strive for leadership positions. However, US academic Wu Guo argues that perhaps it is time for ethnic Chinese to take a leaf from white Americans’ book and learn to be confident enough to step up.
A paramilitary police officer stands guard on the Tiananmen Square, in front of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, 8 March 2022. (Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters)

Ethnic minority leaders for the Central Committee: Countdown to CCP's 20th Party Congress

Li Cheng, director of the John L. Thornton China Center of the Brookings Institution, analyses ethnic minority representation in the CCP leadership past and present and picks out the ones to watch in the lead-up to the 20th Party Congress.
Demonstrators during a national walk out in support of abortion rights at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas, US, on 5 May 2022. (Sergio Flores/Bloomberg)

Do Gen Z Americans hold the key to improving China-US relations?

American youths today are dealing with more issues and turmoil than their previous generations. US academic Wu Guo believes that the culmination of terrorist attacks, financial crises, social injustice and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic have led to a generation that is more politically, socially and environmentally aware. These challenges and experiences could be a path for Americans to connect with the world outside of the US, in particular with China.
Ethnic Uighur demonstrators take part in a protest against China, in Istanbul, Turkey, 1 October 2021. (Dilara Senkaya/Reuters)

The Xinjiang problem: Can Washington be the defender of all?

Amid revived calls for countries to boycott the Winter Olympics in Beijing over Xinjiang, academic Peter Chang reflects that the Xinjiang issue has drawn the attention of the West, Muslim populations and others around the world. But the issue, while important, has been further politicised in the wider US-China contest. Moral grandstanding by the West when confronting China does not help the situation either. How much collateral damage will there be in this strategic game?
The Indonesian flag flies as people wearing protective face coverings wait to receive a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine dose at Pakansari Stadium in Bogor, on the outskirts of Jakarta, Indonesia, 14 August 2021. (Yulius Satria Wijaya via Reuters)

How a hoax pandemic donation sparked anti-Chinese and anti-China sentiments in Indonesia

A bizarre case involving a generous donation from a Chinese Indonesian family that never materialised has brought the spotlight on identity politics in Indonesia. When the fraud was revealed, praise for the Chinese Indonesian community quickly turned into a means for the anti-government (and anti-China and anti-Chinese) social media channels to attack the Indonesian government and ethnic Chinese in Indonesia.
People attend a vigil commemorating the 32nd anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen square pro-democracy protests and crackdown outside of the Chinese consulate in Los Angeles, California on 4 June 2021. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP)

A question of human rights: Is China an aggressor and oppressor?

Chinese academic Li Yuehua takes a look at reports on China’s human rights record, and analyses whether it really deserves its negative reputation. Hasn’t China tried to improve the lives of its people, and isn’t the right to survival and development a major part of human rights? He believes that painting China as an aggressor and oppressor only fulfils the interests of a few politicians to the detriment of people-to-people relations between China and the West.
People on a bridge in a village in a Miao minority autonomous region in Liuzhou city, Guangxi, 30 January 2021. (Xinhua)

Chinese researcher: This is how China gets rid of poverty

China has made huge strides in poverty alleviation over the last few decades, especially in rural areas. As of the end of 2020, 592 counties, 128,000 villages, and 98.99 million people are no longer tagged as poor. Chinese academic Yao Shujie takes a closer look at the strategies that have gotten China to this point, including relying on big data, mobilising the whole community, and identifying poor individuals. However, he also admits that there are rising challenges in poverty alleviation.
Members and supporters of the Asian-American community attend a "rally against hate" at Columbus Park in New York City on 21 March 2021. (Ed Jones/AFP)

Anti-Asian hate crimes: What makes an American?

US academic Zhu Zhiqun says that factors such as history, education and divisiveness within the Asian community have led to the persistence of anti-Asian racism in the US. This trend looks to continue unless Americans realise that every American has an immigrant past, and protecting the rights of Asian Americans is doing so for all Americans.
A farmer picks cotton on a farm on the outskirts of Hami, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, 3 November 2010. (Stringer/Reuters)

Hong Kong commentator: Xinjiang’s cotton production figures debunk the myth of forced labour

Hong Kong commentator David Ng says that despite the accusations by the West against China of human rights violations in Xinjiang such as forced labour, the region’s economic trajectory and reliance on mechanisation seem to show a quite different truth.