I cover China’s domestic politics, its economic ups-and-downs and its relations with the rest of the world — and how it all affects the lives of its 1.4 billion citizens. My column is deeply reported and aims to provide perspectives that can help the world better understand the country and its people.
As a Chinese national, I’ve covered the country for more than two decades. I have written about China’s censorship system, its rise as a technology power, its rivalry with the United States, its #MeToo movement, its draconian “zero-Covid” policy and its slowing economic growth.
Before joining The Times in 2018, I worked at The Wall Street Journal for 14 years in New York, Beijing and Hong Kong. I edited the Journal’s Chinese website for seven years before it was blocked by the Chinese government, which contributed to my deep interest in China’s censorship system.
I also host a weekly Chinese podcast, “Conversations with Yuan Li.” Every week I speak to top academics, economists, writers, artists in the Chinese-speaking world and ordinary Chinese who want to share their stories and perspectives free of censorship.
I grew up in China’s northwestern Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and studied both in China and the United States. I worked for the official Xinhua News Agency in Beijing, Bangkok and Kabul, Afghanistan, as an editor and a foreign correspondent.
As a Times journalist, I share the values and adhere to the standards of integrity outlined in our Ethical Journalism Handbook. I want all of my work to be accurate and fair. I protect my sources. I do not accept gifts, money or favors from anyone who might figure into my reporting. I do not participate in politics, nor do I make political donations. I make every effort to understand issues from multiple angles. When I am working, I always identify myself as a columnist for The Times.
Email: li.yuan@nytimes.com
X: @liyuan6
Beijing is using its messaging tools to show off its prowess at building infrastructure and project power, taking advantage of what it says is “deep anxiety” in U.S. policies.
By Li Yuan
In a sign of China’s role in the city, officials have tried to stamp out calls for accountability over a catastrophe that killed at least 159 people.
By Li Yuan
Many older Chinese immigrants are shifting to the political right, dividing from their children, a trend playing out in the New York City mayor’s race.
By Li Yuan
The fascination with China’s ability to build things America struggles with, from bridges to advanced tech, risks a dangerous miscalculation about what drives China.
By Li Yuan
In China, journalism and public debate were opening up, and then a leader took over and used a series of steps to dictate speech.
By Li Yuan
Nostalgia for the fashion and culture of the years after the millennium, when the future held promise for many, is a commentary on today’s mood.
By Li Yuan
We explore an act of defiance in China. But first, a look at President Trump’s health.
By Li Yuan
Before fleeing China, an activist in Chongqing staged an elaborate one-man demonstration against the Communist Party that doubled as performance art.
By Li Yuan
China’s “bedside eavesdroppers,” the online posse parsing rumors for power shifts, have a lot to work with as Xi Jinping pushes aside his own political appointees.
By Li Yuan
As Beijing pushes consumer lending to stimulate the economy, millions of Chinese borrowers, especially the young, are falling into debt spirals.
By Li Yuan
A popular and contentious game, Revenge on Gold Diggers, sheds light on misogyny, inequality and the feeling among many men that they are economic victims.
By Li Yuan
Promised a path to prosperity through hard work and education, China’s working class youths are hitting immovable ceilings.
By Li Yuan
Xi Zhongxun was purged by the Communist Party he served and went on to help reform Chinese politics. His son is the most authoritarian leader since Mao.
By Li Yuan
Protecting the borders from espionage is essential. It’s something else to deny students because they are Chinese and hope to pursue a STEM degree in the United States.
By Li Yuan
The technological success that has captured the attention of many in the United States is one aspect of the Chinese economy. There’s another, gloomy one.
By Li Yuan
Online mockery of President Trump is fodder for the Communist Party’s propagandists. For liberal-minded Chinese, it is a creative expression of shock at his policies.
By Li Yuan
Xi Jinping, who rules with absolute authority, has shown he is willing to let the Chinese people endure hardship. President Trump revealed he has limits.
By Li Yuan
Generations of Chinese, including our columnist, turned to U.S. government-run outlets for an education in democracy, rights and the English language.
By Li Yuan
People in China are expressing alarm at what looks like a familiar authoritarian turn in the United States, their longtime role model for democracy.
By Li Yuan
The uncertain reaction to Xi Jinping’s display of warmth made sense: Executives are eager for a reset after years in the cold but ever wary of meddling.
By Li Yuan
Social media exploded in a celebration after the news that a Chinese start-up had made an artificial intelligence tool that was more efficient than any in the United States.
By Li Yuan
China’s internet companies and their hard-working, resourceful professionals make world-class products, in spite of censorship and malign neglect by Beijing.
By Li Yuan
At a shelter in the Flushing area of New York, Hui Muslims who fled oppression in China are concerned about the president-elect’s vows to tighten asylum policy.
By Li Yuan
Writing from Taiwan, she shaped her readers’ idea of romantic love with a raft of best sellers, many adapted for the screen. Newborns were named after her characters.
By Li Yuan
With localities facing budget holes, the police are crossing provincial borders to collect fines and draining company treasuries. Businesses call it a shakedown.
By Li Yuan
A new HBO documentary about opposition to autocrats says a lot about the complex politics the president-elect inspires for people fleeing countries.
By Li Yuan
Steps to bolster the economy have set off a stock buying frenzy. Our columnist spoke to Chinese investors about why they are jumping in knowing the risks.
By Li Yuan
Angry at what they view as China’s state-led xenophobia, taught in schools and prevalent online, some people are taking action, even at personal risk.
By Li Yuan
For Chinese seeking educational opportunity, the United States has long been the top spot, but as more want to stay to work, their paths are full of roadblocks.
By Li Yuan
Entrepreneurs and venture capitalists are setting up firms across the Pacific, only to find that any investment with Chinese ties is a hard sell.
By Li Yuan
The author Peter Hessler posed a question with an elusive answer: How could Chinese society open up so profoundly while its politics stagnated or even regressed?
By Li Yuan
Violent attacks on foreigners have prompted a debate about extreme nationalism online in a country that heavily censors information the government bans.
By Li Yuan
The number of Chinese websites is shrinking and posts are being removed and censored, stoking fears about what happens when history is erased.
By Li Yuan
The experience of TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, in Beijing and Washington shows how much the ground has shifted for China’s entrepreneurs.
By Li Yuan
The Netflix series showcases one of the country’s most successful works of culture. Instead of demonstrating pride, social media is condemning it.
By Li Yuan
Wang Xiaoshuai is among the few Chinese artists who refuse to bend to state limitations on the subjects they explore.
By Li Yuan
Once a year, the premier held a news conference, explaining the economy and giving Chinese a taste of political participation. That has come to an end.
By Li Yuan
From Thailand to America, Chinese denied a safe public space for discussion in their home country have found hope in diaspora communities.
By Li Yuan
Gao Zhibin is among the thousands of migrants disillusioned with their home country who have risked the perilous crossing into the United States.
By Michael Barbaro, Li Yuan, Stella Tan, Shannon Lin, Jessica Cheung, M.J. Davis Lin, Michael Benoist, Paige Cowett, Marion Lozano, Rowan Niemisto, Dan Powell and Chris Wood
As their losses pile up, Chinese investors are losing confidence not only in the stock market but in the government’s ability to turn the economy around.
By Li Yuan
People with personal ties to China, on a tour to see Taiwan’s election up close, learned of the island’s path to democracy — messy, violent and, ultimately, inspiring.
By Li Yuan
A popular chef’s video was attacked as a jab at Mao Zedong’s dead son. But what if a recipe for egg fried rice was just a recipe for egg fried rice?
By Li Yuan
Li Ying used social media to help tell the world about last year’s protests. Now in exile, he has been threatened and lost his livelihood for his defiance.
By Li Yuan
Trekking the perilous Darién Gap and seeking asylum are risks worth taking for migrants from China who have lost hope in the country’s future.
By Li Yuan
More than 24,000 Chinese citizens have been apprehended crossing into the United States from Mexico in the past year. That is more than in the preceding 10 years combined.
By Eileen Sullivan
Migrant workers, who moved from China’s villages to its big cities, were a secret weapon building the economy. Now many see few options.
By Li Yuan
An outpouring on social media for Li Keqiang, the former premier who died Friday, reflected public grief for an era of greater growth and possibility.
By Li Yuan
Mr. Li, who retired in March, was muscled out of the premier’s usual policymaking roles by Mr. Xi. Chinese citizens expressed shock at his death, from a heart attack.
By Chris Buckley and Keith Bradsher
China’s brightest minds, including tech professionals, are emigrating, but many are not heading to America. We spoke to them to ask why.
By Li Yuan
For years, officials in China have been told to shun foreign devices. Now reports of renewed curbs have unnerved Apple’s investors, heightening geopolitical tensions.
By Keith Bradsher, Chris Buckley and Tripp Mickle