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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New textbooks contend the territory was never a British colony. The reason: China never recognized the treaties that ceded it to Britain. -
After more than two months of isolation to avoid the Omicron surge, the 25 million people who live in Shanghai are out of lockdown.
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President Biden has met the leaders of Australia, India and Japan. The White House said they would pledge to work together on global health, the climate, infrastructure, technology and other areas.
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Hong Kong's former security chief John Lee was elected as the city's next chief executive, replacing Carrie Lam. He was the only candidate on the ballot.
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Russia's military has not performed as expected in Ukraine. The Chinese People's Liberation Army, which regularly drills with Russia, is watching closely.
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University of Kansas professor Franklin Tao goes on trial Monday, in a case that critics say highlights how problematic and damaging the Justice Department's now-defunct "China Initiative" has been.
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U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with Chinese diplomats in Rome on Monday in what a senior administration adviser described as an "intense" seven-hour session.
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Until the middle of last year, most cryptocurrency mining took place in China. Then authorities pulled the plug. So Chinese bitcoin miners began moving their gear to U.S. towns like Kearney, Nebraska.
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It's been 50 years since President Nixon went to China, a trip that changed the world's balance of power. The fate of Taiwan was not addressed, and the issue still stalks U.S.-China relations.
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Hong Kong has imposed severe restrictions to fight COVID-19. For many expatriates, this is the last straw after years of seeing its autonomy erode as China tightens its grip on the territory.
