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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Lawmakers in Hong Kong have passed new national security legislation that carries severe punishment for a broad range of offenses, including life imprisonment for acts deemed to be insurrection.
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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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Based on a best-selling book, Blossoms Shanghai is Wong Kar-wai's first foray into television, and it's taken China by storm. Why has the 30-part series become such a hit?
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NPR reporters in China, Europe and South America weigh in on how the U.S. election is being viewed abroad.
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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. -
For many young Chinese these days, the calculus of having a child is changing. We hear from two women in China — one pregnant with a "dragon baby," and one not.
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Benchmark indexes are near a five-year low, after a rough start to the year. China's CSI 300 index is down nearly 20% over the past 12 months. Analysts say the malaise is a symptom of bigger problems. -
U.S. stocks have been soaring in recent weeks. But in China, the market has been headed in the opposite direction, and the government in Beijing is starting to pay attention.
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China's been the main source of precursor chemicals for the potent drug, and President Biden has made combating fentanyl a policy priority — in the face of tens of thousands of overdoses each year.
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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.
