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.
-
What Beijing has offered the Taliban so far is an open hand and a hint of legitimacy. Taliban leaders have pledged to leave Chinese interests alone and not to harbor anti-China extremist groups.
-
For some Vietnamese-Americans, the news out of Afghanistan has brought back memories of the fall of Saigon in 1975, when South Vietnam's capital was overrun by Communist forces.
-
Qin Gang brought a tougher style to China's foreign ministry pulpit. Now he is Beijing's man in Washington, inheriting a hard post amid the most fraught relations in years between China and the U.S.
-
China is imposing fresh counter-sanctions on United States entities just days ahead of a visit by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman.
-
Heavy rain continues to fall in China's Henan province, causing the worst flooding in recorded history. So far, the government says 25 people have died and around 100,000 have been evacuated.
-
President Biden has issued a warning to U.S. companies doing business in Hong Kong that because of China's national security law, the former colony is no longer a safe place for commerce.
-
Chinese propaganda paints the U.S. as a big, bad foreign power out to hold China down. This kind of rhetoric is as old as China's Communist Party, as it celebrates its 100th birthday this month.
-
Just days after Chinese ride-hailing company Didi's $4 billion market debut in June, the Chinese government removed it from app stores and accused the company of violating data security rules.
-
China's ruling Communist Party is now a century old. One of the biggest political parties in the world, it has more members than most countries have people, which poses a challenge for leadership.
-
The bill appropriates nearly $250 billion for science and technology in a bid to counter China's rise. It had strong bipartisan support — a sign of how large the perceived threat from China looms.
-
A herd of 15 elephants has wandered some 300 miles from their traditional reserve in Southwest China. Their trek has been tracked by authorities who aren't clear why the herd is so far from home.
-
Friday marks the 32nd anniversary of the massacre of protesters in Beijing. But this June 4 in Hong Kong will be unusually quiet for the second year in a row.