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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China's Defense Minister Li Shangfu hasn't been seen in public for roughly three weeks amid unconfirmed reports he's under investigation.
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A museum in the Chinese city of Chongqing is dedicated to U.S. Gen. Joseph Stilwell, who commanded the China-Burma-India Theater in World War 2.
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The group of nations known as BRICS will welcome six more countries in 2024. The expansion creates economic opportunities for the new members, and is seen as a win for China.
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Efforts to restrict U.S. tech investment in China may serve to validate China's obsession to be self-reliant in tech and other areas. (Story aired on Weekend Edition Sunday on Aug. 12, 2023.)
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After police hauled away a computer programmer, his wife was left to discover who her husband really was — a mysterious political blogger. (Story aired on All Things Considered on July 27, 2023.)
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The latest figures show that the unemployment rate for young people, ages 16 to 24, rose to 20.8%. That is more then one in five without a job. What's behind the issue?
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The city of Zibo, a couple hours south of Beijing by high-speed train, is being overrun with foodies. The barbecue craze comes at a time when China's economy is struggling to rebound after COVID.
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The crew, including China's first civilian astronaut, will overlap briefly with three now aboard the Tiangong station, who will then return to Earth after completing their six-month mission.
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The Chinese geneticist who shocked the world in 2018 by announcing the creation of the first gene-edited babies is back after a prison stint and working on a cure for a debilitating genetic disease.
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President Biden's prediction of a "thaw" in the diplomatic relationship with China coincides with the arrival from Beijing of a new ambassador to the U.S.