Drum Tower The Economist

In 2019, a cold, sleepy mining town called Hegang went viral for having the lowest house prices of any big city in China. Blog posts boasted of sizeable apartments costing as little as 46,000 yuan ($6,700). Many thought it was a hoax, others saw an opportunity.
The Economist’s Beijing bureau chief, David Rennie, and senior China correspondent, Alice Su, meet the people making Hegang their home and hear why the pressures of life in China’s major cities are motivating them to move there.
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In 1966 Mao Zedong unleashed the Cultural Revolution, a deadly decade of purges and bloodletting. Wang Kangfu, a schoolmaster from Jiangxi province, was 24 when the Cultural Revolution began. Soon afterwards he was accused of committing a terrible crime—one he says he didn’t commit. 
The Economist’s Beijing bureau chief, David Rennie, examines the case of Wang Kangfu and meets his family to hear about their struggle for justice.
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For decades, China’s leaders have staked their claim to rule on economic growth. Now the focus on prosperity is shifting to self-reliance and security. 
The Economist’s Beijing bureau chief, David Rennie, and senior China correspondent, Alice Su, interpret the targets set at the National People’s Congress with The Economist’s China economics editor, Simon Cox. They discuss what this change in focus means for business at home and abroad. And Jing Qian, the co-founder and managing director of the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Centre for China Analysis, decodes why Xi Jinping’s re-focusing of China’s economic priorities is happening now. 
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This month China’s prime minister, Li Keqiang, will retire. He was once a rising star of the Communist Party and a contender to lead it, but under Xi Jinping he had little chance to shine. 
The Economist’s Beijing bureau chief, David Rennie, and senior China correspondent, Alice Su, ask what Mr Li’s career and retirement reveals about power in China. They speak to two people who know Mr Li: Tao Jingzhou, a former university classmate, and Joerg Wuttke, the head of the European Union chamber of commerce in China, about his political and economic outlook. And The Economist’s James Miles decodes the choice of Mr Li’s successor. 
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China’s Communist Party declared a “decisive victory” against the pandemic last week, arguing that the country’s response to the virus has been a “miracle in human history.” We travel to four cities that have all played important roles in China’s covid policies and examine the effects of the lockdowns that took place in each of them.  
The Economist’s Beijing bureau chief, David Rennie, and senior China correspondent, Alice Su, talk to Gabriel Crossley, The Economist’s China correspondent. He traveled to Ruili, a border city in Southern China, to see how the local government leveraged the pandemic to build a border fence. We also hear from Don Weinland, our China business and finance editor in Shanghai, who has been speaking to business owners about the country’s economic recovery. 
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It is impossible to imagine Beijing without its hutongs. The ancient alleyways harbour the city’s character, culture and history inside their low, grey walls. But for decades the hutongs have been in peril. 
The Economist’s Beijing bureau chief, David Rennie goes in search of the last of the hutongs and meets Hu Xinyu, a historian who’s trying to preserve them and their way of life.
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