Viral Alarm *** *** In early February 2020, Professor Xu Zhangrun published an excoriating essay about China’s mishandling of the coronavirus epidemic in Wuhan. Building on a series of searing analyses written from 2016, Xu’s essay ‘When Fury Overcomes Fear’ offered a further critique of the political crisis of the Xi Jinping era.… Read

Viral Alarm & The Best China On 19 May 2020, Radio Television Hong Kong 香港電台, the city’s public broadcaster announced that the popular satirical political skit show Headliner 頭條新聞 would go into ‘temporary recess’ after having been officially reprimanded for mocking the police in an episode featuring the actor (and former policeman) Wong Hei (王喜, 1967-) broadcast on 14 February 2020.… Read

Viral Alarm   The following excerpt is taken from Professor Xu Zhangrun’s analysis of China’s coronavirus predicament titled: ‘China, a Lone Ship of State on the Vast Ocean of Global Civilisation —
the coronavirus pandemic and the political and civilisational prospects for the world system’ 世界文明大洋上的中國孤舟——
全球體系背景下新冠疫情的政治觀與文明論 The full version of Xu Zhangrun’s essay appeared on Mainland China, in Hong Kong and here, in China Heritage, on the morning of Thursday 21 May 2020, the day before the long-delayed third session of the Thirteenth National People’s Congress (NPC) and the third session of the Thirteenth National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) were to be convened in Beijing.… Read

Viral Alarm   The two poems published here were translated from Russian by Roger Pulvers. I first encountered Roger when I attended an introductory talk he gave on Japan in March 1972.… Read