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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Hong Kong gets a new leader on Friday with strong backing from Beijing, but faces challenges with a sluggish economy that remains closed to the outside world — and China — by COVID controls.
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Angry victims of a multi-million dollar banking scam in China are accusing the government of manipulating health codes to restrict their movement, raising concerns of abuse of power and technology.
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New textbooks contend the territory was never a British colony. The reason: China never recognized the treaties that ceded it to Britain. -
A video of an attack on a group of women at a restaurant in China has touched a raw nerve in a country where many feel women's rights aren't always protected.
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China's foreign minister recently wrapped up a visit to eight Pacific island nations, raising alarm in the U.S. and its allies.
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The UN's top official for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, is in China this week and will visit the western region of Xinjiang, where Beijing has been accused of genocide and crimes against humanity.
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Hong Kong's new leader, John Lee, rose through the law enforcement ranks to become the territory's No. 2 under outgoing Chief Executive Carrie Lam. He faces governing a divided and mistrustful city.
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A pact between China and the Solomon Islands could help Beijing expand its naval presence in the Western Pacific. That has officials in the U.S. and Australia on edge.
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Russia's military has not performed as expected in Ukraine. The Chinese People's Liberation Army, which regularly drills with Russia, is watching closely.
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Shanghai, China, is approaching the end of its third week of a near-total lockdown to fight COVID. As case numbers rise, so does the frustration of many in the city of more than 25 million people.
