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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In a country where open expressions of sorrow can be interpreted as political, Peng Haitao's piano performance in public strikes a chord with many in China.
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A month into the Taliban taking control over Afghanistan, how are they intending to run the country? And what has their take-over meant for women, the economy or economic security?
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Movie star Zhao Wei, also known as Vicki Zhao, has seen her work disappear from the internet as the country continues to tighten restrictions on figures with a lot of social influence.
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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. -
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. -
The sortie was the biggest of its kind since the Taiwanese government began publishing information about the frequent incursions last year. They have followed actions that Beijing disapproves of. -
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.
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The 15 Asian elephants — some mature and others still young — left a nature reserve near China's border with Myanmar and Laos more than a year ago and have been northward bound ever since. -
President Biden has ordered a fresh investigation by US intelligence agencies into the coronavirus. A question is: how can they do this without Chinese cooperation?
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The Innovation and Competition Act of 2021 would allocate billions to scientific research and has strong bipartisan support. It could be a game changer for some U.S. cities.
