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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Leaders in Beijing will need to determine how to continue China's streak of economic growth while caring for a growing, nonworking part of the population.
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The microchips used in cars are in short supply. Taiwanese Economy Minister Wang Mei-hua tells NPR that Taiwan's cutting-edge chipmakers have ramped up production to meet auto industry demand.
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Bilateral ties are at a low and while Washington and Beijing agreed on climate cooperation, details are unclear. Competition with China is key to the Biden administration's response to climate change.
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The Biden admin. has taken a tough approach to China so far, but it is hoping to make climate change an arena of cooperation. It will be a test of Biden's compete-and-cooperate China policy.
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April 10 marks the 50th anniversary of when U.S. table tennis players first visited China in a diplomatic breakthrough. But today, the political winds have shifted — in both countries.
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With reports of violence against Asian Americans rising, some in the AAPI community are considering guns for self-defense, and have attended firearm training.
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The president was joined virtually by the leaders of Japan, India and Australia, in his first multilateral leaders' meeting. They launched a plan to boost vaccine production and distribution in Asia.
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The first meeting among leaders of an informal grouping known as the "Quad" — the U.S., India, Australia and Japan — will take place Friday amid growing concerns about China in the Asia-Pacific.
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In one of his final acts, Trump's Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared China's actions in the far western region of Xinjiang a genocide. What consequences would such a declaration have?
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The Trump administration has upended decades of diplomatic practice in U.S. relations with Taiwan. For the new president, "this is meant to be a trap," says a former Obama administration official.