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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China on Thursday fired multiple missiles toward waters near Taiwan as part of large-scale military exercises following a visit to the island by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
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Nancy Pelosi, meeting leaders in Taiwan despite warnings from China, said that she and the congressional delegation are showing they will not abandon their commitment to the self-governing island.
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A potential trip by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan has increased tensions between the U.S. and China. Meanwhile, growth in the world's second largest economy is not meeting expectations.
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President Biden and China's leader Xi Jinping are expected to talk on the phone soon. A strain in relations has intensified over reports that House Speaker Pelosi is planning a trip to Taiwan.
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China is warning it will respond with "strong measures" if U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi travels to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as its territory.
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China's economy stumbled in the second quarter, and economists say the government's "dynamic zero COVID" policy is to blame — hurting confidence and exacerbating other pent up economic challenges.
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The rough treatment of bank protesters in China has cast a spotlight on an under-regulated corner of the banking system. Some depositors are questioning their faith in the ruling Communist Party.
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Hong Kong's Star Ferry has been crossing Victoria Harbor for well over a century. Now, political turmoil and the pandemic have hurt its finances, threatening the cultural icon.
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Testing is the cornerstone of China's aggressive efforts to eradicate COVID-19. Even when it's not mandatory, it's still necessary. (Story aired on ATC on July 14, 2022.)
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Testing is the cornerstone of China's aggressive efforts to eradicate Covid-19, and it's become ubiquitous. People are more afraid of being carted off to quarantine than getting sick from the virus.
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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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At the time, the city was promised "a high degree of autonomy" for 50 years. Half way into the promise, where do things stand?