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We are raiding the Audio Long Read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors
This week, from 2019: Smartphones and the internet gave the Uighurs a sense of their own identity – but now the Chinese state is using technology to strip them of it

After decades of military secrecy, Chinese officials opened their desert rocket launch center to a handful of visitors and called for international cooperation in space.

The states of East Asia, other than North Korea and the Philippines, have experienced extraordinary economic growth since World War II. Japan led the way in the 1950s and 1960s, followed by a range of ...

China has been rocked by an outpouring of communal anger at the government’s restrictive ‘zero Covid’ lockdown policies. Could the protests develop into something more substantial? Tania Branigan reports
The largest protests in a generation have erupted in cities across China against the government’s harsh Covid restrictions and also, in some cases, the president himself, Xi Jinping. The most widely used symbol in the demonstrations has been a blank sheet of paper, symbolising the censorship all those within China face.
The Guardian’s Tania Branigan tells Michael Safi that while this may not be a revolutionary moment in China, it is hugely significant. China has struck out alone in attempting to keep Covid cases to an absolute minimum, regardless of the restrictions needed. But what has surprised many onlookers is the fact that the authorities have not used the time to implement a widescale vaccine policy that could help the country get back to normality. Instead, China appears caught in a trap of its own devising – and there is no easy route out of it.

Communist Party officials are using decades-old tactics, along with some new ones, to quash the most widespread protests in decades. But Xi Jinping is silent.

President Joe Biden has been put in an uncomfortable position by the protests that have broken out in China over Chinese President Xi Jinping's "zero-COVID" policy weeks after the pair's first ...

Asian shares are trading mostly lower ahead of a closely watched speech by the Federal Reserve chief that may give clues about future interest rate hikes ...

Governor Kristi Noem’s executive order prohibits employees and contractors from using the app on government gadgets
Kristi Noem, governor of South Dakota, on Tuesday issued an executive order banning state employees and contractors from accessing the video platform TikTok on state-owned devices, citing its ties to China.
TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company that moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2020. It has been targeted by Republicans who say the Chinese government could access user data such as browsing history and location. US armed forces also have prohibited the app on military devices.

Asian shares were mostly higher on Wednesday, ahead of a closely watched speech by the Federal Reserve chief that may give clues about future interest rate hikes. Investors were also eyeing ...

Chinese state broadcaster transmits from Chiswick studio despite Ofcom revoking UK licence last year
France’s media regulator is under pressure to withdraw a licence that allows the Chinese state broadcaster to beam its programmes across Europe from a studio in west London.
Ofcom revoked the organisation’s licence to transmit in the UK last year but the China Global Television Network (CGTN) was able to continue broadcasting following authorisation from the French authority.