Ted Plafker

For this week's Economist, @TedPlafker and I explore China's relations with North Korea. We found that China is boosting economic ties again. But not because it is ok with North Korean nukes. It seems worried about Russia's growing sway over Kim Jong Un economist.com/china/2025/09/…

Check out the latest episode of Drum Tower, The Economist's weekly China podcast. This week features @suelinwong talking about China's role in the global scamming industry. (And it's my debut as host of Drum Tower!) economist.com/podcasts/2025/…

It's always a pleasure to be on our Drum Tower podcast. Have a listen to the latest episode, about the wacky and sometime perilous business of livestreaming in China. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/goi…

@KaiserKuo Adding to the chorus - such a great outlet, such a shame. Here's to all the great work you and Jeremy and the team have done. Look forward to seeing more, somewhere some time soon.

A thread 🧵: I’m overwhelmed by the words of support that have come pouring in since our announcement yesterday that we’re shutting down The China Project. My sincere thanks to everyone who’s reached out directly or here. A few things to clarify: 1/x

@Victorshi2020 To those of us here in China, whether journalists or social media users, there is something awfully familiar about all this...

Elon Musk just suspended a bunch of journalists, including Aaron Rupar, who cover him — without any reason. By silencing journalists, it’s clear that Elon Musk doesn’t care about free speech or democracy. He only cares about himself. We should all be outraged.

@BonnieGlaser There have been similar issues around the ICESR and ICCPR covenants. economist.com/china/2016/03/…

The PRC is trying to make this a reality by altering UN documents to read "Taiwan, Province of China." The original documents used only "Taiwan." See evidence here: gmfus.org/news/distortio…

@EmilyZFeng Well done! Congratulations, neighbour!

I’m blown away to have been chosen for the Shorenstein Award. Thank you. aparc.fsi.stanford.edu/news/nprs-beij…

@ApolloInDaHouse @relevantorgans Well done!

@ewong @niubi @hiattf @marcorubio Yes, harsh, and hard to quibble with. But I still think it's cute how Marco thinks he can be president someday.

Here, ⁦@hiattf⁩ excoriates ⁦@marcorubio⁩ for pretending to care about democracy but working to undermine it in the US. washingtonpost.com/opinions/marco…

@BeijingPalmer Shijiazhuang seems like a good call...I've often wondered why 河北菜 isn't a thing. And for bonus points: 那个什么。

@S_Rabinovitch @TheEconomist It’s right there in the style guide...

@gadyepstein Ankaŭ mi havas demandojn

Extremely random Wikipedia discovery. I have questions

@HeQinglian Hi! 我是常驻北京记者，英国经济学家周刊. 我们很早以前认识。再联系一下可以吗？Follow me? Or email? tedplafker@economist.com

@realDonaldTrump Really? It's what u get when instead of paying a pro u get yr cousin to do the BarMitzvah video. "Today I am a (states) man!" So 8th grade!

@mattyglesias To execute the "My Cousin Vinny" gambit: m.youtube.com/watch?v=5PZony…

@JamesFallows Not to mention all those lost jobs in Maine's whale oil industry...

Excellent deep dive by @RosieBlau on a knotty question: Who is Chinese?: The upper Han econ.st/2fZ6Lji via @TheEconomist

On the internet, nobody knows you're a running dog. econ.st/1RtxUnU via @TheEconomist

"User does not exist" says Ren Zhiqiang's Weibo a/c. Our story on a (now silenced) tycoon: goo.gl/GwpxvI