Dake Kang

1/Beijing is using an increasingly powerful tool to control and monitor its own officials: Surveillance technology, much of it originating in the U.S., an @AP investigation has found. Buckle up for a twisting ride through China's corruption crackdown... apnews.com/article/whistl…

Gamblers trying to win a bet on Polymarket are vowing to kill me if I don’t rewrite an Iran missile story This is my account: timesofisrael.com/gamblers-tryin…

@HojjatFadaee @azad_kave Hello Hojjat, I'm a reporter for AP. Wanted to get in touch - could you follow me so I can message you directly? Thank you very much

@azad_kave روباه دعاخون میشه ثناگوی شاه

هر چه این اراذل که زمانی تصمیم گرفتند برای جمهوری اسلامی رای جمع کنند به دامان سلطنت پناه میبرند فاصله من از سلطنت بیشتر میشه #زن_زندگی_آزادی #اسطولیان #اسکوتیان

@Nrg8000 so true! and Beijing happens to be a world-class birding spot...

An extension of the fascinating trend Dake describes in this article is the rise of birdwatching among China's youth. "Chen used to dread the grind of her nine-to-six job, which she said “felt like marching to my own death.” Now, she wakes at 10 a.m. every day, filling her days with cooking, chilling, and long walks on the beach." Many others birdwatch. imo a good story there if anyone wants it

Rubio says here that Israel was intent on attacking Iran, so Trump thought he had to start the war. The @nytimes reported today that Netanyahu’s constant pressure on Trump and his aides was a decisive factor in the march to a US war of choice. Gift link: nytimes.com/2026/03/02/us/…

It's a sharp contrast to countries like the U.S., where post-COVID inflation often makes life feel like a struggle to survive. In the "Life in Venice" complex, young people pay less than $200 a month in rent. They fish, nap, take long walks on the beach. apnews.com/photo-gallery/…

Albee Zhang writes about China's young, low-cost retirees, quitting careers before thirty and taking advantage of China's slowing economy to chill out in semi-abandoned, shockingly cheap housing complexes: apnews.com/article/china-…

President Ali Khamenei (1939-2026) ate Roast Duck in Beijing’s Quanjude Restaurant 全聚德during his state visit in May 1989—his last trip abroad.

this is what happens when you go ultra-“rational brain” to the point that you even ignore quantitative social science research news.stanford.edu/stories/2023/0…

amazing things are happening in the valley

The Post is gutting their very best. Horrible to see

One of the hottest toys in China is a stuffed horse where the factory accidentally sewed the smile upside down. reuters.com/world/asia-pac…

it’s like if I snapped a photo of panda express and wrote “forget about chips america is about 100x superior to china in stir frying technique”

this is a jaw-on-the-floor kind of post

The 斩杀线 discourse is super interesting... Has clearly struck a chord among Chinese netizens. (The term 斩杀线 (not sure the exact English counterpart?) is borrowed from gaming but in this context it refers to the perception that in the U.S., many people who look solidly middle class are actually living with very little social buffer. They may be doing fine on paper, with decent incomes etc, but in practice they are really just one shock away from everything unraveling at once.） A big part of this really comes down to how service-sector prices are structured. The U.S. official poverty line, which many social program eligibilities are based on, still reflects a 1960s cost of living pricing structure when goods dominated household spending. But over the past few decades, housing, healthcare, childcare costs etc have surged. So according to calculations from e.g. Green if you add up basic living costs using today’s pricing structure, the number comes out closer to ~$140K/year for a family of four, nearly 4 times the official poverty line. The exact number is debatable obviously but the direction of travel seems largely valid. And you can see why this framing is catching on so quickly among Chinese netizens... With globalization and new technology, goods (food, appliances, electronics etc) in the U.S. have gotten much cheaper. But labor-intensive services (housing, healthcare, education, childcare etc) have gone in the opposite direction. And for many families, these are not optional services... And when something goes wrong, the costs pile on all at once. e.g., a job loss often means losing income and health insurance at the same time, but medical bills, rent, debt obligations (e.g., student debt) are unchanged. The China’s welfare system is far from perfect and benefits are very thin. But the cost of essential services in China is much lower (which comes with its own problems but that’s a separate issue.) Healthcare is cheaper, childcare relies more on family or lower-cost options, and housing while still very expensive in top cities, is more manageable in lower-tier places, with more government programs and affordable options. So China does much less in terms of direct transfers or cash support, but the pricing structure means that nonnegotiable services are generally more manageable. Of course, there are many gaps and underdeveloped areas, esp in rural regions, and in many respects China’s formal social welfare system is much weaker than that of the U.S. But informal social structures, especially family support, combined with lower service prices, create a kind of basic buffering that makes the system feel at least in some ways less brittle...

How AP photographers captured infrared technology used in surveillance.

U.S. tech enabled China’s surveillance empire. Now Tibetan refugees in Nepal are paying the price as thousands of CCTV cameras from China monitor their every move. This intense surveillance has stifled the once-vibrant Free Tibet movement that had resonated around the world.

For the past year, I worked with @dakekang and AP colleagues on an investigation into how Chinese surveillance tech— based on technology developed in the U.S. — has spread across Nepal. apnews.com/article/china-…

China apparently has a working prototype of an EUV lithography machine. - Secret lab in Shenzhen - Team of former ASML engineers - Reverse-engineered parts - Yet to produce working chips - Deep involvement by Huawei - Aiming for use by 2028-2030 reuters.com/world/china/ho…

Hat tip to my colleagues at Reuters for this story showing that after Mark Zuckerberg intervened, Chinese scam ads rebounded to keep profits flowing:

@AP @lichuanliang63 @duwen2023 30/With Myf Ma, Yael Grauer, Serginho Roosblad, Marshall Ritzel, @rblackwelll, @ByronTau, @garanceburke, and thoughts from @chinalawtransl8, @duwen2023, @Yaqiu, @holdentriplett, and many others who can't be named. Thank you.

@AP @lichuanliang63 @duwen2023 29/Nonetheless, Li's willingness to speak out makes him singular among the thousands targeted by Fox Hunt and Sky Net. Few others, if any, have criticized the Party publicly. Experts agree: Li and his family paid dearly for speaking out. "They see me as a traitor," Li says.

1/Beijing is using an increasingly powerful tool to control and monitor its own officials: Surveillance technology, much of it originating in the U.S., an @AP investigation has found. Buckle up for a twisting ride through China's corruption crackdown... apnews.com/article/whistl…