James Thorpe

As a journalist, you risk being targeted by an ever changing set of measures by the Chinese government. A weaponized visa process means your credentials may be renewed for six months or denied without explanation. You, or more likely your Chinese colleague, might be detained as the Bloomberg reporter Haze Fan was in 2020.It has never been easy to write about China, but today access is harder, and sources are more limited than they have been for decades. The pandemic hasn’t helped—since March 202...

Two multilateral missions to examine the world’s pandemic response have been confirmed by the World Health Organization (WHO). The first has already begun. On Oct. 30, a group of WHO scientists met to initiate a study into the origins of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The second study will begin “at the earliest appropriate moment” and will look at the global community’s response to the pandemic. China has agreed to support both but only on the condition they are led by the WHO and...

In a market that accounts for two-fifths of the world’s online transactions, and where the sale of counterfeit goods online is rife, China’s first ecommerce law was a long time coming. The comprehensive legislation, which came into effect on January 1, covers a range of areas, from anti-counterfeiting measures to data protection, with the aim of defending brand and consumer rights.

When Liu Yanchang quit his factory job in Hebei province and took the four-hour bus ride to Beijing to become a courier, it was the farthest the 18-year-old had ever been from home. The new job, part of the booming e-commerce industry, offered him more money than he had ever made before, and he hoped to learn English and one day travel overseas. All in all, he was happy.

Just a few months on, though, his optimism has been deflated. “I don’t belong in Beijing,” he complains. “I just work here.”...

A man in his twenties sporting a shiny black suit and tie looks into the camera. Behind him a slideshow of purses imprinted with Louis Vuitton logos plays. “The second image shows the colour of the protective film on the zip. If it is authentic, it should be light blue,” he tells the viewer.

The presenter is Yan Chuang and his videos have been viewed more than 100m times in China. In a country renowned for counterfeiting, Mr Chuang is a new kind of protagonist in the fight against fakes: a prof...

I was surprised to learn on Monday that my university, King's College London (KCL), is rated as most dangerous in a university "crime league table". But rather than taking self-defence classes to prepare for my third year, I decided to have a closer look at the statistics collected by the company behind the rankings, the Complete University Guide.The independent group ranks UK universities by crime committed within three miles of each campus. It covers three categories of crime which, according...