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.
-
Xi Jinping and China's ruling Communist Party have displayed a dogged obsession with controlling the historical narrative. But there's a group of underground historians fighting back. -
President Biden signed an executive order Wednesday restricting U.S. investment into Chinese technology. The new rules make it harder for Americans to invest in quantum computing and semiconductors.
-
Secretary of State Antony Blinken's trip shows the Biden administration is keen to reignite diplomacy and inject stability to its dealings with China, but whether it was a success remains to be seen.
-
He Jiankui, who shocked the world in 2018 by announcing the creation of the first gene-edited babies, tells NPR he's now working on a cure for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
-
The Chinese leader's call comes as he has sought to play the role of peacemaker, though chances of a big breakthrough are slim, given how far apart Russia's and Ukraine's positions remain.
-
Still, U.S. and China need to work together on issues like climate change and debt relief.
-
Despite Chinese protests, Taiwan's President Tsai Ing wen is meeting House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles Wednesday.
-
For President Tsai Ing-wen, the meeting capped off a high-stakes trip intended to prove to voters that strengthening U.S. ties is worth the fallout, as Taipei's relations with China deteriorate.
-
Taiwan's president is in the United States as part of a multi-day itinerary that will take the leader of the Asian democratic island through Central and North America.
-
Taiwan's president, Tsai Ing-wen is arriving in New York Wednesday afternoon on what the administration official calls "a transit" before headed to central America.
