Aaron Sarin - Quillette (Page 2)

The Nature of the Beast

Too many Western politicians continue to delude themselves about the character of Beijing’s regime.

Aaron Sarin

1 Mar 2023 · 11 min read

Beijing in Retreat

A plunging birthrate, deepening socioeconomic divisions, and the chaos produced by China’s failed Zero-COVID policy prove that Xi Jinping and the Party do not have the measure of the nation.

Aaron Sarin

28 Jan 2023 · 12 min read

The White Paper Revolution

China’s population has learned that its voice has real power.

Aaron Sarin

21 Dec 2022 · 14 min read

The Loneliness of the ‘Bridge Man’ Generation

China’s dissenters are isolated. But they are not as isolated as they once were.

Aaron Sarin

27 Nov 2022 · 9 min read

A Single Spark

In the age of the Internet, can the Sitong Bridge Warrior’s protest make a difference?

Aaron Sarin

26 Oct 2022 · 6 min read

China in the Age of Surveillance

China’s security apparatus may not be able to see into the minds of the people, but it can make their lives a misery in the attempt.

Aaron Sarin

25 Sep 2022 · 11 min read

The Man Who Stood Up to the CCP

Thanks to Shinzo Abe, Xi Jinping now has a clear view of the future.

Aaron Sarin

9 Jul 2022 · 5 min read

The Road to Genocide

The Uyghurs have the potential to threaten China's national unity, which is the real reason we are seeing the largest incarceration of an ethnic or religious minority since the Holocaust.

Aaron Sarin

31 May 2022 · 17 min read

Shanghai on the Edge of Madness

Starvation will push and pull human psychology in unusual directions—it is one of the few things that can overcome fear of the authorities. When famine came to China 400 years ago, it made Chinese peasants receptive to the preachers of class war. When the government failed to provide crucial

Aaron Sarin

18 Apr 2022 · 6 min read

The Vanishing of Peng Shuai

Whatever really happened between Zhang and Peng, the truth is that they were both already victims, having been raised in a society that completely denies the importance of the individual.

Aaron Sarin

20 Nov 2021 · 6 min read

Tibet’s Long Fight for Freedom

Not unlike Hong Kong’s frontline protesters in 2019, with their street battles and Molotov cocktails, some Tibetans have realised they live in a time that calls for truly desperate measures.

Aaron Sarin

30 Oct 2021 · 13 min read

Chinese Culture and the Red Line of Morality

Even the Soviet Union had its Bulgakovs and its Pasternaks, of course, and there is no doubt that art sometimes flourishes in an atmosphere of oppression.

Aaron Sarin

20 Sep 2021 · 7 min read

White Lotus, Red Dragon—China’s History of Millenarian Dissent

When one woman refused and snapped at them to “go away,” they attacked her with a chair and mop handle.

Aaron Sarin

29 May 2021 · 14 min read

Europe, China, and the New Global Hierarchy

Europe has benefited greatly from the fact that the dominant power for the past 75 years has been a liberal democracy—a flawed liberal democracy, no doubt, but a liberal democracy all the same.

Aaron Sarin

19 Apr 2021 · 11 min read

China and the Question of Taiwan

In modern-day China, nationalism is at its strongest when dealing with the idea—almost an article of religious faith—that the independent island nation of Taiwan is in fact a Chinese state and must be unified with the mainland as soon as possible.

Aaron Sarin

2 Feb 2021 · 13 min read