Maura Elizabeth Cunningham

I’m heading home from Montana today after more than a week of vacation in the Gallatin Valley and Yellowstone National Park. I’ve posted some photos on Instagram and am working on a write-up of my trip to share here at some point. For the moment, here’s a snippet that I wrote while taking a rest during a hike on my first day in the park:

Walking around the Upper Geyser Basin at Yellowstone National Park is mind boggling. At first it seems like any other afternoon hike: trees, a river, the occasional chipmunk on the trail.





But then, at unexpected intervals, the trees and grass fall away in favor of rocks and scrub. Alongside the path there are new things to see. Geysers spouting spray into the air, bringing with it the faint smell of sulfur. Pools of water tinted vivid blue and orange, bubbling and steaming from forces churning far below the earth. BISON. (Only one, and at a distance. But still. A bison!)



It’s otherworldly.

China stories only today; I’ll have a broader array of links for you when I return to my regular Sunday publishing schedule in a few days. Thanks for reading.

China Stories

Jon Campbell, “Linda Sun, ex-aide to Gov. Hochul and Gov. Cuomo, accused of being Chinese agent”

Eliot Chen, “Jeffrey Ding on the Spread of AI”

Laurie Chen, “New unproductive forces: the Chinese youth owning their unemployment”

Rachel Cheung, “Yuan Yang on China’s Gender and Rural-Urban Divides”

Most Taiwanese know little of the immense suffering and violence that Indigenous Taiwanese endured in the making of their nation. They have little interest in engaging with this difficult history and what it might mean for Taiwan’s future. To confront that history would challenge established historical narratives that serve as the foundations of the current state and its political parties. As young Pingpu people, in a 2016 social media video about contested memories of Koxinga, say about the act of forgetting Indigenous Taiwanese history: “This is the violence of nationalism.”

— Jordyn Haime, “The beginning of our displacement”

Amy Hawkins and Chi-hui Lin, “How China’s internet police went from targeting bloggers to their followers”

David Lague, “A billionaire pig farmer fights his conviction from behind bars as tycoons face crackdown in China”

James Lee, “Most visitors to revamped, renamed Hong Kong museum unaware of patriotic education push”

Clarence Leong, “China Detains Two Activists, Adding to Tension With Washington”

Shibani Mahtani, Meg Kelly, Cate Brown, Cate Cadell, Ellen Nakashima, and Chris Dehghanpoor, “How China extended its repression into an American city”

Ellen Nakashima and Christian Shepherd, “China’s ‘disappeared’ foreign minister demoted to low-level publishing job, say former U.S. officials”

Gloria Pazmino, “An alleged Chinese agent went undetected in New York state government for years. Why it may have taken so long for authorities to act”

Liyan Qi, “Films About Women Are Having a Moment in China”

Alexandra Stevenson and Zixu Wang, “China Stops Foreign Adoptions, Ending a Complicated Chapter”

Dustin Volz, “Beijing-Backed Trolls Target U.S. Voters as Election Nears”

Vivian Wang, “In Rural China, ‘Sisterhoods’ Demand Justice, and Cash”

Vivian Wang, “An Incomplete List of Everything Threatening China’s National Security”

Jeffrey Wasserstrom, “Tim Walz, China and Me”

The Wire China, “China Policy: What Comes Next?”

“We don’t know whether in ten years China will be America’s enemy, competitor, or perhaps even friend,” said Michael Szonyi, a Harvard University historian who traveled to China in August 2023 for an extended research trip after an almost four-year absence. “Do we really think that under any of these scenarios, it is better that we know less about China rather than more?”

— Chun Han Wong, “China Is Becoming Much Harder for Western Scholars to Study”

Daniel Wu, “Forced to close in China, a beloved bookstore finds a new home — in D.C.”

Li Yuan, “Can China Tech Find a Home in Silicon Valley?”

Yan Zhuang and Zixu Wang, “Gao Zhen, Artist Who Critiqued the Cultural Revolution, Is Detained in China”

Featured photo: Morning Glory Pool at Yellowstone National Park, September 4, 2024.