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Monday, June 1, 2026
Summer 2026 Issue 88
Editor's Note
Judged by its plunging birthrate, China seems to be caught in a demographic doom loop. As its population began to shrink in 2022, China’s leaders—whose infamous one-child policy bears much of the responsibility—adopted pro-nationalist policies in an attempt to reverse the trend. However, as Patricia Thornton’s research shows, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is unlikely to make much progress in dealing with China’s fertility crisis because of the unforeseen consequences of t
Minxin Pei
4 days ago3 min read
Why Xi’s Pro-Natalist Turn is Failing: Legibility, Marketized Neo-Familism, and Micropolitical Refusal in China
Perhaps no state in modern history has intervened in human reproduction as extensively as the People’s Republic of China, yet few reversals of reproductive policy have been as visibly ineffective as Xi Jinping’s pro-natalist turn. The country’s population fell for a fourth consecutive year in 2025 as the birthrate plunged to another record low despite the introduction of a raft of birth- and family-friendly subsidies and measures since the one-child policy officially ended in
Patricia Thornton
4 days ago35 min read
Trump 2.0: Is China Filling the Void?
Despite the perception that China is actively exploiting the perceived missteps by the Trump administration and filling the void that Washington has left in the world, the actual picture is more complicated, and it defies a singular generalization. U.S. allies and partners might have more questions regarding the U.S. But such questions have not translated into a genuine swing toward China. In functional areas, China’s bilateral aid budget has seen only marginal growth and its
Yun Sun
4 days ago25 min read
China's Dual Economy: When Strategic Ambition Hollows Out the Foundation
China’s dual economy—one side producing world-class technology and exports, the other marked by stagnant household incomes and suppressed consumption—is not a transitional imbalance awaiting self-correction. It is a structural design, engineered to serve China’s overriding objective of winning the strategic competition with the United States and establishing global hegemony. The model relies on financially repressed households to fund state-directed investment in high-end man
Alicia Garcia Herrero
4 days ago18 min read
“China Will Always Be a Developing Country”: Beijing and the Global South
The idea of leading developing nations everywhere towards greater prosperity and autonomy has long been central to PRC foreign policy. But it was not until 2023 that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi first used the term “Global South.” By positioning the PRC as a perpetual member and natural leader of the Global South, Beijing has now crafted a narrative in which China can simultaneously be a developing nation and a great power capable of stalemating the United States. At the
Henrietta Levin
4 days ago19 min read
Changes of Factional Dynamics under Xi Jinping
This article proposes a revisionist framework of factionalism to explain the latest escalation in the purge of high-ranking CCP cadres and to understand the changes in leadership politics during Xi Jinping’s third term in office. Based on Aristotle’s distinction between oligarchy (ruling power resting in a small group) and tyranny (one-man rule) as two different non-democratic regime types to analyze factionalism, the article argues that this distinction affects the unfolding
Guoguang Wu
4 days ago21 min read
CLM Insights Interview with Logan Wright
Logan Wright, Broken China: How the Economic Miracle Shattered and What it Means for the World. Cambridge, UK: Polity, September 2026. 272 pages. ISBN-10: 1509570675; ISBN-13: 978-1509570676 Insights Interview The central argument of your book is that China’s economic model is “broken.” As there are many different versions of the so-called “China model,” can you explain what you mean by the “China model” and why it is now broken? Indeed, the book argues that China’s financi
Logan Wright
4 days ago8 min read
Honoring Joseph Fewsmith: An Important Career, Defining Scholarship, and Lessons for Today’s China Challenge
Joe Fewsmith came of age as a China scholar under conditions that shaped everything he later became. China was largely off-limits to Americans—it was a time of great constraints in China studies. You could not simply fly to Beijing and talk to scholars and officials—which became his stock and trade. So, Joe did something that turned out to be unexpectedly formative: he went to Taiwan, mastered the language, and wrote a doctoral dissertation at the University of Chicago, usi
Evan Mederios
4 days ago14 min read
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