China veteran Ian Johnson, author of China’s Underground Historians and their Battle for the Future (September 2023), announces he will leave as senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations and move from New York to Berlin. He will work as a fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin and work from Berlin starting on July 1, 2024, writing a new book on the misuses of religion in Xi’s China in the summer of 2024.Read More →

Book reviews of Sparks: China’s Underground Historians and their Battle for the Future by China veteran and Pulitzer prize winner Ian Johnson start to come in, rightfully, like this overview in Public Discourse by Robert Carle. “In Sparks, Ian Johnson tells the stories of people such as Lin Zhao and Hu Jie—Chinese journalists and filmmakers who explore the darkest episodes of Chinese communism, often at great risk to themselves.”Read More →

The China Speakers Bureau is happy to announce Sharon Gai is joining its stable of high-profile speakers. Sharon Gai is based in San Francisco and has worked at top management positions in Alibaba and other e-commerce companies.Read More →

At the China Speakers Bureau, we have been looking for possibilities to resume our activities, after China started opening up its borders to the outside world earlier in 2023. It took a while, but we saw some careful signs we might be able to restart our operation. Some speaking opportunities are emerging, although at a low level. Potential new speakers have been sending inquiries to see how they can join the CSB. Travel to and from China has become slightly easier, although the number of people using international flights has been limited.Read More →

The China Speakers Bureau is happy to announce Alvin Wang Graylin is joining its line-up of speakers. Graylin is a thought leader on AI and the metaverse and is currently the China President at HTC. Graylin has over 28 years of business leadership experience in the tech industry, including 20 years in Greater China. He travels from Beijing.Read More →

Travelers from China are trying to secure visas for the first post-Corona summer holidays, but are running into problems as issuing visas for both the Schengen countries as the US face severe delays, up to three months before applicants can get an interview, according to the South China Morning Post. For the reverse track, visas for visitors into China, the article does not give information, but the logistic process might face similar problems.Read More →

China and the US have agreed to expand the number of flights in an effort to expand trade relations between both countries. Although China has abolished most of its zero-covid measures since March, the number of weekly flights between both countries was stuck at 24, reports Reuters on June 28. Before Corona, that number was up to 350 per week.Read More →

One of the major nuisances for foreign visitors to China might be gone as the country’s major payment giants, Tencent (operating WeChat Pay) and the Ant Group (operating Alipay) agreed to accept foreign credit cards on their platforms. Up to now, visitors needed to have a Chinese bank account to use those common payment tools in China.Read More →

Just lifting the stringent Covid-19 restrictions in China did not revive its economy as expected. The lockdowns ended in December 2022 and visas were issued in March 2023 again, but the recovery had been lackluster. The aviation industry belongs to those with the most disappointing predictions by June. 22, 2023, as it expects to be back to normal by the end of 2024, hoping for an extension of government support, reports the South China Morning Post.Read More →