Religious persecution in China is high on the political agenda, but most people do not see how the country’s religious revival is going to change our relations in the long run, argues journalist Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao at the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.Read More →

Stability is the key word for China’s political leaders, but when author Zhang Lijia of Lotus: A Novel on prostitution in China looks back at her last thirty years for her life, she sees a unbelievable change, she tells in a wide-ranging interview in the Australian Financial Review.Read More →

China started – after initial suppression – to tolerate religion under Deng Xiaoping, as the communist rulers of the country expected religion was something for the older generation and would die out. Journalist Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao explains in a Q&A to JWT Intelligence why they were wrong. And the implications for business.Read More →

While most of the media stress government control on journalists and authors, Zhang Lijia, author of Lotus: A Novel on prostitution in China, sees huge advantages too, she tells the blog Women and Gender in China (WAGIC). “Internationally Chinese women writers are almost invisible. This is another reason that I want to keep writing.”Read More →

Most reviewers of Ian Johnson’s latest book The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao focus on religion, while his book also has a profound political dimension. “Interesting that only a religious journal gets the deeper meaning of my book–not only as a challenge to religion and values, but also to China’s political order,” writes Johnson on Facebook.about the review in Voegelinview.Read More →

An upsurge in  folk religions, Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity and other forms of spirituality is caused by China’s development into an industrial superpower, argued journalist Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao earlier this week at a speech at , according to the Yale Daily.Read More →

China’s leadership is gathering this week in Beijing to prepare another five-year plan, and affirm president Xi Jinping for another five-year term. Journalist Ian Johnson looks for the New York Times at the new role China is playing in the world. “His China could become a model for digitally driven authoritarianism around the world.”Read More →

China has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty and president Xi Jinping vowed to give the last millions of poor also a better life. Economics professor Sara Hsu of the State University of New York explains in CCTV what the country’s receipt for poverty relief has been.Read More →