Zach Wener-Fligner, Annabelle Timsit

Charles Parton is a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute think tank and a former British diplomat who served in or around China for 22 years. He also worked on Chinese diplomacy at a European level, as first counselor to the EU Delegation in Beijing. He now works for himself as a consultant on all things China and advises the UK parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee. 

Isabel Hilton is a Scottish-born journalist and founder of China Dialogue, a non-profit website that produces bilingual stories about the environment and climate change in China. She was made an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2009 for “services to promoting environmental awareness in China.”

Kerry Brown is a professor of Chinese Studies and the director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College London. He is a former diplomat who worked for the China Section of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, then became first secretary of the UK embassy in Beijing, and later headed a European Union research network on China. 

The world of China watchers is replete with jargon and near-identical acronyms that you will need to know in order to understand the conversations featured in this series, and in order to make sense of the current tensions between the governments in London and Beijing.

Mark Logan is a member of Parliament and a vice-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on China, a grouping of MPs formed after the handover of Hong Kong to “widen the parliamentary contribution to the UK-China bilateral relationship.”

Rana Mitter is a British historian who teaches about the history and politics of modern China at the University of Oxford’s St. Cross College. He formerly directed Oxford’s China Center. 

Cindy Yu is The Spectator’s broadcast editor based in London, and host of the bi-monthly podcast Chinese Whispers. She was born in China and grew up in the UK, where she read philosophy, politics, and economics at the University of Oxford, and later obtained a masters in contemporary Chinese studies. 

James Sassoon is a Conservative member of the House of Lords and president of the China-Britain Business Council.

Luke de Pulford is a human rights activist active and coordinator of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), a group of legislators that see the rise of China as a challenge that democracies must tackle together. 

Tom Tugendhat is a member of Parliament and chairman of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee. In April 2020, Tugendhat and fellow MP Neil O’Brien launched the China Research Group (CRG), a think tank that aims to “promote debate and fresh thinking about how Britain should respond to the rise of China.”

Richard Graham has been a member of Parliament since 2010. He is chair of the All Party Parliamentary China Group (APPCG), founded more than 20 years ago to “ensure parliamentarians are kept well informed on China.”

Iain Duncan Smith has been a member of Parliament since 1992. He was leader of the Conservative Party from 2001 to 2003 and secretary of state for work and pensions from 2010 to 2016. 

This time last year, the internet was awash with joyful videos of animals reclaiming the streets that humans had deserted in lockdown. Many of them turned out to be fake, but they went viral because they symbolized the possibility that maybe, just maybe, after this is over, we would have a less destructive relationship with our natural environment.

The leaders of the European Union are meeting in person for the first time this year at a summit in Porto, Portugal, on May 7 and 8. On the second day, they’ll be joined (virtually) by a special guest: Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister.

The UK’s Covid-19 vaccination program reached a milestone yesterday (May 3): More than 50 million vaccine doses have been distributed, and 29% of the adult population have received both shots.

G7 foreign and development ministers are meeting in London this week to discuss vaccine distribution and sustainable development goals, and to “revitalize in-person diplomacy” following 18 long months of Zoom calls and Covid scares. It’s preparation for the main G7 summit, which will be held in southwest England between June 11 and 13.

In an upbeat earnings report today (April 30), Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca reported $275 million in revenue from its Covid-19 vaccine in the first three months of the year.

As the Covid-19 crisis worsens in India, international media coverage of the role that its government has played in this tragedy is proving the old PR adage wrong—all publicity is very much not good publicity.

Huawei sales fell for the second quarter in a row as the Chinese telecom giant’s mobile phone business is buffeted by geopolitical tensions between China and the West.

After more than a year of pandemic, a lot of people are sick of Zoom—including the organizers of the 93rd Academy Awards.

The UK’s parliament voted today (April 22) to endorse a motion accusing Chinese authorities of committing crimes against humanity and genocide in its treatment of ethnic and religious minorities.

On the heels of a successful visit to China by US climate envoy John Kerry this week, Chinese president Xi Jinping accepted an invitation to take part in a virtual climate summit, hosted by the US and kicking off tomorrow (April 22).

UK prime minister Boris Johnson canceled a state visit to India for the second time because Covid-19 cases there have spiraled out of control, and most travelers from India are now banned from entering the UK.

Austria’s health minister Rudolf Anschober resigned today (April 13), in the middle of a “third wave” of coronavirus infections. During an emotional press conference, Anschober said he is too burnt out and exhausted to carry on after a grueling 15 months.