Hannah Beech

Hannah Beech is TIME's East Asia and China Bureau Chief. She lives in Shanghai and was previously based for TIME in Beijing, Bangkok and Hong Kong.

Articles from Contributor

China Welcomes Home the New U.S. Envoy

China is a country where grand gestures play well. So when U.S. President Barack Obama appointed Republican pooh-bah Jon Huntsman Jr. as the American Ambassador to China back in 2009, Beijing was pleased to welcome such an august envoy to its shores. The excitement has since died down, particularly in recent days after Huntsman was …

Why Asia’s Men in Green are Celebrating

It’s budget time in Asia, and the men in uniform (along with their numerous plainclothes colleagues) must be thrilled. In China, where the rubber-stamp National People’s Congress (NPC) has gathered for its annual confab in Beijing, the military was gifted a 12.7% increase in spending, bringing its yearly coffers to $91.5 billion. …

Hey, You Sitting in Beijing Traffic? Big Brother is Watching

The news was packaged innocuously enough. In order to alleviate Beijing’s horrible traffic jams, a new project called the Dynamic Information Platform for Public Travel would use residents’ cellphones to track where they were and figure out how to make traffic flow more smoothly. The People’s Daily, the Chinese government’s …

March 3: Happy Mistress Day!

Mark your calendars: March 3 is Mistress Day in China. How are you going to celebrate this special occasion? According to the Shanghai Daily and the Global Times, an Internet community of third wheels has decided to designate 3/3 as their exclusive day. Here’s the scoop from the Global Times:

“An online forum advocating

Tomb Robbers Rejoice! The Death Penalty No Longer Applies in China

Convicted in China of tax fraud, grave-robbing or fossil-smuggling? Good news. In a country that reportedly executes more people than the rest of the world combined, these crimes will no longer merit the death penalty. As of May 1, China will decrease the number of crimes punishable by execution to a mere 55, down from 68. Those offenses …

How America Overestimates China’s Rise

Here are my quick two cents from a trip back to the U.S. from China. Two years ago when I was last here, I felt like the smart, educated people I talked to underestimated China’s rise. Yes, the Olympics had shown the world that Beijing was a big city full of modern buildings and amazingly talented athletes. But there was still this …

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