Wendy Liu

You can imagine how the news of VOA shut down brought cheers in China, where VOA was broadcast in English, Mandarin, as well as Tibetan and Uyghur languages.

Mao told his people that one had to smash everything to build anything new. He went ahead and dismantled China’s then government system, his version of a “deep state.”

Reducing demand is certainly not an easy task for the U.S., and it is as tough to reduce supply.

As The New York Times characterized it, this is a case of threats to national security vs protection of free speech.

Shenzhen has become more like Hong Kong economically as a financial and technology hub, and also as home of the EV giant BYD. Hong Kong has gone the other way, losing free speech and independence.

Win-win cooperation with China won't be easy with Trump talking about 60% trariffs on Chinese imports.

A prominent sponsoring group was named the Shared Journey of Friendship US Youth Exchange Delegation. It consisted of around 190 teachers and students from 14 schools of seven U.S. states, and Tacoma's Lincoln High School was among them.

The Times stories were a bonanza for the Chinese government, which long considered Falun Gong an anti-state and anti-humanity cult.

The horseshoe theory was considered simplistic by serious political scientists, some of whom even called it nonsense, but it can be illustrative and fun.

What rubs salt in the wound of American pride in its democratic system is the mockery from China: the fact that netizens of the one-party authoritarian state are laughing over the debacle.