John Ruwitch
John Ruwitch is a correspondent with NPR's international desk. He covers Chinese affairs.
Ruwitch joined NPR in early 2020, and has since chronicled the tectonic shift in America's relations with China, from hopeful engagement to suspicion-fueled competition. He's also reported on a range of other issues, including Beijing's pressure campaign on Taiwan, Hong Kong's National Security Law, Asian-Americans considering guns for self-defense in the face of rising violence and a herd of elephants roaming in the Chinese countryside in search of a home.
Ruwitch joined NPR after more than 19 years with Reuters in Asia, the last eight of which were in Shanghai. There, he first covered a broad beat that took him as far afield as the China-North Korea border and the edge of the South China Sea. Later, he led a team that covered business and financial markets in the world's second biggest economy. Ruwitch has also had postings in Hanoi, Hong Kong and Beijing, reporting on anti-corruption campaigns, elite Communist politics, labor disputes, human rights, currency devaluations, earthquakes, snowstorms, Olympic badminton and everything in between.
Ruwitch studied history at U.C. Santa Cruz and got a master's in Regional Studies East Asia from Harvard. He speaks Mandarin and Vietnamese.
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China launched major military drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, simulating attacks and maritime blockades, in what Beijing called a warning after Taiwan's president labeled China a hostile foreign force. -
China's top foreign policy official addressed the escalating trade war with the U.S. and promoted China as an "anchor" on the global stage as America retreats from international involvement. -
China will aim for economic growth of around 5% this year, the same as last year. This comes despite deep domestic challenges and fresh tariffs on Chinese imports to the U.S. -
The tariffs from China range from 10% to 15% and are applied to crude oil, liquefied natural gas, farm machinery and select other products from the U.S. -
Trump ordered tariffs against China, Canada and Mexico over the weekend. Canada and Mexico reached last-minute deals to pause those tariffs Monday. -
Buzz around DeepSeek built into a wave of concern that hammered tech stocks on Monday. -
Chinese author Fang Fang posted notes online while being quarantined in Wuhan. They became Wuhan Diary. She talks with us about two more of her books now coming to English readers. -
The epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak was in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Five years on, NPR returns to get a sense of what's changed — and what hasn't.
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Carter helped make ties between Washington and Beijing, ushering in an era of engagement that brought China out of isolation and underpinned its meteoric economic rise. -
In a statement, the State Department said all the "wrongfully detained" Americans in China are now home.
