Jonathan Mirsky

Jonathan Mirsky, was the China correspondent of The Observer [London] and East Asia Editor of The Times [London]. In 1989 he was named the British editors’ International Journalist of the Year for his reporting from Tiananmen. He lives in London.

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    Articles by Jonathan Mirsky

    Hong Kong Patriotism

    Rather like George Bush and his division of the world into "Us and Them," China has stopped trying to persuade the people of Hong Kong to abandon their hopes for

    SARS: CHINA COMPOUNDS CRISIS FOR TAIWAN

    Beijing insists that Taiwan can participate in the global struggle to contain Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) only as a part of the People's Republic of China. There is nothing

    XU WENLI, INTO AMERICAN EXILE

    By Jonathan Mirsky On Christmas Eve the Chinese government released Xu Wenli, the founder of the country's tiny Democratic Party, into American exile. Xu has spent sixteen of the last

    THE NEW LEADERS

    By Jonathan Mirsky China's new rulers, the nine members of the Politburo Standing Committee, confront critical problems bequeathed to them by their predecessors. These problems, which would be called a

    CHINA AS AN ALLY

    Summits are a good time to plumb the depths of hypocrisy and pierce the verbal smoke and mirrors in international discourse. The recent exchange at the Crawford ranch between Presidents

    TIBETAN TOURISTS

    By Jonathan Mirsky Recent accounts of Chinese tourists in Tibet revive one of my clearest memories: the coarse behaviour of the Chinese during my six visits to the region between

    CHINA IN THE EYE OF THE OSTRICH

    What is China's magic? How does the Communist Party get away with it? Beijing exports weapons of mass destruction to dangerous states, oppresses its minorities, locks up political and religious

    TIANANMEN: DOES ANYONE CARE?

    At about 2 in the morning on June 4, 1989, as I watched the Chinese People's Liberation Army march into Tiananmen Square, I listened to a piece of advice from

    HU JINTAO AND THE TIBETAN ISSUE

    By Jonathan Mirsky Last week President Bush welcomed to the White House China's prospective president, Vice President Hu Jintao, a man whose career and character are usually noted as virtually

    THE LIFE AND DEATH OF WANG RUOWANG

    By Jonathan Mirsky In a month of sad Christmas stories--the Chinese Communist Party's futile ban on Santa Claus newspaper stories providing comic relief--one of the saddest was the death in