Greater China correspondent @AP. Previously in Tokyo, Bangkok, New Delhi, Washington D.C. @aaja @Princeton
Beijing
Joined April 2009
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Trump greets Xi in red-carpet welcome at Andrews Air Force base, in photos
apnews.com/photo-gallery/tru…
Ken Moritsugu retweeted
大家好 – I’m the newest addition to the team! My name is 安凯明 – or, in 🇩🇪, Philipp Ackermann. Today is my first day as Germany’s new Ambassador to 🇨🇳. Stay tuned for more from my first days here in Beijing!
Ken Moritsugu retweeted
Historic weekend in women's volleyball! 🏐
🇹🇭 Thailand claims the @avcvolley Women's Volleyball Continental Championship title and qualifies for the Olympics for the first time in team history.
🇨🇦 Canada earns its ticket to the Olympics for the first time in 32 years.
#RoadToLA2028 #OlympicQualifier
The Beijing airport was closed for an hour (according to our pilot) because of intermittent severe storms. My 19:40 departure was delayed about 90 minutes as a result.
Ken Moritsugu retweeted
Ma Xingrui is the first civilian Politburo member to be purged since Sun Zhengcai in July 2017 and only the seventh sitting Politburo member to face a formal disciplinary investigation since 1990.
I told @kmorit at @AP that "Xi’s ability to expel a sitting Politburo member underscores his continued dominance ahead of next year’s 21st Party Congress."
Though Ma's alleged misconduct relates mostly to spectacular "family corruption" by a senior official and there's no mention of political plotting or factionalism.
May or may not be connected, but while Ma was a leader in Guangdong, several Guangdong firms invested in Shuangyashan, the small Heilongjiang city where he was born and where his brother was a local official.
Also "Ma’s purge is a warning that Chinese officials may be held responsible not only for their own corruption but also for misconduct by relatives and close aides."
Watch this dynamic when it comes to who's up and who's down ahead of the Party Congress...
Caixin: "Recent data released by the Ministry of Education revealed a severe structural divergence: while early childhood and primary education are shrinking rapidly, high schools and universities are expanding to absorb a demographic bulge from earlier birth peaks."
China closed nearly 30,000 kindergartens and primary schools in 2025, the starkest sign yet that a prolonged demographic slump is fundamentally upending the country’s vast education system. caixinglobal.com/2026-07-13/…
Ken Moritsugu retweeted
Important changes to the CMC:
1) Zhang Shuguang (张曙光), promoted to General, and takes over as head of CMC Discipline Inspection Commission and director of the CMC’s supervision committee, replacing Zhang Shengmin.
2) Wang Gang (王刚) promoted to General, and new Commander of the PLA Air Force.
That means Zhang Shengmin will retire soon and Zhang Shuguang will likely become new Vice Chair of CMC. Wang will likely be part of new CMC lineup in 2027.
Other recent developments, Defence Minister Dong Jun and General Han Shengyan, commander of the Central Theatre Command, were pictured on Monday seated next to each other at a gala marking the 105th anniversary of the Communist Party’s founding. It was the first time they had been pictured alongside other senior PLA commanders.
This could be an indication that both Dong and Han may be on track to become CMC members as well.
If I were to guess, new CMC leadership could include Zhang, Wang, Dong, Han, and Yang Zhibin, who was appointed commander of the Eastern Theatre Command in December.
eng.mod.gov.cn/2025xb/N/T/16…
Ken Moritsugu retweeted
The Vincent Chin Institute has published a 64-page Legacy Guide sharing the story of Vincent Chin and the national, pan-Asian American civil rights movement his death inspired. It serves as a teaching and reference tool and is available in 8 languages: vincentchin.org/legacy-guide
First of its kind queer museum in San Francisco Chinatown amplifies Chinese LGBTQ+ artists apnews.com/article/chinatown…
Ken Moritsugu retweeted
Chinese actor Li Xian appeared at the 2026 World Cup yesterday to perform the ceremonial kick-off for the Spain vs. Saudi Arabia match, becoming the first actor from Chinese mainland to take part in an official FIFA match opening. Spain cruised to a 4-0 victory.
Interesting coincidence
The presidents of our two great 🇺🇸🇲🇳democracies @POTUS @realDonaldTrump and @UKhurelsukh share birthdays today. Under their leadership, U.S.-Mongolia relations are getting stronger each day. Happy Birthday to President Trump and President Khurelsukh 🎉🎂!
Ken Moritsugu retweeted
Why Trump and other G7 leaders meeting without China might be a mistake. By @johnleicester
apnews.com/article/china-tru…
Ken Moritsugu retweeted
My colleagues and I just published a new report on U.S.-China AI competition, taking a holistic view of AI leadership. We argue that the competition is about more than who has the best models and chips. It's a contest of energy, data, talent, capital, industrial capacity, diffusion, and national resilience.
The U.S. remains ahead in frontier model development and advanced compute deployment, but China's deep bench of AI engineers, low-cost models, control over critical nodes in the hardware supply chain, vast energy infrastructure, and aggressive push to diffuse AI make it a formidable competitor.
Philippines protests China's sanctions on Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. as "an unfriendly act" apnews.com/article/philippin…
Ken Moritsugu retweeted
Hong Kong customs swoop ahead of the World Cup, seizing $20M in fake goods
apnews.com/article/fake-jers…
Ken Moritsugu retweeted
Hua Ni, China's giant panda at Everland in South Korea, gave birth to a healthy female cub (170g) on Jun 3. This is her 4th cub since the China–South Korea conservation partnership began in 2016, and the first panda born overseas in 2026.
Ken Moritsugu retweeted
Great having Penn students led by @NeysunM on @Tsinghua_Uni campus! After chatting online since Feb, they just finished a 5-day immersive exchange with our students. Glad I got to join them for a quick tour of the Old Summer Palace.
