Tea Leaf Nation

With all the furor over Bo Xilai, his family and the suspicious death of Neil Heywood, Tea Leaf Nation brings you a look back at the political calculations that lay behind Bo’s controversial reign in Chongqing and his daring gambit in the form of the “Smash Black – Sing Red” campaign that was to pave [...]

Break out your decoders, dear readers; a politician is talking. At a Tuesday luncheon with U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden, Chinese Vice President and heir apparent Xi Jinping defended China’s human rights record by saying, “There’s no best, only better.” China’s netizens, who are seemingly as unsure as Western observers as to what Xi’s ascendance means for [...]

As Chinese President-in-waiting Xi Jinping visits Washington, D.C., China’s netizens have leaders, as well as love, on their mind. This quote by an anonymous user has been quickly making the rounds on Weibo, Sina’s Twitter: @西门不暗: Chinese people’s attitude towards their leaders is a lot like the way a man and a woman get a [...]

The Chimerica couple is serious about romance. As President Obama gears up to teach Vice President Xi Jinping some Potomac two-step on Valentine’s Day, netizens on China’s microblogs are voicing their own hopes for their Heir Apparent. No one is questioning the succession chances of Xi aside from few grumblings of “who elected him?” A widely [...]

Elections are so 20th-Century. Tea Leaf Nation is pleased to introduce its coverage of the 2012 Leadership S-election in China, which will take place in the second half of 2012. Move over President Obama, the S-election of the members of the Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo is where true political drama takes [...]