Media
Quoted in “Diaries of Mao’s Secretary at the Center of a Legal Battle Over the History of Modern China,” NBC News, August 25, 2024
Quoted in “The Diary Beijing Doesn’t Want the Public to Read,” The World (radio), August 20, 2024
Quoted in “‘Monument to History’ Battle Between US and China Over Future of Mao’s Secretary’s Diary,” The Guardian, August 18, 2024
Quoted in “China’s Vanished Foreign Minister Casts a Long Shadow,” Politico, June 20, 2024
Quoted in “35 Years after Tiananmen, China’s Conduct Again Triggers Alarm,” Wall Street Journal, June 3, 2024
Quoted in “Putin Concludes a Trip to China by Emphasizing Its Strategic and Personal Ties to Russia,” AP, May 17, 2024
Interviewed on BBC World Service (radio) on Sino-Russian relations, May 16, 2024
Quoted in “Putin Is Putting His Bromance with Xi on Full Display—But China Has Reason to Be Wary,” Business Insider, May 16, 2024
Quoted in “How China’s Political Clans Might Determine Its Future,” The Economist, April 4, 2024
Quoted in “Xi’s One-Man Rule Over China’s Economy Is Spurring Unrest,” Bloomberg, February 29, 2024
Interviewed on Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion, published in Center for Advanced China Research, November 14, 2023
Quoted in “China’s Xi, in Need of a Win, Appears Ready to Engage with Biden,” Washington Post, November 14, 2023
Quoted in “Xi’s Graft Crackdown Is Set to Snare Record Number of Top Officials,” Bloomberg, November 13, 2023
Quoted in “Behind Public Assurances, Xi Jinping Has Spread Grim Views on U.S.,” New York Times, November 13, 2023
Quoted in “Reactions to Death of Chinese Ex-Premier Li Keqiang,” Reuters, October 27, 2023
Quoted in “Xi Faces ‘Delicate Political Moment’ in Handling Grief Over Li,” Bloomberg, October 27, 2023
Quoted in “Former Chinese Premier Dies Aged 68 from Heart Attack,” The Times, October 27, 2023
Quoted in “Li Keqiang, Chinese Premier Eclipsed by Xi Jinping, Dies at 68,” New York Times, October 26, 2023
Quoted in “Li Keqiang, China’s Former Premier, Dies Suddenly at 68,” Financial Times, October 26, 2023
Quoted in “China Removes Li Shangfu as Defense Minister, Who Was Out of Public Eye for 2 Months,” NPR, October 23, 2023
Interviewed on Democracy Podcast, September 5, 2023
Quoted in “Xi Rebuilt the Military to His Liking. Now a Shake-Up Threatens Its Image,” New York Times, August 7, 2023
Quoted in “After Ousting a Top Official, China Erases Him and Evades Questions,” New York Times, July 27, 2023
Interviewed in “One Good Text,” Semafor, July 26, 2023
Quoted in “A Familiar Face for the US as China’s Wang Returns as Foreign Minister,” Reuters, July 25, 2023
Quoted in “China Replaces Missing Foreign Minister Qin Gang,” Financial Times, July 25, 2023
Quoted in “China Replaces Foreign Minister after Mysterious Absence,” Bloomberg, July 25, 2023
Interviewed in “Three Minutes With,” Politico, July 6, 2023
Quoted in “A Glimpse of a Different Russia,” Financial Times, July 1, 2023
Quoted in “The Paralysis of Power,” The New Statesman, June 28, 2023
Quoted in “China’s ‘No-Limits’ Partnership with Russia Shaken by Mutiny,” Christian Science Monitor, June 27, 2023
Quoted in “Putin Sent Xi Birthday Greetings. Here Was the Real Message,” New York Times, June 15, 2023
Interviewed on StratNews Global (television)
Quoted in “China and Russia Have Promised to Boost Trade. Can They?,” Washington Post, May 26, 2023
Research referenced in “Xi Jinping’s Succession Problem—and China’s,” Wall Street Journal, May 19, 2023
Interviewed in “China Will Want to Make India’s U.S. Ties Costly, Says Joseph Torigian,” The Hindu, May 6, 2023
Quoted in “O que está por trás da aliança entre China e Rússia,” BBC Brasil, March 23, 2023
Quoted in “China and Russia: Explaining a Long, Complicated Friendship,” AP, March 22, 2023
Quoted on “The World” with Daniel Ofman, March 20, 2023
Quoted in “Putin and Xi Call Each Other a ‘Dear Friend.’ But Their Main Common Cause Is the U.S.,” LA Times, March 21, 2023
Quoted in “Putin and Xi’s Big Moscow Meeting, Briefly Explained,” Vox, March 20, 2023
Interviewed on BBC Newsday (television), March 20, 2023
Quoted in “Xi Jinping Meeting Vladimir Putin in Boost for Isolated Russia Leader,” AP, March 20, 2023
Quoted in “Xi’s Embrace of Putin Dents His Chances of Playing Peacemaker on Ukraine,” Bloomberg, March 19, 2023
Quoted in “Xi to Visit Russia for First Time Since Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine,” Bloomberg, March 17, 2023
Quoted in “China Has Weapons to Give Russia an Edge in Ukraine—Why Hasn’t It?,” Christian Science Monitor, March 15, 2023
Interviewed on BBC Newshour (radio), February 24, 2023
Interviewed on NBC, February 23, 2023
Interviewed on NRD (German public radio), February 23, 2023
Interviewed on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (television), February 23, 2023
Interviewed on Drum Tower podcast (The Economist), February 27, 2023
Quoted in “China’s Palace Politics: Xi Jinping Loyalists Compete for Power,” Financial Times, January 24, 2023
Quoted in “Waiting for Xie Feng: Decoding China’s New Ambassador,” Politico, January 19, 2023
Interviewed on Bu mingbai boke podcast, January 14, 2023
Interviewed on SiriusXM Business Radio Wharton Business Daily, December 12, 2022
Contribution included in “Jiang Zemin, 1926–2022”: A ChinaFile Conversation, December 2, 2022
Interviewed in “Joseph Torigian on Making Sense of Chinese Politics,” The Wire, November 20, 2022
Quoted in “China Affirms Ties with Russia But Signals That It’s Becoming More Guarded About the War,” New York Times, November 16, 2022
Interviewed on All Things Policy podcast, November 7, 2022
Interview, DW News (on 20th Party Congress) , October 31, 2022
Quoted in “Xi Jinping Has Surrounded Himself with Loyalists,” The Economist, October 27, 2022
Quoted in “Xi Jinping’s New Leadership Line-up Spells Trouble for Bilateral Ties,” Politico, October 27, 2022
Interview, “Episode 23: What China’s National Party Congress Means for the World,” What China Wants podcast, October 27, 2022
Quoted in “Un país fuerte debe tener un ejército fuerte”: 3 lecciones que sacó Xi Jinping del colapso de la URSS (y cómo marcan su gobierno en China),” BBC News, October 23, 2022
Quoted in “Olaf Scholz Won’t Dump China. Will Europe Ever Learn?,” Politico, October 23, 2022
Quoted in “Xi Jinping’s Historic Bid at the Communist Party Congress,” New Yorker, October 23, 2022
Quoted in “The Omnipotence of China’s Xi Jinping,” Der Spiegel, October 20, 2022
Quoted in “New Title for Xi Stokes Concern of a Mao-Style Personality Cult,” Bloomberg, October 19, 2022
Quoted in “What A Third Term For Xi Jinping Could Mean For China And The World,” NPR, October 19, 2022
Quoted in “The Pomp, Pageantry and Paranoia of China’s Communist Party Congress,” Washington Post, October 19, 2022
Quoted in “US-China Ties Hit New Low, Thaw in Now Frozen Ties Unlikely in Near Future,” AFP, August 6, 2022
Quoted in “China’s Xi Doubles Down in Triumphalist Congress Speech,” AFP, October 17, 2022
Quoted in “Up First,” NPR, October 17, 2022
Quoted in “China’s Xi Jinping Stakes Out Ambitions, With Himself at the Center,” Wall Street Journal, October 17, 2022
Quoted in “Xi Jinping’s Quest for Control Over China Targets Even Old Friends,” Wall Street Journal, October 16, 2022
Quoted in “China is Holding the Most Important Meeting in its Political Calendar. Here’s What You Need to Know,” NBC News, October 16, 2022
Quoted in “How Xi Jinping Transformed From Privileged Child to Fierce Supporter of the Communist Party,” CNN (video), October 16, 2022
Quoted in “China Party Congress: Tracing Xi’s Rise to Power as He Looks to a Third Term,” Hindustan Times, October 15, 2022
Interviewed on “Xi Jinping Opens Chinese Communist Party Congress,” BBC Newshour (radio), October 16, 2022
Quoted in “A Sense of Crisis has Defined Xi’s Rule. It will Shape China Well into the Future,” CNN, October 14, 2022
Quoted in “China’s Xi Looks to 3rd 5-year term as Communist Party Meets,” AP, October 14, 2022
Quoted in Chinese Museum Celebrates History of Communist Party Founding,” The World, October 13, 2022
Quoted in “China’s Xi Jinping Problem,” Financial Times, October 12, 2022
Quoted in “Analysis: How China’s Xi Accumulated Power, and Why it Matters in a Third Term,” Reuters, October 11, 2022
Quoted in “Who is China’s President Xi Jinping?” RFI, October 7, 2022
Quoted in “Xi Jinping’s Quest for Total Control of China is Just Getting Started,” Washington Post, October 5, 2022
Interviewed on Mingjing (Chinese language internet television), October 1, 2022
Quoted throughout “The Prince,” Economist podcast series, September 28, 2022
Quoted in “The Unravelling of Vladimir Putin,” New Statesman, September 28, 2022
Quoted in “Chinese Politics has Become Even More of a Black Box under Xi Jinping,” Globe and Mail, September 26, 2022
Quoted in “United Front: Understanding China and Russia’s Deepening Alliance,” Christian Science Monitor, September 20, 2022
Interview on podcast Departures, September 19, 2022
Quoted in “Xi and Putin Meet and Pledge to ‘Inject Stability’ in the World,” Washington Post, September 15, 2022
Quoted in “When Putin and Xi Meet, it is Beijing Coming out on Top,” NBC News, September 15, 2022
Quoted in “Challenges for Russia and China Test a ‘No-Limits’ Friendship,” New York Times, September 13, 2022
Quoted in “China-Russia Bond Tightens As Moscow Sees Ukraine Setbacks,” AFP, September 13, 2022
Quoted in “Xi’s Next Power Play May Be Age Limits for Everyone But Himself,” Bloomberg, September 12, 2002
Interviewed on New Books Network podcast, September 7, 2022
Quoted in “Chinese React to Gorbachev’s Death, Accuse Him of Selling out to Russia,” Washington Post, August 31, 2022
Teaching mentioned in “Xi Jinping’s Radical Secrecy,” Atlantic Monthly, August 21, 2022
Quoted in “US-China Ties Hit New Low, Thaw in Now Frozen Ties Unlikely in Near Future,” AFP, August 6, 2022
Interview on podcast “Elite Power Struggles in the CCP and USSR,” ChinaTalk, July 22, 2022
Interview, “Elite Power Struggles After Stalin and Mao,” The Diplomat, July 18. 2022
Quoted in “China and Russia: Exploring Ties Between Two Authoritarian Powers,” CFR Backgrounder, June 14, 2022
Quoted in “Is China Slowly Turning Its Back to Russia?,” Newsweek, June 9, 2022
Quoted in “Beijing Sticks to Xi’s Covid-19 Stance While Endorsing Premier as Economic Fixer,” Wall Street Journal, June 3, 2022
Quoted in “‘All the Power is in His Hands’: Why Xi Jinping Remains Supreme,” Financial Times, June 2, 2022
Interview on podcast “How to Win a Power Struggle,” Historically Thinking, May 23, 2022
Quoted in “In Xi’s big year, political price of China’s pandemic policy climbs,” AFP, May 22, 2022
Quoted in “Political stakes high as Beijing responds to virus outbreak,” Associated Press, April 29, 2022
Interview on podcast “Elite Purges in Marxist-Leninist Regimes,” Pekingology, CSIS, April 20222
Quoted in “Warum China als Friedensmakler ausfällt,” Der Spiegel, April 14, 2022
Quoted in “Bristling Against the West, China Rallies Domestic Sympathy for Russia, New York Times, April 4, 2022
Quoted in “China’s Ukraine Calculus: Understanding China’s Position in the Ukraine War, The Wire, March 27, 2022
Quoted in “Personal Ties that Bind: How Xi-Putin Relationship Has Evolved,” Aljazeera, March 18, 2022
Interview on The Attitude with Arnie Arnesen, April 29, 2022
Quoted in “Xi Risks Leaving China Isolated by Backing Putin to Counter US,” Bloomberg, March 21, 2002
Quoted in “La moderata ambiguità di Xi Jinping sulla Guerra,” Il Manifesto, March 16, 2022
Quoted in “China’s Goal With Putin Is to Resist U.S. Without Economic Pain,” Bloomberg, March 15, 2022
Quoted in “Xi Jinping isn’t siding with Putin over Ukraine,” Business Insider, March 10, 2022
Interview on KCBS Radio, March 9, 2022
Quoted in “The Battle for Ukraine Could Test the Limits of Closer Ties Between China and Russia,” NPR, March 4, 2022
Quoted in “Ukraine Invasion Tests the Ties That Bind Putin and Xi,” New York Times, February 28, 2022
Quoted in “Dilemmat: Hur länge vågar Kina stötta Putin?,” Svenska Dagbladet, February 27, 2022
Quoted in “Why China hasn’t picked a side in the Ukraine-Russia fight — yet,” The Grid, February 24, 2022
Quoted in “Beijing Weighs How Far to Go in Backing Putin on Ukraine,” Wall Street Journal, February 16, 2022
Interview on podcast “The History Behind Growing China-Russia Relations: A Conversation with Dr. Joseph Torigian,” ChinaPower, CSIS, February 2022
Conducted interview of Chinese historian in “Lin Biao: What Really Happened?,” ChinaTalk, February 10, 2022
Quoted in “The Memo: China’s Olympics Get Underway Beneath Shadow of Abuses,” The Hill, February 4, 2022
Quoted in “As Putin Heads to Beijing, Russia and China’s Stronger Ties are a Headache for the U.S.,” Washington Post, February 1, 2022
Quoted in “Peu cultivé, arrogant et brutal : qui est vraiment Xi Jinping, le nouveau Mao qui tient la Chine sous sa coupe?,” L’Obs, January 29, 2022
Quoted in “How Collapse of the Soviet Union Still Weighs on Chinese Leaders’ Minds 30 Years On,” South China Morning Post, January 1, 2022
Research featured on Mingjing television (in Chinese), December 26, 2021
Interview published on SIS News, December 3, 2021 (on article “A New Case for the Study of Individual Events in Political Science”)
Research featured on Mingjing television (in Chinese), December 1, 2021
Quoted in “How Xi Jinping Is Rewriting China’s History to Put Himself at the Center,” Wall Street Journal, November 17, 2021
Quoted in “To Steer China’s Future, Xi Is Rewriting Its Past,” New York Times, November 7, 2021
Quoted in “The Diary Duel,” The Wire: China, September 26, 2021
Quoted in “Rescuing China’s Muzzled Past, One Footnote at a Time (There Are 2,421),” New York Times, July 26, 2021
Quoted in “Chinese Tourists Throng ‘Red Tourism’ Sites To Mark Communist Party Centennial,” NPR, July 21, 2021
Interview in Il Manifesto (Il Senso di Xi Jinping per la Predestinazione) for special issue on centenary of CCP, July 14, 2021
Interview on Overnights with Trevor Chappell, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, July 6, 2021
Quote included in “De Mao à Xi, la Chine Célèbre son Siècle de Parti Communiste,” Le Devoir (AFP), June 28, 2021
Quote included in “Tourist Mao: Chinese Flock to Communist Party Historic Sites as Country Prepares to Celebrate 100th Anniversary,” The Telegraph, June 27, 2021
Quote included in “Xi Jinping’s Father and His Trip to Australia Had a Hand in the Birth of China’s Tech Giants,” Australian Broadcasting Corporation, June 23, 2021
Quote included in podcast “China Rising, Episode 3: Wolf Warrior,” Global News (Canada), June 11, 2021
Quote included in “China Brazenly Boasts of ‘Aborted’ Revolution to Mark 32 Years Since Tiananmen Square Massacre,” US News and World Report, June 4, 2021
Interview on Voice of America (in Chinese), June 3, 2021 (on June 4, 1989)
Quote included on podcast “China, If You’re Listening (Episode 1),” Australian Broadcasting Corporation, May 31, 2021
Quote included in “Huawei Calls on an Old Friend, Russia, as U.S. Sanctions Bite Down,” Washington Post, May 28, 2021
Research referred to in “Ai Weiwei y Xi Jinping: cara y ceca de la China contemporánea,” Libertad Digital, March 19, 2021
Quote included in “Why Are There No Biographies of Xi Jinping?, The Atlantic, January 30, 2021
Quote included in “The Red Capitalist,” The Wire: China, January 10, 2021
Quote included in “How the U.S. Misread China’s Xi: Hoping for a Globalist, It Got an Autocrat,” Wall Street Journal, December 23, 2020
Interview on podcast “Xi Dada and Daddy: Power, the Party and the President,” Little Red Podcast, November 1, 2020
Quote included in “Zhongguo renyi jubu weixie ri zeng haiwai meiguo gongmin fenfen huiguo bi xian,” Chinese Voice of America, October 23, 2020
Quote included in “Dreams of a Red Emperor: The Relentless Rise of Xi Jinping,” Los Angeles Times, October 22, 2020
Quote included in “In City Where China Welcomed the World, Xi Prepares for a Colder One,” New York Times, October 14, 2020
Quote included in “China’s Xi Lays Out Plan to Build Shenzhen into Global Rival to Troubled Hong Kong,” Washington Post, October 14, 2020
Quote included in “China’s Mealtime Appeal Amid Food Supply Worries: Don’t Take More than You Can Eat, Washington Post, October 5, 2020
Interview on Voice of America (in Chinese), July 2, 2020 (on Hong Kong)
Quote included in “In China-U.S. Showdown, Beijing’s Steely Propagandist Sharpens Her Attack,” Washington Post, May 21, 2020
Quote included in “In China’s Crisis, Xi Sees a Crucible to Strengthen His Rule,” New York Times, May 20, 2020
Quote included in “China Investigates Property Tycoon Who Criticised Government Over Coronavirus Outbreak,” The Telegraph, April 8, 2020
Quote included in “Chinese Mogul Faces Probe for Essay Critical of President Xi’s Coronavirus Handling,” Wall Street Journal, April 7, 2020
Interview on Mingjing television (in Chinese), February 28, 2020 (on Xi Jinping’s father)
Interview on Mingjing television (in Chinese), February 27, 2020 (on Deng Xiaoping)
Interview on Mingjing television (in Chinese), December 4, 2019 (on Xi Jinping’s father and Xinjiang)
Quote included in “For China’s Xi, the Hong Kong Crisis is Personal,” Wall Street Journal, September 27, 2019
Quote included in “Why Taiwan is Unfinished Business for Xi Jinping,” Financial Times, September 22, 2019
Research referenced in “As Protests Rock Hong Kong, Xi Jinping’s View of History Shows He Will Dig In,” New York Times, July 3, 2019
Interview on podcast “The Little Red Podcast,” June 2, 2019
Quoted included in “Deng Xiaoping’s Son Urges China to ‘Know its Place’ in Counterpoint to Xi’s Expansionist Foreign Policy,” The Telegraph, October 30, 2018