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Palmer-James-foreign-policy-staff-portraits-202226

James Palmer

Deputy Editor [email protected]

James Palmer is a deputy editor at Foreign Policy and writes FP’s weekly China Brief newsletter. Palmer is the author of The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia and The Death of Mao: The Tangshan Earthquake and the Birth of the New China. He won the Shiva Naipaul prize for travel writing in 2003.

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A man uses a computer in an internet cafe in Beijing on June 1, 2017. China implemented a controversial cybersecurity law on June 1, despite concerns from foreign firms worried about its impact on their ability to do business in the world's second largest economy. / AFP PHOTO / GREG BAKER (Photo credit should read GREG BAKER/AFP/Getty Images)
A man uses a computer in an internet cafe in Beijing on June 1, 2017. China implemented a controversial cybersecurity law on June 1, despite concerns from foreign firms worried about its impact on their ability to do business in the world's second largest economy. / AFP PHOTO / GREG BAKER (Photo credit should read GREG BAKER/AFP/Getty Images)

China Is Trying to Give the Internet a Death Blow

Argument
James Palmer
This picture taken on December 10, 2010 shows an exhibition at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo highlighting this year's Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Liu Xiaobo, a few hours before its opening. Confusion over which countries would attend the peace prize ceremony for jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo grew Friday just hours before the event with organisers adding more names to the list. AFP PHOTO / SCANPIX - Berit Roald (Photo credit should read BERIT ROALD/AFP/Getty Images)
This picture taken on December 10, 2010 shows an exhibition at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo highlighting this year's Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Liu Xiaobo, a few hours before its opening. Confusion over which countries would attend the peace prize ceremony for jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo grew Friday just hours before the event with organisers adding more names to the list. AFP PHOTO / SCANPIX - Berit Roald (Photo credit should read BERIT ROALD/AFP/Getty Images)

The Chinese Think Liu Xiaobo Was Asking For It

Argument
James Palmer
The site of the Astana Expo 2017 on its second day of opening, June 11, 2017. The skyline is dominated by the vast Kazakhstan Pavilion.
The site of the Astana Expo 2017 on its second day of opening, June 11, 2017. The skyline is dominated by the vast Kazakhstan Pavilion.

Kazakhstan Spent $5 Billion on a Death Star and It Doesn’t Even Shoot Lasers

Dispatch
James Palmer
Workers erect a brick wall at the former shop front of a restaurant in a hutong neighborhood near the Forbidden City in Beijing, China April 20, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter - RTS1340S
Workers erect a brick wall at the former shop front of a restaurant in a hutong neighborhood near the Forbidden City in Beijing, China April 20, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter - RTS1340S

How to Destroy the Heart of a Chinese City

Dispatch
James Palmer
Posters, a flag and a bunch of flowers in solidarity with the dead and injured from the terror attack in Manchester are arranged on the pavement in Trafalgar Square in central London on May 23, 2017. Twenty two people have been killed and dozens injured in Britain's deadliest terror attack in over a decade after a suspected suicide bomber targeted fans leaving a concert of US singer Ariana Grande in Manchester. British police on Tuesday named the suspected attacker behind the Manchester concert bombing as Salman Abedi, but declined to give any further details. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS (Photo credit should read DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images)
Posters, a flag and a bunch of flowers in solidarity with the dead and injured from the terror attack in Manchester are arranged on the pavement in Trafalgar Square in central London on May 23, 2017. Twenty two people have been killed and dozens injured in Britain's deadliest terror attack in over a decade after a suspected suicide bomber targeted fans leaving a concert of US singer Ariana Grande in Manchester. British police on Tuesday named the suspected attacker behind the Manchester concert bombing as Salman Abedi, but declined to give any further details. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS (Photo credit should read DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images)

I Love Manchester, But Please Stop Celebrating My Hometown

Argument
James Palmer
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - JUNE 10: A United Airlines plane sits on the tarmac at San Francisco International Airport on June 10, 2015 in San Francisco, California. The Environmental Protection Agency is taking the first steps to start the process of regulating greenhouse gas emissions from airplane exhaust. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - JUNE 10: A United Airlines plane sits on the tarmac at San Francisco International Airport on June 10, 2015 in San Francisco, California. The Environmental Protection Agency is taking the first steps to start the process of regulating greenhouse gas emissions from airplane exhaust. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Chinese Blame America for United Airlines

Argument
James Palmer
US President Donald Trump (L) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) walk together at the Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Florida, April 7, 2017. President Donald Trump entered a second day of talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Friday hoping to strike deals on trade and jobs after an overnight show of strength in Syria. / AFP PHOTO / JIM WATSON (Photo credit should read JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)
US President Donald Trump (L) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) walk together at the Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Florida, April 7, 2017. President Donald Trump entered a second day of talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Friday hoping to strike deals on trade and jobs after an overnight show of strength in Syria. / AFP PHOTO / JIM WATSON (Photo credit should read JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)

What Trump Calls Strength, China Calls Stupidity

Argument
James Palmer
ZAOZHUANG, CHINA - JANUARY 03: A traffic policeman regulates traffic in heavy smog on January 3, 2017 in Zaozhuang, China. Anhui issues an orange alert of fog at 11 a.m. on Tuesday. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)
ZAOZHUANG, CHINA - JANUARY 03: A traffic policeman regulates traffic in heavy smog on January 3, 2017 in Zaozhuang, China. Anhui issues an orange alert of fog at 11 a.m. on Tuesday. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

What It’s Like to Live Where It’s Not Even Safe to Breathe

Dispatch
James Palmer
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What China Didn’t Learn From the Collapse of the Soviet Union

Argument
James Palmer
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I Think That Chinese Official Really Liked Me!

Tea Leaf Nation
David Wertime, James Palmer
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China Really Isn’t Joking About Taiwan

Argument
James Palmer
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China Just Won The U.S. Election

Argument
James Palmer
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Chinese Kids Want to Believe in America, but We’re Not Making It Easy for Them

Argument
James Palmer
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The Great Authoritarian Kinship

ChinaFile
James Palmer
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Ai Weiwei Doesn’t Need Anyone to Give Him Lego

Tea Leaf Nation
James Palmer
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