China’s birthrate is higher than South Korea’s or Japan’s. Yet family life is thriving there as millions defy the one-child policy

How China took to the Western game of chess

The Mongol Empire may be forgotten in the West, but it was Genghis Khan and his grandson Kublai who laid the foundations of modern China   

"Lee Kuan Yew met every Chinese leader from Mao to Xi Jinping. But is China following his Singaporean model?"

'If the Chinese have shown cynical duplicity towards Hong Kong's democrats, the British have been guilty of self-delusion'

China is in the grip of a piano passion, with superstar rivals and millions playing at home

'One student identified himself as working class and a member of the Communist Party. I was, however, surprised to see a copy of Roger Scruton’s Meaning of Conservatism bulging out of his satchel'

‘When I asked my winsome Han tour guide what would happen when the skyscrapers collapsed, she said with cheerful gusto, “We’ll build them again!”’

‘It’s easy to forget that this sophisticated modern city is nonetheless part of a repressive Communist system’

Faced with an astonishing revival of Christianity in China, Beijing is reacting with a mixture of alarm, repression and control