COVID-19 filled me with fear — until I went home to China

COVID-19 filled me with fear — until I went home to China

COVID-19 left me in limbo in the United States, full of fear and anger. Then I returned home to China to face criticism before reuniting with my family. An empty John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York (All photos by Jasmine Li) So this is where I am going...

The coronavirus pandemic has put strains on students, their families, schools, entire communities. But Jasmine Li, a Chinese student at Westover School in the United States, provides a first-person account of the special difficulties facing foreign nationals caught in limbo as COVID-19 triggered global travel restrictions. Li cannot return to her temporary home at school, and when she finally makes it home to China, she discovers some compatriots consider her a traitor and urge her to leave. Adolescence can be a difficult period of self-discovery, but Li’s painful experiences are the product of a globalized world that, in normal circumstances, offers extraordinary opportunities but which, during a pandemic, sees forgotten borders re-emerge. Ask each student to describe their most difficult moment during the pandemic. How do their experiences compare?

Decoder: Why China and the U.S. are on a collision course

They are the world’s two most powerful economies, deeply interlocked. But China and the U.S. are increasingly at odds — with vast implications. A Taiwanese Air Force fighter in the foreground flies on the flank of a Chinese bomber as they pass near Taiwan, 10...

The relationship between China and the United States will have a profound impact on the lives of today’s students. In his examination of the bilateral relationship, Jim Wolf reviews the fraught history between China and the West, and looks at the two nations’ current leaders and how their agendas are radically at odds. Wolf eschews the bias that can creep into reporting on China by Western correspondents. This tour d’horizon offers students a starting point for deeper examination of the forces — economic, military, geographic, political — that will shape the world they will inherit.

Hong Kong has long been caught in the middle

Hong Kong has long been caught in the middle

When I arrived in Hong Kong half a century ago, it was just starting its explosive growth. Now it’s caught again in the middle of a big-power dispute. Before Hong Kong’s old airport closed in 1998, it had just one runway, and airliners used to skim low...

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