Isaac Stone Fish
Selected Recent Articles
September 21st, 2018
Washington Post op-ed on U.S. firms' involvement in the mass surveillance occurring in Xinjiang.
September 4th, 2008
Why are America's elite universities censoring themselves on China?
August 29th, 2018
Washington Post op-ed about prohibiting railcar purchases from the CRRC.
August 20th, 2018
The league is running a training center in the middle of one of the world’s worst humanitarian atrocities.
July 31st, 2018
Why Facebook should not enter China.
July 4th, 2018
The long reach of Chinese censorship in America.
June 13th, 2018
Washington Post op-ed about how Pyongyang might react in the months following the historic Trump-Kim meeting.
June 8th, 2018
How Washington can get Beijing to step up. Co-written with Robert Kelly.
May 23rd, 2018
Washington Post op-ed on why its problematic that Politico is partnering with a paper owned by the Chinese tech firm Alibaba.
April 10th, 2018
They should fear a boycott. Washington Post op-ed.
March 30th, 2018
Washington Post op-ed on how the Communist Party views Hollywood.
March 11th, 2018
Even if a summit gives North Korea legitimacy it doesn’t deserve, talking is preferable to the disastrous alternative.
February 27th, 2018
How the world grossly misread the Chinese leader’s ambitions.
January 31st, 2018
The Kim regime will always be a greater danger to its own people than to Americans.
December 14th, 2017
Chinese ownership is raising questions about the editorial independence of a major U.S. magazine.
November 27th, 2017
A summit in North Korea could offer the president a solution to the current crisis—really.
October 25th, 2017
After years of reporting in China, I'm still maddeningly ignorant about the Communist Party.
October 25th, 2017
Why are there still so few women in positions of power in China?
October 4th, 2017
A war with North Korea would be devastating. But a war over Taiwan could be worse, and more likely.
September 28th, 2017
China's sheltering of ethnic cleansing in Burma gives a clue of what a Sinocentric world might look like.
September 25th, 2017
The many many times Pyongyang has interpreted U.S. actions as "declarations of war."
September 4th, 2017
Beijing could still be a good partner for the United States in countering Pyongyang’s brinkmanship and aggression – if handled correctly.
August 10th, 2017
Washington Post op-ed comparing the language of Trump and Pyongyang.
August 7th, 2017
The Trump administration’s narrow minded focus on North Korea means it’s taking its eye off China as a result. That’s a mistake.
July 5th, 2017
If the two sides keep expanding their common interests, that could be far more devastating to the United States’ long-term interests than Kim and his missiles.
June 26th, 2017
China's worrying treatment of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo.
June 23rd, 2017
Exclusive investigation into the events surrounding the American student's arrest in Pyongyang.
June 20th, 2017
Despite the dangers, I still recommend the cautious and adventurous American visit the Hermit Kingdom.
June 20th, 2017
Appealing for calm in U.S. attitudes towards North Korea.
June 13th, 2017
The ancient Chinese act of kowtowing required touching the ground with one’s forehead in deference to the emperor. The modern American act of kowtowing requires absurdly praising Trump.
June 2nd, 2017
After the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Accords, China's diplomatic public-relations game keeps growing stronger. Article quoted in Fortune Magazine, and Vox.
May 10th, 2017
Article co-written with two other longtime China correspondents.
April 20th, 2017
He is uniquely unsuited to serve as commander-in-chief in the event of a war with a nuclear-armed country.
April 13th, 2017
The world knows little about the palace politics in North Korea, the world’s most opaque country. Yet it seems like Kim is acting intelligently
April 11th, 2017
The country is the world's second largest economy. Why doesn't it embrace its authoritarian government?
April 6th, 2017
What if Xi is not China's most powerful leader since Mao?
April 5th, 2017
Ignoring the Chinese government’s abuses isn’t just immoral: It’s a bad negotiating tactic.
March 21st, 2017
He has seemingly met with roughly the same number of heads of state over the last few months as Trump’s daughter Ivanka.
March 13th, 2017
Countries like Venezuela, Russia and China are using Washington’s aggressive stance on journalists to justify their own erosion of the free press.
February 13th, 2017
The president has been right so far to do nothing publicly about North Korea.
January 30th, 2017
With the United States embracing revolutionary chaos, China is positioning itself as the adult in the room.
January 25th, 2017
Don't worry about the South China Sea. Worry about Trump starting a war to distract from his incompetence.
December 22nd, 2016
The president-elect’s newly appointed trade czar Peter Navarro doesn't seem to have much of a plan, besides blaming China.
December 5, 2016
As Trump continues to weaken people’s belief in his integrity, and that of the American political system, a surprising side effect is the Chinese political system appears more rational and welcoming by contrast.
December 5th, 2016
The island once had a seat on the UN Security Council. Now a simple phone call with its leader is international news.
November 7, 2016
Trump's policies would be softer on China, but the global instability he'd create as President would be bad for business in Beijing.
October 21st, 2016
What could possibly make a young Chinese person go all-in for the Republican nominee?
July 29, 2016
A feature exploring why apocalyptic fiction and film haven't caught on in the Middle Kingdom.
July 7th, 2016
China's failed attempt to build influence in the United States.
May 25th, 2016
An exclusive look at the extortion and sexual misconduct committed by one of China's most respected dissidents. Written with Melissa Chan.
April 15th, 2016
The American Bar Association insists the move was market-driven, but an employee email says otherwise. The article inspired an WSJ editorial, and coverage in the New York Times, Bloomberg, among others. It also inspired Senator Marco Rubio to ask the ABA to submit testimony at an upcoming Congressional hearing.
April 12th, 2016
Trump’s proposed policies toward China would only damage U.S. interests and make Beijing stronger. Articled referenced in The Financial Times and the Council on Foreign Relations.
February 2, 2016
Millions of Chinese have been swindled by hucksters promising easy money.
January 19th, 2016
The 120-year-old cliché that explains the Chinese-American relationship: about the phrase, "When China wakes, it will shake the world."
January 15th, 2016
Beijing and Taipei don't think it is. Why does the rest of the world? Article written up widely in Chinese and Taiwanese media, including Taipei Times, Apple Daily, and Sina; and in The Atlantic.
December 24th, 2015
Xi Jinping’s secret strategy for dealing with China’s powerful retired elite; syndicated on Yahoo, and Slate's French edition.
November 23rd, 2015
Inside the fight over the American Bar Association's tepid condemnation of Beijing’s crackdown on lawyers and activists.
November 5, 2015
September 23rd, 2015
A preview of Xi Jinping's state visit, and the issues involved.
August 31st, 2015
A profile of Rebel Pepper, China's most notorious political cartoonist, and his life of exile in Japan.
August 3rd, 2015
The stories of corruption surrounding one of China's most infamous religious figures.
June 16, 2015
Interview with Japan’s former defense minister about
reinterpreting the country's constitution to counter China’s rise.June 4, 2015
How two defense hawks -- one American, another Chinese -- came to be friends.
April 29, 2015
An evening with the dance performance trying to bring down the Chinese Communist Party.
April 13, 2015
Many of China's netizens think she'll be too tough on their country, while others are just being sexist.
March 13th, 2015
An investigation into the followers of Dorje Shugden, who say the Dalai Lama is a "Muslim" who "associates" with Nazis.
February 6th, 2015
The art of the pickup in New Delhi, where homosexuality is illegal,
Grindr is growing, and policemen are waiting just around the corner.February 4th, 2015
Profile of the Tibetan prime minister-in-exile, reported from Dharamsala, India.
January 24th, 2015
The quickest way to end a conversation in Davos is to bring up human
rights in China. I tried it roughly half a dozen times, and it always
spoiled otherwise congenial encounters.January 23rd, 2015
What happened to the star anchorman Rui Chenggang?
January 22nd, 2015
The most masterful rejection I have ever received.
December 31st, 2014
When it comes to censorship, it's Beijing -- not Pyongyang -- that poses the real threat to Hollywood.
December 24th, 2014
What happens when a respected news organization sets up a bureau in the
world’s most repressive state? Compromises, and lots of them.November 4, 2014
Exclusive interview with China's Ambassador to the United States before Obama's trip to Asia.
October 22nd, 2014
Blog post quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, CNN, and the BBC, and which sparked a debate in The Atlantic.
October 17th, 2014
Book review about Suki Kim's memoir about teaching in an elite North Korean school run by evangelical missionaries, "Without You There Is No Us."
October 1st, 2014
Exclusive interview with Uighur Leader Rebiya Kadeer about the protests in Hong Kong, and Uighur claims for independence.
September 29th, 2014
Watching Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Madison Square Garden extravaganza.
September 25th, 2014
A look at Beijing's favorite rhetorical trick.
September 1st, 2014
What message does civil unrest in Hong Kong send to the rest of China?
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