Economist launches China section

The Economist launched on Friday a new section on China in the magazine’s first new section devoted to a single country for 70 years.

The inaugural China section will cover aspects — political, economic and social — of the nation’s rising power in an attempt to give an even deeper understanding of the vast country.

It will join existing sections on the United States and Britain, as well as the regions of The Americas, Asia, Middle East & Africa, and Europe.

The last new country section to be added to The Economist was the U.S., after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The Britain section has been included since The Economist was first published in 1843.

“We have always covered China in depth,” said Economist editor John Micklethwait in a statement. “However, I decided that China’s emergence as a global power justified giving it a section of its own. It also allows us to devote more space each week to covering the deeper social, political and economic issues in the country, especially the China beyond Beijing and Shanghai. That is how we built up the reputation of the American Survey. We hope the China section becomes the starting point for anyone who wants to know more about this absorbing, complicated country.”

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