💌 Sign up for You May Also Like, my newsletter about e-commerce and China. Below is a selection of my past reporting and essays.
✨Features & Investigations
How Shein Beat Amazon at Its Own Game — And Reinvented Fast Fashion (Rest of World)
The End of Foreign-Language Education (The Atlantic)
How China’s ‘Crystal Capital’ Cornered the Market on a Western Obsession (WIRED)
TikTok's Secret Plans for an Online Shopping Empire in the US (Semafor)
Shein Workers Have Had It—and They’re Going Public (WIRED)
✨On China
Why Everyone Is Suddenly in a ‘Very Chinese Time’ in Their Lives (WIRED)
Shein Buying Everlane Actually Makes Perfect Sense (WIRED)
Amazon Suppliers Linked to Forced Labor in China (NBC News)
How the West Got China’s Social Credit System Wrong (Wired)
The Absurdity of Believing China’s Great at Protecting Kids Online (The Atlantic)
On YouTube, China is Always About to Collapse (Semafor)
✨ E-Commerce
These Trump Socks Went Viral—and a Nightmare on Amazon Began (Wired)
The Influencers Getting Paid to Promote Designer Knockoffs From China (Wired)
Chinese Shopping Sites Encroach on Amazon's Turf (Semafor)
Chinese Fast-Fashion Giant Shein Enters DC's Crosshairs (Semafor)
Shein Calls for Makeover of US Trade Rule That Critics Used Against It (Semafor)
✨ Artificial Intelligence
The Real Demon Inside ChatGPT (WIRED)
Startups Are Using ChatGPT to Meet Soaring Demand for Chatbot Therapy (Semafor)
White House Could Force Cloud Companies to Disclose AI Customers (Semafor)
The New Think Tanks Influencing AI Policy in Washington (Semafor)
The 26-year-old CEO Who Became Washington’s AI Whisperer (Semafor)
✨On TikTok
A TikTok Whistleblower Got DC’s Attention. Do His Claims Add Up? (Wired)
Does TikTok Really Pose a Risk to US National Security? (Wired)
The Sneaky Way TikTok Is Connecting You to Real-Life Friends (Wired)
Behind Bars, but Still Posting on TikTok (Wired)
Asian and Middle Eastern Users Tilt TikTok Balance Toward Palestinians (Semafor)
✨ Essays & Oddities
How Taiwan Made Cashless Payments Cute (WIRED)
Mackenzie Bezos and the Myth of the Lone Genius Founder (Wired)
Why I Love My Teeny-Tiny Knockoff Nokia (Wired)
At an Outback Steakhouse Franchise, Surveillance Blooms (Wired)
What Would Really Happen If Russia Attacked Undersea Internet Cables (Wired)
Why So Many People Make Their Password ‘Dragon’ (Wired)