2021 Notebook: China a huge 2021 story, with Olympics ahead

China was one of the biggest stories of 2021 — from its plans to host the 2022 Winter Olympics in the face of criticism about its human rights records in the Xinjiang region, Tibet and Hong Kong to questions about how it would wield its economic power in a delicately balanced world. Not to mention the always relevant issue of how it deals with the United States — this year, under a new president, Joe Biden.

In 2021, the country’s ruling Communist Party officially revised history for the third time in its existence, elevating leader Xi Jinping to a level alongside only Mao Zedong, the founder of the people’s republic, and “reform and opening-up” architect Deng Xiaoping. That could allow him to stay in power even longer — does it venerate him as politically beyond reproach?

Here, the Associated Press journalist who oversaw AP’s China coverage in 2021 weighs in on what he has seen during the past year and what might lie ahead.

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