A selection of the FT’s biggest stories and best reads every Friday

Here in Beijing friends have started dusting off their rooftops for summer parties. When I say dusting, I mean it literally: in the past month the city has been hit by the worst sandstorms for 10 years. They serve as a reminder of the urgency of the US climate summit this week. But China and the US have much left to argue over: in my latest column I explore the grassroots nationalist ideas that have sprouted on China’s censored, yet still diverse, internet.

I hope you enjoy my pick of the week’s stories, plus a few from elsewhere you shouldn’t miss. Click here if you’d like to receive Long Story Short by email every Friday.

1. ‘Nine minutes and 29 seconds’

On Wednesday the former US police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd. But convictions of police officers for violence against African-Americans are still rare. Claire Bushey reports on how Minnesota’s state prosecutors secured such a difficult victory, notably by relying on a strong team, emotive evidence and video footage shot by a bystander. According to one Chicago attorney:

“As a prosecutor, you can look too passionate, too committed, too wanting-to-win, and that’s not what it’s about.”

2. ‘For Chinese bureaucrats, the rewards for a career change are high’

If you can’t beat them, hire them. A growing number of China’s tech giants have been hiring former government officials in order to lobby for looser regulation, writes Sun Yu in this scoop. While the “revolving door” between politics and business is not uncommon in the US and Europe, it was largely unheard of in China until recently. What’s more, these officials are unscrutinised by domestic media, making them harder to track. By knitting together corporate records, this piece shows how a nominally socialist country has acquired many of the familiar issues of capitalism.

“When I worked for the government, I couldn’t afford to rent an apartment near the office . . . Now I have no trouble buying a home.”

3. ‘Learning a language badly is becoming pointless’

After recently picking up French again (which I haven’t studied since school), I’ve started to bait my friends into debates over why and how to learn a foreign language. Everyone who has been to secondary school in Beijing speaks some English. In fact, most of my Chinese friends speak two mutually indistinguishable dialects: one hometown and one for Beijing. In his column this week Simon Kuper, a “rootless cosmopolitan”, makes the case for learning languages in the age of machine translation.

“Machines can’t (yet) communicate through body language or eye contact, and some algorithms are sexist.”

4. ‘It’s not been too bad — compared to England’

In March, Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon published a draft bill for a second independence referendum, claiming that the ­pandemic had boosted support for self-governance. Despite having similar coronavirus outcomes, the Scottish government initially took a tougher line on lockdown restrictions than counterparts in London. In this piece Henry Mance visits Glasgow, which said “Yes” to leaving the UK in 2014, to ask the question: has the pandemic made Scottish independence more likely? In the words of one SNP minister:

“People have become much more conscious of what we can’t do [as part of the UK].”

5. ‘I never tweet if I’m angry’

In a time when clients, colleagues or even romantic partners will probably Google you before meeting you, Jemima Kelly explores the “digital cleanse” industry. These firms can fix your online reputation — which, by now, we all have. Their interventions range from telling you which tweets you should delete, to working search-engine optimisation magic to bury references to that porn star who awkwardly shares your name. Alternatively, she suggests, we could try becoming a less censorious society and more forgiving of mistakes. In the meantime, broadcaster and prolific Twitter user Gary Lineker advises:

“If I have even a 1 per cent doubt about it then I won’t post . . . Unless I think it’s really funny . . . ”

Quick hits

OTHER FT STORIES THAT HAVE CAUGHT MY EYE THIS WEEK

• The vaccines are working: here’s some much-needed good news. This excellent piece of data journalism reveals the effect that immunisation programmes are having around the world.

• Official figures often tell us little about how insecure employment has become. We need better measures for the volatility of work hours and pay that affects a rising number of people on zero-hour or low-hour contracts, argues Sarah O’Connor in her column.

• Leaked plans for the European Super League, with a US-style finance structure, prompted uproar from fans and politicians alike. The FT reported on leaked documents that show the extent of efforts to share wealth between football’s richest clubs.

• In the world of VTubers, or virtual YouTubers, female live-streamers host videos behind the masks of online anime avatars. Tom Faber delves into the next frontier of digital entertainment.

• At no point during my secondary schooling in Bradford, northern England, did any history lesson touch upon how the city, one of the most ethnically diverse in the UK, came to be so. George Alagiah makes the argument for a museum of immigration that explores our imperial history.

Best of the rest

WHAT I’VE BEEN READING ELSEWHERE

1. Nightmares becalmed Ever dreamt of being chased? Or having your teeth fall out? In this long read, a “dream engineer” shares her research into what influences dreams and the practice of “lucid dreaming” when you control the story. (Aeon)

2. The dark side of the houseplant boom Many of us grew green fingers during the lockdowns of last year. The Atlantic asks if our celebration of the wild world is a manifestation of grief? (The Atlantic)

3. ICYMI: The case for plural marriage This essay brings together two opposite ends of the political spectrum — the generally rightwing polygamists and leftwing polyamorists — in their fight to liberalise marriage laws. (The New Yorker)

Before you go

I’m always curious about portrayals of Chinese people’s lives at home, whether eccentric or mainstream. This video feature by the Shanghai-based English language media platform, Sixth Tone, asks why some millennials are warming to pet ducks. It features a live comparison between the ducks we roast and the ducks we cuddle — a topic worthy of pondering . . . Plus, fluffy ducks!

We always want to hear your thoughts and feedback, so drop me a line at yuan.yang@ft.com or email us at longstoryshort@ft.com — and have a great weekend.

Yuan
Deputy Beijing bureau chief