The Library

Every dot is a piece

92 analyses, about 201,000 words

Each dot is one analysis from The Pacific Divide, placed on the day it was published and sized by its length. Many began with a government document read in the original Mandarin.

Hover or tap any dot to see what it is; select it again to read it.

Beyond the letter

Some of the work ran elsewhere

The rings are investigations, columns, filings and talks; The Diplomat, China Brief, Horasis, the UK House of Commons and the Massachusetts legislature among them.

Seven questions

Sorted by subject, the work keeps asking seven questions

Pulled apart by what each piece is about, the archive gathers into seven groups, each built around a question that keeps returning.

Question 1 of 7

Reading Beijing · 29 pieces

What is China building, in its own words?

Beijing publishes its intentions in plans, standards and ministry notices that few people outside China read in the original. These pieces read them first, often before any official translation exists, and follow what they say to where it leads.

• The Pacific Divide · Dec 2, 2025China Just Published Its AI Blueprint. Almost No One in the West Read It.
• The Diplomat · Mar 10, 2026China's 5-Year Plan Has Moved Beyond the Chip War. Washington Hasn't Noticed.

Question 2 of 7

Chips, compute and power · 18 pieces

Are export controls aimed at the right layer?

Washington has fought the AI race at the chip, while China secured the layers beneath and around it; packaging, memory, software and electricity. These pieces trace each layer through filings and customs rules, and the record shows which of their calls held.

• The Pacific Divide · Aug 12, 2025The 4 Billion Yuan Question: Decoding China's Cambricon and the New State Capitalism Playbook
• The Pacific Divide · Feb 6, 2026Everyone Pays Samsung

Question 3 of 7

China's reach · 13 pieces

Where does the infrastructure go, and what follows it?

Cables, payment rails, ports and processing plants travel farther than the headlines about them. From Venezuela to Djibouti to the Arctic, these pieces follow the infrastructure first and the politics after.

• The Pacific Divide · Sep 4, 2025The iFlytek Factor: How China's AI Deal Just Changed the US-Venezuela Standoff
• The Pacific Divide · Jan 3, 2026China Was in Venezuela Ten Hours Before

Question 4 of 7

Biology and the genome · 4 pieces

Who will hold the data of human life?

The contest over AI has reached biology, with Washington walling off its most capable models and Beijing walling off its genomes and health data. These pieces follow the rules on both sides, and the places neither wall reaches.

• Investigation · Sep 28, 2026Filed in Beijing, Cited in Washington
• The Pacific Divide · Sep 1, 2026The Three Gates

Question 5 of 7

Who writes AI law · 15 pieces

Who is writing the rules at home, and for whom?

Most AI law is written line by line in statehouses and committee rooms, often faster than anyone reads it. These pieces read every line, in Massachusetts, Utah and Congress, and ask whom each rule actually protects.

• The Pacific Divide · Feb 21, 2026I Read Every Line of Massachusetts's New AI Bill. The Legislators Who Wrote It Clearly Didn't.
• The Pacific Divide · Mar 3, 202693A: The Three Characters That Should Terrify Every AI Company

Question 6 of 7

Power and the sovereign mind · 15 pieces

What becomes of a citizen when one hand holds the layer?

Dating, rent, news, health and work increasingly run through the same few systems, and control that goes unseen erodes the trust people place in their own judgment. These pieces, and the investigations beside them, map who holds that layer.

• The Pacific Divide · Feb 11, 2025Digital Technofeudalism
• The Pacific Divide · Oct 7, 2025China Watches You. America Makes You Doubt Yourself.

Question 7 of 7

People in the age of machines · 17 pieces

What do people owe each other when machines stand in between?

Behind every argument about AI sits a question about people; how they learn, work, confess and stand together. These essays take up that question, from classrooms in China to the purple-collar worker to the idea of collective individualism.

• The Pacific Divide · Jul 8, 2025Class Dismissed
• The Pacific Divide · May 27, 2026Collective Individualism

The record

Every call, dated on both ends

Forecasts made in these pieces are kept in public, with each prediction set beside the event that settled it.