It’s this aerial view of “Zhongnanhai,” meaning “middle and southern seas,” and the surrounding buildings that today’s Chinese leaders prefer you did not see. That’s because the ...

Russian president Vladimir Putin and Chinese president Xi Jinping attend a tea ceremony in Beijing's Zhongnanhai park (Reuters photo) Often compared to the Kremlin in Russia, Zhongnanhai serves a ...

On a map of protected areas, the hutong around Zhongnanhai glowed in a bright, safe yellow. Obviously, it didn’t do much good. Overhead satellite images viewed on Google Earth suggest that the ...