Work on contemporary China, academics and journalists but in the popular media
- If they write it, you should read it
- (a) mostly individuals
David Bandurski - Investigative journalist at the University of Hong Kong. He writes frequently in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, South China Morning Post. He manages the China Media Project China Media Project Bandurski received a Human Rights Press Award in 2007 for his feature about China’s Internet censorship guidelines. Another indispensable resource. Sample work - The court of Xinhua: Do not dare claim the truth for yourself; it is the Party’s through and through. Hong Kong Free Press, August 20, 2018 Party Truth and What to Say When you are a Party Official, September 4, 2018 What to Say and Dragons in Diamond Village - Tales of Resistance from Urbanizing China. Melville House, 2016. Dragons in Diamond Village
Rogier Creemers – Law faculty at Leiden University in the Netherlands. Translator and writer on Chinese law and governance. Sample work - China’s Constitutionalism Debate: Content, Context And Implications, China Journal, 74: July, 2015 Constitutionalism and China's Social Credit System: An Evolving Practice of Control, SSRN, May 22, 2018 Social Credit System
Andrew Batson – Andrew is a founder of Gavekal Dragometrics, an economic consulting firm in Beijing and Hong Kong. Personal blog at Andrew's Blog
Ann Stevenson-Yang - Founded of J Capital Research, an economic consulting firm in Beijing. She tends to be a bit more pessimistic than I find useful, but she acts as a good correction to the panda hugging one often finds in the business press. I read anything she writes. Ann does not have a personal blog. Bloomberg articles - Ann Stevenson-Yang Interview in Barron’s with Jonathan Laing, Why Beijing’s Troubles Could Get a Lot Worse, December 6, 2014 Beijing's Troubles
Keith Bradsher - Shanghai Bureau Chief for the New York Times NYT bio Sample work – Trump’s Tariffs Are Changing Trade with China. Here are 2 Emerging Endgames. August 8, 2018 Tariff endgame
David Barboza - Former Shanghai Bureau Chief for the New York Times, until he helped break the story about the 2.7 billion dollars worth of assets controlled by the family of Wen Jiabao. He won a Pulitzer for that work in 2013. Wen Jiabao Family Wealth
(note - just FYI, the Bloomberg story on the family wealth of Xi Jinping broke just a couple of months earlier - Xi Jinping family wealth)
Susan Shirk – Professor at University of California at San Diego and chair of the 21st Century China Center. Previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State (1997-2000). University profile Author of China: Fragile Superpower, How China's Internal Politics Could Derail Its Peaceful Rise, Oxford University Press, 2007. China: Fragile Superpower
Victor Shih – professor at University of California at San Diego. One of the first to document excessive debt accumulation in local governments in China after 2008. Sample work – Financial Instability in China – Possible Pathways and their Likelihood, MERICS China Monitor, October 20, 2017 Financial Instability
Isabel Hilton - Profile independent writer with wide experience in writing about censorship and the environment in China. founder of China Dialogue, a web site focusing on the environment and sustainability China Dialogue
Eva Pils – attorney and academic, writer on comparative law and law in China. Wrote China’s Human Rights Lawyers: Advocacy and Resistance, 2014. China's Human Rights Lawyers Sample work - Citizens? The Legal and Political Status of Peasants and Peasant Migrant Workers in China. Legal and Political Status of Peasants
David Moser – Associate Dean, Yenching Academy at Peking University. Sample work - On the Struggle to Create a Modern Chinese Language Language Struggle and, for fun, Why is Chinese so Damn Hard? Why is Chinese so Damn Hard?
Paul Gillis - China Accounting Blog, focus as you might think. Series of good articles on the refusal of Chinese government to honor requests for audit papers of Chinese companies listed on US stock exchanges, which should have been cause for delisting. Rationale? “State secrets.” US response – ok. China Accounting Blog Sample work – ZTE – Where Were the Auditors? ZTE - Where were the auditors?
Randall Peerenboom – Professor of Law at UCLA. Prolific author and attorney, with focus on law in China. Sample work - Dispute Resolution in China: Patterns, Causes, and Prognosis (with He Xin) Foundation for Law, Justice, and Society, University of Oxford Dispute Resolution in China
Balding’s World - Christopher Balding taught at the HSBC Business School of Peking University in Shenzhen. In 2018, he thought it best to leave China. I don’t know if his blog will still be online, but there are good posts on China macro policy that will continue to be useful. Balding's World
Perry Link - Professor of languages and literature at Princeton and University of California, Riverside, and translator of Chinese; co-author of the Tian’anmen Papers, with Andrew Nathan, blacklisted by CCP since 1996. Sample work - The Wonderfully Elusive Chinese Novel. New York Review of Books April 23, 2015, at Wonderfully Elusive Chinese Novel and What It Means to Be Chinese. Foreign Affairs, May/June 2015 What it means to be Chinese And China: The Anaconda in the Chandelier. New York Review of Books, April 11, 2002 Anaconda and Turned back at China’s door - Why Princeton should speak out against a blacklist of scholars. Princeton Perspective, February 9, 2005 Blacklisting of Scholars
Orville Schell - writer and academic, now head of the Center on US-China Relations at the Asia Society. An independent and original thinker on China and relations with the US. Personal web site - Orville Schell
Andrew Nathan - Professor of political science at Columbia, focusing on Chinese politics, public involvement, and human rights. Co-editor with Perry Link of The Tian'anmen Papers. Sample interview - Andrew Nathan and Gao Wenqian on the 19th Party Congress, October 31, 2016. Human Rights in China Nathan on 19th Party Congress
Minxin Pei - Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College. Author of China’s Crony Capitalism Sample work - China’s Troubled Bourbons. Project Syndicate Published Wednesday, 10/31/2012 China's Troubled Bourbons and Rising Uncertainty
Chris Buckley – is a correspondent for the New York Times. He has lived in China for more than 25 years, and covers politics, foreign relations, and any other newsworthy topics. Jeremy Goldkorn from SupChina refers to Buckley as “the China journalist’s China journalist.” Sample work - New York Times, Internal Dissent Internal Dissent and on the tariffs - Retalitory Tariffs Chris on a Sinica podcast - The China Journalist's China Journalist
Bethany Allen-Ibrahimian - writer on foreign affairs, a lot on China. Foreign Policy articles and Atlantic Magazine articles Sample work - China is Exporting its Tian'anmen Censorship, and We Are All Victims Exporting Censorship
Evan Osnos – staff writer at the New Yorker and fellow at Brookings. Personal Site Author of Age of Ambition, acclaimed series of interviews with Chinese about the transformation.
Bill Bishop - editor and founder of Sinocism in 2011, one of the two best blogs on China news Sinocism He lived in China from 2005 to 2015, roughly three years prior to my term and about the same length of stay. Fluent speaker. Sinocism features daily stories from world media in English and Chinese, on most every topic of daily news interest. Sample work – What it takes to be a good China watcher Good China Watcher podcast a podcast with Kaiser Kuo.
Kaiser Kuo - is host of Sinica Podcast, with co-founder Jeremy Goldkorn. The podcast is a weekly discussion of China current affairs China File Sinica podcasts
Jeremy Goldkorn - edits SupChina, the other go-to daily China news source. https://supchina.com/author/jeremygoldkorn/ https://jeremygoldkorn.com/category/china/ and https://jeremygoldkorn.com/about/
Danwei – blog on media and advertising, accompanying a marketing research firm, founded by Jeremy Goldkorn Danwei Archives from 2003-2011 available. The classic posts are worth looking at Danwei classic posts
Jeremiah Jenne – writer and history teacher, based in Beijing since 2002. Prolific writer on Chinese historical topics, and commentary on current affairs. Personal site Sample work – Kids Today, a review of the “young Chinese” books Kids Today July 1, 2018 and Boycotts and Barroom Brawls Boycotts and Brawls May 10, 2018
ShanghaiScrap – personal blog of Adam Minter, writer who serves as Asian correspondent for Bloomberg and other major publications in the US. Mostly on environmental issues. Shanghai Scrap Sample work – The Pavilion Wars, Atlantic Magazine, April 2009 (About the US pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo in 2010. A little old, but a part of my experience in China as well. Several students worked at the Expo, and many more attended Pavilion Wars
Eric Fish - founder of Project Pengyou, a US-China student friendship organization, based in the US Project Pengyou with China Hangup, a podcast with popular topics. Sample work - podcast If You Are the One fei chang wu rao feichangwurao and author of China’s Millennials – The Want Generation Want Generation His blog, Sinostand seems to be on hiatus, but some good posts. Sample work – 4 Things We Overlook about Tian’anmen Overlook About Tian'anmen and Are China’s Colleges Too Easy? In The Economic Observer College too easy? April 1, 2013
