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  • "Definitely worth subscribing, very good that it exists." -- David Rennie

  • "I read it and recommend it." -- Robert Lawrence Kuhn

  • Recommended as one of 10 essential China newsletters by the content arm of The China-Britain Business Council (CBBC), the UK’s national business network promoting trade and investment with China.

  • Recommended on Semafor in 2023.

What is Pekingnology?

Pekingnology offers accurate English translations of publicly available primary source materials in Chinese Mandarin, often with explanatory notes. It is not shy of widely quoting Western mainstream reports and analyses. It sometimes offers personal observation and assessments.

Its content has been recommended, cited, or linked in major Western mainstream media, Times of India, SupChina, the China Research Group newsletter, and others, largely because Pekingnology has been regarded as being able to float valuable open-sourced information otherwise unnoticed in the West.

For example, Bloomberg credited Pekingnology as a source in one report on Elon Musk. The Times of India published an entire report based on a Pekingnology article. Pekingnology was briefly profiled on Bloomberg and The Guardian in 2021.

At one time in 2021, the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post had to issue a correction, respectively, as a result of a Pekingology article.

Who is behind Pekingnology?

My name is Zichen Wang. I’m the founder and writer of this newsletter.

After growing up and earning a bachelor’s degree in the Chinese mainland, I worked for Xinhua News Agency for 11 years.

Starting October 2022, I’m Deputy Director and Research Fellow at the Center for China and Globalization (CCG), a leading non-government think tank in China. As part of our agreement, Pekingnology, which used to be a personal product, is now part of CCG’s portfolio, and I’ll remain its Editor. CCG takes no position on issues raised here.

CCG has been granted the official special consultative status by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC) as a “non-governmental organization.” In the 2020 Global Go To Think Tank Index by the University of Pennsylvania Think Tank and Civil Society Program (TTCSP), CCG ranked 64th of the top think tanks worldwide and among the top 50 “best independent think tanks.” CCG has also been recognized as a “4A non-governmental organization” by Beijing Municipal government civil affairs department.

The Chinese government does NOT have a budget for CCG, so the think tank relies on donations and grants from corporates and individuals, as well as income from services to public and private sectors, such as researching, convening, training, and publishing. Feel free to reply to this email for CCG’s services.

Who subscribes to Pekingnology?

Pekingnology has subscribers in the high thousands. They include government officials, diplomats, correspondents, editors, think-tankers, professors, lawyers, investors, analysts, and other professionals with keen interests, if not a stake in China.

The Beijing embassy of one permanent member of the United Nations Security Council called Pekingnology 在北京外交界广泛引用 “widely cited in Beijing’s diplomatic community.”

You are most welcome to quote from Pekingnology. I’d appreciate it if you could include a web link to this newsletter and it would be even better if you can drop a note after that. Feedback is most welcome.

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Some popular articles so far (as of Sept 2022)

Pekingnology
Ren Zhengfei sends chill down Huawei & economy
Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei’s reportedly dire warning of Huawei’s make-it-or-break-it moment against a global recession spread like wildfire on Chinese social media on Tuesday, August 23 afternoon. Ren is perhaps China’s most revered entrepreneur for not only holding the ICT (information and communications technology) giant together against U.S. persecut…
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Pekingnology
Ukraine as a Solution by Shiping Tang
Pekingnology today is proud to publish Ukraine as a Solution by Professor Shiping Tang 唐世平. Prof. Tang is Cheung Kong Distinguished Professor, Ministry of Education, China; Fudan Distinguished Professor & Dr. Seaker Chan Chair Professor, School of International Relations and Public Affairs (SIRPA), Fudan University…
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Pekingnology
Who Really Owns Huawei? A response to Professors Balding and Clarke
In April 2019, Prof. Christopher Balding, then with Fulbright University Vietnam, and Prof. Donald C. Clarke, with George Washington University Law School, published a hugely influential article Who Owns Huawei? That article, casting big doubt over China’s highest-profile tech giant Huawei’s self-claimed employee-ownership structure, received wide intern…
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Pekingnology
Senior Chinese banker on the mortgage boycotts
A lot of ink has been spilled over China’s real estate industry lately, especially some homebuyers’ declaration that they will not repay the principal and interest of their mortgages, now that their apartments are not being built by developers, many of whom have…
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Pekingnology
Huawei founder's observation of Japan's "lost decade"
“If there’s a Darth Vader in the minds of Chinese national security hawks in Washington worried about China’s rising tech power, it’s Ren (Zhengfei).” said a Bloomberg story in 2018, conveying the enormous Western doubts and concerns in the founder of Huawei…
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Pekingnology
Justin Yifu Lin: How China avoided transition collapse
Pekingnology today presents 中国在过去40年间向市场经济的转型之路 China’s transition to market economy in the last four decades by Justin Yifu Lin. Professor Lin, formerly Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank, 2008-2012, is Dean of Institute of New Structural Economics, Dean of Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development, and Professor and …
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Pekingnology
China has promised not to ask Chinese tech companies for overseas data
The article has been updated on July 10. The updated part is highlighted and noted. Let me for the zillionth time underline that Pekingnology is a personal newsletter and doesn’t represent the view of anybody else.Thanks for reading Pekingnology! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work…
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Pekingnology
Localized Bargaining: The Political Economy of China's High-Speed Railway Program
Pekingnology is privileged to share an exclusive excerpt from the new book Localized Bargaining: The Political Economy of China's High-Speed Railway Program, just published by Oxford University Press (and available on Amazon). The author is 马啸 Xiao Ma…
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Pekingnology
China's Land Finance by Lan Xiaohuan
Pekingnology is privileged to publish an excerpt from the 2021 Chinese bestseller《置身事内:中国政府与经济发展》Embedded Power: Chinese Government and Economic Development by 兰小欢 Lan Xiaohuan, Associate Professor (with tenure), School of Economics, Fudan University…
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People

Zichen Wang
Edit Pekingnology & The East is Read at the Center for China and Globalization (CCG).
Xinyi Zhang
MA-HKU-Journalism (Currently); BA-PKU-English Language and Literature
JiaYi Zhang 张嘉绮
Liberal arts student at Sun Yat-sen University. Theatre lover & creator, inspirational playwright whose works have topped in national competitions.
Jinhao Bai
Middle Eastern Studies undergraduate student at Tel Aviv University. Ex intern at China Alliance of Social Value Investment (CASVI). I write about Chinese economic and social policies.
Fei Yu
Doing PhD in Sociology of Lancaster University, UK. My research is about Autonomous mobility justice in China(autonomous vehicles). Please follow the Centre for Mobilities research at https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/cemore/
Zhangxu Kang
Linguistics and business student at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. Ex-intern at Intellisia Institute. Interest: education, society, and culture
Han Yuxi
English Interpretation student at San Yat-sen University. Ex intern at International Finance Forum, World Peace Forum, and UNDP. I write about China's domestic and foreign policy.
Coco Yin
Linguistics student at Nanjing University. Ex intern at think tank "Global China", Bureau of Commerce in Yantai, China. I write about China's society, culture and economy in between.
Lin Xi
A graduate student majoring in International Affairs in Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at NUS and also freelancer of Fudan Development Institute
Yi Sun 孙仪
MSc student of UCL, majoring in Environment, Politics and Society.