My first time publishing on China Leadership Monitor. In “China’s Economic Involution: State and Business Strategies,” I delved into the deeper causes for China’s economic involution by examining the self-reinforcing cycles among state bureaucrats and businesses and uncovering the dynamics underlying the real estate and EV sectors. Lots of interesting things to unpack here: 1/n prcleader.org/post/china-s-e…

Enjoyed reading this fascinating new article by @maxiaoalex and Fengming Lu. I am showing here two cases from my recent piece that illustrate what happened after local governments withdrew their financial support due to tightening regulations: businesses went bankrupt, and business owners and officials turned on each other, using methods such as 实名举报. Since mine is not a full academic article, I only have space to squeeze in these two: Levdeo (雷丁) and Neta Auto (哪吒). But they demonstrate, from a different angle, the importance of local governments for EVs over the past decade. They also suggest something interesting: you could get financial support from multiple local governments rather than attaching to one. prcleader.org/post/china-s-e…

In China, individuals are generally limited to transferring just $50,000 overseas each year. Yet demand for foreign assets remains strong, and people have found ways to circumvent some of the world's toughest capital controls. Here's how. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

I've discussed this problem in my recent piece in China Leadership Monitor. BYD relied heavily on its D-link by delaying payments to suppliers. Although this might be a common industry practice, their delay is usually much longer than the standard 60 days. At the time of writing, I didn't know what the hidden debt would look like once these tools were removed. prcleader.org/post/china-s-e…

Between Elon Musk and Tim Cook: the female self-made billionaire founder of Lens Technology, key supplier to both Apple and Tesla / SpaceX

The rise of AI has helped produce an explosive amount of information and publications, but the problem is how to read them efficiently. After all, AI cannot replace any part of my brain in taking in and understanding information. If someone knows where I can find helpful guidance, let me know!

Interested in East Asian democracy? You can now pre-order my new book! Out soon from @ColumbiaUP DM me for discount code. cup.columbia.edu/book/east-a…

New Faces in Chinese Politics Conference MIT, September 1-2, 2026 Application materials due by May 22, 2026   We invite advanced PhD students and post-doctoral fellows who study Chinese domestic and international politics to apply for the sixth New Faces in Chinese Politics Conference at MIT on September 1-2, 2026, just before the APSA annual meeting in Boston. The New Faces in Chinese Politics Conference is an opportunity to get feedback on job market papers and job talks with peers, conference co-organizers, and invited senior scholars.   The papers should be based on original, rigorous research, employing quantitative or qualitative methods. The in-person conference is open exclusively to job market candidates for the 2026 job market. Successful applicants are fully funded for travel, lodging, and food.   Applicants must submit a curriculum vitae, a full job market paper or dissertation chapter (for chapters, we would prefer an empirical chapter with a short summary of the theory), and a letter of support from the dissertation committee chair. Application materials are due by May 22 via email attachment to newfaceschina2026@gmail.com. Applicants should put their full name in the subject heading of the email.   The letter of support should be emailed separately to that address and should endorse the applicant’s decision to be on the job market in 2026, with the subject heading including the full name of the applicant.    Fiona Cunningham, University of Pennsylvania Iza Ding, Northwestern University Taylor Fravel, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Melanie Manion, Duke University Yuhua Wang, Harvard University

Ok know why banks and financial regulators are “disaster area” for corruption? Because they are asked to allocate massive amounts of loans in an inefficient manner which leaves room for rent seeking. If they are always asked to allocate loans to the safer and profitable borrowers, audits would catch them much sooner. Internal financial regulations (600 pages each yr even 20 yrs ago) are mainly about granting exceptions to firms which are “policy priorities.” Back then it was industrial SOEs, then it was LGFVs and properties; now it’s tech related firms

How important is the tobacco industry to China? Dividends from China National Tobacco bring in more than state-owned sectors with multiple players. Adding in income and excise taxes, tobacco contributes 18% of central government budget revenue asia.nikkei.com/spotlight/po…

It has been a couple of years since we published "Wars without Gunsmoke" in International Security. Our explanations for what happened to state-business relations then seem also very relevant to what is happening now. 81e63e3e-0cc6-43dc-aa7c-35f4…

🙏Thanks, Sarah Eaton, for recommending my work in her talk at the Royal Society for Asian Affairs. I feel uplifted. I also enjoyed the talks of the entire panel. Very informative.

Yesterday, I listened to Elizabeth Rao’s heartbreaking story about losing her mother, Dr. Jane Wu. A dedicated Chinese American scientist, Dr. Wu faced discrimination and racial profiling by her employers, leading her to take her own life. Her death was felt throughout the research community, especially by those of Asian descent who faced unjust scrutiny from Trump's China Initiative. Elizabeth reminded us that there's a human cost to this targeting and that our greatest minds should never have to face this type of ethnic profiling.

Updated AJPS AI Disclosure Policy for Authors Last year, we introduced a set of policies concerning the use of AI at AJPS for both authors and reviewers. We have recently updated these guidelines. The current guidelines are presented in this Editor's Blog: ajps.org/2026/04/10/update-t…

From Bookworm to Browser: The Decline of Books in Political Science Scholarship | PS: Political Science & Politics | Cambridge Core - cup.org/3PXGPtn

LOL 😂