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Outmaneuvering the Chinese Communist Party’s digital surveillance? Savvy programmers created subversive software: CCP members must study propaganda on the 學習強國 app; higher-ups monitor time spent on the material. But github code lets the app collect study points automatically.

CCP membership data are now available for 2021. Historically unprecedented: 4.4 million Chinese citizens joined the party in one year. This breaks the record of 3.2 million recruits in 2012, and by a huge margin. Simply to celebrate the centennial? Compare dangjian.people.com.cn/n1/2022/0630/c…

In leading German newspaper, Dana Heide assesses the rising influence of party cells on business decisions by German firms in China - and firms' hesitation to be transparent about the CCP's presence: handelsblatt.com/politik/intern… I gladly contributed, with Jérôme Doyon and nis grunberg.

My spring seminar will discuss China’s authoritarian ruling party CCP, along with East Asia’s other super-resilient, albeit democratic ruling party, Japan’s LDP. Will I be able to use the Xi/Kishida poster in the future? Or need to update the poster in the course of the semester?

My first visit to a US think tank, a fantastic experience! CSIS Freeman Chair in China Studies recorded podcast on the CCP building powerful party networks in companies, also by using discipline inspections; and afterwards shared insights into DC's China policy process. Thanks! csis.org/podcasts/pekin…

Just out: My background brief on new vectors of CCP influence in China's financial sector, to illuminate emerging modes of economic governance in Xi's "new era." Glad to contribute to the informative series housed at Bert Hofman（郝福满）-directed EAS Singapore: research.nus.edu.sg/eai/wp-content…

Xi’s China prioritizes party-building. But what exactly changes when the CCP asserts greater authority in firms? Just out, my article on banks argues that party-building transforms everything from discourses to corporate procedures and business decisions: muse.jhu.edu/pub/43/article…

China's high speed rail network is transformative. In his new book, Beijing University's Xiao Ma unpacks the very messy negotiations (Beijing versus local governments) determining which localities get the best rail connections first. My review: journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/72…

Are CCP networks in firms all powerful? The Economist economist.com/china/2023/07/… just cited my research on challenges that the CCP is facing, with the example of family linkages undermining party authority. Clearly, CCP is trying to fix “clanification” 家族化 cambridge.org/core/journals/…

Now released: In 2022, CCP membership grew by 1.37% (net). This seems little compared to 3,68% growth in 2021, but let’s remember the special membership drive celebrating the CCP's 100th birthday. 1.37% is very close to the average growth rate under Xi Jinping of 1,43% (2013-22).

Way down in an organization chart of Germany's @bmwk I discovered a brand new section in charge of "Economic Security" (not yet in English version). For comparison: Far more prominently, Japan appointed 高市早苗 as Minister of State for Economic Security 経済安全保障担当.

Courses at Harvard start next week, and I am thrilled to offer another iteration of "China and the African Continent" - hoping for many contrasting perspectives in the classroom, and good insights through the creative assignments.

Is China the largest investor in Africa? Not by UNCTAD reporting standards, where China is "only" the fifth largest investor economy in Africa by FDI stock in 2021: unctad.org/system/files/n… (Does this include Hong Kong? Two years ago, Hong Kong was reported separately.)

What's It Like To Study China-Africa Relations At Harvard? Daniel Koss The China-Global South Project tinyurl.com/4s42eude Mariana Mazzucato Bethany 貝書穎 Nicholas Glinsman Harald Malmgren Brad Setser Michael Pettis Matthew C. Klein david pilling @rainerkattel Quinn Slobodian @elifriedman.bsky.social China Beige Book

What a pleasure to visit University of Michigan! I shared findings on how the CCP penetrates firms, how party cells/cttees influence business decisions - with implications for China's future economic governance. youtu.be/FAnV9axugTY Thanks for their hospitality to Mary Gallagher and Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies

Harvard offers a new summer program in Shanghai, for 2024, with two courses: My course “East Asian Development Models” places transformations of China's economy into the context of other experiences in East Asia. summer.harvard.edu/study-abroad/s… Thanks to inspiration from William C. Kirby.

Harvard's Fairbank Center now invites applications for two post-doc fellowships. Exciting theme: “Global Firms and Rival States: Business, Transnational Commerce, and China’s Rise." Postdocs will join a research group led by Meg Rithmire and David Yang: fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/programs/an-wa…

China’s Cultural Revolution was most violent in Guangxi. How could things go so wrong? Andrew Walder’s masterly analysis illuminates the ostensibly enigmatic events, with broad implications for CR research. My book review @PacificAffairsis now accessible: pacificaffairs.ubc.ca/book-reviews/c…

Published: My book review of A. Walder analyzing big aberrations during China’s Cultural Revolution. A militarily well-connected faction, inflammatory rhetoric, and an escalation-prone hierarchy, plus crimes of opportunity, resulted in infamous atrocities: pacificaffairs.ubc.ca/book-reviews/c…

For the first time, the Chinese Communist Party reports >100 mio members (end of 2024), according to data released today 12371.cn/2025/06/30/ART…. Contrasting with party building efforts of previous years, the number of party cells in companies 企业基层党组织 stagnated at 1.6 mio.