The main sources of open source intelligence in China include news media, social media, and academic research. For example, Xinhua News Agency releases over 2,000 news items daily, Weibo publishes over 100 million posts daily, and 600,000 academic papers are published annually.
Publications and News Media
In fact, China publishes over 480,000 books annually alone – constituting as much as a fifth of all publications on strategy and politics in the global marketplace. One of the few publications that is both powerful and generally pro-government, China’s leading official newspaper ‘People’s Daily’ covers an array of issues- political as well as economic, for instance.
Last year, Chinese news media relayed more than 1,000 major strategy and politics events such as government policy changes and international relational trends. For example, a literature of policy papers and “official readings” distributed by the Chinese regime in People’s Daily helped shape domestic and international perceptions about China’s strategic policies.
Xinhua News Agency releases more than 2,000 news items every day and puts out a constant stream of political, economic, and international-issue analysis. New stories about the China-US trade war in 2020 were emerging, for instance, Xinhua reported on progress in this matter and provided a comprehensive view over negotiation strategies as well as economic consequences related to that.Wang Huning’s book “Modernization and the Future” explores China’s modernization process and political strategies through extensive data and empirical research, offering deep insights into China’s future development.
Online Resources and Social Media
Over 1 billion internet users and more than 800 million active social media users in China as of 2023. Large user base – A vast number of users make an ocean-like body, from which you can fish many things.Weibo publishes more than 100 million news items per day, including research on politics and policies, breaking juice local commentary of international events. In 2022, discussions about new Chinese government economic policies were virulent on Weibo, and the data collected provided insight into public reaction as well as expert refrains.
Public accounts analyzing strategy and politics have millions of subscribers on WeChat, which has more than 1.2 billion monthly active users. A well-known public account “Liaowanglou” frequently releases in-depth analysis of foreign policy with official data and authoritative researchers, which can be used as credible references for intelligence analysts.Forums and dedicated websites provide another rich source, beyond the social networks. One example is a Zhihu post discussing China-US relations; the number of views from this single discussion was more than 500K in total, again with thousands of comments giving incredible analysis and insights.
The famous sayings of scholars such as Hu Angang and Li Yizhong are basically based on the database level but also have some policy strategic thinking. For example, in China’s future policies, Hu Angang’s articles about economic growth model changes provide specific analytical and policy significance.
Academic Research and Public Databases
There is an annual output of 600,000 academic papers in China alone, and research on politics, strategy, and international relations occupies a fairly high percentage. Such as the “Chinese Social Sciences” published in foreign-related and strategy-oriented articles, statistical data phylogeny nursing cited or analyzed customarily.
For tasks such as academic research, a large number of high-level Chinese politics and strategy papers are published by Tsinghua University researchers and Peking University. To give an example, researchers at Tsinghua University’s Institute of International Relations regularly write articles for global newspapers looking into China’s part in world governance.
The National Bureau of Statistics of China offers databases that provide detailed data on the economy, society, and population. As an example, if you were to write about China’s economic strategy, one can use data from the National Bureau of Statistics that allow us to go through growth rates and investment in each sector as well as export performance.
Justin Yifu Lin’s books “Demystifying the Chinese Economy” provide a close look at China’s development model based on massive economic data and real cases, which may help you understand why information myopia is in its DNA. Huang Qifan, through his writings, starts to show us how political economy interacts with each other in China’s urbanization process.
Financial data and market analysis offered by Wind Information are very good resources for studying China’s economic policies and even its future strategies. CEIC data provides a wealth of global and Chinese economic statistics, which can aid analysts in gaining an understanding of China’s place within the worldwide economy. For example, CEIC data can provide economic indicators and investment climates of different provinces and cities in China, making them useful research tools for regional strategy.