Science Under Pressure: Global Decoupling, Ideological Recalibration, and the Future of Knowledge in China

Speaker: Naiyu Jiang, PhD Candidate in Political Science, Stanford University

This project examines how external geopolitical pressures and domestic political shifts are reshaping knowledge production in China. Specifically, it asks how targeted U.S. sanctions—such as the 2020 visa restrictions on researchers in critical fields—have affected the volume, quality, and global integration of Chinese scientific output. At the same time, this study explores how growing ideological control since the 2010s has redirected the thematic priorities and intellectual orientation of social science research in China. Drawing on two large-scale datasets—over 70 million Chinese-language publications from CNKI (1995–2024) and 80 million global articles from Web of Science (1972–2024)—the project traces shifts in collaboration networks, funding patterns, and research agendas across disciplines. It aims to provide a comprehensive account of how China’s research system is being reconfigured by both global decoupling and domestic political realignment—and what this transformation means for the future of cross-border knowledge production.

About the Workshops

Our Young Researcher Workshops offer emerging China scholars an opportunity to engage directly with interdisciplinary faculty and peers from across campus to discuss and receive feedback on their research. Each workshop features one or several PhD students presenting their latest empirical findings on issues related to China’s economy. Past topics have included college major selection as an obstacle to socioeconomic mobility, the effect of a cooling-off period on marriage outcomes, and factors contributing to government corruption. Faculty and senior scholars provide comments and feedback for improvement. This event series helps to build and strengthen Stanford’s community of young researchers working on China.

Workshops are held on select Fridays from 12 - 1 pm. Lunch will be provided! 

Visit the Young Researcher Workshops webpage for more information on the content and format of the series and to learn how to sign up to present. 

Questions? Contact Ragina Johnson at raginaj@stanford.edu
 

What Determines the Price of Health? Corruption-Information Tradeoff in Authoritarian Governance

Speaker: Victoria Liu, PhD Candidate in Political Science, Stanford University

China runs one of the largest public health systems in the world, with over 1 million health institutions caring for more than 1.4 billion people. In recent years, this system faces increasing pressure from rising demand due to an aging population, limited funding, and widespread accusations of corruption. In response to these challenges, the Chinese government has launched sweeping reforms to contain costs — most notably Xi Jinping’s high-profile anti-corruption campaign specifically targeted at the health sector. While these efforts aim to improve transparency and reduce costs, their broader effects remain unclear. This study examines the impact of anti-corruption efforts on a range of health system outcomes, including drug affordability, innovation, and health outcomes. Early findings suggest that while anti-corruption efforts may curb rent-seeking behavior, they do not always lead to improved outcomes. In some cases, anti-corruption campaigns may undermine the state’s capacity to gauge information from private industry or dampen incentives for innovation. This research contributes to a broader literature on corruption, state-business relations, and public service delivery in authoritarian context.

About the Workshops

Our Young Researcher Workshops offer emerging China scholars an opportunity to engage directly with interdisciplinary faculty and peers from across campus to discuss and receive feedback on their research. Each workshop features one or several PhD students presenting their latest empirical findings on issues related to China’s economy. Past topics have included college major selection as an obstacle to socioeconomic mobility, the effect of a cooling-off period on marriage outcomes, and factors contributing to government corruption. Faculty and senior scholars provide comments and feedback for improvement. This event series helps to build and strengthen Stanford’s community of young researchers working on China.

Workshops are held on select Fridays from 12 - 1 pm. Lunch will be provided! 

Visit the Young Researcher Workshops webpage for more information on the content and format of the series and to learn how to sign up to present. 

Turning the Table: How Private Companies in China Leverage and Exploit State Assets from Local Governments

Speaker: Qianmin Hu, PhD Candidate in Political Science, Stanford University

While existing literature emphasizes state dominance and the frequent expropriation of private assets, this research investigates how private enterprises gain significant bargaining power over local governments, enabling them to expropriate state resources. Drawing on extensive qualitative fieldwork and a unique quantitative dataset derived from court judgments involving firm-government investment contracts, this study finds that private firms in China frequently breach contracts, leveraging and exploiting substantial subsidies and land price discounts from local governments. Such reversal of power is possible because local officials face intense bureaucratic incentives—such as unrealistic investment targets, prospects of promotion, and pressure from public shaming—to follow the central government's developmental agenda. These findings suggest that when an authoritarian government opens itself to potential exploitation by private firms, it implicitly guarantees property rights protection for private investments, thereby making its commitment to the private sector more credible.

About the Workshops

Our Young Researcher Workshops offer emerging China scholars an opportunity to engage directly with interdisciplinary faculty and peers from across campus to discuss and receive feedback on their research. Each workshop features one or several PhD students presenting their latest empirical findings on issues related to China’s economy. Past topics have included college major selection as an obstacle to socioeconomic mobility, the effect of a cooling-off period on marriage outcomes, and factors contributing to government corruption. Faculty and senior scholars provide comments and feedback for improvement. This event series helps to build and strengthen Stanford’s community of young researchers working on China.

Workshops are held on select Fridays from 12 - 1 pm. Lunch will be provided! 

Visit the Young Researcher Workshops webpage for more information on the content and format of the series and to learn how to sign up to present. 

This event has been cancelled.

We hope to see you at another SCCEI event!
 

About the Workshops

Our Young Researcher Workshops offer emerging China scholars an opportunity to engage directly with interdisciplinary faculty and peers from across campus to discuss and receive feedback on their research. Each workshop features one or several PhD students presenting their latest empirical findings on issues related to China’s economy. Past topics have included college major selection as an obstacle to socioeconomic mobility, the effect of a cooling-off period on marriage outcomes, and factors contributing to government corruption. Faculty and senior scholars provide comments and feedback for improvement. This event series helps to build and strengthen Stanford’s community of young researchers working on China.

Workshops are held on select Fridays from 12 - 1 pm. Lunch will be provided! 

Visit the Young Researcher Workshops webpage for more information on the content and format of the series and to learn how to sign up to present. 

The Moderating Role of Caregiver Mental Health in Parenting Interventions in Rural China

Speaker: Qi Jiang, Doctoral Candidate in Health Policy at University of California, Berkeley

Caregiver mental health plays a crucial role in early childhood development (ECD) and may influence the effectiveness of parenting stimulation interventions. This study examines how caregiver mental health moderates intervention compliance, child development outcomes, and responsive stimulation in LMICs. Using data from a cluster-randomized controlled trial in 100 rural villages in China, including 2,040 caregiver-child dyads, we found caregiver depressive symptoms significantly moderated treatment effects on child cognitive development, caregiver-child interactions, and caregiver stress symptoms. In contrast, caregiver anxiety symptoms did not show significant moderating effects. These results suggest that integrating mental health support into parenting programs can enhance the impact of interventions, even when mental health is not the primary focus. This study provides key policy insights for improving ECD outcomes through targeted mental health support in LMICs.

About the Workshops

Our Young Researcher Workshops offer emerging China scholars an opportunity to engage directly with interdisciplinary faculty and peers from across campus to discuss and receive feedback on their research. Each workshop features one or several PhD students presenting their latest empirical findings on issues related to China’s economy. Past topics have included college major selection as an obstacle to socioeconomic mobility, the effect of a cooling-off period on marriage outcomes, and factors contributing to government corruption. Faculty and senior scholars provide comments and feedback for improvement. This event series helps to build and strengthen Stanford’s community of young researchers working on China.

Workshops are held on select Fridays from 12 - 1 pm. Lunch will be provided! 

Visit the Young Researcher Workshops webpage for more information on the content and format of the series and to learn how to sign up to present. 

Join us for a lightning round edition of the SCCEI Young Researcher Workshop series. Each presenter will have 30 minutes to share their research and field audience questions.

Round 1: China’s Two-Child Policy and Gender Wage Gap

Presenter:  Ni Yan, PhD Candidate in Economics, Stanford University

Round 2: Governance Structure and Cropland Protection

Presenter: Ru Yan, PhD Candidate in Agricultural Economics, Zhejiang University 

About the Workshops

Our Young Researcher Workshops offer emerging China scholars an opportunity to engage directly with interdisciplinary faculty and peers from across campus to discuss and receive feedback on their research. Each workshop features one or several PhD students presenting their latest empirical findings on issues related to China’s economy. Past topics have included college major selection as an obstacle to socioeconomic mobility, the effect of a cooling-off period on marriage outcomes, and factors contributing to government corruption. Faculty and senior scholars provide comments and feedback for improvement. This event series helps to build and strengthen Stanford’s community of young researchers working on China.

Workshops are held on select Fridays starting at 12 pm. Lunch will be provided! 

Visit the Young Researcher Workshops webpage for more information on the content and format of the series and to learn how to sign up to present. 

Join us for our first ever lightning round edition of the SCCEI Young Researcher Workshop series. Each presenter will have 30 minutes to share their research and field audience questions.

Round 1: The Impact of Ownership on Lending: Local Government and Regional Banks in China

Presenter:  Wei Wei, Lazear-Liang Postdoctoral Scholar, Stanford Graduate School of Business

Round 2: Corporate Governance of Chinese SOEs: An Extra-legality Perspective

Presenter: Tian Xie, Doctor of the Science of Law (JSD) Candidate, Stanford Law School

Round 3: Son-Preference, Fertility Policy Relaxation, and Mothers’ Well-being

Presenter: Hanmo Yang, Lazear-Liang Postdoctoral Scholar, Stanford Graduate School of Business
 

About the Workshops

Our Young Researcher Workshops offer emerging China scholars an opportunity to engage directly with interdisciplinary faculty and peers from across campus to discuss and receive feedback on their research. Each workshop features one or several PhD students presenting their latest empirical findings on issues related to China’s economy. Past topics have included college major selection as an obstacle to socioeconomic mobility, the effect of a cooling-off period on marriage outcomes, and factors contributing to government corruption. Faculty and senior scholars provide comments and feedback for improvement. This event series helps to build and strengthen Stanford’s community of young researchers working on China.

Workshops are held on select Fridays starting at 12 pm. Lunch will be provided! 

Visit the Young Researcher Workshops webpage for more information on the content and format of the series and to learn how to sign up to present. 

Quality of Primary Healthcare and Family Antibiotic Consumption in Rural China: A Machine-Learning Approach

Speaker: Yunwei Chen, Postdoctoral Scholar, Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions

Inappropriate antibiotic use presents a unique challenge to global health. Despite the widespread practice of limiting antibiotic use through doctor-prescribed prescriptions in developed countries, this approach may not be effective in resource-limited settings where providers are unable to prescribe effectively. Investing in quality primary healthcare may offer an effective alternative to promoting effective antibiotic dispensing in community settings, but evidence remains limited and few studies are devoted to these settings. Using extensive data collected from approximately 100 rural villages in remote areas of Yunnan Province in southwest China, this paper investigates how the practicing quality of village providers affects family antibiotic consumption. Provider quality was assessed through unannounced clinical visits by standardized patients presenting consistent conditions, which were then linked to antibiotic consumption data obtained from household surveys in the same villages. We identified causal effects using the newly developed double/debiased machine learning approach, by leveraging extensive information collected from village providers to approximate the optimal instrument, using a variety of machine learning algorithms. Our analysis indicates that improving the practicing quality of village doctors significantly reduced inappropriate family use of antibiotics in remote rural areas of China.

About the Workshops

Our Young Researcher Workshops offer emerging China scholars an opportunity to engage directly with interdisciplinary faculty and peers from across campus to discuss and receive feedback on their research. Each workshop features one or several PhD students presenting their latest empirical findings on issues related to China’s economy. Past topics have included college major selection as an obstacle to socioeconomic mobility, the effect of a cooling-off period on marriage outcomes, and factors contributing to government corruption. Faculty and senior scholars provide comments and feedback for improvement. This event series helps to build and strengthen Stanford’s community of young researchers working on China.

Workshops are held on select Fridays starting at 12 pm. Lunch will be provided! 

Visit the Young Researcher Workshops webpage for more information on the content and format of the series and to learn how to sign up to present. 

Gendered Impacts of Privatization: A Life Cycle Perspective from China

Speaker: Yuli Xu, Ph.D. Candidate, Economics Department, University of California San Diego

Women at different life stages may respond differently to economic shocks as they face varying trade-offs. This paper examines the impact of privatization on gender inequality across the life cycle. We leverage a unique event in China: the privatization of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the 1990s, which resulted in over 35 million layoffs and disrupted the previously enforced gender equality in employment. Leveraging both regional variations in reform intensity, proxied by initial differences in SOE employment share, and temporal variation in the reform, our event study analysis shows that older women were more likely to be laid off and had greater difficulty finding re-employment than men. Middle-aged women were less likely than men to transition into the emerging private sector or pursue entrepreneurship. Younger women faced reduced opportunities in SOEs and prioritized education more than men. Both young men and women postponed marriage. Further mechanism analysis suggests that privatization has increased demand for high-skilled workers and reinforced traditional gender role attitudes.

About the Workshops

Our Young Researcher Workshops offer emerging China scholars an opportunity to engage directly with interdisciplinary faculty and peers from across campus to discuss and receive feedback on their research. Each workshop features one or several PhD students presenting their latest empirical findings on issues related to China’s economy. Past topics have included college major selection as an obstacle to socioeconomic mobility, the effect of a cooling-off period on marriage outcomes, and factors contributing to government corruption. Faculty and senior scholars provide comments and feedback for improvement. This event series helps to build and strengthen Stanford’s community of young researchers working on China.

Workshops are held on select Fridays starting at 12 pm. Lunch will be provided! 

Visit the Young Researcher Workshops webpage for more information on the content and format of the series and to learn how to sign up to present. 

Censorship Outside the Great Firewall: Flooding X/Twitter with Pornography for Political Suppression

Speaker: Tongtong Zhang, Postdoctoral Research Scholar, Stanford Internet Observatory

How do authoritarian rulers suppress criticism on social media platforms which they cannot directly control? In this paper, we find that off-putting pornographic content is disproportionately inundating the X/Twitter accounts of critics of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime. We assess the possibility that the regime strategically uses this explicit content to discourage people from accessing information it wishes to suppress. Using an original dataset of 142 randomly sampled Chinese-language pornography accounts on X/Twitter, we show that during fall 2023, these accounts acted in a coordinated network to post waves of explicit images and videos as tweet replies to CCP critics. Some anti-CCP media accounts (less than 1 million followers) receive over 1,000 pornographic comments within a week, whereas pro-CCP media (over 10 million followers) receive fewer than 4 such comments a week. When a tweet is opened or shared, this explicit content appears directly beneath the text, which likely discourages users from reading or sharing the targeted tweets. While previous research has established that the CCP regime crowds out criticism by flooding domestic platforms with positive and cheerleading messages, our findings suggest that on platforms that operate beyond its borders, the regime may use censorship strategies that are domestically illegal—spamming explicit content to create strategic distraction.
 

About the Workshops

The SCCEI Young Researcher Workshops are a bi-weekly series of presentations from scholars around campus who are working on issues related to China’s economy and institutions. The aim of the series is to bring together young scholars by providing a platform to present new research, get feedback, exchange ideas, and make connections. Each session features a single presenter who may present a new research plan, share results from preliminary data analyses, or do a trial run of a job talk or conference presentation. The Workshop Series is an opportunity to give and receive feedback on existing research, get to know other researchers around campus who are working on or in China, and be a testing ground for new ideas, data, and presentations.

Workshops are held every other Thursday from 1 - 2 pm. Afternoon refreshments will be provided! 

Visit the Young Researcher Workshops webpage for more information on the content and format of the series and to learn how to sign up to present.