News

ReConnect China Policy Brief 44: China’s Social Credit System 9 October 2026 - Executive summary: European public discourse on China's Social Credit System (SCS) still frequently references a debunked dystopian tale of behavioural metrics based on intrusive surveillance. While the discourse concentrates on a personal score that does not exist, it misses the… Read more
ReConnect China Policy Brief 43: How China Talks About Itself 9 October 2026 - Executive summary: China's party-state tells several stories about itself at once. This brief traces the watchwords that form narratives in which the state says what it is, whom it serves and who holds it to account, and the discourses in… Read more
ReConnect China Policy Brief 42: Services and Surveillance 2 October 2026 - Executive summary China’s authoritarian resilience does not rest on repression alone. Since the early 2000s, the party-state has increased the density and quality of channels through which citizens can submit grievances that officials are required to answer, often publicly. These… Read more
ReConnect China Policy Brief 41: China and the WTO 25 September 2026 - Executive summary Since launching its reform and opening-up policy, China has viewed participation in international economic institutions such as the IMF and GATT/WTO as a means of advancing its own development objectives. Since joining the WTO in 2001, it has… Read more
Our latest video on Taiwan is out 23 September 2026 - Check our latest video on the potential effects of a Chinese military escalation towards Taiwan! In this video, experts Xiaoxue Martin (Clingendael Institute) and Urmas Hõbepappel (University of Tartu Asia Centre) answer Mark van Hintem's question. They discuss Taiwan's relations… Read more
ReConnect China Policy Brief 40: Breaking Down Provincial Barriers 16 September 2026 - Executive summary: China's leadership has identified the regional and systemic fragmentation of its science and technology innovation system as a critical obstacle to national development. The 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030) signals two clear shifts to remedy the situation: 1) from… Read more
ReConnect China Policy Brief 39: Party-building in China’s NGO Sector 16 September 2026 - Executive summary: Over the past decade, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has expanded Party-building across China’s non-profit sector. Party branches have been established within social organizations, Party work has been incorporated into organizational governance, and NGOs are increasingly expected to… Read more
ReConnect China Policy Brief 38: Highways of Knowledge 11 September 2026 - According to forecasts by QS Global Student Flows, the number of foreign students in China will reach a total of 555,000 by 2030. Asian and African students will form the bulk of them, with 61 and 16 per cent of… Read more
ReConnect China Policy Brief 37: EU-China Narrative Contestation 28 August 2026 - This policy brief argues that EU–China narrative contestation should not be understood as a direct, symmetrical competition between two equivalent geopolitical actors. While both China and the EU seek to shape global understandings of order, governance, development, and security, they… Read more
Reconnect China podcast: a free database to decode China 5 July 2026 - Outi Louva speaks with Christian Göbel, Chair Professor of the Politics of Contemporary China at the University of Vienna, to discuss one of Europe's most ambitious digital research infrastructure projects. Image if you could search over 6 million of Chinese government… Read more