Oct 13, 2026

Over the past century, the legal and social status of women in China has undergone a remarkable transformation. In 1949, an estimated 10 percent of women could read—today, women make up more than half of higher education and graduate school enrollments, a gender gap that has essentially closed within three generations. In terms of representation in the leadership, however, progress has been uneven.

Sep 03, 2026

“All politics,” as the familiar English saying goes, “is local.” For Chinese political elites, however, locality carries two distinct meanings: the jurisdiction in which political authority is exercised, and the geographic origins of the political elites who exercise it. In contemporary China, the frequent gap between where officials are from and where they serve has long drawn public and scholarly interest. Two main questions are commonly raised: How often do officials’ places of origin overlap with the jurisdictions in which they serve? And how is regional origin distributed across the national leadership?

Aug 20, 2026

Observers of Chinese elite politics routinely prioritize Beijing as the primary focus of analysis, searching for clues about leadership changes in the limited information coming from the center. Yet critical insights worthy of attention are not exclusively concentrated in Zhongnanhai. A substantial share of early indicators often initially emerges within the leaderships of China’s 31 provincial-level administrations.