Endorsements
Selected comments from current and former government officials, national-security practitioners, think-tank analysts, scholars and journalists on Sinification’s value as a source of rigorous, policy-relevant insight into debates among China’s intellectual and policy elite.
At a time when China’s political system is becoming ever harder to read, direct access to officials has contracted sharply, and the space for candid intellectual exchange has narrowed, Sinification aims to make debates within the Chinese establishment more accessible, more contextualised, and more useful to policymakers, analysts and the wider China-watching community. Several of the endorsements below speak not only to the quality of the publication and its analysis, but also to its distinctive ability to surface debates, trends, and viewpoints that are often obscured by censorship, information controls, or by our own simplifications and assumptions.
Government & National Security
“Sinification provides an invaluable resource for those who are serious about assessing how China views and responds to major geopolitical dynamics. It provides both crucial texts and context for the key debates in China’s foreign policy. Sinification should be a centerpiece of any China analyst’s or policymaker’s reading diet.”
– Jonathan A. Czin, Michael H. Armacost Chair in Foreign Policy Studies and Fellow in the John L. Thornton China Center at Brookings, former CIA senior China analyst and former Director for China at the US National Security Council
“Sinification is an absolute must-read for practitioners and scholars alike. Thomas’s selection of articles is unparalleled, offering a unique window into contemporary social, political and economic issues in the frequently opaque PRC.”
– Rick Waters, Inaugural Head of the US State Department’s “China House” and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for China and Taiwan, later Director of the China Center at Carnegie and Managing Director at Eurasia Group
“Sinification keeps us informed of policy and intellectual debates within China. In an age of information overload, Sinification helps readers stay on top of issues that busy practitioners would otherwise struggle to track. Its summaries are just as valuable as its selection of thinkers, pieces, and speeches.”
– Gerard DiPippo, Director for Global Macro at Eurasia Group, former senior economic analyst at the CIA and Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Economic Issues at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence
Think Tank
“Sinification fills a genuine gap in the English-language China landscape. By surfacing and contextualizing the views of Chinese scholars, analysts, and commentators, it provides practitioners and researchers with a critical window into how China’s intellectual and policy communities actually think. It is essential reading for anyone serious about understanding China.”
– Jude Blanchette, Distinguished Tang Chair in China Research and inaugural director of the RAND China Research Center, former Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
“Sinification provides a rare window into the thinking of Chinese scholars and analysts and the debates that swirl among them. It provides me with a reality check—challenging my assumptions about how Chinese elites are looking at the world and ensuring that I don’t mirror image. When people ask what I am reading that helps me understand ‘the Chinese perspective’, Sinification is at the top of my list.”
– Elizabeth Economy, Hargrove Senior Fellow and Co-Director, Program on the US, China, and the World, Hoover Institution at Stanford University
Academia
“Sinification is an invaluable resource for anyone trying to understand the Chinese Communist Party’s policies, its perceptions of the United States and other foreign countries, and its evolving worldview. Thomas des Garets Geddes and his team identify emerging topics of discussion in the CCP system, track key debates, translate the latest commentary by senior academics and think tankers, and put everything in context with concise, accessible essays. In an increasingly crowded field of articles, blogs and newsletters, there is nothing else quite like it.”
– Aaron L. Friedberg, Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University
“Sinification is a tremendous and indispensable resource for anyone interested in China’s foreign and security policy. It expertly curates essential reading from China’s leading thinkers on international affairs and makes them available in English for a broad audience. A must read for the China watching community around the world.”
– Taylor Fravel, Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science and Director of the Security Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
“An amazing resource for insights into the true diversity of Chinese thinking on politics, international affairs, and social developments—it not only makes key thinkers and writings accessible to English-speaking audiences, but also provides the necessary context for locating them within the larger intellectual landscape in China. With a resource like this available, there can be no excuse for making sweeping assertions that there exists a singular ‘Chinese view’ of the world.”
– Todd H. Hall, Director of the University of Oxford China Centre and Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford
Journalism
“In a crowded field of China newsletters, Sinification stands out for spotting and translating the trends and intellectual currents that matter among Chinese scholars and commentators, even when those make for uncomfortable reading. Thomas des Garets Geddes deserves our thanks.”
– David Rennie, Geopolitics Editor and Former Beijing Bureau Chief at The Economist
“Sinification is an outstanding resource for understanding the thinking among important analysts and policy makers inside China. Sinification is especially important because it presents Chinese points of view in a non-partisan way. An essential tool for keeping current on China.”
– Jane Perlez, former New York Times Beijing bureau chief (2012–2019), Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and host of Face-Off: The U.S. vs China
See also
About Sinification — overview of the publication’s mission, readership and editorial commitments
Archive — recent examples of Sinification’s translated and analytical output across foreign policy, technology, economy, and society
Representative work
Selected examples of Sinification’s method in practice:
1. Weekly Translation (with guest commentary)
2. Analytical Briefing
3. Monthly Digest
