Write for ChinaTalk!
articles we'd love to commission
ChinaTalk is looking for new contributors to pitch deeply reported and analytically sharp pieces that go beyond headline narratives. Below is our wish list for H1 2026 that hopefully inspires you to to send us a pitch! It can either be directly related to some of the ideas below or just something you think we’d find interesting.
We pay a few hundred dollars per piece, and more for more ambitious work. You can write under your own name or a pseudonym. Don’t be scared off if you’ve never written for an outlet before or don’t have native English—we have amazing editors who love working with subject matter experts and first-time internet writers.
China’s Escalation Options
If and when trade tensions rise again, what will Beijing’s playbook be? We know about rare earth controls and the Unreliable Entity List (China’s equivalent to the US Entity List), but what’s the full range of economic pressure tools China has used or could use against the US?
We’re looking for articles that explore themes like:
Mapping out where and to what degree Beijing conceptualizes its leverage in various sectors
What economic or political constraints limit Beijing’s options
What provokes more anxiety from a US escalatory perspective
(We’d also love to work with someone to turn this into an interactive choose-your-own-escalation game where users can see how different choices play out.)
China’s Energy Dominance
China builds energy infrastructure better than anyone. There is good coverage on the big categories like solar, wind, coal, nuclear, and hydro, but there are many sectors left to be explored in English.
Some ideas:
How is Beijing handling new energy sources like geothermal and LNG?
What specific policy and economic tools let China build energy capacity so quickly?
What is the pipeline from China’s energy sector to the AI industry?
China’s Data Center Build-Out
China’s data center build-out is underreported. How are these facilities actually being financed and built? What subsidies make them viable? What is it like working as an IT engineer in China?
Some ideas:
The subsidy structure and unit economics. Are these facilities actually profitable?
Dollar-for-dollar capex comparisons: How much further does $10bn stretch in China vs. the US? (BOTECs welcome, interactive calculators (vibecoded or otherwise) even better)
The technician advantage: Is this true? How did China build this workforce? What’s the training pipeline?
China + AI
We cover a lot of China’s AI landscape (see our 2025 China AI Wrapped post), but there is so much more to be discussed!
Some topics as food for thought:
China and AI culture: our ‘Why America Builds AI Girlfriends and China Makes AI Boyfriends’ piece is now the best-performing in ChinaTalk’s history. What other interesting comparisons and contrasts can you make at a social level about how China and the world are using AI in daily life?
Chip stuff
China’s Intermediary SME tooling advancements: What’s the best, well-informed estimate for when China could develop EUV lithography for large-scale production? How about DUV, EDA, or any other intermediary parts in the SME supply chain? (See our recent HBM piece as an example).
Compound semiconductors: How relevant are they to AI applications, particularly robotics? Who leads this market? Should US national security policy care more than it does?
Chips for robotics: How does the supply chain for these chips work? Should they be subject to export restrictions similar to chips for AI?
Chinese dependency on TSMC chips: Which firms would get hit hardest if access gets cut off?
China AI’s global impact
Global AI Governance Initiative: Beyond abstract statements, what has Beijing actually done to make progress on this? Any angles beyond just what they’re saying in public speeches at APEC and the UN?
Chinese AI and soft power: How is AI being diffused into other countries, such as those in the Global South and/or the Digital Silk Road? We’re looking for tangible examples beyond just deep reads of policy frameworks.
And of course, anything novel to say about Chinese models, model makers, and model makers’ business models!
China and the World
We’re not looking for general overviews of China’s relations with various other countries. We want specific, tangible examples of how these countries interact that you’ve uncovered (perhaps firsthand), notably if they intersect with tech. An Indonesian data center servicing Chinese AI companies. A Kenyan port built by Chinese firms is redirecting trade flows. CCP oversight looms over Hong Kong conglomerates’ assets in Panama. New Chinese military equipment is being sent to Pakistan.
What’s actually happening on the ground that adds texture to our understanding of China’s bilateral relationships?
China + the Middle East. Trump thinks he won over the Middle East’s money for Western AI. But has he? What Chinese interaction with big financing for ME money is still happening, if at all?
Are Chinese models being used in interesting ways in other countries?
With the amount of coverage these relationships get in legacy media outlets, we’ll have a high bar for these stories. But if you speak a local language or have a unique angle that hasn’t been reported elsewhere, we’d like to hear from you!
Chinese Scientific Progress
China leads the world in patent filings and scientific publications. But what do these metrics actually tell us about scientific progress? How do Chinese norms around research incentives, publication practices, and innovation differ from other countries? And what measures actually capture where China stands in scientific discovery?
Some ideas:
History of academia and research institutions: How did organizations like the Chinese Academy of Sciences come to be, and what roles do they play in strategically relevant R&D in the present day?
Analyses of incentive structures: What motivates researchers in China to publish extensively? How has this shaped academic norms in a global context?
Measuring scientific advancements in different fields: Are patent filings and publications good metrics for assessing a country’s position in a certain research field, such as patents for AI? If not, what metrics are better? How should we holistically understand China’s position in different areas of science and technology?
Personal insights from inside the Chinese Ivory Tower: What does China’s scientific research community look like from the inside? Are there any stories you’d like to tell?
China’s Health and Biotech Sectors
We’ve covered biotech before, but we’re looking for people with insider knowledge to help us go deeper. Some examples of people we’d like to hear from:
Go-betweens for Western pharma brands and Chinese chemical contract manufacturers,
Chemists who run a quirky WeChat blog on the side,
Anyone who has experience doing biotech research in China or has worked in marketing, government affairs, or the legal department of a Chinese pharmaceutical company.
If that sounds like you or someone you know, we want to hear from you!
Taiwanese Democratization
Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek both agreed that Chinese democracy was the ultimate goal of the ROC project, yet CKS ruled Taiwan as a military dictatorship. But how did the Generalissimo and his son prepare the people of Taiwan to assume their civic responsibilities under democracy?
Some ideas:
Official documentation related to the transition to democracy: If you’ve spent time in the ROC archives, you’re the perfect person to write this piece.
Democratization of the intelligence services: What happened to the institutions dedicated to internal policing? What kinds of intelligence operations has Taiwan prioritized since the ‘90s?
Taiwanese espionage/influence operations in the mainland: Surely there is some rich history here. What kind of objectives has Taiwan pursued, and what methods have Taiwanese agents used? What did secret ops look like under CKS, and how have they changed since?
Conversely, how has the ROC uncovered Chinese influence operations? We’re essentially looking for someone to dig around in the ROC national archives to find counterintelligence records. How has Taiwan thwarted (or failed to thwart) CCP operations? What has the government learned from past intelligence failures? How have Chinese tactics (and ROC responses) changed over the past 80 years?
Miscellaneous Ideas
There are many other angles we haven’t covered here that could also make for strong ChinaTalk articles. Two examples are listed below to give you an idea of how different they can be from the subjects above.
GLP-1s in China
Semaglutide (Ozempic/Wegovy) is being used in China, including for weight management, while domestic firms are racing to launch their own GLP-1 and next-generation variants ahead of a major patent cliff expected around 2026. As patents expire, Chinese pharmaceutical companies are poised to flood the market with cheaper generics and novel formulations, potentially transforming access to obesity and diabetes treatment in China and beyond. We’re interested in stories that examine regulatory shifts, off-label use and informal markets, pricing and insurance barriers, and China’s role as a future global supplier of GLP-1 drugs.
Breaking down 996: how Chinese tech companies digested American management-consulting lore and turned those ideas into the practices we see today.
Chinese tech companies have developed very different internal cultures and practices, informed by ideas originated from Silicon Valley as well as their own experiences operating in China. Tell us about the history of management in modern China.
Brilliant. The idea of a 'choose-your-own-escalation game' is particularly inspired. It's an excellent way to model complex geopolitical dynamic and engage users with systems thinking. Very insightful approach.