Substacks recommended by ChinaTalk

Recommended by ChinaTalk

the junk shop of history

China's tech and industrial policy: manufacturing, global supply chains, AI, clean tech, EVs, trade, economic competition.

kyle chan's coverage of industrial policy is second to none

- ChinaTalk

ChinArb

Capturing Structural Alpha via de-ideologized game theory and physical data. Decoding the evolution of global systems. 20+ years embedded in China's policy and industrial frontlines.

Machine Culture

By Ryan Hauser

Dispatches on AI Governance and Emergent Order

Comment is Freed

By Sam Freedman

Politics, policy analysis, and foreign affairs from Sam and Lawrence Freedman

Mind of Things

By Justin Mc

Retired Special Forces soldier’s thoughts on defense, technology, parenting, and other things that catch my interest. Occasionally, I have guest writers on.

varied meditations on mil-adjacent topics from a super thoughtful former SOF

- ChinaTalk

Chartbook

By Adam Tooze

A newsletter on economics, geopolitics and history from Adam Tooze. More substantial than the twitter feed. More freewheeling than what you might read from me in FT, Foreign Policy, New Statesman.

Adam Tooze is a modern marvel. His range and insightfulness across that range is inspiring and near incomprehensible. I've learned more from him about how to think about global trends, second order effects, and interactions across politics, economics, and society than any other modern thinker.

- ChinaTalk

The Intrinsic Perspective

By Erik Hoel

Natural philosophy, belles-lettres, polemics.

Erik is a deeply original thinker who is particularly strong on the impact of technology on society.

- ChinaTalk

Yes, I give a fig... thoughts on markets from Michael Green

By Michael W. Green

Thoughts on financial markets and economics from Simplify's Chief Strategist

really sharp and engaging perspectives on macro

- ChinaTalk

Noahpinion

By Noah Smith

Economics and other interesting stuff

Noah is one of the best in the game. He's really unparallelled in his ability to deep dive into econ and econ-adjacent questions. We explore similar themes around industry policy and technological progress. About once a month he puts out a really strong piece on China and, having previously lived in the country, is particularly good on Japan.

- ChinaTalk

Eating Policy

By Jennifer Pahlka

In business, culture eats strategy. In government, culture eats policy. Here we'll talk about the problems of state capacity (government's ability to achieve its policy goals) and how to fix them. From the author of Recoding America.

Factory Settings

How to update the default settings of government, by former CHIPS Program Office leadership.

Sinification

By Thomas des Garets Geddes

The world as viewed from China.

Green Tape

By Thomas Hochman

Ideas and resources on all things permitting

Rough Drafts

By Charles Yang

Where the rough drafts of my thoughts reside

水瓶纪元

水瓶纪元 | The Aquarian 多元共生 · 重返对话 Journalism for Futures

Chill Crisp

By Xueci Cheng

Recipes and stories from a Sichuanese. Mostly Chinese food, old and new flavors.

Matt Sheehan's Newsletter

on China, technology and global AI

Matt is as good as it gets on China and AI

- ChinaTalk

The Scholar's Stage

By Tanner Greer

Researching the Communist Party of China is my day job. Here I write long reads on international politics, ancient history, and American conservatism.

tanner is the best read and most thoughtful essayist out there. Has forgotten more than I'll ever know about history and China

- ChinaTalk

Slow Boring

By Matthew Yglesias

Start your day with pragmatic takes on politics and public policy.

Matt is a one of one. He writes without fear and explores similar themes to ChinaTalk on innovation and industrial policy.

- ChinaTalk

SpyTalk

By Jeff Stein

Intelligence for Thinking People

The best coverage on the US intelligence community

- ChinaTalk

Global Cyber Digest

By Justin Sherman

Leading analysis of technology, policy, and geopolitics—from Global Cyber Strategies, a Washington, DC-based research and advisory firm.

Justin Sherman is the first person I turn to for cyber policy questions

- ChinaTalk

Zixuan Ma’s Blog

A collection of essays on China’s political economy, aiming to improve the world’s understanding of China with holistic perspectives and broad-based analyses.

Derek Thompson

A newsletter about abundance and building a better world.

SatPost by Trung Phan

By Trungphan2

A Saturday email on the latest in tech, business and memes.

MEMES FOR DAYS

- ChinaTalk

Chips, Guns, and Money

By Paul

Writing about economics, technology, and geopolitics

Weighty Thoughts

By James Wang

VC on AI, deep tech, startups. Former Bridgewater, Google[x], startup founder. Read by top engineers, fund managers, and policymakers.

Sharp deep tech investor's perspective primarily on AI and semis

- ChinaTalk

Stanford SCCEI China Briefs

A biweekly brief series from the Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions that translates data-driven research on China into evidence-based insights

Fantastic digestible breakdowns of policy-relevant academic research on China

- ChinaTalk

Robert Sietsema's New York

I have been writing about New York City restaurants since the 1990s, and specialize in inexpensive eats.

this man taught me how to eat. so great to see robert sietsema on substack!

- ChinaTalk

Recent Works by Chang Che

Recent Works by Chang Che arrives in your inbox sparingly. It's purpose is to notify you of new articles by Chang Che.

Natto Thoughts

By Natto Team

Stories, analysis and insights from the intersection of culture, technology, and security.

Interconnects AI

By Interconnects by Nathan Lambert

The cutting edge of AI, from inside the frontier AI labs, minus the hype. The border between high-level and technical thinking. Read by leading engineers, researchers, and investors.

Sinocities

By Andrew Stokols

Cities, China, Geopolitics, Technology, and everything in between. By: Andrew Stokols ; Phd, MIT Department of Urban Studies & Planning, Masters in Urban Planning, Harvard.

Directed Divergence

Weekly updates on numbers, news, and nations. Making sense of Kondratiev, Kuznets, and Kitchin cycles

Hanson hurts my brain he's very smart.

- ChinaTalk

Asterisk Magazine

Clear writing and clear thinking about the worlds shaping the Bay Area. New pieces every Wednesday.

Choosing Victory

By Ryan Fedasiuk

Decision points at the heart of technology, geopolitics, and U.S.-China relations.

Old North Whale Review

By JingYu

Old North Whale = 老北鲸 Lǎo Běi Jīng ≈ 老北京 Lǎo Běijīng. Tracing the tangled roots of modern China’s ‘Chineseness’ across history, culture, and art.

Erik Torenberg

By a16z

Explorations and inquiries into my curiosities: culture, politics, tech, business, and human nature

erik's a real lateral thinker and gets into some similar tech themes to chinatalk

- ChinaTalk

DeLong's Grasping Reality: Economy in the 2000s & Before

By Brad DeLong

One of the best ways to learn to make sense of money, work, communication, production, distribution, and more. Betting that in the course of human things the future must resemble even if it does not reflect the past, people being much the same over time.

a living legend! What I would give to know as much and think as synthetically as brad does...

- ChinaTalk

Observing Japan

By Tobias Harris

News and views on Japan's politics

波士頓書評 Boston Review of Books

讀嚴肅的書，做有趣的人

AI x Law

By Justin Curl

This is about the intersection between AI and law: (1) AI's impact on the practice of law; (2) Law's impact on the development and deployment of AI; and (3) The lessons from law about how models should behave.

Tech Taiwan 胡說科技

Exclusive and in-depth semiconductor trend analysis, covering technological breakthroughs, supply chain shifts, with a strong focus on Taiwan's strategic position :exclusive insights from tech columnist Liang-rong Chen in Taiwan.

Discourse Power

By Tuvia Gering

Tracking China's rise to the world's center stage.

Tuvia puts in that work! Fantastic weekly overview of what's happening in CCP discourse and mainland academia

- ChinaTalk

Concurrent

By Afra

Understand the parallel and colliding tech and cultural currents shaping Silicon Valley, China, and beyond.

China Story

By Phil Cunningham

Commentary, photo essays, opinion, fiction

The Honest Broker

By Ted Gioia

A trustworthy guide to music, books, arts, media & culture by Ted Gioia

Consensus Drift

By Pablo Chavez

Consensus Drift is a newsletter about the politics and political economy of the digital stack, focusing on how government decisions are reshaping these markets over time.

@jasmine’s substack

By Jasmine Sun

an anthropology of disruption 📍 essays on AI and Silicon Valley culture

Moly’s Substack

By Chinese Doom Scroll

A translation of all the hottest Weibo posts!