Gady Epstein has been covering China and Asia since 2002. As China correspondent for The Economist, he has made a specialty of writing about the Internet, including a fourteen-page special report in 2013. He writes frequently about China's elite politics and about the complex low politics of operating in China. From 2007 to 2011, he wrote for Forbes about the rise of Chinese social media, the travails of private entrepreneurs in China, and awful books on doing business in China. Previously, he was Beijing Bureau Chief and International Projects Reporter for The Baltimore Sun, where he won a Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism for a series on globalisation. His high point in television was a two-second appearance on HBO's The Wire. In 2006-07, he completed a Knight-Wallace Fellowship at the University of Michigan. A native of Palo Alto, California, he graduated in 1994 from Harvard.
Last Updated: August 24, 2015
Sinica Podcast
07.01.10What If the BP Oil Spill Happened in China...
from Sinica Podcast
As Gady Epstein reports in this special dispatch, “some time ago, we reached the China Zone in the BP story.” The China Zone is—for those of you who haven’t heard of it yet—the point at which a reasonable observer will believe almost anything about...
Sinica Podcast
06.25.10Beijing’s Ambivalent Relationship with the Internet
from Sinica Podcast
Mere mention of Chinese Internet censorship is no longer taboo. Or that’s our take-away from a recent white paper by the State Council Information Office that outlines exactly how and why the Chinese government plans to tighten controls over online...
Sinica Podcast
06.18.10Review of Chinese Books
from Sinica Podcast
Looking for a little summer reading? This week, Sinica sorts the wheat from the chaff with a massive review of books on China. Our discussion touches on a everything from Chinese fiction to non-fiction academic works on Chinese politics, economics,...
Sinica Podcast
06.11.10Science Fiction in China
from Sinica Podcast
Science fiction serves as a kind of mirror for how a society sees itself in the future. So what future do Chinese sci-fi writers envision in the far-off yet-to-come? And what role does China play in that future? Do contemporary Chinese writers see a...
Sinica Podcast
05.21.10Mao’s Legacy and Foreign Self-Censorship
from Sinica Podcast
Notice your friends holding something back? In this Sinica podcast, we talk about the self-censoring phenomenon that’s taken root among the foreign community in China, and discuss a surprising case which demonstrates exactly the opposite: how one of...
Sinica Podcast
05.15.10Schoolyard Violence with Chinese Characteristics
from Sinica Podcast
Despite efforts to downplay the story in the face of the Shanghai Expo, news of a recent wave of copycat killings has spread quickly through China, driven in part by the surprising revelation that many of the killers have been middle-aged and...
Sinica Podcast
05.07.10Dimensions of China’s Soft Power
from Sinica Podcast
The Beijing Olympics, the Shanghai Expo, the hundreds of Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms, and Beijing’s new English-language satellite news networks are all part of a grand Chinese soft power push: an effort to win the world through...
Sinica Podcast
04.30.10Huang Guangyu Trial, Real Estate Dilemma
from Sinica Podcast
Huang Guangyu, the richest man in China, went on trial last week in Beijing. The founder of home electronics chain GOME was brought up on charges of bribery, money laundering, and insider trading. The dragnet in the investigation leading up to the...
Sinica Podcast
04.23.10The Eulogy and the Aftershocks
from Sinica Podcast
Coming twenty-one years after the death of former Party Secretary Hu Yaobang, Premier Wen Jiabao’s surprise eulogy to his former mentor last week was the subject of much discussion among China-watchers worldwide. In today’s episode of Sinica, we...
Sinica Podcast
04.16.10China’s Gadflies and the Mine Miracle
from Sinica Podcast
This Week: Kaiser Kuo hosts a discussion all about China’s best-known gadflies: artist-cum-activist Ai Weiwei and writer, auto racer, and blogger Han Han. So join us as we talk about who both of these public figures are and why they have gained so...