The China Project Media Company Shuts Down

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Nov 07, 2023

Image copyright: Unsplashstory last updated Nov 08, 2023

The Facts

The China Project, an independent media organization renowned for its impactful coverage of Chinese politics and society, announced on Tuesday that it will shut down due to a lack of funding brought on by "politically motivated attacks."
According to its editor-in-chief Jeremy Goldkorn, the publication — first launched in 2016 as a newsletter under the former name SupChina — had become a "news and business intelligence company focused on helping a global audience understand China."

The Spin

Pro-establishment narrative

With ever rising tensions between Washington and Beijing reaching crisis, it is unsurprising that this publication — seeking to provide a moderate gateway to western readers to understand China's business, technology, politics, and culture — has become unsustainable. Potential US funders cannot risk any allegation of association with the Chinese government, while patrons in China don't want to hear about human rights violations against Uygurs, or other stains on the nation's reputation on the world stage. There's no space for The China Project in today's geopolitical reality.

South China Morning Post

Establishment-critical narrative

Despite concerns being raised that the decline of US-China relations is perpetual, many challenge whether Beijing is a genuine existential threat to Washington. China's nuclear capacity remains smaller than Washington's, even in the wake of recent expansion, and even if it had the technological sophistication to do so, there would be little reason for the country to want to destroy or significantly undermine Washington or its model of governance. The loss of The China Project is a further symptom of threat inflation but, considering that demonstrative competitiveness between these two nations is unlikely to result in concrete action on a large scale, its mission of moderate reporting on relations certainly remains in demand.