The China Open Source Observatory

China darkens as it climbs in power.

Tools once used to interpret the People’s Republic of China avail no longer. Studying the Chinese system once meant conducting field surveys, interviewing Party officials, or traveling to archives in China. That era has ended. Archives are closing. Officials no longer grant interviews. Even traveling to China grows difficult. As the need to understand the PRC presses ever more urgent, accessing the ideas, intentions, and plans of China’s leadership has become more challenging.

The future of Western-China relations now rests on “open source” analysis. This type of analysis is still possible—provided that sources are found and Westerners are taught how to read them.

The China Open Source Observatory meets this need through initiatives in translation and education, locating, translating, and annotating documents of historic or strategic value that are currently only available in Chinese. Our introductory essays, glossaries, and commentaries are designed to make these materials accessible and understandable to statesmen and scholars with no special expertise in Chinese politics or the Chinese language.