About the Stanford China Program

The Stanford China Program (SCP) is a university-wide initiative to facilitate multidisciplinary, social science-oriented research on contemporary China, with a dual emphasis on basic and policy-relevant research. The program recognizes the singular importance of training new generations of Stanford students for broader and deeper interactions with China.

SCP spearheaded the creation of the Stanford Center at Peking University (SCPKU), a unique platform in China for all of Stanford’s seven schools. SCPKU will foster new synergies and further promote interdisciplinary approaches and insights. As a core program in the Beijing center, SCP will leverage new opportunities toward its goal to establish Stanford as the leading U.S. center for the study of contemporary China.

“Everyone realizes China will be a major player—economically, politically, in all the realms—and Stanford graduates need to have a hands-on understanding of what China is—the kind of training you can't get from reading a book.”

-Jean C. Oi, Director, SCP

Research and Publications

SCP-affiliated faculty are doing cutting-edge research on a wide range of challenges facing China: fiscal shortfalls and local governance, property rights reform and corporate restructuring, social inequality and mobility, food security, markets, education and poverty alleviation, environmental pollution and public health, and political participation and popular protests. Findings from these and other projects are presented at SCP seminars and conferences, and published as journal articles and books.

Outreach and Training

Ongoing SCP activities include events both at Stanford and in China: cutting-edge conferences, intellectual exchange with Chinese scholars, public events highlighting Greater China, in situ educational opportunities for Stanford students, and educational programs for government officials and top-tier professionals. SCP faculty and students carry out extensive fieldwork in urban and rural areas to gain a first-hand, in-depth understanding of the institutional changes in China.