About Five Things on China’s Leaders’ Minds

Five Things on China’s Leaders’ Minds is a hybrid newsletter and analytical tool that provides an authoritative guide to what’s China’s leaders want officials and other decision makers to be thinking about.

Published fortnightly, it collates and analyses the five articles most published or quoted in China’s highest-level official media during the previous two weeks and provides a brief commentary on trends it believes are significant.

It uses software made by Bilby, an AI/machine-learning startup, that can analyse web content for any keyword, sector, individual or combination of the above.

In this case, we use the software to decode what China’s leaders think by locating and analysing articles collected daily from more than 110 Chinese official newspapers, including those published by the central government, leading ministries and other state-level bodies, and provincial and municipal governments.

Guiding philosophy

At a time when China appears to be intent on centralising power to an ever greater extent, one particular area of focus is the ways in which calls for action are phrased and framed.

Five Things on China’s Leaders’ Minds also looks at the ways in which official coverage in China often diverges from reporting in the Western media about what is happening in China to see what issues are preoccupying the country’s leaders, and which ones they might prefer to see played down.

We believe Five Things on China’s Leaders’ Minds should be essential reading for anyone wanting to understand how official media shapes the day-to-day operations of government in China at all levels.