Whether you’re a beginner in the China-watching world, or a well-seasoned expert, Observing China will have something new for you. Subscribe and get access to:

  • The Tracker: A concise weekly news round-up of the most strategically significant developments involving the PRC from around the world, with contextualised analysis;

  • The Tangram: A collection of four to five succinct responses to key questions on the PRC’s development from leading experts;

  • The Investigator: Analysis of the PRC’s domestic and foreign policies and United Kingdom (UK)-PRC relations by leading voices;

  • The Thinker: Commentary on the PRC and UK-PRC relations by leading experts.

…All from our rich range of contributors, spanning former ambassadors, chief executives of Fortune 500 companies, to parliamentarians.

China is not the same country that it was just a decade or two ago. Many of us have faced difficulty in understanding and keeping up with the changes that are taking place so rapidly and at the very core of the Chinese Communist Party. We cannot afford to be headline-educated on the PRC; this lends itself to blind optimism or complete fear-mongering.

Our team at Observing China has expertise living in the PRC, Taiwan and Hong Kong. We’re fluent in Mandarin and have experience leading diplomatic missions and global enterprises in these countries. We’re able to give you the best information from the inside, analysed from the local perspective, but made understandable for a British audience.

Since our launch in 2021, we have played a key role advising British legislators and officials in their PRC strategy – our experts were involved in the review of His Majesty (HM) Government’s Integrated Review Refresh of 2023, as well as the Defence Command Paper.

Grace Theodoulou, Policy Fellow, China Observatory, Council on Geostrategy


Who we are

Charles Parton OBE, Chief Advisor to the China Observatory at the Council on Geostrategy

Charles currently serves as the Chief Advisor to the Council on Geostrategy’s China Observatory. He has spent 22 out of his 37 year career working in or on the PRC, Taiwan and Hong Kong. He frequently appears on BBC Radio and The Times Radio, and has written in leading publications around the world, from The Spectator to Le Monde.

If you prefer listening, there are scores of interviews with Charles on all things China on YouTube.


Grace Theodoulou, Policy Fellow, China Observatory at the Council on Geostrategy

Grace is Editor of Observing China, and coordinates other PRC-related research at the China Observatory. Grace has written for LBC and Progressive Britain and been quoted in the South China Morning Post and LRT. Previously, she worked at the Taipei Representative Office in the UK in the Economic Division, carrying out policy and trade analysis in Mandarin.

When she’s not deep-diving Chinese politics, she spends her time thinking of ways to get her subpar Dad jokes past the editorial team of the Observing China newsletter.

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People

Policy Fellow at the China Observatory of the Council on Geostrategy. I previously worked at the Taipei Representative Office in the UK in the Economic Division, carrying out policy and trade analysis in Mandarin and English.
George Magnus - formerly chief economist UBS, now research associate at Oxford university’s China Centre and at SOAS, author of Red Flags:why Xi’s China is in Jeopardy.
Research Fellow in Indo-Pacific Geopolitics at the Council on Geostrategy
Ex-diplomat for 37 years, focussing on and serving in China. Adviser and fellow at the Council on Geostrategy. Associate fellow at RUSI and MERICS
Isabel Hilton OBE has covered Latin America, Asia, Europe and China, for many publications. She founded ChinaDialogue, is contributing editor at Prospect magazine, visiting professor at KCL, and advisor to the Council on Geostrategy.
Conservative MP for Rutland, Stamford, and the South Kesteven and Harborough Villages. Shadow Minister for National Security, Safeguarding and Preventing VAWG