Dake Kang

Sharing some truly surreal news: My colleagues and I have won the Pulitzer prize for International Reporting. An incredible honor. And a real team effort. pulitzer.org/winners/dake-k…

@tianyuf so sad. 小炒黄牛肉 and 辣椒炒肉 could genuinely have cross culture appeal.

Chili fried pork chain Chef Fei is opening its first North American location in San Diego and their advertised signature dish is … broccoli beef?

本期嘉宾是获得2026年普利策奖的记者Dake Kang @dakekang ，获奖报道是一系列关于中国监控体系与美国科技公司之间复杂关系的调查。我们聊到了报道背后的故事，以及他为什么说自己曾经是个小粉红，外交部的谈话是怎样的体验，普通人对外媒的态度经历了怎样的变化？ youtu.be/reZHxTRbeTg @LiYuan6

@hankinbeijing fun fact: palantir was exploring selling in China as late as 2018. it’s a little known-fact that I suspect the chest-thumping, flag-waving Palantir execs that be would not want the world to know because it cuts inconveniently against their narrative 😉

So ... it is ok for palantir to build this, but not China? 😳

EXCLUSIVE: How the track foreigners in China - We got rare access to demo system developed by the Ministry of Public Security in China for the prefecture of Zhangjiakou, to track and surveil foreigners visiting or being residents ( actually it applies to most nationals as well, but in this case it seems to be aimed at foreigners ). It is officially known as "Dynamic control platform for overseas personnel". 1/12

Having spent the past few weeks in Beijing giving talks and attending meetings, here are some quick observations as I wait for my flight to NYC to board: 1. The talk of the town has, of course, been the Xi-Trump meeting, but no one (not even usually well informed elite circle insiders) seems to know what it actually accomplished, other than a continuation of the detente that’s been in place for the past several months. That’s about as good an outcome as one could realistically expect, I suppose, but clearly a real “grand bargain” is not in the cards anytime soon. 2. The Chinese economy seems to be in a steady state, neither improving much nor visibly deteriorating like it was in 24-25. In that sense the government’s stimulus policies have had a positive effect, but the vast majority of industry people I talked to remain very pessimistic about domestic profits and consumption. The dominant sentiment is that the only way for major firms to generate profit growth is through direct overseas expansion. 3. That said, technological advancement is of course very real and quite impressive (although it’s not quite as visible in Beijing as it is in, say, Shenzhen). One interesting and very pleasant side effect of the EV revolution (paired with infrastructure investment) has been that Beijing is now a bike-able city again, given the sharp reduction in exhaust fumes on city streets and the expansion of bike lanes. Armed with a new bike, I could almost explore the city like I used to back in 2000. Hugely nostalgic feeling. 4. Academia is, in general, in a pretty dour mood. STEM subjects and the social sciences/humanities alike have seen very significant funding reductions over the past 2 years, but the latter have of course gotten the worst end of the deal. Political censorship also seems to be visibly ramping up again, with the sheer scale of perceived “red lines” snowballing to levels unprecedented since the early 1990s. As the recent Yang Nianqun incident suggests, administrative regulation of faculty members’ personal affairs has also expanded (i.e., consensual extramarital relationships between adults who were not in a direct teacher-student relationship would almost certainly have gone unpunished as recently as 5 years ago). 5. In general, it’s hard not to notice the steady increase in government presence in everyday life—in both positive and negative ways. The city feels safer and cleaner than it ever has been, and yet the layers of administrative review needed for just about any kind of professional activity have clearly proliferated on a vast scale (made less painful by the digitization of most government services and more uniform law abidance, but still more onerous than it used to be despite all that). 6. The most alarming thing, I suppose, is that general optimism (personal or socioeconomic) seems to be in particularly short supply among the younger generations. This is obvious even among the most intellectually gifted kids at Tsinghua and PKU, where the level of career anxiety seems to be at a level that I have never encountered before. Unsurprisingly, willingness to form families or plan ahead in general at the personal level is very low. All in all, it was, as always, a very informative couple of weeks. The stay was also made much more pleasant by the fact that I managed to do it before Beijing becomes brutally hot. I look forward to being back more often in the near future.

There were talkers that China changed Rubio’s Chinese name translation from 卢比奥 to 鲁比奥 to subtly lift its sanctions against him. While it sounded fun, it’s NOT TRUE! There’re multiple variations of Rubio’s translation back in 2020: including 卢比奥, 鲁比奥, and even 卢比欧!

@Richard_AHolmes @Telegraph Congrats!!

NEW: I am joining the @Telegraph! After three and a half years at The i Paper, I am excited for a new challenge in a new role as the paper’s Forensic Investigations Editor. I will be working on deeply researched, agenda-setting exclusives, while maintaining a keen interest in national security. I start next month, and can’t wait to get cracking - DMs open for tips/coffees.

@johnloeber Thank you, John!

@dakekang Congratulations! What an achievement, and veneration of ten years of great work. Well done!

Sharing some truly surreal news: My colleagues and I have won the Pulitzer prize for International Reporting. An incredible honor. And a real team effort. pulitzer.org/winners/dake-k…

@ewong Thank you!!

@dakekang Congrats!

@ericsandy Thank you for the shout-out, Eric! I was an avid follower of your work back in my Ohio days

Dake Kang, briefly a Cleveland-based AP reporter in 2017, and reporting from the Beijing bureau ever since, was part of the team that earned a Pulitzer Prize in international reporting. pulitzer.org/winners/dake-k…

@Majsansa Thank you very much Marianne!

@dakekang Congratulations!

@jenapradio Thank you so very much Jennifer! Only possible with great and kind colleagues like yourself :)

@dakekang Well deserved, Dake, we knew you'd go far! From the streets of Philadelphia to Beijing, always great judgement and going the extra mile

@meganjanetsky @KimTongHyung Hope we get a chance to work together one day! I’ve heard so many good things about your work

@dakekang @KimTongHyung Congratulations, so well deserved!

@debiedwarditv Thank you Debi!!

@dakekang Fantastic news! Thoroughly deserved. Well done Dake.

@mikesisak Thanks so much Mike!! Hope to catch you in the city!

@dakekang Congrats! You rock!!

@primroseriordan @thevmilko Thank you so much!

@dakekang @thevmilko Congratulations

@McFaul @ZeyiYang Thank you very much! Very kind

@dakekang @ZeyiYang Congratulations!

@Colum_M @yongxiong2008 Thank you so much, Colum!

@dakekang @yongxiong2008 Congratulations Dake! An amazing achievement!

@MikeRezendes @SumanNaishadham Thanks so much Michael!! I learn from the best. Hope to see you in the newsroom when you’re back from leave!

@dakekang @SumanNaishadham Congratulations, Dake!!!! Very happy for you.

@rwmcmorrow Thanks so much Ryan!!

@dakekang Congrats Dake, well deserved!