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Jennifer Pak

China Correspondent

SHORT BIO

Jennifer is Marketplace’s China correspondent, based in Shanghai. She tells stories about the world’s second-biggest economy and why Americans should care about it.

She arrived in Beijing in 2006 with few journalism contacts but quickly set up her own news bureau. Her work has appeared in many news outlets, including the BBC, NPR and The Financial Times. After covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Jennifer moved to Kuala Lumpur to be the BBC’s Malaysia correspondent. She reported on the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 and Edward Snowden’s brief escape to Hong Kong. Jennifer returned to China in 2015, based in the high-tech hub of Shenzhen, before joining Marketplace two years later.

In 2022, Jennifer, along with 25 million Shanghai residents, was locked down for over 60 days and had to scramble for food. The coverage of the pandemic she and her team produced helped earn them a Gracie and a National Headliner Award in 2023. You can see the food Jennifer was able to get during the Shanghai lockdown here and keep up with her tasty finds across China on Instagram at @jpakradio.

Episodes by Jennifer (2)

Marketplace Tech

Why there's no TikTok in China

Apr 3, 2024
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Make Me Smart | Episode 239

U.S.-China relations are bad, but are they 'new Cold War' bad?

Jul 21, 2020
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Latest Stories (224)

COVID-19

Can U.S. businesses count on Chinese consumers?

by Jennifer Pak
Dec 1, 2020
Many American firms are looking to Chinese consumers to keep them afloat, but many of those consumers are trying to keep themselves afloat.
A U.S. startup company hopes Chinese consumers will buy its plant-based egg product. For some, though, cost is a factor.
Courtesy of Eat Just
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Elections 2020

A Biden presidency won't change what many Chinese exporters are doing

by Jennifer Pak
Nov 18, 2020
Chinese exporters have found ways to deal with the extra U.S. tariffs and those plans are not set to change under President-elect Joe Biden.
Changjian Shoe factory has moved much of its shoe production for the U.S. market from China to other countries in Southeast Asia in order to avoid U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods.
Charles Zhang/Marketplace
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U.S. was top seller to China during Singles Day

by Jennifer Pak
Nov 12, 2020
But overall retail sales in China for the year are still down significantly due to the pandemic.
Workers sort packages for delivery at a warehouse of China Post Group in Hengyang, in central China's Hunan province on Nov. 12, 2020, a day after the end of the Singles Day shopping festival.
STR/AFP via Getty Images
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Chinese exporter's take: Biden or Trump?

by Jennifer Pak
Oct 27, 2020
Some Chinese manufacturers do not expect the trade tensions with the U.S. to change much even with a Biden presidency.
Midnight Charm lingerie factory has been attempting to expand markets in Europe, Africa and the Middle East because of the U.S. tariffs imposed on its products.
Charles Zhang/Marketplace
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China's economy is bouncing back, but for how long?

by Jennifer Pak
Oct 19, 2020
Consumers helped push GDP 4.9% higher in the third quarter. But they may not be able to do much more.
Commuters wear face masks to protect against COVID-19 during rush hour in Beijing on Oct. 15.
Nicolas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images
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The one-child policy is history, but rules in China still restrict families

by Jennifer Pak
Oct 13, 2020
Some Chinese couples aren't interested in having more than one child, while unmarried woman aren't allowed to have children at all.
Zhuang Mengyi left a good job in Beijing to raise her son in the cheaper countryside.
Jennifer Pak/Marketplace
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Cost of child rearing in China hinders baby boom

by Jennifer Pak
Oct 9, 2020
Besides the high costs of raising children, the cost of living is often cited as one of the key deterrents for young parents.
Fang Zixian and his abundance of toys — the first generation in his family to have such items.
Charles Zhang/Marketplace
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App wars between China and U.S. caught in tit-for-tat dynamic

by Jennifer Pak
Oct 1, 2020
Chinese officials seem to ignore the fact that they put up many obstacles for U.S. tech firms to operate in China.
Chinese smartphone users in Shanghai are largely blocked from accessing U.S. social media apps because of longstanding trade barriers.
Charles Zhang/Marketplace
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China makes audacious promise of aiming for carbon neutrality by 2060

by Jennifer Pak
Sep 25, 2020
How will the world's most populous country and its worst polluter get there?
Employees work on a floating solar power plant in Huainan, a former coal-mining region, in China's eastern Anhui province in 2017.
AFP via Getty Images
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TikTok

The next TikTok could well be on the way to the U.S. before long

by Scott Tong and Jennifer Pak
Sep 22, 2020
The wildly popular video-sharing app may be the beginning of a new era in Chinese tech.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
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