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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 (225)

China's post-Lunar New Year job exodus

by Jennifer Pak
Mar 28, 2018
The two months after the holiday are traditionally "jobs season."
According to a survey by leading job site Zhaopin, nearly 70 percent of white-collar workers are starting a new job or actively looking to change jobs.
Jennifer Pak/Marketplace
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Trade showdown

China's carrot and stick approach to U.S. tariffs

by Jennifer Pak
Mar 26, 2018
The U.S. has accused the country of forcing American firms to transfer technology to gain access to its markets.
President Donald Trump has announced tariffs on as much as $60 billion worth of Chinese products. Above, a worker stands on a dock in Shanghai.
JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/Getty Images
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U.S.-China trade war? Not many people in China think it's likely

by Jennifer Pak
Mar 8, 2018
While news of steel and aluminium tariffs have dominated the news in the U.S., in China the reaction has been subdued.
Chinese police officers watch a cargo ship at a port in Qingdao in China's eastern Shandong province on March 8, 2018.
AFP/Getty Images
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Marketplace Tech Blogs

China is drowning in a sea of cardboard — so is the U.S.

by Molly Wood , Stephanie Hughes , Jennifer Pak and Shaheen Ainpour
Feb 26, 2018
Online shopping comes with a lot of packaging, and that packaging is becoming a problem.
Chinese laborers load cardboard onto a truck to be recycled in the Dong Xiao Kou village in Beijing in 2014.
Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
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For many, Chinese New Year is a time to splurge

by Jennifer Pak
Feb 20, 2018
Here is a look at what people in China are buying to mark the Year of the Dog.
The Year of the Dog was celebrated by millions of Chinese people around the world on Feb. 16.
Jack Taylor/Getty Images
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How does China’s social credit system work?

by Jennifer Pak
Feb 13, 2018
With a lack of financial data to assess creditworthiness, citizens are being rewarded for honesty and punish misdeeds, which are digitally archived.
In Shanghai, jaywalking could be recorded on your social credit file, along with refusing to visit elderly parents or not sorting your garbage into the appropriate bins.
Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images
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Inside China's "social credit" system, which blacklists citizens

by Jennifer Pak
Feb 13, 2018
Critics of the program have likened it to an Orwellian creation or an episode of the TV series "Black Mirror."
Passengers await a bullet train on the platform at Changzhou North railway station.
JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/Getty Images
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Shanghai caps population to combat "big city diseases"

by Jennifer Pak
Jan 17, 2018
China's Cabinet has decreed that the city's population should be 25 million — barely more than it is today.
Two out of five residents in Shanghai are migrants, who mainly take up the jobs others don't want. The government is trying to stop migrants from poorer regions from flooding megacities.
Jennifer Pak/Marketplace
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Marketplace Tech Blogs

Artificial demand is driving the electric vehicle market in China

by Molly Wood and Jennifer Pak
Jan 10, 2018
The cars are roughly the same price of regular autos, but not everyone can drive one.
A man walks past electric cars and tricycles on a sidewalk in Beijing in 2017.
Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images
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China makes big strides over the U.S. in supercomputers

by Jennifer Pak
Dec 20, 2017
The machines are vital for strategic industries and economic growth. Businesses rely on them, too.
The Sunway TaihuLight is the first fully designed and made-in-China supercomputer that is also the fastest in the world.
Courtesy of the National Supercomputing Center in Wuxi
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