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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)

The human labor behind artificial intelligence

by Jennifer Pak
May 4, 2021
Behind every artificial intelligence project is lot of intensive human labor. Marketplace speaks to data labelers in central China.
Data labeling firms like this one in Henan province are the new factory floor of the digital age.
Charles Zhang/Marketplace
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China's slow trains for the poor

by Jennifer Pak
Apr 20, 2021
There are 81 no-frills train routes left over from the Mao era to service far-flung areas. Who rides them?
A villager boards a slow train with a television strapped to his back in 2015. The train connected communities in Sichuan and Yunnan provinces that were not frequently served by China's modernized rail network.
Qian Haifeng
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H&M affirms commitment to China amid consumer boycott

by Sabri Ben-Achour , Jennifer Pak , Meredith Garretson and Erika Soderstrom
Mar 31, 2021
"Companies might have to choose a side," says our China correspondent Jennifer Pak, "use Xinjiang cotton or be locked out of the world’s second-largest economy."
The clothing retailer last year announced on its website that it would no longer source cotton from Xinjiang, a province where the U.S. and other governments accuse China of holding at least 1 million Uyghurs in forced labor camps, which China denies.
Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
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Pandemic pushes big-city dreamers out of Shanghai

by Jennifer Pak
Mar 30, 2021
Workers from rural China came to Shanghai in search of better lives, a challenge even in good times. Then the COVID-19 lockdown hit.
Parents boast about their unmarried children's achievements on handwritten notes taped to umbrellas at Shanghai's People's Park. The ads bring China's urban-rural divide into sharp focus.
Charles Zhang/Marketplace
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Higher U.S. postage rates send vendors in China scrambling

by Jennifer Pak
Mar 9, 2021
The U.S. set higher postage rates last year. E-commerce sellers in China are still scrambling to deal with the change.
A seemingly small change like the U.S. raising postage rates for mail from abroad jolted Chinese firms that sell to Americans.
Peter Parks/AFP via Getty Images
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As China's movie theaters return to normal, domestic releases top box office

by Jennifer Pak
Mar 1, 2021
The top four films this week are all domestic Chinese films. In the past, at least one of those would be from Hollywood.
"Hi Mom," a sentimental comedy, has rapidly become one of the most popular films of all time in China.
Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images
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COVID-19

There are fewer visas, but Chinese students still want a U.S. education

by Jennifer Pak
Feb 19, 2021
Chinese students spend years mapping out the path to U.S. colleges. The pandemic has disrupted all of that.
"Contemplation in the afternoon," is one of the many pieces of art Li Jiayan has posted on social media in hopes of getting more freelance work while she figures out the next steps in her study plans.
Courtesy of Li Jiayan
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For U.S. service firms, access to China still mixed

by Sabri Ben-Achour and Jennifer Pak
Feb 12, 2021
China sells goods into the U.S. market easily, but American service providers face a range of barriers in China, which vary across industries.
The United Family hospital in Beijing is a U.S.-China joint venture. Foreign investors can't fully own hospitals in the country.
Courtesy of United Family Healthcare
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Manufacturing: The China Inc. model

by Jennifer Pak and Sabri Ben-Achour
Feb 2, 2021
Why is it sometimes cheaper for U.S. consumers to buy goods from China than from local vendors?
A worker in a southern China shoe factory. Many Chinese manufacturers say they are making goods Americans no longer want to produce.
Charles Zhang/Marketplace
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COVID & Unemployment

Chinese businesses take stock a year after their pandemic pivot

by Jennifer Pak
Jan 14, 2021
A tea shop supplier and a brush manufacturer switched to making masks after the lockdown. But the gamble didn't pay off.
Manufacturer Qian Wensheng is stuck with rolls of substandard melt-blown fabric that he cannot use in face masks.
Courtesy of Qian Wensheng
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