Subject guides · · 2 min read
Studying international relations and China studies in China
English-taught master's programmes in Chinese politics, foreign policy and area studies, and what they lead to.
Quick answer
The main programmes
The Yenching Academy at Peking University is the flagship two-year, fully funded master's in China studies, organised around six research areas from history and philosophy to economics and law. Schwarzman Scholars at Tsinghua is the one-year, fully funded master's in global affairs, more professionally oriented. Renmin University's Silk Road School teaches a master's in Chinese economy and business entirely in English.
Fudan's School of International Relations and Public Affairs, Nanjing University's China studies master's, East China Normal University's comparative education programme and Tsinghua's School of Social Sciences all offer English-taught tracks.
What you actually study
Chinese foreign policy and its institutions, contemporary Chinese politics and governance, China's economic reform and development model, the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese legal and administrative systems, and Chinese history and thought. Comparative and area-studies methods are usually included.
The distinctive advantage of studying in China is primary-source access: government documents, local fieldwork, Chinese-language scholarship and direct contact with the institutions you are studying.
Career paths
Graduates move into foreign ministries and diplomatic services, multilateral organisations, think tanks, international development agencies, consultancies advising firms on China, journalism and academia. The alumni networks of Yenching and Schwarzman are unusually strong in these fields because the cohorts are small and deliberately international.