My Analog LifeHow We SurviveI've Always Wondered ...A Warmer World

Loading...

0:00
0% played

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 (3)

Marketplace Tech

Why deepfakes of foreigners are selling goods on Chinese social media

May 14, 2024
LISTEN
Download
Marketplace Tech

Why there's no TikTok in China

Apr 3, 2024
LISTEN
Download
Make Me Smart | Episode 239

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

Jul 21, 2020
LISTEN
Download

Latest Stories (228)

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
ListenLISTEN
HTML EMBED:
COPY
EMBED EMBED
Share Now on:
SHARE
Subscribe Using:
SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBE

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
ListenLISTEN
HTML EMBED:
COPY
EMBED EMBED
Share Now on:
SHARE
Subscribe Using:
SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBE

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
ListenLISTEN
HTML EMBED:
COPY
EMBED EMBED
Share Now on:
SHARE
Subscribe Using:
SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBE
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
ListenLISTEN
HTML EMBED:
COPY
EMBED EMBED
Share Now on:
SHARE
Subscribe Using:
SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBE
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
ListenLISTEN
HTML EMBED:
COPY
EMBED EMBED
Share Now on:
SHARE
Subscribe Using:
SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBE
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
ListenLISTEN
HTML EMBED:
COPY
EMBED EMBED
Share Now on:
SHARE
Subscribe Using:
SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBE

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
ListenLISTEN
HTML EMBED:
COPY
EMBED EMBED
Share Now on:
SHARE
Subscribe Using:
SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBE

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
ListenLISTEN
HTML EMBED:
COPY
EMBED EMBED
Share Now on:
SHARE

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
ListenLISTEN
HTML EMBED:
COPY
EMBED EMBED
Share Now on:
SHARE
Subscribe Using:
SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBE

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
ListenLISTEN
HTML EMBED:
COPY
EMBED EMBED
Share Now on:
SHARE
Subscribe Using:
SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBE