Wen-Hsuan Tsai (蔡文轩) is Research Fellow at the Institute of Political Science, Academia Sinica, Taipei. His main research is on Chinese political development, Chinese governance and innovation, comparative politics, and comparative authoritarian regimes. He has published three English monographs, including A Tight Grip: State Power and Control in Modern China, University of British Columbia Press, 2025; The Inner Court of Communist China: Elites and Their Bureaucratic Institutions in an Authoritarian System (1921-2022), Amsterdam University Press, 2025; Reshaping the State: Chinese Political Institutions under Xi Jinping, Australian National University Press, 2026. In addition, Tsai has published articles in The China Journal, The China Quarterly, Journal of Contemporary China, Modern China, Asian Survey, African and Asian Studies, China Review, China Information, China Perspectives, Critical Asian Studies, China: An International Journal, Problems of Post-Communism, Journal of Asian and African studies, Journal of Chinese Political Science, Journal of East Asian Studies, and Issues & Studies.
The Political Development in Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
The Political Institution in CCP
Local Governance in China
Comparative Authoritarian Regime
B.A. National Taichung University of Education (Taiwan), June 1999
M.A. National Chengchi University (Taiwan), June 2005
Ph.D. National Chengchi University (Taiwan), June 2010
2012-2017 Assistant Research Fellow, Institute of Political Science, Academia Sinica (Taiwan)
2015 Visiting Scholar, University of California, Berkeley
2017- 2020 Associate Research Fellow, Institute of Political Science, Academia Sinica (Taiwan)
2017-2021 Executive Editor, Chinese Political Science Review (in Chinese)
2019- Jointly Appointed Professor, Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies,
National Chengchi University (Taiwan)
2020- Research Fellow, Institute of Political Science, Academia Sinica (Taiwan)
- The winner of the 2013 Gordon White prize from The China Quarterly. The prize is awarded annually for the most original article or research report published in The China Quarterly in the relevant year. (Wen-Hsuan Tsai and Peng-Hsiang Kao’s article on ‘Secret Codes of Political Propaganda: The Unknown System of Writing Teams’, published in the June 2013 issue）
- Receiving the Ta-You Wu Memorial Award by the Ministry of Technology (Taiwan) in 2014. The Award is to recognize excellent performance of young scholars in various fields.
- Receiving the Academia Sinica Research Award for Junior Research Investigators in 2016.
- Receiving the Outstanding Research Award, Ministry of Science and Technology (Taiwan) in 2020.
- The winner of Eduard B. Vermeer Prize for the Best Article in 2024 from China Information. (Wen-Hsuan Tsai and Gang Tiang’s article on “Social Brokers in Grassroots Governance: The New Rural Gentry in China,” published in the November 2024 issue)
- Receiving the Academia Sinica Scholar Award in 2026.
- Receiving the Outstanding Research Award, National Science and Technology Council (Taiwan) in 2026.
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan, and Nicola Dean, “The CCP’s Learning System: Thought Unification and Regime Adaptation,” China Journal, no. 69 (January 2013), pp. 87-107. (SSCI)
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan, and Peng-Hsiang Kao, “Secret Codes of Political Propaganda: The Unknown System of Writing Teams,” China Quarterly, vol. 214, (June 2013), pp. 394-410.
Kou, Chien-Wen, and Wen-Hsuan Tsai, “‘Sprinting with Small Steps’ towards Promotion: Solutions for the Age Dilemma in the CCP Cadre Appointment System,” China Journal, no.71 (January 2014), pp.155-175. (SSCI)
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan, and Nicola Dean, “Experimentation under Hierarchy in Local Conditions: Cases of Political Reform in Guangdong and Sichuan, China,” China Quarterly, vol. 218 (June 2014), pp. 339-358. (SSCI)
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan, “How ‘Networked Authoritarianism’ was Operationalized in China: Methods
and Procedures of Public Opinion Control,” Journal of Contemporary China, vol. 25, no. 101
(September 2016), pp. 731-744. (SSCI)
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan, “Framing the Funeral: Death Rituals of the Chinese Communist Party’s Leaders,” China Journal, no. 77 (January 2017), pp. 51-71. (SSCI)
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan, and Yen-lin Chung, “Model of Adaptive Mobilization: Implications of the CCP’s Diaoyan Politics,” Modern China, vol. 43, no. 4 (July 2017), pp. 397-424.
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan, “Enabling China’s Voice to Be Heard by the World: Ideas and Operations of
the Chinese Communist Party’s External Propaganda System,” Problems of Post-Communism, vol. 64, no. 3-4 (2017), pp. 203-213. (SSCI)
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan, and Wang Zhou, “Integrated Fragmentation and the Role of Leading Small Groups in Chinese Politics,” China Journal, no. 82 (July 2019), pp. 1-22. (SSCI)
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan, and Xingmiu Liao, “Mobilizing Cadre Incentives in Policy Implementation: Poverty Alleviation in a Chinese County,” China Information, vol. 34, no. 1 (March 2020), pp. 45-67. (SSCI)
Tian, Gang, and Wen-Hsuan Tsai, “Ideological Education and Practical Training at a County Party School: Shaping Local Governance in Contemporary China,” China Journal, no. 85 (January 2021), pp. 1-25. (SSCI)
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan, Hsin-Hsien Wang, and Ruihua Lin, “Hobbling Big Brother: Top-level Design and Local Discretion in China’s Social Credit System,” China Journal, no. 86 (July 2021), pp. 1-20. (SSCI)
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan, and Xingmiu Liao, “Institutional Changes, Influences, and Historical Junctures in the Communist Youth League of China,” China Quarterly, vol. 248, no. S1 (November 2021), pp. 161-180. (SSCI)
Zhou, Wang, and Wen-Hsuan Tsai, “Water Governance and Regional Development in Xi’s China,”
China Quarterly, vol. 257 (March 2024), pp. 136-151. (SSCI)
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan and Wang Zhou, “Centralizing Rules: How Party Regulations Are Reinforcing Cadre Loyalty in Today’s China,” China Journal, no. 92 (July 2024), pp. 27-45. (SSCI)
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan and Wang Zhou, “Institutional Centralization: Adaptation of Party and Government in China, 2012–Present,” China Review, vol. 24, no. 4 (November 2024), pp. 33-54. (SSCI)
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan, and Gang Tiang, “Social Brokers in Grassroots Governance: The New Rural Gentry in China,” China Information, vol. 38, no, 3 (2024), pp. 331-348. (SSCI)
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan, The Inner Court of Communist China: Elites and Their Bureaucratic Institutions in an Authoritarian System (1921-2022) (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2025), ISBN: 9789048562411.
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan, A Tight Grip: State Power and Control in Modern China (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2025). ISBN: 9780774872027.
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan, Reshaping the State: Chinese Political Institutions under Xi Jinping (Canberra: Australian National University Press, 2026), ISBN: 9781760467173.
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan, “Governing Information: The Staff Politics of the Central Party in the Post-Mao Period,” Global Challenge in the Asia-Pacific – Past & Present, UC Berkeley, November 16, 2022.
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan, “Xi Jinping’s ‘New Socialist Man’: Party Regulations and the Transformation of CCP Cadres,” The China Journal Special Issue Workshop, Québec City, August 25, 2023.
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan, “Xi’s Centralized Leadership and Watershed Governance in China,” 65th Annual Conference of the American Association for Chinese Studies (AACS), University of California, Los Angeles, October 14, 2023.
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan,”The Politics of Inclusive Gentry: Grassroots Governance and Rural Meritorious People (Xinxiangxian) in Contemporary China,” International Conference on Chinese Path to Modernization under One Party Rule, Taipei, National Chengchi University, November 30, 2023.
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan, “Dancing or Fighting? The Governance of Kungfu in Modern China,” 2nd Body Cultures, Martial Arts and Combat Sports (BCMACS) Conference, University of Lausanne, Switzerland, Virtual Meeting, June 18, 2024.
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan, “Post-materialist Development in Rural China: Beautiful Countryside Construction and the Case of Zhejiang,” 2024 American Political Science Association Annual Meeting (APSA), Philadelphia, September 6, 2024.
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan, “People Behind the Scenes,” Second Edition of ORCA’s Global Conference on New Sinology (GCNS) 2024, Organization for Research on China and Asia, New Delhi, India, September 26, 2024.
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan, “Cultural Brokers: The Shaolin Temple Charity and China’s United Front Work,” 2024 International Symposium on New Vision of East Asian Studies, Normal University, Taipei, October 5, 2024.
Wen-Hsuan Tsai, “Explaining the Dramatic Policy Changes in Xi Jinping’s China:
Agency or Structure?” The 5th World Congress of Taiwan Studies, Academia Sinica, Taipei, May 23, 2025.
Tseng, Yu-Chen, and Wen-Hsuan Tsai, “Archaeological Nationalism in Contemporary China and the Official Construction of Ancient Chinese History,” The 5th World Congress of Taiwan Studies, Academia Sinica, Taipei, May 23, 2025.
Gang Tian, and Wen-Hsuan Tsai, “Authoritative Mediation: Policing and Community Governance in Urban China,” Subnational Governance in China’s “New Era”, Academia Sinica, Taipei, June 27, 2025.
Wen-Hsuan Tsai, “The Politics of Inclusive Gentry: Grassroots Governance and Rural Meritorious People (Xinxiangxian) in Contemporary China,” The 2nd Conference on China’s Domestic Governance, Shiv Nadar University, Delhi, August 28, 2026.
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan, “A revival of the tribute system? Taiwanese reactions to Ma Ying-jeou’s visit to China,” ThinkChina, April 30, 2024, https://www.thinkchina.sg/politics/revival-tribute-system-taiwanese-reactions-ma-ying-jeou-s-visit-china?ref=top-hero.
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan, “Ageing leaders: A common challenge for China and the US,” ThinkChina, September 19, 2024, https://www.thinkchina.sg/politics/ageing-leaders-common-challenge-china-and-us.
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan, “Why UN Resolution 2758 is Important for Taiwan’s Future,” ThinkChina , October 21, 2024, https://www.thinkchina.sg/politics/why-un-resolution-2758-important-taiwans-future.
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan, “Hot Topics at China’s 2025 ‘Two Sessions,” Prospects & Perspectives, no. 19, April 9, 2025, https://www.pf.org.tw/tw/pfch/13-11251.html.
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan, “Has Xi Jinping Lost Power?” ThinkChina, August 6, 2025, https://www.thinkchina.sg/politics/has-xi-jinping-lost-power?ref=top-hero.
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan, “Whose Victory, Whose History? The Fight over Taiwan’s 1945 ‘Retrocession’” ThinkChina, November 11, 2025, https://www.thinkchina.sg/politics/whose-victory-whose-history-fight-over-taiwans-1945-retrocession.
Tsai, Wen-Hsuan, “Policy Adjustments at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CCP Central Committee,” Taiwan Strategists, no. 28 (December 2025), pp. 23-42.
2021- Editorial Board Member of The China Journal (SSCI)
2022-2024 Editorial Board Member of Chinese Political Science Review (TSSCI)
2022- Editorial Board Member of The China Quarterly (SSCI)
2023- Editorial Board Member of Mainland China Studies (TSSCI)
2025- Editorial Board Member of China Report
Administration & Society
Asian Journal of Social Science
Asian Journal of Political Science
Asian Studies Review
Asian Survey
China Information
China Journal
China Perspectives
China Quarterly
China Report
China Review
Chinese Journal of Communication
Critical Arts
Democratization
Governance
International Journal of Urban Sciences
Issues & Studies
Journal of Chinese Governance
Journal of Chinese Political Science
Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis
Journal of Contemporary Asian
Journal of Contemporary China
Journal of Current Chinese Affairs
Journal of East Asian Studies
Leisure Studies
Local Government Studies
Modern China
Political Geography
Politics, Religion & Ideology
Problems of Post-Communism
Social Forces
World Development