Ning Leng
McCourt School of Public Policy
Ning Leng is an assistant professor at the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy. She conducts research in comparative politics with a focus on political economy, political institutions, policy process, and Chinese politics. She is a member of the Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues faculty committee.
Activities include:
- Author of Politicizing Business: How Firms Are Made to Serve the Party-State in China (Cambridge University Press, 2025), which reveals how the Chinese state solicits political services from companies, resulting in an unstable investment environment and unintended development outcomes.
- Working on a second book project on Chinese investments in South America.
- Selected as a 2025-26 Wilson China Fellow.
- Research supported by the National Science Foundation, the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation, the Institute for Humane Studies, and various other research grants.
June 12, 2026
News: China’s Edifice Complex
In this article for Foreign Affairs, Ning Leng explains why it is so difficult for the Chinese government to stop wasteful spending, how waste in China differs from waste in democracies, and what it means for China’s development.
April 28, 2026
News: Georgetown Professor Ning Leng Selected as Project Fellow for the Penn Project on the Future of U.S.-China Relations
Ning Leng is selected as a Trade and Economics fellow as part of the fourth fellowship cohort for the Penn Project on the Future of U.S.-China Relations.
November 16, 2025
News: Ning Leng on the Political Costs of Doing Business in China
In this interview with The Wire China, Ning Leng discusses her new book "Politicizing Business: How Firms Are Made to Serve the Party-State in China" on how Chinese government officials tap companies to provide political services.
October 16, 2025
News: New Book from McCourt School Assistant Professor Ning Leng Examines How Businesses in China Are Made to Serve the State
In her new book, Politicizing Business: How Firms Are Made to Serve the Party-State in China, Ning Leng reveals a hidden dimension of China’s political economy: the Chinese state has never granted businesses full autonomy. Instead, officials…
March 6, 2025
News: Georgetown Professor Ning Leng Selected for 2025-26 Wilson China Fellowship
Congratulations to Professor Ning Leng on being selected as a Wilson Center China Fellow, a China-focused non-residential fellowship supporting the next generation of American scholarship on China!
September 23, 2024
News: ‘Too Boring’: Chinese Students Are Sleeping Through Propaganda
September 18, 2024
News: Global Implications of China’s Economic Expansion
In this Foreign Press Center Briefing at the State Department, Ning Leng provides an overview of the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) domestic economy, and the implications of the PRC’s trade, investment, and public/private enterprises across the…
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October 15, 2025
Politicizing Business: How Firms Are Made to Serve the Party-State in China Event
The Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues hosted Ning Leng for a conversation about her book, Politicizing Business: How Firms Are Made to Serve the Party-State in China (2025), which reveals how the Chinese state solicits political…
March 28, 2025
Technology and the Rise of Great Powers Event
When scholars and policymakers consider how technological advances affect the rise and fall of great powers, they draw on theories that center the moment of innovation - the eureka moment that sparks astonishing technological feats. In his new book…
Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues Georgetown Unit
The Georgetown Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues is a university platform for engagement among scholars, students and practitioners to advance dialogue and promote solutions to global challenges ranging from climate change to peace…
Main Campus Georgetown Unit
The Main Campus is the administrative center of Georgetown University and home to six of its schools: the College of Arts & Sciences, the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, the McDonough School of Business, the McCourt School of Public…
McCourt School of Public Policy Georgetown Unit
Founded in 2013, the McCourt School of Public Policy seeks to teach students to help design smart policies and put them into practice in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, in the U.S. and around the world.
The Future of Education in China Video
February 19, 2026 | National education is a critical component to building a workforce to drive economic progress and development. China has invested significant resources into expanding education both in terms of access, as well as volume,…
Politicizing Business: How Firms Are Made to Serve the Party-State in China Video
The Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues hosted Ning Leng for a conversation about her book, Politicizing Business: How Firms Are Made to Serve the Party-State in China (2025), which reveals how the Chinese state solicits political…
The Global Political Sociology of U.S.- China Rivalry Video
According to Johns Hopkins University professor Ho-fung Hung, the recent rivalry between the United States and China is more about global capitalism's shifting balance of economic forces than ideological differences. Since the 1990s, Wall Street and…
Localized Bargaining: The Political Economy of China’s High-Speed Railway Program Video
China's high-speed railway network is one of the largest infrastructure programs in human history. Despite global media coverage, little is known about the political process that led the government to invest in the railway program and the reasons for…