I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Institute for Chinese Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin and a core member of Prof. Dr. Genia Kostka’s ERC-funded project, Digital Governance in China. I earned my Ph.D. in Management Science and Engineering from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT) in July 2021 and served as a postdoctoral fellow at the School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University, from 2021 to 2023. You can find my curriculum vitae here: CV

My research lies at the intersection of public administration and comparative politics, with a particular focus on agenda-setting, political propaganda, and digital politics. Currently, I am exploring the implementation and impact of the “Digital China (数字中国)” strategy and examining how the Chinese Communist Party navigates political communication in the digital era. I am also interested in elite politics, bureaucratic dynamics, and environmental governance in contemporary China. My work has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Comparative Politics, Administration & Society, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis, Journal of Contemporary China, and China: An International Journal.

欢迎来到我的主页！我叫燕阳，目前在柏林自由大学中国研究中心担任博士后研究员（2023.11至今），我在北京邮电大学获得管理学学士（2015.7）和管理科学与工程博士学位（2021.6），并曾在清华大学公共管理学院从事博士后研究。我的研究兴趣涉及公共政策过程、精英政治和数字治理，部分研究成果发表在Comparative Politics、Administration & Society、Journal of Contemporary China、《政治学研究》等比较政治、公共管理和区域研究同行评议刊物上。

News

• [September 2025] I will present my working paper on the state narrative of digital surveillance in China at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association (APSA), to be held in Vancouver.
• [July 2025] I will present my working paper, co-authored with Danqi Guo and Prof. Dr. Genia Kostka, on the narrative of China's digital surveillance projects at the two-day “PRIVACY-China Workshop,” held at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, from July 3 to 4, 2025.
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[June 2025] My working paper, “Who Goes Digital and Why? Explaining Variations in Provincial Digitalization Agendas in China”, co-authored with Prof. Dr. Genia Kostka, has been accepted for presentation at the International Conference on China Policy Studies (ICCPS), to be held at Beijing Normal University from June 6 to 8, 2025.
[Feb. 2025] My paper, co-authored with Dr. Zhusong Yang from Tsinghua University, on the public image of local political elites in China, is now available online at Comparative Politics!
[April. 2025] My working paper on the power structure and loyalty signaling in China has been accepted for presentation at the Political Studies Association (PSA)'s annual conference, to be hosted by the University of Birmingham and Aston University from April 14–16, 2025, in the UK!
[Nov. 2024] I will present my working paper on the narrative of China's digital surveillance projects at the annual conference of the Arbeitskreis Sozialwissenschaftliche Chinaforschung (ASC) in the University of Bonn, Germany.
[Sep. 2024] I will present my working paper on the "Digital China" strategy at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association (APSA) in Philadelphia, USA.
[August. 2024] I will present my working paper on the public image of local political elites in China at the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) General Conference 2024 in Dublin, Ireland.

Contact

Address: Hittorfstraße 18 (New building) 14195 Berlin
Office Location: Room 0.25
Email: yang.yan@fu-berlin.de
Phone: +49 30 838 65661